Part 60

1. B. cirrhosa, Banks. Glabrous; leaves ovate or heart-shaped pointed, entire; petioles dilated at base and partly clasping, but with no distinct sheath or stipules; flowers greenish, 2--5 in a fascicle from the axil of an awl-shaped bract, these crowded in axillary and terminal racemes; pedicel jointed near the base; fruiting calyx with the wing 1' long.--S. Ill. to S. C. and Fla.

ORDER 90. PODOSTEMACEAE. (RIVER-WEED FAMILY.)

_Aquatics, growing on stones in running water, some with the aspect of_ Sea-weeds, _or others of_ Mosses _or_ Liverworts; _the minute naked flowers bursting from a spathe-like involucre as in_ Liverworts, _producing a 2--3-celled many-seeded ribbed capsule_;--represented in North America by

1. PODOSTEMON, Michx. RIVER-WEED.

Flowers solitary, nearly sessile in a tubular sac-like involucre, destitute of floral envelopes. Stamens 2, borne on one side of the stalk of the ovary, with their long filaments united into one for more than half their length, and 2 short sterile filaments, one on each side; anthers 2-celled. Stigmas 2, awl shaped. Capsule pedicellate, oval, 8-ribbed, 2-celled, 2-valved. Seeds minute, very numerous on a thick persistent central placenta, destitute of albumen.--Leaves 2-ranked. (Name from [Greek: pou~s], _foot_, and [Greek: ste/mon], _stamen_; the two stamens being apparently raised on a stalk by the side of the ovary.)

1. P. ceratophyllus, Michx. Leaves rigid or horny, dilated into a sheathing base, above mostly forked into thread-like or linear lobes.--Not rare in shallow streams, E. Mass, to Minn., and southward. July--Sept.--A small olive-green plant, of firm texture, resembling a Seaweed, tenaciously attached to loose stones by fleshy disks or processes in place of roots.

ORDER 91. ARISTOLOCHIACEAE. (BIRTHWORT FAMILY.)

_Twining shrubs, or low herbs, with perfect flowers, the conspicuous lurid calyx valvate in bud and coherent (at least at base) with the 6-celled ovary, which forms a many-seeded 6-celled capsule or berry in fruit. Stamens 6--12, more or less united with the style; anthers adnate, extrorse._--Leaves petioled, mostly heart-shaped and entire. Seeds anatropous, with a large fleshy rhaphe, and a minute embryo in fleshy albumen. A small family of bitter-tonic or stimulant, sometimes aromatic plants.

1. Asarum. Stemless herbs. Stamens 12, with more or less distinct filaments.

2. Aristolochia. Caulescent herbs or twining shrubs. Stamens 6, the sessile anthers adnate to the stigma.

1. ASARUM, Tourn. ASARABACCA. WILD GINGER.

Calyx regular; the limb 3-cleft or parted. Stamens 12, with more or less distinct filaments, their tips usually continued beyond the anther into a point. Capsule rather fleshy, globular, bursting irregularly or loculicidal. Seeds large, thick.--Stemless perennial herbs, with aromatic-pungent creeping root-stocks bearing 2 or 3 scales, then one or two kidney-shaped or heart-shaped leaves on long petioles, and a short-peduncled flower close to the ground in the lower axil; in spring. (An ancient name, of obscure derivation.)

Sec. 1. _Calyx-tube wholly adnate to the ovary, the tips inflexed in bud; filaments slender, much longer than the short anthers; style barely 6-lobed at the summit, with 6 radiating thick stigmas; leaves a single pair, unspotted._

1. A. Canadense, L. Soft-pubescent; leaves membranaceous, kidney-shaped, more or less pointed (4--5' wide when full grown); calyx bell-shaped, the upper part of the short-pointed lobes widely and abruptly spreading, brown-purple inside.--Hillsides in rich woods; common, especially northward. (Addendum)--Asarum Canadense. In this species there are rudimentary subulate petals, alternate with the calyx-lobes.

Sec. 2. _Calyx-tube inflated bell-shaped, somewhat contracted at the throat, its base adnate to the lower half of the ovary; limb 3-cleft, short; anthers sessile or nearly so, oblong-linear; styles 6, fleshy, diverging, 2-cleft, bearing a thick extrorse stigma below the cleft; leaves thickish, persistent, usually only one each year, often whitish-mottled; peduncle very short; rootstocks clustered, ascending._

2. A. Virginicum, L. Nearly glabrous; _leaves round-heart-shaped_ (about 2' wide); calyx short, reticulated within; anthers pointless.--Va. to Ga., in and near the mountains.

