•291 SPURGE FAMILY. 



1. EUPHORBIA, SPURGE. (Said to be named for £'ti/i/ior6us, physician 

 to King Juba.) ITlowers commonly in late summer. 



§ 1. Shrubby species of the conservator j/, winter-flowering, with red bracts or leaves. 



E. pulch6rrima, or Poinsettia, of Mexico : unarmed stout shrub, with 

 ovate or, oblong and angled or sinuately few-lobed leaves, rather downy beneath, 

 those next the flowers mostly entire (4' - 5' long) and of the brightest vermilion- 

 red ; flowers in globular greenish involucres bearing a groat yellow gland at the 

 top on one side. 



E. spl^ndens, of the Mauritius : smooth with thick and horridly prickly 

 stems, oblong-spatulate mucronate leaves, and slender clammy peduncles bearing 

 a cyme of several deep-red apparently 2-petalous flowers ; but the seeming petals 

 are bracts aroundithc cup-like involucre of the real flowers. 



B. fTllgens, or jACQUiNi,ErL6EA, of Mexico : unarmed, smooth, with slen- 

 der recurved branches and broadly lanceolate leaves, few-flowered ; peduncles 

 shorter than the petioles, what appears' like a 5-cleft coroUa ai'e the bright red 

 lobes of the involucre. 



§ 2, Serbs natives of or ncUuralized in tlie cmmtry, the first and last and some- 

 times a few of the others cidt. in gardens : fi. late summer. 

 » The leaves which are crowded next the flower-cups or involucres have their mar- 

 gins or a paii of the base colored (white or red) : stem'erect, l°-3°high. ® 



E. margin^ta. Wild on the plains W. of the Mississippi, and cult, for 

 ornament : leaves pale, ovate or oval, sessile, the lower alternate, uppermost in 

 threes or pairs and broadlywhite-margined ; flower-cnp with 5 white petal-like 

 appendages behind as many saiSccr-shapcd glands. 



E. heteroph^lla. Bocky Itoks S. W. : smooth ; leaves alternate, ovate, 

 and sinuate-toothed, or fiddle-shapeaj^or some of them lanceolate or linear and 

 entire ; the upper with red base ; no pdt^l-like appendages to the flower-cup and 

 only I or 2 sessile glands. 



E. dent&ta. Rich soil from Penn. S. W. : hairy, only the lower leaves 

 alternate, the upper opposite, varying from ovate to linear, uppermost paler or 

 whitish at base, and the few glands of the flower-cup short-stalked. 



* * Th^ leaves none of them colored : but the flower-cup with 5 bright-white con- 



spicuous appendages, imitating a b-deft corolla, y, 



E. COroU&ta. Gravelly or sandy soil, from New York S. & "W. : 2° -3° 

 high ; leaves varying from ovate to linear, entire, the lower alternate, upper 

 wiiorled and opposite ; flower-cups umbelled, long-stalked. 



* * * Leav&i all alike and opposite, green, or with a brown-red spot, short-petioled, 



imlh scaly or fringed-cut stipules : stems low-spreading or p'ostrate, repeat- 

 edly forlced : a smalt flower-cup in each fork, bearing 4 glands, each bor- 

 dered with a nmy or less petal-like white or reddish margin or appendage. 

 Of these thei'e are several species, insignificant iveeds ; these two are llie 

 commonest everywhere in sandy or gravelly open places. 

 E. macul&ta. Prostratt^ leaves oblong-linear, very oblique at base, ser- 

 rulate above, blotched in the centre ; pods sharp-angled, very small. 



E. hypericifolia. Ascending 10' -20' high; leaves ovate-bblong or 

 linear-oblong, sei-rate, often with red spot or margins; pod blunt-angled; seeds 

 wrinkled. 



* * * » Leanes without stipulejs, none with colored margins or spots : the flower- 



cups also green or greenish, umbdltd, their glands wholly destitute of any 

 pe(al-like appendage. 

 ->- Leaves of the commonly erect stem alternate or scattered: those of the umbel-lilce 

 inflorescence lohorled or opposite and of diffei-ent shape, itsually roundish : 

 glands of the flower-cup mostly 4. W^eeds or weed-like. 

 *-* Glands of the flower-cup transversely aval and obtuse. (T) 

 E. platyph^Ua. Nat. from Europe N. : upper stem-leaves lance-oblong, 

 acute, minutely serrulate ; uppermost heart-shaped ; floral ones triangulai'-ovato 

 and heart-shaped ; umbel 5-rayed ; glands large and sessile ; pod beset with 

 depressed warts ; seed smooth. 



