SPURGE FAMILY 147 
glands at its notches, Sterile flowers many, borne inside the 
involucre at its base (Fig. 23, A), each consisting only of a 
single stamen attached by a joint to a pedicel which looks like 
a filament. Fertile flower standing alone at the center of the 
involuere (Fig. 23, C) (soon pushed out by the growth of its 
pedicel). consisting only of a 3-lobed and 3-celled ovary, 3 2- 
cleft styles, and 6 stigmas. Pod 3-celled and 3-seeded. 
A. Cultivated shrubs. 
1. E. splendens Bojer. Crown or Toorns. An extremely prickly 
shrub, with many erect, few-leaved branches. Leaves obovate or 
obovate-spatulate, mucronate, entire, each with two very sharp 
prickles (longer than the petiole) as stipules. Peduncles long, 
sticky, each bearing 2-4 objects which appear to be showy scarlet 
flowers, but which are actually 2-bracted involucres containing the 
true flowers. Involucral scales somewhat kidney-shaped, mucronate. 
Flowering all the year round. Cultivated in greenhouses. From 
Mauritius. 
B. Herbs with rather showy white flower clusters. 
2. E. marginata Pursh. SNow on THE Mountary. Annual. Stem 
stout, 1-3 ft. high. Leaves sessile, ovate, obovate or oblong, acute, 
33 in. long, the upper ones whorled and with white petal-like mar- 
gins. Involucres 5-lobed in an umbel-like inflorescence with three 
forking rays. In dry soil W. and commonly cultivated. 
3. E. corollata L. FLowrerinG SpurGe. Perennial. Stem erect, 
umbellately branched above, smooth or downy, 1-3 ft. high. Leaves 
of the stem alternate, those of the branches usually opposite or 
whorled, rather thick, oval to narrowly oblong, pale beneath, usu- 
ally slightly downy. Flowering branches repeatedly forked; invo- 
lucres terminal and in the forks of the branches, peduncled; glands 
4-5, oblong, green; appendages white and petal-like, showy. Cap- 
sule erect, seed smooth or faintly pitted. Common in dry, open 
woods. 
C. Herbs: No. 4 a native species; No. 5 cultivated from Europe or 
escaping from gardens. Flower clusters in uml«ls, not white. Involucre 
4- or 5-lobed, each lobe with a gland. 
4. E. dictyosperma Fisch. & Mev. Annual. Stem slender, 8-18 in. 
high, erect. Stem leaves oblong-spatulate to obovate, serrate; floral 
ones roundish-ovate. somewhat heart-shaped. Flower cluster a com- 
pound umbel, the rays once or twice 3-forked, then 2-forked. Seeds 
covered with a network. Prairies and roadsides. 