3. A. arifolium, Michx. _Leaves halberd-heart-shaped_ (2--4' long); calyx oblong-tubular, with very short and blunt lobes; _anthers obtusely short-pointed_.--Va. to Fla.

2. ARISTOLOCHIA, Tourn. BIRTHWORT.

Calyx tubular; the tube variously inflated above the ovary, mostly contracted at the throat. Stamens 6, the sessile anthers wholly adnate to the short and fleshy 3--6-lobed or angled style. Capsule naked, septicidally 6-valved. Seeds very flat.--Twining, climbing, or sometimes upright perennial herbs or shrubs, with alternate leaves and lateral or axillary greenish or lurid-purple flowers. (Named from reputed medicinal properties.)

Sec. 1. _Calyx-tube bent like the letter S, enlarged at the two ends, the small limb obtusely 3-lobed; anthers contiguous in pairs (making 4 cells in a row under each of the three truncate lobes of the stigma); low herbs._

1. A. Serpentaria, L. (VIRGINIA SNAKEROOT.) Stems (8--15' high) branched at base, pubescent; leaves ovate or oblong (or narrower) from a heart-shaped base or halberd-form, mostly acute or pointed; flowers all next the root, short-peduncled.--Rich woods, Conn. to Fla., west to Mich., Mo., and La. July.--The fibrous, aromatic-stimulant root is well known in medicine.

Sec. 2. _Calyx-tube strongly curved like a Dutch pipe, contracted at the mouth, the short limb obscurely 3-lobed; anthers contiguous in pairs under each of the 3 short and thick lobes of the stigma; very tall twining shrubs; flowers from one or two of the superposed accessory axillary buds._

2. A. Sipho, L'Her. (PIPE-VINE. DUTCHMAN'S PIPE.) _Nearly glabrous; leaves round-kidney-shaped_ (sometimes 8--12' broad); peduncles with a clasping bract; calyx (11/2' long) with a brown-purple _abrupt flat border_.--Rich woods, Penn. to Ga., west to Minn. and Kan. May.

3. A. tomentosa, Sims. _Downy or soft-hairy; leaves round-heart-shaped_, very veiny (3--5' long); _calyx yellowish_, with an _oblique_ dark purple closed _orifice_ and a _rugose reflexed limb_.--Rich woods, mountains of N. C. to Fla., west to S. Ill. and Mo. June.

Sec. 3. _Calyx-tube straight, open, with ample 6-lobed limb, the lobes appendaged; anthers equidistant; erect herbs; flowers in axillary cymose fascicles._

A. CLEMATITIS, L., with long-petioled cordate leaves, from Europe, is said to have permanently escaped near Ithaca, N. Y. (_Dudley_).

ORDER 92. PIPERACEAE. (PEPPER FAMILY.)

_Herbs, with jointed stems, alternate entire leaves, and perfect flowers in spikes, entirely destitute of floral envelopes, and with 3--5 more or less separate or united ovaries._--Ovules few, orthotropous. Embryo heart-shaped, minute, contained in a little sac at the apex of the albumen.--The characters are those of the Tribe _Saurureae_, the _Piperaceae_ proper (wholly tropical) differing in having a 1-celled and 1-ovuled ovary.

1. SAURURUS, L. LIZARD'S-TAIL.

Stamens mostly 6 or 7, hypogynous, with distinct filaments. Fruit somewhat fleshy, wrinkled, of 3--4 indehiscent carpels united at base. Stigmas recurved. Seeds usually solitary, ascending.--Perennial marsh herbs, with heart-shaped converging-ribbed petioled leaves, without distinct stipules; flowers (each with a small bract adnate to or borne on the pedicel) crowded in a slender wand-like and naked peduncled terminal spike or raceme (its appearance giving rise to the name, from [Greek: sau~ros], _a lizard_, and [Greek: ou)ra/], _tail_).

1. S. cernuus, L. Flowers white, fragrant; spike nodding at the end; bract lanceolate; filaments long and capillary.--Swamps, Conn. to Ont., Minn., Mo., and southward. June--Aug.

ORDER 93. LAURACEAE. (LAUREL FAMILY.)

