270 FLORA HOMCUPATHICA. 
Euphorbium, for that they border upon the Mount Atlas, 
sophisticate it with goats milke. Howbeit, fire will soon detect 
this imposure of theirs, for that which, is not right but corrupt, 
when it burneth, doth yield a lothsome fume and stinking sent.” 
(Nat. Hist., Holland’s Trans., b. xxv. cap. vii. p. 222, 1634). 
Neither Dioscorides nor Galen take any notice of its cathartic 
properties, but Pliny does, as does also Alius, Paulus, and the 
Arabian physicians. Mesne particularly recommends it in dis- 
eases of the joints; it was also employed in ascites, rheumatism, 
ague, paralysis, and caries before exfoliation ; and later, in ulcers, 
warts, chronic ophthalmia, amaurosis, deafness, diseases of the 
hip-joint (Cheselden). Sciatica, (Henman). It was used in 
dropsy and podagra in Mogador. At present it is seldom 
employed allopathically in this country, except in veterinary 
medicine. 
Description.—The stem of this plant rises four or five feet 
in height, simple or branched towards the top, erect, angled, or 
furrowed with eight or more longitudinal fissures. The branches 
go off first horizontally, and then ascend; they are more dis- 
tinctly angled than the stem, the angles notched and furnished 
with prickles, which are everywhere in pairs; these branches 
are everywhere destitute of leaves. The dnvolucres are sessile, 
and arise at the extremities of the branches in the axil of the 
spines. The involucre is monophyllous, bell-shaped, persistent, 
and divided into eight or ten teeth or segments, of which the 
four or five outer are thick, yellow, obtuse, spreading; four or 
five alternate and inner ones, smaller, obtuse, entire, and 
directed inwards. Barren or male flowers, about twelve, each 
consisting of a single capillary filament, which supports a globu- 
lar two-lobed anther. Fertile or female flower, a single naked 
pistil. The germen roundish, three-lobed, supporting a short, — 
simple style, crowned with three spreading, obtuse stigmas. 
The capsule is tricoccous, elastic, and contains three roundish 
seeds (Hooker). The genus Euphorbia comprises a very nume- 
rous tribe of singular plants; upwards of two hundred are 
