| The Flowering Plants, Grasses, Sedges, and Ferns of Great Britain, and Their Allies, the Club Mosses, Pepperworts and Horsetails - Vol V Contributor(s): Pratt, Anne (Author) |
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ISBN: 1406784877 ISBN-13: 9781406784879 Publisher: Case Press OUR PRICE: $20.89 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: October 2007 * Not available - Not in print at this time * |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Nature |
| Physical Information: 0.91" H x 5.5" W x 8.5" (1.14 lbs) 408 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: THE FLOWERING PLANTS or GREAT BRITAIN, ORDER LXXVI. EUPHOEBIACEE. SPUEGE TBIBE. Stamens and pistils in separate flowers perianth of 3, 4, or more lobes, sometimes wanting stamens varying in number and arrangement ovary mostly 3-celled, with as many styles and stigmas fruit usually 3-celled and 3-seeded. The description here given of the Order includes all the British genera but many of the tropical genera are furnished with both sepals and petals. Our native species have herbaceous or woody stems, sometimes leafless, but usually with oppo- site, alternate, or whorled leaves. They are mostly milky herbs, and of a highly corrosive, acrid, ornarcotic character. Some of the exotic plants of the family yield the most deadly poisons. The Manchineel Hip- pomane Mancinetta, whose shadow proves fatal to the sleeper and the Manioc of theWest Indies Jatropha VOL. V. B 2 FLOWERING PLANTS Manihot, thejuice ofwhich will in afew minutes cause death, are among the dangerous species hut on the other hand we owe to this Order the castor oil, which is extracted from the seed of Eicinus comnmnis, and the caoutchouc of Guiana, which is the thickened juice of Sipltonia eldstica while even the poisonous Manioc affords in its root the nutritious cassava, the breadmade of which is by the Creoles preferred to that made of wheaten flour, and from the same root we derive the useful tapioca. The gum resin, or Euphorbium of the chemist, is procured from three species of Spurge grow- ing in Africa and the Canary Islands. 1. MERCURIALIS Mercury. Stamens and pistils on different plantsperianthS-vleti to thebase barren flower with 9 or more stamens fertile flower with 2 styles ovary 2-lobed capsule 2-celled, 2-seeded.Name in honour of the god Mercury, who is said to have disco- vered the virtueswhichwere attributed to the plant. 2. EUPHORBIA Spurge. Perianth or involucre bell- shaped, containing 12ormore barren flowers or stamens, and 1 fertile flower or pistil ovary 3-lobed styles 3 stymasZ-clefk capsule 3 -celled, 3-seeded. Name from Euphorbus, physician to Juba, king of Mauritania, he having first used the plant medicinally. 3. Buxus Box. Stamens and pistils in separate flowers on the same plant perianth 4-cleft to the base barren flower with 1 bract stamens 4 fertile flower with 3 bracts styles 3 capsule with 3 horns, 3-celled cells 2-seeded. Name changed from pyxos, the Greek name for this tree. OF GREAT BRITAIN. 8 1. MERCURIALIS Mercury. 1 . M. perennis Perennial, or . DogsMercury Stem unbranched flowers in lax axillary spikes barren flowers on long stalks leaves egg-shaped, serrated, stalked, somewhat rough root creeping, and perennial. This plant is well known to all who observe the common things around them. Sometimes it is to be seen growing in great abundance on the hedge-row or in the wood and those who have gardens see, in early spring, numbers of its light green leaves, with almost whitish veins, developing themselves upon the flower- bed and though the foliage, as it is older, becomes of a deeper green, yet it is never of a very dark hue. The plant is about a foot high, bearing its leaves chiefly on the upper part of the stems, several of which arise from its creeping roots. During April, May, and June, the green flowers grow in loose spikes from among the leaves, and the long-stalked barren ones are conspi- cuous by their numerous stamens... |
