Esula major Germanica of Lohel. 535 



sime serrata, ut vix observentur serraturae. Umbellce cum umbellulis laterali. 

 bus ita coacervatse, ut primaria difficilius eruatur, lutese petalis et involucris. 

 Flores primarii masculi pentapetali ; reliqui hennaphroditi tetrapetali : pe- 

 talis transverse ovalibus. Fructus verrucosi et pilis albis subtilissimis ad- 

 spersi. Rami steriles ex alis folioium inferiorum, ut ex summis alis pedunculi 

 umbelluliferi." In these two descriptions there is little difference, except that in 

 E. palustris nothing is said of the leaves being haiiy or serrated. In Hortus 

 Cllffbrtianus, Linnaeus joins to E. palustris, Tithymalus palustris villosus mol- 

 lior erectus and Tithymalus nemorosus villosus mollior, Barr. Rar. Whether 

 these belong to it or not, it proves that he did not consider the smoothness of 

 the leaves essential. Perhaps the greatest difference is in one being placed in 

 the division of quinquefid umbels and the other among the multifid ; but this 

 will not hold good, for " Umbellse cuni umbellulis lateralibus ita coarcervatse 

 ut primaria difficilius eruatur" might with great accuracy be applied to Eu- 

 phorbia ami/gdaloides, our common Wood Spurge, which is placed in the 

 multifid division as well as E. palustris, so that E. pilosa must come into the 

 same division as that species. 



On the 2nd of August last I visited the station nearest to Bath, and though 

 the husbandman had been before me with his hook, I found enough left for 

 examination, and I have a living plant received from thence in a former year. 

 After the most careful attention I can give to the subject, I am thoroughly 

 convinced that the plant now found is the Euphorbia palustris of Linnaeus 

 and most continental botanists, and that it is also the " Euphorbia foliis alterais, 

 ex ovali lanceolatis umbellis diphyllis subtrifloris, capsulis erectis muricatis, 

 caule simplici" of Gmelin in his Flora Sibirica, vol. ii. 227- t. 93. " Inter Irtim 

 et Jeniseam fluvios ubique frequens est," which Linnaeus has adopted as 

 E. pilosa. In the Linnaean Herbarium the specimen called E. palustris has gla- 

 brous leaves, yet still I think the rudiments of hairs may be traced on some 

 of them. In that marked E. pilosa, " Jenise," and therefore evidently sent to 

 Linnaeus from the latter of the rivers mentioned by Gmelin, the hairs are very 

 visible and by no means " vix manifeste." In the Banksian Herbarium there 

 is a specimen named Euphorbia palustris, " In Austria alpina, Jacq." which 

 agrees exactly with the Euphorbia pilosa of the Linnaean Herbarium, and with 

 our Bath plant in having the leaves manifestly hairy on the margins and 



