164 GUERNSE Y. 
Fagopyrum esculentum, Moench. Buckwheat. 
Casual. First record: Babington, 1839. 
Occasional plants are to be found on roadsides and near houses, 
springing up from scattered poultry seed. Buckwheat is very rarely, 
if at all, grown in Guernsey as a crop. 
The word Buckwheat seems to be a corruption of the German 
Biiche-weizen, that is, beech-wheat, just as Aagopyrum means beech- 
fruit, in allusion to the resemblance of the seeds to beech-mast. 
Many old writers recommend beehives to be moved to buckwheat 
fields when the crops are in blossom, as a certain means of increasing 
the quantity of honey: for bees are extremely fond of the flowers. 
(Thesium humifusum, DC., Bastard Toadflax, occurs in Alderney.) 
EUPHORBIACEAE. 
*Euphorbia Peplis, L. Purple Spurge. 
Extinct (?). 
From some cause or other which it is difficult to explain this 
plant seems to have completely disappeared within the last half 
century. I possess a specimen gathered in Guernsey in 1859 by 
A. G. More, and that is the most recent evidence I have of its 
occurrence. During the last dozen years the sandy shores of the 
north and north-west have been carefully searched, but no trace of 
the plant has been detected. Gosselin records it in his old list of 
1788, and on August 26th, 1837, Babington notes in his Journal 
that he ‘found Zuphorbia Peplis in great plenty on the sands of 
Grand Havre at some distance beyond the Vale Church.’ Doubt- 
less these old stations are now covered by deep layers of sand, and 
some day, when it has been blown back again, and the buried seeds 
uncovered, the plant will reappear in plenty. In Alderney, where 
Euphorbia Peplis occurs in several places, I have noticed that the 
plants do not reappear in exactly the same spot two years in succes- 
sion, although producing an abundance of seed. On the shell-beach 
at Herm Mr. Andrews has collected some unusually fine specimens, 
one measuring thirteen inches by nine inches. The Alderney plants 
are usually from three to six inches in diameter. 
Euphorbia Helioscopia, L. Sun Spurge. 
Colonist. First record: Gosselin, 1815. 
A rather common weed in gardens and cultivated fields throughout 
the island. 
Called in Normandy Herbe a la biche and Revetl-matin. The 
acrid milky juice 1s reputed to cure warts, but it should be used with 
caution. Fatal results are reported to have followed the eating of 
the fresh plant. 
