SPURdE TRIBE 123 



not the usual bright green of our native Spurges, its foliage being of a deep, 

 dark sea-green hue, covered with whitish bloom, and often a good deal 

 tinged with purple. Its large heart-shaped, taper-pointed bracts are very 

 conspicuous ; and it has very large capsules, which, like all the rest of the 

 plant, are full of milky juice. Its green flowers are produced in June and 

 July. The plant is used medicinally in several countries of the Continent, 

 the dose being from twelve to fifteen of the seeds, and when skilfully 

 adnainistered, it proves a valuable remedy. The seeds are very acrid, yet 

 they are sometimes pickled and eaten instead of capers with meat, but they 

 are unwholesome. Their caustic properties are, however, doubtless diminished 

 by being steeped in vinegar ; for it is well known that the ancients were 

 accustomed, after drying plants of this family, to steep them in vinegar to 

 remove their acrimony ; and by means of a similar process many of our 

 otherwise poisonous plants, as toadstools, are rendered innocuous. 



* * * Brads united at the base as if forming a ])er foliate leaf. 



14. Wood Spurge {E. amygdalokles). — Uml)el 5, or many-cleft, then 

 2-cleft; leaves egg-shaped, lanceolate, hairy beneath, entire; glands of the 

 involucre yellow, crescent-shaped, with 2 horns ; capsules minutely tubercled ; 

 seeds smooth ; perennial. This plant is one of the handsomest of our native 

 species, and is very frequent in woods and thickets. It is of a similar bright 

 green colour to the Sun Spurge, and both in autumn and spring is remarkable 

 for the purplish-red tinge on its stems and leaves. It is very pretty during 

 March and April, when its stems, sometimes two feet high, are surmounted 

 by its leaves and flowers of golden green. Towards the end of summer the 

 plant becomes almost shrubb}^ 



The Red Shrubby Spurge {E. characias), a large and handsome garden 

 species, was formerly enumerated among our wild or naturalized plants, having 

 been said to grow in Needwood Forest, Staffordshire, Avhere, however, it is 

 not now to be found ; and it is believed that specimens of E. amygdaloides 

 have been mistaken for it. 



3, Box (Bimis). 



Common Box {B. semperrirens). — Leaves oval, oblong, tough, 

 shining above, foot-stalks fringed ; anthers egg-shaped, arrow-shaped ; 

 perennial. All are familiar with the dwarf variety of the Box, as seen in the 

 garden, where it forms an edging ; and in many gardens the Box is to be 

 found growing into a shrub, or even a good sized tree. But we do not often 

 see the Box-tree wild in our woods, except on some dry chalky hills in the 

 south of England. Whether, indeed, the plant is truly indigenous is some- 

 what cjuestionable, but we may certainly claim for it a long-established 

 place in this kingdom, since Boxley in Kent, Boxwell in G-loucestershire, 

 and Boxhill in Surrey, evidently received their names from the growth of 

 the plant in their neighbourhoods ; and the latter spot is still richly decked 

 with this tree. 



The Box-tree looks exceedingly well in shrubberies, from the contrast 

 which it affords by its yellowish-green hue to hollies and other evergreens. 



16—2 



