THE SPURGE FAMILY 
[ORDER LXX. EUPHORBIACE/E] 
PERIANTH variously lobed and inserted 
below the seedcase (inferior), or absent, 
when its place is taken by an INVOLUCRE, 
often cup-shaped, with a 4- or 5-toothed 
border, the lobes alternating with the same 
number of large fleshy glands; this involucre, 
however, surrounds not one but many 
flowers, as in the Spurge (Euphorbia). 
STAMENS 1 or more, or absent when the 
pistil is present. 
PISTIL of 3, or more, rarely 2, CARPELS, 
united into a 3- or 2-celled seedcase and 
separating into the same number of styles 
and stigmas, or absent when the stamens 
are present. 
FRUIT a 3- or 2-celled CAPSULE with 1 
or 2 hanging seeds in each cell attached to 
a persistent central column, opening by 
2 valves, usually elastically, or more rarely 
opening down the middle of the cell-walls 
(loculicidally) to free the seeds. 
FLOWERS varying much in their arrange- 
ment but always of one sex only, never 
having both stamens and pistil in the same 
flower, sometimes with both kinds of 
flower on the same plant (monoecious), even 
in the same cluster, and sometimes with 
staminate (male) flowers on one plant and 
pistilate (female) on another. 
STEMS often with a milky juice. 
LEAVES various, sometimes absent when 
the plant is Cactus-like. 
DISTINGUISHED from other unisexual 
plants with perianths by the fruit with 
2 or 3 cells which have 1 or 2 hanging 
seeds in each cell. 
T HE one unalterable characteristic of the Spurge Family is the fruit with two or three cells 
which have one or two hanging seeds in each cell. Otherwise it is a difficult order to 
identify, as different species vary so much. The flowers are small, but are sometimes very showy 
through being clustered together and surrounded by brilliant-coloured involucres, which look like 
petals, and make a whole cluster of flowers look like one flower with a bright-coloured corolla. 
Most have green leaves, but some foreign species are fleshy and Cactus-like, others have leaf-like 
stems (phyllocladia or cladodes), and others have scale-like leaves. The majority contain a milky 
fluid, but some have a watery juice only. 
The order is a large one and inhabits temperate and tropical countries. It is represented in 
the British Isles by three genera which give a very poor idea of the whole family. In the tropics, 
where the order may best be studied, we find herbs, creepers, shrubs, and trees, the last some- 
times forming entire forests. 
Many foreign genera are cultivated in greenhouses for the beauty of their flower-clusters, the 
best known being species of Euphorbia with clusters of flowers enveloped with gorgeous-coloured 
involucres, Poinsettias and Jatrophas with brilliant red bracts surrounding inconspicuous flowers, 
and Crotons with their coloured leaves. 
Some genera are valuable commercially, the most important being species of the South 
American Hevea, from the milky juice of which we obtain India-rubber. Box (Buxus sempervirens) 
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