N. ORD.—EUPHORBIACE-. 150 
GENUS.—EUPHORBIA, 
SEX. SYST._DODECANDRIA MONOGYNIA. 
HUPHORBIA EAT HYRIS. 
CAPER SPURGE. 
SYN.—EUPHORBIA LATHYRIS, LINN.; TITHYMALUS LATHYRIS, KL. & 
GAR, 
COM. NAMES.—-GARDEN SPURGE, CAPER SPURGE, MOLE PLANT OR 
TREE; (GER.) PURGIENKORNER. 
A TINCTURE OF THE WHOLE PLANT EUPHORBIA LATHYRIS, LINN. 
Description.—This glabrous annual or biennial plant attains a growth of from 
2 to 3 feet, Stem erect, stout, and cylindrical. Leaves entire, opposite, decussate 
or strongly sessile, thick, linear- or oblong-lanceolate, pale. /zflorescence umbelli- 
form ; wmbels 4-rayed, then forking ; eaves ovate, long pointed, and somewhat cor- 
date at the base; zxvolucral lobes deeply cleft into two pointed divisions; glands 
lunate, 2-horned ; Zorus orange colored, obtuse. /ilamental peduncles hairy : ador- 
tive stamens ligulate, hairy at the base. Stgmas recurved. Fruit a large, 3-car- 
pelled capsule, red in the sulci when immature, black throughout when ripe; 
carpels obtusely 3-angled; seeds carunculate. 
History and Habitat.—The nativity of the Caper Spurge is doubtful; it is, 
however, probably indigenous to Eastern Europe and Great Britian. It is adven- 
tive in this country, especially in New Jersey and Eastern Pennsylvania, where it 
grows in dry, sterile places, and blossoms from July to September. Several of the 
European Spurges, brought to this country as garden-plants on account of their 
use as purges and their peculiar foliage, have run wild in many places. Three 
years ago we discovered in Vestal, N. Y., two large patches of the Mediterranean 
E. Nicensis (not before reported in this country); it still grows there, and is 
spreading luxuriantly as if thoroughly satisfied with its new home. £, cyparisstas 
has escaped in many places in Broome County, N. Y.,and flourishes finely wherever 
it grows. : 
The Caper Spurge is the Cataputea minor of old pharmacopeeias, and is one 
of the plants that Charlemagne ordered grown in every garden in France. The 
laity in England are said to use one capsule to cause catharsis, and the women, 
several to produce abortion. The oil of the seeds was probably first used by — 
Calderini, in doses of from six to eight drops, as a cathartic; he was followed by 
= Gounaud, and later by Bally; Frank suggested* its employment in ascites, hys- 
teralgia, and tzenia. Mr. Scattergood + tells us that the manufacturer of the = i 
* Your. de Phar., » xi, By. : Ras Enea, ei Phit. rade Phar, whi am 
