Some familiar commercial products are obtained from members of the spurge family; e.g., rubber, tapioca, and castor oil. In horticulture, the cactus-like spurges and the Christmas poinsettia are well-known favorites. The Chinese tallow-tree (_Sapium sebiferum_) is used as an ornamental tree, its leaves being very decorative in the fall.
Snow-on-the-Mountain. Ghost-Weed (_Euphorbia bicolor_) grows in great abundance on the plains of Arkansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Texas, being especially thick along dry creek margins. The plants are lovely in late August and September, their showy appearance being due to the green and white leaves surrounding the flower clusters. It bears rather unusual flowers which yield a poisonous honey. The green calyx-like structure is an involucre bearing numerous flowers, each consisting of a single stamen or pistil. Around the top of the involucre are 4-5 small glands each bearing a white appendage which is mistaken for the petals. The cultivated snow-on-the-mountain (_Euphorbia marginata_) has broader and shorter leaves. It is native on hillsides of Central Texas north to Minnesota.
Texas Croton (_Croton texensis_) is a weed, 2-3 ft. high, growing in conspicuous masses, particularly in the western part of the state. The flowers are inconspicuous among the gray-green foliage, the widely branched stems bearing numerous linear leaves. The fragrant leaves and stems from some of the crotons are gathered and dried by the Mexicans to use for tea or meat seasoning.
Trees or shrubs, mostly evergreen; sepals 3-6; petals 4-5; stamens 4-5, opposite petals; carpels 3 or more; fruit a drupe.
Yaupon. Cassine (_Ilex vomitoria_) with dark glossy evergreen leaves and red berries forms lovely hedges along the highways and fields and is scattered through woods in Central and East Texas, ranging to Virginia. The berries, an excellent bird food, usually remain on the shrubs until the small white flowers appear in late March or April. The plant forms a dense widely-branched shrub, which is of slow growth and very desirable for hedges. As the berries are produced on separate bushes from the pollen-bearing flowers, care should be taken to plant those producing berries if ornamental shrubs are desired. Cassine tea is made from the leaves, but it is bitter and contains much caffein and tannin. Like the American holly, which grows in East Texas, the yaupon is being exterminated for Christmas decorations. The deciduous holly (_Ilex decidua_) has larger leaves, which are shed in the early fall, and larger orange-red berries, which remain on the shrub or tree until late winter.