EUPHORBIACE./E. 



69 



gardens, and is the only hardy species of the genus ; many 

 are stove-plants, natives of the East, but a few can be cul- 

 tivated in the greenhouse, as the F. elastica, the Indian- 

 rubber, and macrophylla, the large-leaved ; both these plants 

 have fine smooth shining leaves, which make them attrac- 

 tive ; the flowers are green. F. stipidata, a creeping, ivy- 

 like plant, and pumila, from China, also virgata, from the 

 East Indies, will bear the cool air of the greenhouse, or the 

 window of rooms. 



EUPIIORBIACFJU. 



Exogens, with flowers axillary or terminal. Calyx inferior, with 

 glandular or scaly internal appendages. Corolla either consisting 

 of petals or scales, or absent. Stamens of the barren flower 

 either definite or indefinite. Fertile flower having the ovary free, 

 sessile, or stalked, from one to three-celled. Fruit generally three- 

 celled, splitting, and separating with elasticity. — Trees, shrubs, 

 or herbaceous plants, abounding in acrid milk, which has a poi- 

 sonous principle ; leaves generally simple. 



EUPHORBIA. (Spurge.) 



Gen. Char. (Dodecandria Trigynia.) Involucre one-leaved, ven- 

 tricose, regular; flowers naked, grouped together; fertile floret 

 surrounded by many one-stamened barren florets. 



