SPURGE FAMILY 



441 



glands 4, with long cusps. — A very common garden weed. — Fl. 

 July — November. Annual. 



15. E. exigua (Dwarf Spurge). — A more slender little plant, 

 usually branched near the ground, with linear leaves ; umbel of 3 — 

 5 forked rays; bracts lanceolate. — Cornfields; common. — Fl. June 

 — October. Annual. 



16.* E. Ldihyrus (Caper Spurge). — A remarkable plant, 2 — 3 

 feet high, succulent, glaucous, tinged with purple, with numerous, 

 spreading, linear-oblong or strap-like leaves, opposite and regularly 

 decussate so as to form 4 vertical rows ; umbel of 3 or 4 stout, 

 unequal, irregularly forked 

 rays ; capsule very large, 

 smooth, full of milky 

 juice. — Chiefly a garden 

 weed ; but perhaps wild in 

 some woods. — Fl. June, 

 July. Biennial. 



2. Buxus (Box). — 

 Evergreen trees and 

 shrubs ; leaves opposite, 

 exstipulate ; flowers monoe- 

 cious, axillary, bracteate, 

 the staminate with 2 

 alternating pairs of peri- 

 anth-leaves, the carpellate 

 with 6 — 12 in alternating 

 whorls of 3 ; stamens 4 ; 

 ovary 3 -chambered, 3-lobed 

 above ; styles 3 ; ovules 2 

 in each chamber; fruit cap- 

 sular. (Name,theClassical 

 Latin name of the tree.) 



1. B. sempervirens (Common Box-tree). — The only European 

 species, a small, slow-growing tree, with rough, grey bark; twigs 

 downy ; leaves oblong, obtuse, not more than an inch long ; 

 flowers crowded, sessile, minute, whitish. — Chalk hills in the south, 

 doubtfully indigenous. The juice is bitter and acridly poisonous, 

 but not milky as in the Spurges. The close-grained, yellow wood, 

 the only European wood which does not float in water, is un- 

 equalled for engraving. A dwarf variety is commonly used as an 

 edging for garden borders. — Fl. April, May. Perennial. 



3. Mercurialis (Mercury). — Herbs with opposite, stalked, 

 serrate, stipulate leaves; flowers mostly dioecious; perianth of 3 



alis pek£nnis {Dog's Mercury). 



