EUPHORBIACEIE, fi-for-bI-ese-e (the Spurge family), a family of plants, consisting of more than 4,000 species of herbs, shrubs and trees arranged in about 220 genera, some of which are well known for their ornamental and economic uses. They are, with few exceptions, natives of warm climates, especially of tropical America, and nearly every species has an acrid juice, usually poisonous, but sometimes made bland when heated. Among the members of the family are many species of commercial im portance. Thus the juice of some species and the roots of others are used in medicine, for in plants of this kind are found croton oil, castor oil, etc. A few of the Euphorbiacew yield fra grant balsamic products; a few, although their juice is poisonous, yield a wholesome starch in considerable abundance (see MArnoc) ; a few are cultivated and used as pot-herbs, particu larly species of Plukenetia in the East Indies; a few yield wholesome and agreeable sub-acid fruits, as Cicca disticka and C. racemosa in the East Indies; the seeds of some are edible, as those of the candle-nut (q.v.), etc.; the oil of the seeds is also in some cases used for food, like other bland oils, but more frequently for burning, as castor oil, candle-nut oil, the oil of Aleurites cordata in Japan and Mauritius, and the solid oil of Sapium sebiferum, which is used in China for making candles, and in medicinal preparations as a substitute for lard. From He
m; is derived the highest grade of rubber pro duced in South America. Others yield dye stuffs. The timber of some of the Euphorbia cese is valuable — for example, African teak. Of the numerous genera, many are represented in the American flora, the most important being Croton Ricinus (castor-oil.plants), and Euphor bia or spurge proper. This genus numbers about 700 species, most abundant in the warm parts of the north temperate zone, more than 125 of them being found in America. They are all known as aspurge,o and some are poisonous. Some one species is found in almost every part of America, those not native having es caped from cultivation. Some of the species are imposing ornamental plants and are much used in landscape gardening and in green houses, usually for their curious forms of growth, rather than for their beauty.
Plants of this family, although of widely differing forms of growth and foliage, are char acterized by unisexual, moncecious or dicecious flowers, often brilliantly colored and often in conspicuous, in the latter case sometimes sub tended by brilliantly colored bracts; the usually three-lobed fruits split elastically when ripe and throw the seeds to greater or less distances.