[*] Fruit smooth or merely pubescent; seeds nearly smooth.
1. A. Virgínica, L. Smoothish or hairy (1–2° high), often turning purple; leaves ovate or oblong-ovate, obtusely and sparsely serrate, long-petioled; sterile spike rather few-flowered, mostly shorter than the large leaf like palmately 5–9-cleft fruiting bracts; fertile flowers 1–3 in each axil.—Fields and open places, N. Eng. to Ont. and Minn., south to the Gulf. July–Sept.
Var. grácilens, Muell. Leaves lanceolate or even linear, less toothed and shorter-petioled; the slender sterile spike often 1´ long, and much surpassing the less cleft or few-toothed fruiting bracts.—Sandy dry soil, R. I. and Conn. to Fla., west to Ill., E. Kan. and Tex.
[*][*] Fruit echinate with soft bristly green projections; seeds rough-wrinkled.
2. A. Caroliniàna, Ell. Leaves thin, ovate-cordate, sharply and closely serrate-toothed, abruptly acuminate, long-petioled; sterile spikes short, axillary; the fertile ones mostly terminal and elongated, their bracts deeply cut into many linear lobes.—N. J. to Fla., west to Ohio, Kan., and Tex.
9. RÍCINUS, Linn. Castor-oil Plant.
Flowers in racemose or panicled clusters, the fertile above, the staminate below. Calyx 5-parted. Stamens very numerous, with repeatedly branching filaments. Styles 3, united at base, each bifid, red. Capsule large, 3-lobed, with 3 large seeds.—A tall stately annual, with very large alternate peltate and palmately 7–11-cleft leaves (often 1–2° broad). (The ancient Roman name of the plant.)
R. commùnis, L.—Cultivated extensively for ornament, and sparingly escaped in Md., Mo., and southward. Very variable.
10. TRÀGIA, Plumier.
Flowers monœcious, in racemes, apetalous. Ster. Fl. Calyx 3–5- (chiefly 3-) parted, valvate in the bud. Stamens 2 or 3; filaments short; anther-cells united. Fert. Fl. Calyx 3–8-parted, persistent. Style 3-cleft or 3-parted; the branches 3, simple. Capsule 3-celled, 3-lobed, bristly, separating into three 2-valved 1-seeded carpels. Seeds not carunculate.—Erect or climbing plants (perennial herbs in U. S.), pubescent or hispid, sometimes stinging, with mostly alternate stipulate leaves; the small flowered racemes terminal or opposite the leaves; the sterile flowers above, the few fertile at the base all with small bracts. (Named for the early herbalist Bock, latinized Tragus.)