SiPUliGE TRIBE llD 



ceding, is branched, and has smaller leaves of a light green colour ; it also 

 flowers later in the year, and its little green blossoms do not appear before 

 August. The leaves abound in a mucilaginous suljstance, and do not partake 

 of the poisonous properties of the other species. They are, indeed, in 

 Uermany frequently used as spinach, though their Avholesomeness, if used 

 without boiling, would seem somewhat doubtful, for the water in which they 

 are cooked possesses powerful medicinal properties. The plant was formerly 

 prescribed by medical practitioners, and Linnteus mentions it as an anodyne. 

 George Herbert, in his "Priest to the Temple," while enumerating the 

 duties of the "Parson" and his family, says: "For salves his wife seeks 

 not the city, but prefers her gardens and fields before all outlandish gums ; 

 and surely hyssop, valerian, Mercury, adder's tongue, meliot, and St. John's 

 wort, made into a salve, and elder, comphrey, and smallage, made into a 

 poultice, have done great and rare cures." The pious author adds, " In 

 curing of any, the Parson and his family use to premise prayers ; for this is 

 to cure like a parson, and this raiseth the action from the shop to the 

 Church." 



2. Spurge {Euphorhia). 

 ■■'• Leaves with stipules. 



1. Purple Spurge {E.peplis). — Stems prostrate, forked ; leaves leathery, 

 oblong, heart-shaped, nearly entire ; flowers axillary, solitary ; glands of the 

 involucre rounded on the outside ; capsule smooth, keeled ; seeds white and 

 smooth ; annual. This plant is peculiar to the sands of the sea-shore, and is 

 found on the coast from South Wales to Hampshire, but it is very rare. It 

 lies quite flat upon the sand, sending out its numerous branches in a circular 

 direction. Its stems are of a glaucous green, much tinged with purple, and 

 its green blossoms expand from July to September. 



* * Leaves toithout stipules. 



2. Sun Spurge {E. helioscopia). — Umbel of five rays, which are often 

 repeatedly forked ; bracts and leaves membranous, inversely egg-shaped and 

 wedge-shaped, serrated upwards ; capsule smooth ; seeds brown, rough and 

 reticulated ; annual. This is a common plant on waste and cultivated 

 grounds, and every child knows it by one or another of its familiar names. 

 Country people call it Churn-staff, Wart-weed, Cat's-milk, Wolf's-milk, and 

 Little-good. The old herbalists termed it Sun Tithymale, and in Holland 

 it is commonly called Wolfen-iihilcli. It is a troublesome weed in corn-fields 

 and gardens, varying in height from a few inches to two feet, and having, in 

 July and August, a spreading umbel of bright greenish-yellow flowers, which 

 is large in proportion to the plant, and has several serrated leaves close 

 beneath it. The milky juice is an old remedy for the cure of warts and 

 other excrescences of the skin, and is of a very caustic nature. Many a child 

 who has held it near his eyes has felt them pained liy its irritating influence ; 

 and children who bite its leaves are often alarmed hy the burning sensation 

 which it leaves on the tongue, till this is allayed l)y a draught of milk. 

 Dr. Johnston remarks that a case is on record in which a boy was killed by 

 swallowing a piece of this Sun Spurge. If we break a leaf of the plant in 



