534 Mr. Forster's Observations on the 



Johnson, however, was not the original discoverer of this rare plant, for 

 Lobel, or more properly Matthias De L'Obel, who was Botanist to King James 

 the First, and had the care of Lord Zouch's garden at Hackney, in his Stir- 

 piuni Historia, mentions Esula major Germanica, Turbith nigrum et adulteri- 

 num : " Anglise frequentissima in sylva D. Joannis Coltes, prope Bathoniam ;" 

 properly translated by Parkinson in his Herbal, " In a wood belonging to 

 Mr. John Coltes, nigh unto Bath, very plentifully," for the construction of the 

 sentence will not admit of its meaning " frequently found in England." It is 

 very desirable that search be made between Guildford and Godalming, a 

 situation mentioned only in Merrett's bungling Pinax, as Ray, perhaps rather 

 too severely, denominates his book. 



There can be no doubt of the Spurge found "some mile south of Bathe" 

 being the Esula major ; for it is hardly possible to suppose that these " socii 

 itinerantes" being eight members of the Apothecaries' Company, could be 

 ignorant of a plant which the Quack-salvers were accused of substituting for 

 tlie real Turbith. It is to be observed, that Linnaeus makes Esula major a 

 synonym of his Euphorbia palustris, and I think the Bath plant recently found 

 ought to be so considered. In this I am obliged to differ from my friend 

 Babington, who has much merit in elucidating this plant, first in his Flora 

 Bafhoniensis, under the name of E. epithymoides ; since in the Supplement to 

 English Botany, and in his useful Observations on several new and imper- 

 fectly understood Plants in the Linnean Transactions, referring it to Eupliorbia 

 pilosa ; in M'hich he is perfectly justified, for it corresponds exactly with the 

 specimen received by Linnaeus from Gmelin, so named in the herbarium, but 

 which, I believe, is not distinct from his E. palustris, thus described in 

 Fl. Suecica : 



" Radix perennis. Caulis annuus. Folia lanceolata, alterna. Umbella 

 universalis multifida, polyphylla ; partiales trifidse, triphyllae ; reliquae di- 

 chotomse diphyllse. Involucra et involucella ovata. Fructus verrucosus. 

 Flores primores masculi pentapetali abortientes ; secundarii hermaphroditi 

 tetrapetali. Petala integra." In the Species Plantarum, Euphorbia pilosa, a 

 native of Siberia, is introduced and described : " Habitus exacte E. palustris, 

 ut facile pro eadem sumeretur, eodemque tempore floret, paulo tamen major. 

 Folia lato-lanceolata, alterna utrinque vix manifeste pilosa, apice ita tenuis- 