_Aromatic trees or shrubs, with alternate simple leaves mostly marked with minute pellucid dots, and flowers with a regular calyx of 4 or 6 colored sepals, imbricated in 2 rows in the bud, free from the 1-celled and 1-ovuled ovary, and mostly fewer than the stamens; anthers opening by 2 or 4 uplifted valves._--Flowers clustered. Style single. Fruit a 1-seeded berry or drupe. Seed anatropous, suspended, with no albumen, filled by the large almond-like embryo.

[*] Flowers perfect, panicled; stamens 12, three of them sterile, three with extrorse anthers.

1. Persea. Calyx persistent. Anthers 4-celled. Evergreen.

[*][*] Flowers dioecious, or nearly so; stamens in the sterile flowers 9. Leaves deciduous.

2. Sassafras. Flowers in corymb- or umbel-like racemes. Anthers 4-celled, 4-valved.

3. Litsea. Flowers few in involucrate umbels. Anthers 4-celled, 4-valved.

4. Lindera. Flowers in umbel-like clusters. Anthers 2-celled, 2-valved.

1. PERSEA, Gaertn. ALLIGATOR PEAR.

Flowers perfect, with a 6-parted calyx, persistent at the base of the berry-like fruit. Stamens 12, in four rows, the 3 of the innermost row sterile and gland-like, the rest bearing 4-celled anthers (i.e. with each proper cell divided transversely into two), opening by as many uplifted valves; the anthers of 3 stamens turned outward, the others introrse.--Trees, with persistent entire leaves, and small panicled flowers. (An ancient name of some Oriental tree.)

1. P. Carolinensis, Nees. (RED BAY.) Hoary with a fine down, at least when young; leaves oblong, pale, soon smooth above; peduncle bearing few flowers in a close cluster; sepals downy, the outer shorter; berries dark blue, on a red stalk.--Swamps, S. Del. to Fla. and Tex. May. A small tree.

2. SASSAFRAS, Nees.

Flowers dioecious, with a 6-parted spreading calyx; the sterile kind with 9 stamens inserted on the base of the calyx in 3 rows, the 3 inner with a pair of stalked glands at the base of each; anthers 4-celled, 4-valved; fertile flowers with 6 short rudiments of stamens and an ovoid ovary. Drupe ovoid (blue), supported on a club-shaped and rather fleshy reddish pedicel.--Trees, with spicy-aromatic bark, and very mucilaginous twigs and foliage; leaves deciduous, often lobed. Flowers greenish-yellow, naked, in clustered and peduncled corymbed racemes, appearing with the leaves, involucrate with scaly bracts. Leaf-buds scaly. (The popular name, applied by the early French settlers in Florida.)

1. S. officinale, Nees. Trees 15--125 deg. high, with yellowish-green twigs; leaves ovate, entire, or some of them 3-lobed, soon glabrous.--Rich woods, E. Mass. to S. Ont., Mich., E. Iowa and Kan., and south to the Gulf. April.

3. LITSEA, Lam.

Flowers dioecious, with a 6-parted deciduous calyx; the sterile with 9 stamens in 3 rows; their anthers all introrse, 4-celled, 4-valved; fertile flowers with 12 or more rudiments of stamens and a globular ovary. Drupe globular.--Shrubs or trees, with entire leaves, and small flowers in axillary clustered umbels. (Name of Chinese origin.)

1. L. geniculata, Benth. & Hook. (POND SPICE.) Flowers (yellow) appearing before the deciduous oblong leaves, which are hairy on the midrib beneath; branches forked and divaricate, the branchlets zigzag; involucres 2--4-leaved, 2--4-flowered; fruit red. (Tetranthera geniculata, _Nees._)--Swamps, Va. to Fla. April.

4. LINDERA, Thunb. WILD ALLSPICE. FEVER-BUSH.

Flowers polygamous-dioecious, with a 6-parted open calyx; the sterile with 9 stamens in 3 rows, the inner filaments 1--2-lobed and gland-bearing at base; anthers 2-celled and 2-valved; fertile flowers with 15--18 rudiments of stamens in 2 forms, and a globular ovary. Drupe obovoid, red, the stalk not thickened.--Shrubs, with deciduous leaves, and honey-yellow flowers in almost sessile lateral umbel-like clusters, appearing before the leaves (in our species); the clusters composed of smaller clusters or umbels, each of 4--6 flowers and surrounded by an involucre of 4 deciduous scales. Leaf-buds scaly. (Named for _John Linder_, a Swedish botanist of the early part of the 18th century.)

