782 



PB ACTIO AL GUIDE TO GARDEN PLANTS edphobbia 



flat and rather thick, and sometimes re- 

 duced to minute teeth or scales. Flowers 

 dioecious or monceoious (that is, the sta- 

 minate and pistillate flowers are separate, 

 and may be borne either on the same 

 (monoecious) or different (dioecious) plants). 

 Perianth 3-4-parted in the female flowers, 

 and adnate to the inferior ovary. Berry 

 1-seeded, naked or crowned with the 

 perianth lobes. 



V. album (Common Mistletoe). — A 

 well-known British parasitic shrub form- 

 ing smooth yellow - green masses of 

 ronndish forked and knotted stems, bear- 

 ing obovate lance-shaped leaves 1-3 in. 

 long. Flowers from March to May, 

 green, inconspicuous, succeeded by ovoid 

 or roundish semi-transparent berries filled 

 with a sticky juice and ripe at Christmas 

 time. 



As a. garden plant, the Mistletoe 

 scarcely deserves a place in this work 

 at all, as it has no particular beauty to 

 recommend it. The sentiment attaching 



to its use at Christmas time, however, 

 renders it at least one of the very best 

 known plants in the kingdom. Tons of 

 it are sent to Covent Garden Market 

 every season, and for a brief period and 

 special purposes good prices are realised. 



The Mistletoe is found growing more 

 frequently perhaps on the Apple tree 

 than any other, although Druid legends 

 always associate it with the Oak. It is 

 also found on Poplars (except the Lom- 

 bardy one). Limes, Hawthorns, Maples, 

 Mountain Ash, Cedars, Oaks, and several 

 other trees, including the Peach, the Hop 

 Hornbeam (Ostrya), and the False Acacia. 



Culture and Propagation. — The seed 

 may be carefully inserted in a slit cut in 

 the bark. The slimy juice around the 

 seed helps it to stick in the slit, but unless 

 protected with a little canvas or other 

 covering for a short time, birds are very 

 apt to discover its whereabouts and 

 purloin it. Care should be taken not to 

 crush the seed when placing it inside the 

 bark. 



cm. EUPHORBIACEiE— Spurgewort Order 



A very large order of trees, shrubs, and herbs, annual and perennial, remark- 

 able for their thick milky and often poisonous juice. Leaves various, alternate 

 or opposite, undivided, entire, toothed or lobed. Flowers 1-sexed, monoecious 

 or dioecious, usually regular and minute. Perianth often small, sometimes 

 none, or 2-5-lobed. Stamens various in number, 1 or more, sometimes very 

 numerous. Ovary 2-3-lobed; styles 2-3, with entire or lobed stigmas. 

 Fruit capsular, 2 -3-celled ; cells 1-2-seeded. 



This extensive order contains about 3,000 species, mostly natives of 

 tropical countries, and the above characteristics apply more particularly to 

 the plants described in this work. 



EUPHORBIA. — A genus of annual 

 or perennial herbs, imdershrubs or shrubs 

 with milky acrid juice. Leaves alternate 

 or opposite, undivided, entire or rarely 

 toothed. Flowers with involucres, ar- 

 ranged in terminal cymes, or in the axils 

 of the leaves, or in d'ichotomous cymes or 

 racemes. Involucre calyx-like, regular or 

 scarcely oblique, bell-shaped or turbinate, 

 with 4-5, rarely 6-8, entire or lacerated 

 lobes. Perianth none, but represented 

 by the involucral lobes. Male flowers 

 several in each involucre, each having 

 1 stamen on a jointed stalk. Female 

 flower naked on an elongating stalk and 

 protruding from the centre of the -in- 

 volucre. Ovary sessile on the top of the 



stalk, 3-ceIled, with 3 more or less distinct 

 or united styles. 



Over 600 species belong to this genus, 

 but very few of them are of value for the 

 hardy flower garden, although several are 

 grown in greenhouses, the best known 

 being E. fulgens (or jacquinimflora), E. 

 splendens, and E.pulcherrima — the latter 

 better known as Poiusettia, and remark- 

 able for its large scarlet leaf -like bracts. 



E. coroUata. — A rare and pretty 

 species 12-24 in. high, with erect, slender 

 green and purplish stems sparingly fur- 

 nished with alternate staUdess, oblong 

 blunt leaves 1 J-2 in. long, the upper floral 

 ones opposite and smaller, somewhat 



