203 IIORTUS JAMAICENSIS. spurge- 



grows plentifully in many parts of Jamaica to the height of fifteen or twenty feet or 

 more, and is known by the name Wallenia. 



Spurges are generally of one and the same kind, only some more violent in their 

 operation than others, except the sweet spurgecalled caiacia, mentioned before, which 

 bath a quite different nature ; for, as all other spurges work upwards and downwards, 

 this doth neither, but operates by sweat and urine. The reason of the others work- 

 ing so strong, is from their abounding with an essential fixed acrid salt and oil, and there- 

 fore dangerous to be administered without correcting ; but, when corrected, they may 

 be given with safety in dropsies, lethargies, phrensies, &c. You may make an extract 

 of them, which some use as a general purger. Raius saith, that spurge-laurel, pow- 

 dered and infused iti wine- vinegars, cures cancers. Barlmm, p. 182. 



See Eye- bright. 



SPURGE, BRANCHED. ERXODEA. 



Cl. 4, or. 1. Tetrandria vionogynia. 



This generic name is derived from the Greek work for branched. 



Gen. char. Calyx a four-parted perianth, small, superior segments erect, acute, equal,, 

 permanent; corolla one-petaled, salver-shaped, tube four-cornered elongated; 

 border four-parted ; segments lanceolate revolute ; stamens four filaments, inserted 

 in the middle of the tube, awl-shaped, longer than the corolla ; anthers erect, 

 acuminate ; the pistil has a four-cornered inferior germ, a filiform style, longer than 

 the stamens ; and an obtuse emarginate stigma ; the pericarp a a roundish berrv, 

 crowned by the calyx, two-grooved, two-celled; seeds solitary, hemispherical striated. 



LITTORAUS. 



Tht/w^ca humilior foliis acutis atrovirentibus. Sloane, v. 2, p. 93,. 

 t*l89, f. 1,2. Kuoxia, '. Littoralis ?'< pens, 'o/tis rigidis blongis 

 apposiiis, Jioribus singularibus. Browne, p. 140. 

 Root as thick as the little finger, of a reddish brown colour, and rugged bark, 

 with several roundish branches; stem angular, bark grey; branches four-cornered, 

 wand-like, jointed, ash-coloured, leafless ; branchlets alternate, two inches long ; leaves 

 on the branchlets opposite, sessile, an inch and a half long, lanceolate, attenuate at both 

 ends, veinless, obscurely three-nerved or five-nerve I, very smooth on both sides, 

 shining, quite entire, mucronate, cused, of an astringent taste ; stipules surrounding 

 the branch, truncate, ciliate. Flowers axillary opposite sessile ; calyx deeply four-parted, 

 with lanceolate cusped segments; tube of the corolla slender, longer than the calyx ; seg- 

 ments of the border linear obtuse ; stamens the length of the corolla ; stigma truncate. 

 Jt varies with broader and narrower leaves. The flowers are pale yellow or greenish co- 

 loured. It grows on the pallisades near Port-Royal, and on most sandy beaches. 

 Browne calls it the creeping sea-side Knoxia, frequent near the shore in the parish of 

 St. George, running commonly three or four feet, or more, along the ground, casting a 

 few spreading brancnes from space to space as it creeps along ; the leaves are oblong, 

 pointed, and stiff, and the flowers few and single, at the axils of the upper leaves. 



SQUASH. 



