819 



into broad umbels, and the entire plant acquires a much larger size 

 (often three feet in height), and a beautiful coral red colour. The E. 

 stricta of Koch, found in the west of England, certainly comes very 

 close to the present species in all its characters, as appears from excel- 

 lent specimens I possess through the kindness of W. H. Purchas, Esq., 

 of Ross, and from the living plant, which I had some few years ago 

 in the garden, from Mr. Borrer, but have since lost. From what has 

 been just said, it will be evident, I think, that these two species do 

 not differ in size ; the examples of E. platyphylla usually found in 

 herbaria being mostly small entire specimens, as seen in corn-fields 

 early in the summer, may have given rise to the opinion of its being 

 a smaller plant than E. stricta of Koch. The leaves in every speci- 

 men of E. platyphylla that I have seen, like those of E. stricta, are 

 more or less narrowed above their clasping and cordate base, giving 

 to the outline of the leaf an elongate-oblong, somewhat obovate-ob- 

 long, strap or tongue-shaped form, equally conspicuous in each spe- 

 cies. It is remarkable that Koch, who considers the Monmouthshire 

 E. stricta as the Linnean species of that name, actually cites the E. 

 B. figure of our E. platyphylla (the var. stricta, E. stricta, Sm.) as the 

 true plant of Linnaeus,* showing clearly how very closely the two are 

 allied in botanical character and aspect, although it must be owned 

 that the figure in E. B. is so defective from the miserably starved, or 

 perhaps very young state of the specimen, that it might stand for ei- 

 ther one or the other. E. platyphylla and E. stricta are probably 

 really distinct, as their distribution and localities are different, the 

 former being an agrestal and viatical, the latter a sylvestral species, 

 each preserving its proper habitudes in this country and on the con- 

 tinent. 



Euphorbia amygdaloides. A beautiful and most abundant species 

 in woods, thickets, hedges, the shady borders of fields, and bushy 

 places throughout the county and Isle of Wight. The earliest of all 

 our Spurges, in very mild seasons beginning to flower, though spar- 

 ingly, in January or February, and retaining its bright red shoots 

 fresh through the winter, yet it is never in general and complete 

 flower here till early in April. 



Obs. — E. Cyparissias is plentifully naturalized in the shrubbery at 

 Northwood Park, W. Cowes, the residence of the late George Henry 

 Ward, Esq. ; Miss G. E. Kilderbee I!! The Rev. G. E. Smith recol- 

 lects gathering a Euphorbia with hairy fruit some years ago in a 



* Koch, Synop. Fl. Germ, et Helv. edit, secunda, p. 723. 



