


254 PLANTS GROWING IN SANDY SOIL. 
which line the base have one stamen ; the pistillate ones which grow singly in the 
centre have a three-lobed ovary and three styles. Leaves : ovate, or lanceolate ; 
smooth.  Svem :; two to three feet high; divided into five-forked umbels, which 
again divide and bear the flower-heads; highly coloured with purple. 
Patterning itself by many that are larger and perhaps wiser, 
the little spurge has arranged about itself a set of bracts, or an 
involucre that is commonly mistaken for petals ; and in its 
centre is the community of staminate and pistillate blossoms, 
Although the medical properties of spurges are said to have 
been discovered long ago by King Juba of Mauritania, in Africa, 
and to be equally well known to our own Indians ; they have 
not altogether the sanction of many for medical use. It is 
certainly true that aside from its powers of purging the plant 
possesses little virtue. It belongs to a poisonous family and 
must be proud to boast of the faithful, old castor-oil plant, 
Ricinus communis, as a member of the same natural family. 
SAND KNOTWEED. COAST JOINTWEED. 
Polygonella articulata. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME OF BLOOM 
Buckwheat. Rose pink. Scentlesse Maine to Florida. September. 
Flowers : minute; growing nodding in a spike-like raceme; each flower ap- 
pearing from within a bract. Calyx: unequally five-parted. Corolla: none. 
Stamens: eight. ystil: one; styles, three. Zeaves: alternate; sheathing 
the stem; linear; jointed at the base. Stem : upright; branching; thread-like. 
What sweet things must the autumn winds whisper to the 
tiny knotweed as they sweep along the coast, to make it tint 
the sandy plain with its delicate blush! And what a keen 
appreciation the little plant must have of the beauty dear 
to Dame Nature’s heart to give out its bloom so abundantly ! 
It seems loath to leave us, and often lingers well on into the 
autumn, 
SANDY SOIL ASTERS. 
FAMILY COLOUR ODOUR RANGE TIME QF BLOOM 
Composite. Purple, blue or Scentless. General. Late summer and 
white. early autumn. 
Flower-heads: composed of tubular and ligulate flowers, or ray and disk 
flowers. The rays purple, blue or white and the disks yellow, 