1. L. Benzoin, Blume. (SPICE-BUSH. BENJAMIN-BUSH.) _Nearly smooth_ (6--15 deg. high); _leaves oblong-obovate_, pale underneath.--Damp woods, N. Eng. to Ont., Mich., E. Kan., and southward. March, April.

2. _L. melissaefolia_, Blume. Young branches and buds _pubescent; leaves oblong, obtuse or heart-shaped_ at base, downy beneath; umbels few.--Low grounds, N. C. to Fla., west to S. Ill. and Mo. April.

ORDER 94. THYMELAEACEAE. (MEZEREUM FAMILY.)

_Shrubs, with acrid and very tough (not aromatic) bark, entire leaves, and perfect flowers with a regular and simple colored calyx, bearing usually twice as many stamens as its lobes, free from the 1-celled and 1-ovuled ovary_, which forms a berry-like drupe in fruit, with a single suspended anatropous seed. Embryo large; albumen little or none.

1. Dirca. Calyx tubular, without spreading lobes. Stamens and style exserted.

2. Daphne. Calyx-lobes (4) spreading. Stamens included. Style very short or none.

1. DIRCA, L. LEATHERWOOD. MOOSEWOOD.

Calyx petal-like, tubular-funnel-shaped, truncate, the border wavy or obscurely about 4-toothed. Stamens 8, long and slender, inserted on the calyx above the middle, protruded, the alternate ones longer. Style thread-form; stigma capitate. Drupe oval (reddish).--A much-branched bush, with jointed branchlets, oval-obovate alternate leaves, at length smooth, deciduous, on very short petioles, the bases of which conceal the buds of the next season. Flowers light yellow, preceding the leaves, 3 or 4 in a cluster from a bud of as many dark-hairy scales, forming an involucre, from which soon after proceeds a leafy branch. (Name of uncertain derivation.)

1. D. palustris, L. Shrub 2--5 deg. high; the wood white, soft, and very brittle; but the fibrous bark remarkably tough (used by the Indians for thongs, whence the popular names).--Damp rich woods, N. Brunswick to Minn. and Mo., south to the Gulf. April.

2. DAPHNE, Linn. MEZEREUM.

Calyx salver-shaped or somewhat funnel-shaped, the border spreading and 4-lobed. Stamens 8, included; the anthers nearly sessile on the calyx-tube. Style very short or none; stigma capitate. Drupe red.--Hardy low shrub. (Mythological name of the nymph transformed by Apollo into a Laurel.)

D. MEZEREUM, L. Shrub 1--3 deg. high, with purple-rose-colored (rarely white) flowers, in lateral clusters on shoots of the preceding year, before the lanceolate very smooth green leaves; berries red.--Escaped from cultivation in Canada, Mass., and N. Y. Early spring. (Nat. from Eu.)

ORDER 95. ELAEAGNACEAE. (OLEASTER FAMILY.)

_Shrubs or small trees, with silvery-scurfy leaves and perfect or dioecious flowers_; further distinguished from the Mezereum Family by the erect or ascending albuminous seed, and the calyx-tube becoming pulpy and berry-like in fruit, strictly enclosing the achene.

1. Elaeagnus. Flowers perfect. Stamens 4. Leaves alternate.

2. Shepherdia. Flowers dioecious. Stamens 8. Leaves opposite.

1. ELAEAGNUS, Tourn.

Flowers perfect. Calyx cylindric-campanulate above the persistent oblong or globose base, the limb valvately 4-cleft, deciduous. Stamens 4, in the throat. Style linear, stigmatic on one side. Fruit drupe-like, with an oblong, 8-striate stone.--Leaves alternate, entire and petioled, and flowers axillary and pedicellate. (From [Greek: e)lai/a], _the olive_, and [Greek: a)/gnos], _sacred_, the Greek name of the Chaste-tree, _Vitex Agnus-castus_.)

1. E. argentea, Pursh. (SILVER-BERRY.) A stoloniferous unarmed shrub (6--12 deg. high), the younger branches covered with ferruginous scales; leaves elliptic to lanceolate, undulate, silvery-scurfy and more or less ferruginous; flowers numerous, deflexed, silvery without, pale yellow within, fragrant; fruit scurfy, round-ovoid, dry and mealy, edible, 4--5'' long.--N. W. Minn. to Utah and Montana.

