SPUEGE FAMILY. 



28T 



1. PHOEADEX'DRON, Nutt Mistletoe. 



[Greek, pkor. a tliief. and dendron. tree ; because they steal their food from the trees they 

 grow upon.] 



Flowers diaaous. usually several under each short and fleshy bract or 

 scale, and sunk in the joint. Calyx globular, 3- (rarely 2 - 4-) lobed. 

 Staniixate Fl. with a sessile anther at the base of each lobe, transversely 

 2-celled. Stigma sessile. Berry globular. 1-seeded. with a gummy viscid 

 pulp. Stem and branches jointed : fioicers greenish, in short axillary 

 spikes. 



1. P, flaYes'cens, yvti. Leaves elliptic-obovate. obtuse, somewhat 

 longer than the spikes in their axils, somewhat petioled, yellowish-green ; 

 berries pearly-white. 



Yellowish Phoradexdrox. Mistletoe. Fal^e Mistletoe. 



stem 9 -IS inches high, terete, much branched: branches opposite. Leaves 

 inch long, S-nerved beneath, smooth, fleshy or somewhat leaihrey, narrowed at base to a 

 thickish terete petiole 1-2 lines in length. Floiters smull. 



Branches of trees : Xew Jersey, South and West. April. 



0^5. This well-known parasite, feeding as it does at the expense of 

 the trees upon which it fastens itself, is in some places so abundant as to 

 be injurious to valuable forest trees. In some parts of the West it proves 

 very troublesome. Doct. Short writes that the severe winters of the few 

 years just past had killed it out in Kentucky : but that now it is again 

 oveiTunning the Elms. Hickories, Wild Cherries, kc of that region. * 



Order LXm. EUPHORBIA' CE^. (Spurge Family.) 



Flanis usually with an acrid mxUcy juice, mostly simple leaves, with small and deciduous 

 slipules or none, and various, usually monoecious or dioecious floicers : the friiit of 2 - 3 or 

 several 1 - 2-seeded j?o<?5 vmited around a central axis, separating when ripe. Seed sus- 

 pended ; emfcrj/o in fleshy aZ&umen. Stigmas 2-3 or more, often forked. Califx usually 

 valvate in the "bud . sometimes wanting. Petals sometimes present 



This large and varied — yet essentially natural Family — comprises upwards of 100 

 genera. — many of them possessing very active properties, or otherwise curious and inter- 

 esting. Of these may be mentioned, the Croton Tiglium. L.. which yields the powerful 

 Croton Oil or Oil of Tiglium. — the Jatropha Manihot, L., which afibrds the Cassava 

 and Tapioca, — the Crozophora tinctoria. Juss., yielding Turnsol, — the Siphonia elastica, 

 Pers., afHarding the true Caoutchouc or Gum clastic, — the Busus sempervirens, L., afford- 

 ing the beautiful Box-wood. — the Hura crepitans. L.. or curious Sand-box tree, kc. kc. 



1. EUPHOE'BIA. i. Spurge. 



[Xamed after Euphorlnis, physician to King Juba of Mauritania.] 



Flowers monoecious, included in a cup-shaped 4 - o-lobed involucre re- 

 sembling a calyx or coroUa. with glands at its sinuses. Stamixate Fl. 

 numerous, lining the base of the involucre, each from the axil of a little 

 brad, and consisting of a single stamen jointed on a pedicel; anther cells 

 globular, separate. Pistillate Fl. solitary, in the middle of the involu- 

 cre, soon protruded on a long pedicel, consisting of a naked 3-lobed, 3- 

 celled ovary; styles 3, bifid- Capside separating into 3 ozrpe/s which 



