294 SPTJEGE FAMILY. 



1. EUPHCSKBIA, spurge. (Said-to be named for £«pAor6us, physician 

 to King Juba.) Flowers coinmonly in late summer. 



§ 1. Shrubby species qfthi conseniatory, uiinter-Jlowering, vxth red bracts or leaves. 



E. pulcll6rrima, or Poinsettia, of Mexico : unarmed stout shrub, with 

 orate 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 great yellow gland at the 

 topon one side. 



E. spltodens, of the Mauritius : smooth with thick and horridly prickly 

 stems, Oblon^-spatulate mucronate leaves, and slender clammy peduncles bearing 

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

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



E. Mlgens, or jaoqdiiii^fl6r-a, of Mexico : unarmed, smooth; with slen- 

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

 shorter, than Jibe petioles, what appears like a 5-cleft coroUa are the bright red 

 lobes of the involucre. 



§ 2. Berbs .t>giipes..of or naturalized in the arnitry, the first and, last and some- 

 times a Jew of the otiiers cult, in gardens : ji. late summer. 



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

 gins or a part of the base colored (white or red) : stem erect, 1° - 3° high.^ ® 



E. margin&ta. Wild on the plains W. of the Mississippi, and cult, far 

 ornament : leaves pale, ovate or oval, sessile, the lower alternate,..uppermos^i 

 threes or pairs and broadly white-margined ; flower-cup with 5 white petal-like 

 appendages behind as many saucer-shaped glands. 



E. heteroph^Ua. Rocky banks S. W. : smooth ; leaves alternate, ovate 

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

 entire ; the upper with red base ; no petal-like appendages to the flower-cup and 

 only 1 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. 



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



spicuous appendages, imitating a ^-cleft corolla. ^ 



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

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

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



* * » Leaves all alike and opposite, green, or with a brown-red spot, short-petioled, 



with scaly or fringed-cut stipules : stems tow-beading or prostrate, repeat- 

 edly forked ; a small flower-cup in each fork, bearing 4 glands, each bor- 

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

 Of these there are several species, insignificant weeds ; these two are t^ 

 commonest everywhere in sandy or gravmy open places. 

 E. macul&ta. Prostrate ; leaves oblong-linear, very oblique at base, ser- 

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



E. hypericifdlia. Ascending 10' -20' high; leaves ovate-oblong or 

 linear-oblong, serrate, often with red spot or maigins ; pod blunt-angled ; seeds 

 wrinkled. 



* * * * Leaves without stipules, none with colored margins or, spots : the flower- 



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

 petal-like appendage. 

 H- Leaves of the commonly erect stem alternate or scattered : those of the umbel-like 

 inflorescence whorled or opposite and of difl[erent sliape, usuaily roundish ; 

 glands of the flower-cup mostly 4. Weeds or weed-like. 



++ Glands of the flower-cup transversely oval and obtuse. ® 



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

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

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

 depressed warts ; seed smooth. 