2. SHEPHERDIA, Nutt.

Flowers dioecious; the sterile with a 4-parted calyx (valvate in the bud) and 8 stamens, alternating with as many processes of the thick disk; the fertile with an urn-shaped 4-cleft calyx, enclosing the ovary (the orifice closed by the teeth of the disk), and becoming berry-like in fruit. Style slender; stigma 1-sided.--Leaves opposite, entire, deciduous; the small flowers nearly sessile in their axils on the branches, clustered, or the fertile solitary. (Named for _John Shepherd_, formerly curator of the Liverpool Botanic Garden.)

1. S. Canadensis, Nutt. Leaves elliptical or ovate, nearly naked and green above, silvery-downy and scurfy with rusty scales beneath; fruit yellowish-red, insipid.--Rocky or gravelly banks, Vt. and N. Y. to Mich., Minn., and north and westward. May.--Shrub 3--6 deg. high, the branchlets, young leaves, yellowish flowers, etc., covered with rusty scales.

2. S. argentea, Nutt. (BUFFALO-BERRY.) Somewhat thorny, 5--18 deg. high; leaves cuneate-oblong, silvery on both sides; fruit ovoid, scarlet, acid and edible.--N. Minn. to Col., and westward.

ORDER 96. LORANTHACEAE. (MISTLETOE FAMILY.)

_Shrubby plants with coriaceous greenish foliage, parasitic on trees_, represented in the northern temperate zone chiefly by the Mistletoe and its near allies; distinguished from the next family more by the parasitic growth and habit, and by the more reduced flowers, than by essential characters.

1. Phoradendron. Anthers 2-celled. Berry globose, pulpy. Leaves foliaceous.

2. Arceuthobium. Anthers a single orbicular cell. Berry compressed, fleshy. Leaves scale-like, connate.

1. PHORADENDRON, Nutt. FALSE MISTLETOE.

Flowers dioecious, in short catkin-like jointed spikes, usually several to each short fleshy bract or scale, and sunk in the joint. Calyx globular, 3- (rarely 2--4-) lobed; in the staminate flowers a sessile anther is borne on the base of each lobe, transversely 2-celled, each cell opening by a pore or slit; in the fertile flowers the calyx-tube adheres to the ovary; stigma sessile, obtuse. Berry 1-seeded, pulpy. Embryo small, half imbedded in the summit of mucilaginous albumen.--Yellowish-green woody parasites on the branches of trees, with jointed much-branched stems, thick and firm persistent leaves (or only scales in their place), and axillary small spikes of flowers. (Name composed of [Greek: pho/r], _a thief_, and [Greek: de/ndron], _tree_; from the parasitic habit.)

1. P. flavescens, Nutt. (AMERICAN MISTLETOE.) Leaves obovate or oval, somewhat petioled, longer than the spikes, yellowish; berries white.--On various deciduous trees, N. J. to S. Ind., Mo., and southward.

2. ARCEUTHOBIUM, Bieb.

Flowers axillary or terminal, solitary or several from the same axil. Calyx mostly compressed; the staminate usually 3-parted, the pistillate 2-toothed. Anthers a single orbicular cell, opening by a circular slit. Berry compressed, fleshy, on a short recurved pedicel.--Parasitic on Conifers, glabrous, with rectangular branches and connate scale-like leaves; flowers often crowded in apparent spikes or panicles, opening in summer or autumn and maturing fruit the next autumn. (From [Greek: a)/rkeuthos], _the juniper_, and [Greek: bi/os], _life_.)

1. A. pusillum, Peck. Very dwarf, the slender scattered or clustered stems 3--10'' high, usually simple, olive-green to chestnut; scales obtuse; flowers solitary in most of the axils; fruit narrowly oblong, 1'' long.--On _Abies nigra_; N. New York; Hanover, N. H. (_Jesup_).

ORDER 97. SANTALACEAE. (SANDALWOOD FAMILY.)

_Herbs, shrubs, or trees, with entire leaves; the 4--5-cleft calyx valvate in the bud, its tube coherent with the 1-celled ovary, which contains 2--4 ovules suspended from the apex of a stalk-like free central placenta which rises from the base of the cell, but the (indehiscent) fruit always 1-seeded._--Seed destitute of any proper seed-coat. Embryo small, at the apex of copious albumen; radicle directed upward; cotyledons cylindrical. Stamens equal in number to the lobes of the calyx, and inserted opposite them into the edge of the fleshy disk at their base. Style 1. A small order, the greater part belonging to warm regions.

