550 EUPHORBIACE^E. 



traced between those families which most differ. The 

 number of species is thought to be not less than 2,500, 

 which are distributed over most of the tropical and tem- 

 perate regions of the globe, especially the warmer parts 

 of America. They are either trees, shrubs, or herbs, 

 and some kinds have the external habit of the cactus 

 tribe. Among so numerous an assemblage of plants, we 

 should expect to lind a great dissimilarity of properties, 

 which, indeed, exists to a certain extent ; yet nearly all 

 agree in being furnished with a juice, often milky, which 

 is highly acrid, narcotic, or corrosive, the intensity of 

 the poisonous property being usually proportionate to 

 the abundance of the juice. Of the genus Euphorbia, 

 Spurge, which gives name to the order, ten or twelve 

 species are natives of Britain. The British Spurges 

 are all herbaceous, and remarkable for the singular 

 structure of their green flowers, and their acrid milky 

 juice, which exudes plentifully when either the stems 

 or leaves are wounded. A small quantity of this placed 

 upon the tongue produces a burning heat in the mouth 

 and throat, which continues for many hours. The un- 

 pleasant sensation may be allayed by frequent draughts 

 of milk. The roots of several of the common kinds 

 enter into the composition of some of the quack fever 

 medicines ; but they are too violent in their action to 

 be used with safety. The Irish Spurge is extensively 

 used by the peasants of Kerry for poisoning, or rather 

 stupifying, fish. So powerful are its effects, that a 

 small creel, or basket, filled with the bruised plant, 

 suffices to poison the fish for several miles down a 

 river. Euphorbia Ldthyris is sometimes, though errone- 

 ously, called in England the Caper-plant. Its unripe 

 seeds are pickled, and form a dangerous substitute for 

 genuine capers, which are the uiiexpanded flower-buds 

 of Cdparis spinosa, a shrub indigenous to the most 

 southern countries of Europe. Among the foreign Spurges, 

 some species furnish both the African and American 

 savages with a deadly poison for their arrows. Another, 



