EUPHORBIA COROLLATA. 



FLOWERING SPURGE. 



NATURAL ORDER, EUPHORBIACEiE. 



Euphorbia corollata, L. — Erect; cauline and floral leaves oblong, narrow, obtuse; glands 

 of the involucre obovate, petaloid ; umbel five-rayed, rays two or three times di- or tri- 

 chotomous ; stem slender, erect, one to two feet high, generally simple and smooth ; leaves 

 one to two inches long, often quite linear, very entire, scattered on the stem, verticillate, 

 and opposite in the umbel ; the umbel is generally quite regularly subdivided ; corolla- 

 like involucre large, white, showy. (Wood's Class-Book of Botaiiv. See also Gray's 

 Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States, and Chapman's Flora of the 

 Southern United States.) 



Mt t 



URING the wars between Caesar and Pompey, one of 



the partisans of the latter, King Juba, of Mauritania, or 

 Southern Africa, distinguished himself by his martial skill, and 

 has, therefore, had his deeds handed down for the edification of 

 posterity, although finally he suffered a disastrous defeat. The 

 same king is also celebrated in history as being the father of a 

 son, great in science and general intelligence, who bore his own 

 name. But he must himself have been a man of some penetra- 

 tion, if history can be trusted to tell the truth about kings ; for 

 it is said that Juba, although he had a very famous physician, 

 himself discovered wonderful medical virtues in a plant growing 

 wild in his dominions. It is furthermore stated that he named 

 this plant after his physician, who was called Euphorbus, and 

 hence our botanical name Euphoj^bia. What particular species 

 it was that the Mauritanian prince thus honored with his atten- 

 tion has not been definitely decided; for in that king's old 

 dominions the Euphorbiacccs abound as thick, heavy, succulent 

 bushes, many indeed being small trees of twenty feet or more in 



