EUPHORBIACK^E. (SPURGE FAMILY.) 435 



* * * Perennials or annuals ; ours with entire and scattered leaves, only the floral ones 



in the umbel-like inflorescence whorled or opposite and of different shape : glands 

 of the involucre mostly 4, crescent-shaped or 2-horned. 



■*- Seeds smooth and dark-colored : perennials, with running rootstocks. 



19. E. Esula, L. Stems clustered (1° high); leaves lanceolate or linear ; the 

 floral (yellowish) broadly heart-shaped, mucronate ; umbel divided into many rays, 

 then forking; glands short-horned (brown); pods smoothish and granular.— 

 "Essex County, Massachusetts, Oafces. June. (Adv. from Eu.) 



20. E. CvPARfssiAS, L. Stems densely clustered (6'- 10' high) ; stem-leaves 

 linear, crowded, the floral ones heart-shaped; umbel many-rayed; glands crescent- 

 shaped; pods granular. — Escaped from gardens to roadsides, in a few places in 

 New England. (Adv. from Eu.) 



-5- +r Seeds sculptured, ash-colored: pod smooth: annuals or biennials. 



21. E. Peplcs, L. Erect or ascending (5' -10' high) ; leaves petioled, thin, 

 round-obovate, the upper floral ones ovate ; umbel 3-rayed, then forking ; glands 

 long-horned ; lobes of the pod 2-wing-crestsd on the back ; seeds 2-grooced on tlte 

 inner face, pitted on the back (scarcely over half a line long). — Waste places east- 

 ward : not common. July, Aug. 



22. E. COmmutata, Engelm. Stems branched from a commonly de* 

 cumbent base (6' -12' high) ; leaves obovate, obtuse; the upper all sessile, the 

 upper floral ones roundish-dilated, broader than long ; umbel 3-forked ; glands 

 with slender horns ; pod obtusely angled, crestless ; seeds ovate, pitted all over (a line 

 long). (E. Ohidtica, Steudel 8p Hochstetter.) — Along streams and shady slopes, 

 from Virginia towards the mountains to Kentucky, Wisconsin, and westward. 

 May, June. — Leaves often persistent over the winter on sterile shoots, turning 

 red. Larger in all its parts than E. Peplus, with which it has been confounded ; 

 but the characters of the pod and seeds readily distinguish it. 



* * * * A glabrous annual or biennial, with entire opposite and decussate leaves, an 



umbelliform inflorescence, and short-homed glands : seeds carunculate. 



23. E. Lathyris, L. Stem stout (2° -3° high) ; leaves thick, linear or ob- 

 long, the floral ones oblong-ovate and heart-shaped ; umbel 4-rayed, then forking. 

 — Sparingly escaped from gardens, where it is common. (Adv. from Eu.) 



2. JATROPHA, L. (Cnidoscolus, Pohl., Ed. 2.) 



Flowers monoecious, rarely dioecious, in a terminal open forking cyme ; the 

 fertile ones usually in the lower forks. Calyx corolla-like, in the staminate 

 flowers often salver-shaped, 5-lobed; in the pistillate, 5-parted, imbricated or 

 convolute in the bud. Corolla of 5 distinct or apparently united petals, or in 

 our species none. Glands of the disk opposite the calyx-lobes. Stamens 10-30, 

 in 2 or more whorls : filaments monadelphous at the base. Ovary mostly 3- 

 celled : styles 3, united below, their summits once or twice forked. Pod 3-celled, 

 3-seeded, separating into 3 two-valved carpels. Seed carunculate. — Perennial 

 herbaceous or shrubby plants, chiefly ti-opical, with alternate mostly long- 

 petioled palmately- veined leaves, and stipules. — Our species is of the section 

 Cnidoscolus ; of plants mostly armed with stinging bristles. (Name said bv 

 Linnasus to be formed of larpou, a remedy, and <pdy<o, to eat.) 