1. Comandra. Flowers perfect, in umbel-like clusters. Low herbaceous perennials.

2. Pyrularia. Flowers dioecious or polygamous, in short spikes or racemes. Shrub.

1. COMANDRA, Nutt. BASTARD TOAD-FLAX.

Flowers perfect. Calyx bell-shaped or soon urn-shaped, lined above the ovary with an adherent disk which has a 5-lobed free border. Stamens inserted on the edge of the disk between its lobes, opposite the lobes of the calyx, to the middle of which the anthers are connected by a tuft of thread-like hairs. Fruit drupe-like or nut-like, crowned by the persistent calyx-lobes, the cavity filled by the globular seed.--Low and smooth (sometimes parasitic) perennials, with herbaceous stems from a rather woody base or root, alternate and almost sessile leaves, and greenish-white flowers in terminal or axillary small umbel-like clusters. (Name from [Greek: ko/me], _hair_, and [Greek: a)/ndres], for _stamens_, in allusion to the hairs on the calyx-lobes which are attached to the anthers.)

1. C. umbellata, Nutt. Stem 8--10' high, branched, very leafy; leaves oblong, pale (1' long); _peduncles_ several and _corymbose-clustered at the summit, several-flowered_; calyx-tube conspicuously continued as a neck to the dry _globular-urn-shaped fruit; the lobes oblong; style slender_.--Dry ground, common. May, June. Root forming parasitic attachments to the roots of trees.

2. C. pallida, A. DC. _Leaves narrower, more glaucous and acuter, linear to narrowly lanceolate_ (or those upon the main stem oblong), all acute or somewhat cuspidate; _fruit ovoid, larger_ (3--4'' long), sessile or on short stout pedicels.--W. Minn. to S. W. Kan., and westward.

3. C. livida, Richardson. _Peduncles_ slender, _axillary, 3--5-flowered_, shorter than the oval leaves; calyx-tube not continued beyond the ovary, _the lobes ovate; style short_; fruit pulpy when ripe, red.--Newf., N. Vt., sandy shores of L. Superior, and northward.

2. PYRULARIA, Michx. OIL-NUT. BUFFALO-NUT.

Flowers dioecious or polygamous. Calyx 4--5-cleft, the lobes recurved, hairy-tufted at base in the male flowers. Stamens 4 or 5, on very short filaments, alternate with as many rounded glands. Fertile flowers with a pear-shaped ovary invested by the adherent tube of the calyx, naked at the flat summit; disk with 5 glands; style short and thick; stigma capitate-flattened. Fruit fleshy and drupe-like, pear shaped; the globose endocarp thin. Embryo small; albumen very oily.--Shrubs or trees, with alternate short-petioled and deciduous leaves; the small greenish flowers in short and simple spikes or racemes. (Name a diminutive of _Pyrus_, from the shape of the fruit.)

1. P. pubera, Michx. Shrub straggling (3--12 deg. high), minutely downy when young, at length nearly glabrous; leaves obovate-oblong, acute or pointed at both ends, soft, very veiny, minutely pellucid-punctate; spike small and few-flowered, terminal; calyx 5-cleft; fruit 1' long. (P. oleifera, _Gray_.)--Rich woods, mountains of Penn. to Ga. Whole plant, especially the fruit, imbued with an acrid oil.

ORDER 98. EUPHORBIACEAE. (SPURGE FAMILY.)

_Plants usually with a milky acrid juice, and monoecious or dioecious flowers, mostly apetalous, sometimes achlamydeous (occasionally polypetalous or monopetalous); the ovary free and usually 3-celled, with a single or sometimes a pair of ovules hanging from the summit of each cell; stigmas or branches of the style as many or twice as many as the cells; fruit commonly a 3-lobed capsule, the lobes or carpels separating elastically from a persistent axis and elastically 2-valved; seed anatropous; embryo straight, almost as long as and the flat cotyledons mostly as wide as the fleshy or oily albumen._ Stipules often present.--A vast family in the warmer parts of the world; most numerously represented in northern countries by the genus Euphorbia, which has very reduced flowers within a calyx-like involucre.