DODECANDRIA. 153 



February, the seeds should be sown in Jaly, and the plants 

 potted in September. 



The inflorescence of this genus is very peculiar, and has 

 afforded disputes among botanists as to its nature. On this 

 subject, Dr. Lindley says, " The usual idea of the flower of 

 Reseda has been, that it is furnished with a calyx of a varia- 

 ble number of divisions, with as many petals, producing from 

 their surface certain anomalous appendages, and with an 

 ovary (germen,) and stamens inserted on a great fleshy body, 

 called nectary by Linnaean botanists, and squama by others." 

 Dr. Lindley is however of the opinion, that a much more 

 natural mode of understanding this genus is to consider it as 

 having compound flowers ; taking the calyx of authors for an 

 involucrum, their petals for natural florets, and their nectary 

 for the calyx of a fertile floret in the middle. The curious 

 botanist will find this subject fully discussed in Lindley 's 

 Nat. System. 



GENUS Euphorbia. Spurge. Name from Euphorbus, 

 physician to Juba. king of Mauritania, who first used this 

 plant in medicine. This is a vast tribe, the natural order 

 containing, according to Dr. Lindley, 1500 species. Some 

 of them are exceedingly grotesque, and curious looking 

 plants, while others are common weeds, some of which are 

 poisonous. They are all lactescent, or milky, and most of 

 them herbaceous, though a few are shrubs. Some are up- 

 right, while others are creepers, and a few are entirely with- 

 out leaves. Several species very nearly resemble the Cac- 

 tus, or Prickly Pear tribe, being composed almost entirely of 

 a fleshy, deformed stem. The milk, or juice of most species, 

 is said to be so acrid as to corrode the flesh, and produce 

 ulcers wherever it is applied. The Officinal 

 Spurge, (Euphorbia ojficinarujn,} Fig. 174, is the Fig. 174. 

 species from which the Euphorbium used in 

 medicine is obtained. This plant, a native of 

 Africa, grows at the foot of Mount Atlas, where 

 the inhabitants gather the gum-resin in question 

 by making incisions in the plant. The milky 

 juice flowing out, concretes into the form of ob- 

 long tears, which are afterwards gathered and 

 put up for sale. At the present day this is 

 larely employed as an internal remedy, its action 



What is said concerning the infloresence of mignonette 1 What is 

 the origin of the name of the genus Euphorbia ? How extensive is the 

 genus Euphorbia ? 



