534 Mr. Forster’s Observations on the 
Johnson, however, was not the original discoverer of this rare plant, for 
Lobel, or more properly Matthias De L'Obel, who was Botanist to King James 
the First, and had the care of Lord Zouch's garden at Hackney, in his Stir- 
pium Historia, mentions Esula major Germanica, Turbith nigrum et adulteri- 
num: * Anglie frequentissima in sylva D. Joannis Coltes, prope Bathoniam ;" 
properly translated by Parkinson in his Herbal, *In a wood belonging to 
Mr. John Coltes, nigh unto Bath, very plentifully," for the construction of the 
sentence will not admit of its meaning “frequently found in England.” It is 
very desirable that search be made between Guildford and Godalming, a 
situation mentioned only in Merrett’s bungling Pinaz, as Ray, perhaps rather 
too severely, denominates his book. 
There can be no doubt of the Spurge found * some mile south of Bathe" 
being the Esula major ; for it is hardly possible to suppose that these * socii 
itinerantes,” being eight members of the Apothecaries Company, could be 
ignorant of a plant which the Quack-salvers were accused of substituting for 
the real Turbith. It is to be observed, that Linnzus makes Esula major a 
synonym of his Euphorbia palustris, and I think the Bath plant recently found 
ought to be so considered. In this I am obliged to differ from my friend 
Babington, who has much merit in elucidating this plant, first in his Flora 
Bathoniensis, under the name of E. epithymoides; since in the Supplement to 
English Botany, and in his useful Observations on several new and imper- 
fectly understood Plants in the Linnean Transactions, referring it to Euphorbia 
pilosa ; in which he is perfectly justified, for it corresponds exactly with the 
specimen received by Linnzeus from Gmelin, so named in the herbarium, but 
which, I believe, is not distinct from his JE. palustris, thus described in 
Fl. Suecica : 
* Radix perennis. Caulis annuus. Folia lanceolata, alterna. ^ Umbella 
universalis multifida, polyphylla; partiales trifide, triphyllee; relique di- 
chotome diphylle. Jnvolucra et involucella ovata. Fructus verrucosus. 
Flores primores masculi pentapetali abortientes; secundarii hermaphroditi 
tetrapetali. Petala integra." In the Species Plantarum, Euphorbia pilosa, a 
native of Siberia, is introduced and described : ** Habitus exacte E. palustris, 
ut facile pro eadem sumeretur, eodemque tempore floret, paulo tamen major. 
Folia lato-lanceolata, alterna utrinque vix manifeste pilosa, apice ita tenuis- 
