EUPHORBIACEAE EUPHORBIA 



603 



ing and diarrhoea; b, the stage of excitation, including nervousness, vertigo, and delirium; 

 y, the state of reaction, including heat and copious sweat. 



With reference to the physiological action of the common spurge (Eu- 

 phorbia Preslii), the following statement is made by Dr. True: 



Headache with frontal fullness and heat; heat about the eyes; languor and drowsiness; 

 oppression of the stomach; and constipation. The juice applied to the eyes causes severe 

 irritation, with smarting and burning, lachrymation, and momentary blindness; this we have 

 experienced twice while gathering the plant. It is supposed that this species causes the affec- 

 tion in horses called "slobbers." 



6. Mercurialis L. Mercury 



Annual or perennial herbs; with opposite pinnately veined leaves; flowers 

 dioecious or monoecious in interrupted axillary spikes, apetalous ; calyx small^ 

 green, 3-parted ; capsule 3-lobed. 



Mercurialis annua L. Annual Mercury 



A leafy stemmed, erect, annual herb ; leaves lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, 

 crenate serrate ; carpels hispid ; indigenous to Europe, found in waste places 

 from Nova Scotia to Ohio, and South Carolina. The M. perennis differs from 

 M. annua in having a creeping perennial root, and hairy leaves. 



Poisonous properties. Both species are acrid and poisonous. 



7. Acalypha L. Three seeded Mercury 



Herbs or shrubs, leaves alternate, petioled; flowers stipulate in spikes or 

 spike-like racemes or solitary; calyx of staminate flowers 4-parted ; calyx of 



Fig. 339. Annual Mercury (Mercurialis annua). Staminate and pistillate branches. An 

 acrid, poisonous plant. (After Faguet.) 



