124 



Descriptive Flora 



round or broadly ovate in outline, 5 main veins at base, deeply 

 three to five-lobed, the lobes variously cut and toothed, and 

 strongly resembling the leaves of its close relative, the Castor 

 Bean. Perianth, white, 5-lobed, about 1 inch across. Stamens 

 numerous (10 or more). Fruit a 3-lobed, oblong, bristly pod 

 about an inch long, containing 3 oblong, edible, mottled gray 

 seeds. Hairs enlarged at base so that the stems look as if 

 streaked with white. April and May. Widespread. 



Euphorbia nutans Lag. 

 (Chamaesyce nutans [Lag.] Small.) 



Branched annuals, 4 to 18" high, with milky sap, opposite, 

 unequally sided, often purplish leaves, */2 to 1" long, and in- 

 conspicuous flowers. Leaves simple, opposite. Blades oblong to 

 narrowly ovate, sessile, unequally finely saw-toothed, green 

 above, paler beneath, the upper surface usually purplish mar- 

 gined and conspicuous for the pale midrib. Flowers solitary or 

 clustered in the upper leaf axils. Glands 4, saucer-shaped. In 

 low moist grounds. A weed. Spring to summer. Genus named 

 for Euphorbus, a physician. 



Euphorbia marginata Pursh. Snow-on-the-Mountain. 



"Bola de Nieve" 

 (Dichrophyllum marginatum [Pursh.] Klotzsh & Gar eke). 



Plants conspicuous everywhere in the fall for the showy 

 white-margined foliage of the upper part of the stems. Hairy, 

 simple-stemmed plants, 1 to 3 feet tall, branched near the top, 

 these branches usually forking again forming a wide-topped 

 whitish crown. Leaves thick, scattered, ovate, toothless, folding 

 themselves close against the stem. Leaf -like bracts at base of the 

 flower clusters (also) conspicuously white-margined. Fruit 3- 

 lobed, hairy pods containing 3 seeds. Late summer and fall. 

 Prefers dry, rocky hillsides. A common garden annual of the 

 North. This plant is not poisonous to the touch (as is often re- 

 ported) but Allen & Gilbert state in their Textbook of Botany 



