98 ENGLISH BOTANY. 



The lines of Hcrrick, which refer to the custom of substituting box for holly at 

 Candlemas in decorations, are worth quoting : — 



" Down with the rosemary and bays, 

 Do^vn with the misseltoe ; 

 Instead of holly now upraise 

 The greener box for show. 



" The holly hitherto did sway : 

 Let box now domineer, 

 Until the dawning Easter day 

 Or Easter eve appear." 



GENUS II.—E UPHORBIA. Liym. 



Flowers monoecious, combined into flower-like groups surrounded by 

 a calyx-like involucre containing numerous male flowers and a single 

 central stalked female flower. Common involucre bellsliaped, with 

 4 or 5 segments, alternating with as many large thick glandular 

 lobes, which are entire or notched and spreading, sometmies petaloid. 

 Perianth absent. Male flowers reduced to a single stamen, with a joint 

 showing its junction with the pedicel, which springs from a small bract 

 at the base of the involucre. Female flower soon elevated on a stalk in 

 the centre of the involucre, reduced to a 3-lobed and 3-celled ovar}'' 

 with 3 styles, sometimes with a very indistinct calyx at the base of the 

 ovary. Capsule 3-lobed, splitting into 3 cocca; each coccum 1-seeded, 

 bursting down the back, so as to form 2 valves. 



Herbs and shrubs of very various habit, with white milky acrid juice. 



This genus of plants was named after Euphorbus, physician to Juba, King of 

 Mauritania, who is said first to have used some of the plants of this genus in medicine. 



Section L— ANISOPHYLLUM. Raep. ap. Duly, Bot. Gall. 



Leaves opposite, with stipules. Flowers solitary in the forks of the 

 stem or axillary. 



SPECIES I.— E UPHORBIA PEPLIS. Linn. 



Plate MCCLIII. 



neicli. Ic. Fl. Germ, et Helv. Vol. V. Tab. CXXXI. Fig. 4753. 

 Jiillot, Fl. Gall, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1761. 

 TithjTnalus auriculatus, Lam. Fl. Fr. Vol. III. p. 102. 



Annual. Stems sevej'al from the crown of the root, prostrate, 

 dichotomously branched. Leaves opposite, shortly stalked, oblong, 

 half-cordate, obtuse or emarginate, nearly entire. Stipules minute, 



