THE SPURGE FAMILY 
i37 
still holds its own as the best medium for wood-engraving ; its leaves, however, are poisonous and 
cause death to animals eating them. 
Most of the plants of this order are acrid and poisonous. The Euphorbias are all poisonous ; 
Euphorbia resinifera, a Cactus-like shrub growing in Morocco, contains a gum resin which is a 
violent poison. The American Manchineel Tree (Hippomane Mancinella) has a poisonous milky 
juice, and though its fruit, which is rather like an apple, looks most deceptively inviting, it has a 
burning juice which quickly betrays its character. Tapioca and Cassava are, strange to relate, 
products of a dangerous plant — the Manioc Shrub (Manihot utilissima) — a species containing a 
deadly poisonous juice with which the Indians poison their arrows. The roots, however, lose 
this evil property if roasted or exposed for some hours to the tropical sun and are nutritious ; 
they are then made into a pulp, Cassava, which is baked into thin cakes and used instead of 
bread, or manufactured into Tapioca. 
Other foreign species are employed in medicine. The tonic Bark is obtained from Croton 
Eleuteria, a native of the Bahama Islands ; Croton oil from Croton Tiglium, an East Indian 
species ; and Castor oil from the seeds of Ricinus communis, an African plant with deeply lobed 
purple leaves and spike-like clusters of staminate flowers, which is frequently grown in gardens and 
is often called Palma-Christi. 
I. Spurge (Euph6rbia). Several male flowers, looking like single stamens, clustered round 
1 female flower consisting of a pistil, massed inside a cup-shaped involucre with a lobed 
border ; capsule 3-lobed, 3-seeded. 
II. Box (Bux'us). Male and female flowers intermingled in clusters ; perianth 4-lobed with 
1 or 3 bracts underneath ; stamens 4 ; capsule 3-lobed and with 3 horns, 6-seeded. 
III. Dog’s Mercury (MercuriAlis). Male and female flowers usually in separate clusters ; 
perianth 3-lobed; stamens 8-16; capsule 2-celled, 2-seeded. 
I. SPURGE. (EUPHORBIA. Linn.) — Male and female flowers clustered together (monoecious) 
into a stalked head, numerous male flowers round one female, all contained in a cup-shaped 
involucre (looking altogether like one flower) with 2 floral-leaves or bracts, which are sometimes 
united (connate), at the base : these heads of flowers are rarely solitary in the upper leaf-axils 
or in the forks of the branches, but usually they are in much branched terminal clusters, 
3-10 branches (rays) starting from the same point at the top of the stem (in an umbel), with 
usually the same number of leaves in a circle (whorl) at the base, and these branches are usually 
forked several times. The involucre is cup-shaped, the border with 4 or 5 very small teeth 
alternating with the same number of large thick glands which are often roundish or crescent- 
shaped ; inside are numerous flowers ; the male flowers, or those without a pistil, consist of 1 stamen 
with a joint, shewing the juncture of the filament with the stalk (pedicel) and so shewing the right 
of the single stamen to be considered a flower, and a small bract at the base of the involucre ; 
the female flower, the central flower without stamens, consists of a 3-celled roundish seedcase 
(ovary) surmounted with 3 short styles and 3 cleft stigmas, and supported on a long stalk bent 
downwards by the weight of the seedcase, which seedcase eventually develops into a 3-celled, 
3-lobed capsule ; each cell is very round and contains 1 seed and opens down the back (loculicidal). 
Herbs or shrubs with a white milky bitter juice. 
Flower-heads solitary. 
(1) Purple Spurge. (Euphorbia Pep'lis.) — Maritime. Glands rounded ; leaves opposite, 
with stipules. 
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