Spurges and Nettles 289 
way, there appearing to be no special arrangements 
such as in so many plants give precision to this 
operation. One of the folk-names of this plant is 
Wartwort, from its reputation in rustic medicine as 
a cure for warts, the milky juice being rubbed upon 
the offensive excrescence. 
Another small annual species found in similar 
situations is the Petty Spurge (/. peplus), with 
smooth red stems. A more ee 
ruddy species and of larger ye : 
erowth is the Wood Spurge eo 
(EZ. amygdaloides), with per- vin 
ennial hairy stem and large / Wt 
leathery leaves, occurring yi ni Zh 
locally in copses. oh, ( fo 
There is one species of very Ef , /p J 
restricted occurrence in Britain > ake? WZ 
which is of similar interest | a 
to the Cornish and Mediter- | 
ranean Heaths previously 
described. This is the Irish 
Spurge (H. hiberna), whose 
juice is used by salnon-poachers to poison the rivers 
sufficiently to kill the fish and cause them to float on 
the surface. It is found rarely in the hedges and 
copses of North Devon, and in the south and west 
of Ireland, but elsewhere only in Western France and 
Northern Spain. 
The three-valved seed-vessel of the Spurges is 
worthy of consideration: each valve encloses a seed, 
and when ripe the valves separate from each other 
and open on their inner surface, then by contraction the 
valve ejects the seed with force and throws it far away. 
Flowers of Petty Spurge 
