EUPHORBIA. 



Mogadore Euphorbium is obtained, is a species nearly related to this. 

 Mr. Jackson's account of the plant is this : — " Its stem is at first soft 

 and succulent, but after some years becomes hard ; the branches are 

 scalloped, and have on their sides small knots, from which grow* 5 

 extremely sharp-pointed thorns, about £ of an inch in length. The 

 branch lets bear each on its top a vivid crimson flower. The general 

 form of the plant, with its branches, is that of a goblet." Med. 

 Gaz. xx. 745. 



§ 2. Species with permanent conspicuous Leaves. 



399. E. Ligularia Roxb. fl. ind. ii. 465. — Ligularia Rumph. iv. 

 t. 40. — Bengal, and the Indian Archipelago. 



Trunk when old about 20 feet high and 1 foot in diameter. Branches 

 succulent, 5-sided, angled, with the angles divided into coarse teeth 

 armed with a pair of short hard black spines. Leaves alternate, about 

 the summits of the branches, short-stalked, inserted singly on the teeth 

 of the branches, wedge-shaped, entire, waved, fleshy, smooth on both 

 sides, almost veinless, from 6 to 12 inches long, and 2 or 3 broad, 

 deciduous. Peduncles solitary in the sinuses between the teeth of the 

 branchlets, short, once twice or thrice dichotomous, with a sessile 

 flower in the forks, that is, bearing 3, 7, or 15 flowers. The sessile 

 flower which is the largest, is often entirely male, the lateral, or ter- 

 minal peduncled ones have always been found to contain 1 pistil, and 

 male florets. Flowers greenish yellow. Bractes reniform, opposite, 

 embracing the base of the pedicels on the outside, withering. Involucre 

 with 5 round-cordate fringed lobes, with a finely ragged margin. — 

 Root mixed with black pepper used in India as a cure for the bite of 

 the rattlesnake. 



400. E. nereifolia Linn. sp. pi. 648. Willd. ii. 884. Roxb. 

 fl. ind. ii. 467 (Rheede ii. t. 43.) — Dry barren hills in 



India. 



A tree of small stature ; branches round, armed with stipulary spines. 

 Leaves subsessile, wedge-shaped. Peduncles 3-flowered. — Roxburgh 

 considers this and the last to have been confounded by botanists, and 

 gives the above as a discriminating character of the present species. 

 Juice of the leaves prescribed by Indian native practitioners internally 

 as a purge and deobstruent, and externally, mixed with Margosa oil, 

 in such cases of contracted limbs as are induced by ill-treated rheumatic 

 affections. The leaves no doubt diuretic. Ainslie. 



401. E. Gerardiana J acq. fl. austr. v. t. 4366. Roper, 

 euphorb. 65. — E. Cajogala Ehr. beitr. ii. 102. E. linariaefblia 

 Lam. enc ii. 102. E. glaucescens Willd. enum. suppl. 28. — 

 Middle Germany, and Hungary. 



Root perennial. Leaves membranous, rigid, lanceolate, sessile, 

 acute or obtusish, mucronate, entire, smooth. Flowering branches 

 collected under the whorl into a multifid false umbel, or arranged in a 

 5-cleft whorl. Lobes of the involucre obtusely triangular. Ovaries 

 convex at back, smooth, beset witli elevated minute points. Seeds 

 obovate-cylindrical, smooth, opaque, whitish. — Bark of the root ca- 

 193 o 



