818 



station for it in Britain, if not in Europe. I have repeatedly searched 

 Sandown Bay in the hope of again finding this Euphorbia in greater 

 quantity, and am willing to believe that with Lathyrus maritimus, 

 which formerly inhabited the Bay, its disappearance may be only 

 temporary, as expressed under the head of that plant in these Notes. 

 In 1835 I collected noble specimens on Slapton Sands, near Star 

 Cross, Devonshire. From its intense purple colour, small compara- 

 tive size, and peifectly depressed growth, it may be overlooked on a 

 casual glance for a fragment of sea-weed. It belongs to a section of 

 the genus with opposite, stalked, oblique leaves, furnished with sti- 

 pules, prostrate stems, and a rudimentary corolla to the pistillate 

 flowers, mostly found within the tropics. 



Euphorbia Helioscopia. A common weed in waste and cultivated 

 ground, corn-fields, neglected gardens, amongst turnips, potatoes, &c, 

 in autumn and later summer months ; occasionally, too, in the spring. 



platyphylla. In corn-fields, fallows, waste and cultivated 



ground, and by road-sides ; far from an uncommon species in the Isle 

 of Wight, very often occurring in great abundance in tillage lands as 

 a rather troublesome weed, but not very constant in its stations, which 

 on that account it would be useless to give, except in a general way. 

 Rather frequent about Ryde, at Quarr and Fishbourne ; wheat-field 

 betwixt Prestwood and Smallbrook farms, and near Westbrook farm 

 betwixt Ryde and Nettleston, and found remarkably fine and abun- 

 dant in a corn-field by Beaper farm between Ryde and Blading, some 

 of the stems being nearly a yard high, and much branched. About 

 E. and W. Cowes, by no means unfrequentin corn-fields, clover-lays, 

 &c. About Yarmouth, Ningwood, Shalcombe, Gatcombe, Thorley, 

 and in most other parts of the island, often in the greatest plenty. 

 About Colwell and Brading ; Mr. W. D. Snooke, Fl. Vect. Perhaps 

 not less general in mainland Hants, but I have not remarked it in 

 that part of the county myself. Matterly farm, about four miles from 

 Winchester, towards Alresford; Dr. Sibthorp (Bot. Guide). Sel- 

 borne (the var. E. stricta, E. B.) ; Mr. Yalden, Id. This last form, 

 the E. stricta of Smith (an Linn. ?), is a mere immature or starved 

 state of the plant with simple or very slightly branched stems, as it 

 commonly appears in the earlier part of the summer, when it seldom 

 exceeds a foot or eighteen inches in height. The stem is very com- 

 monly furnished with a pair of opposite, ascending branches, spring- 

 ing from its very base, and far shorter than itself, but as the season 

 advances these lateral stems or branches attain nearly the height of 

 the middle or principal one, become, like that, much expanded at top 



