^ on the Hortus Malabaricus, Fart II. 283 



Breynius under the name of Euphorbio et Tithymalo media affinis 

 aizoides Indica orborescens spinosa Nerii folio : but when he 

 published the Phytographia {t. 230. /. 4.), he quoted the Ela 

 Calli with doubt; for which perhaps there was reason, as we 

 shall afterwards see. He also quoted, although with doubt, the 

 Tithymalus africanus orborescens spinosus et foliosus lactescens et 

 Euphorbium fundens, which is quite different from the Ela Calli, 

 being the true Euphorbium, with which, however, the Ela Calli 

 has been confounded by very able botanists. 



The elder Burman {Thes. Zeyl. 95.) quotes the Ela Calli for 

 his Euphorbio-Tithymalus spinosus, caule rotundo, et anguloso,foliis 

 Nerii latioribus, tt angustioribus. Here he includes two very 

 distinct species, which he allows had been distinguished by 

 Commeline, and by a writer in the MSmoires de I'AcadSmie des 

 Sciences ; but " quas tan turn varietates habeo, si vero quis di- 

 stinctas velet species, per me licet." As these species are totally 

 different, it is to be regretted that he did not refer the synonyma 

 to each of his varieties separately, as, in the manner they now 

 stand, they are useless ; and it remains uncertain especially, to 

 which we should refer the species mentioned by Plukenet and 

 Breynius, as above stated. Burman, however, here acted with 

 propriety, in so far as he put his reader on his guard. 



Linnaeus, without giving any direct notice as Burman had 

 done, included both the angular- and round-stemmed plants in 

 one species (F/. Zeyl. 200.), leaving it utterly impossible to 

 judge which he meant ; only perhaps it may be inferred, from 

 the term " angulis oblique tuberculatis" used in the specific cha- 

 racter, that he meant the kind with the angular stem, which is 

 not the Ela Calli, although this is quoted. By this time the 

 plant described by Linnaeus had become common in the gardens 

 of Europe, and is probably that now common there. 



In the Species Plantarum followed by the younger Burman 

 VOL. XIV. 2 p {Fl. 



