DOG'S MERCURY 93 



stamens, jointed, and equal to a stalk bearing a flower reduced to a 

 single stamen. In the centre is a single female flower, with a 3-celled 

 ovary and 3 styles and 2 stigmas. The stigma ripens first. The 

 anthers close in wet weather. 



The capsule has rounded valves, and contains smooth, nearly 

 round seeds, slightly acute, which are expelled from the capsule by an 

 explosive motion, the carpels opening ventrally and letting the seeds 

 fall out. The capsule opens by partitions and loculi as well. 



Wood Spurge is a lime-loving plant, found on lime soil, on the 

 chalk, limestone, or oolites. 



It is attacked by a fungus, Endophyllum Euphorbia. 



A beetle, Aphthona venustula, a Hymenopterous insect, Prosopis 

 masoni, and a moth, Sericoris euphorbiana, are found on the Wood 

 Spurge. 



Euphorbia, Dioscorides, is from Euphorbus, physician to Juba, 

 King of Mauretania, and the second Latin name refers to the almond- 

 shaped leaves. 



This plant is called Deer's Milk, Devil's Milk, Mare's Tail, and 

 Wood Spurge. It is known as Devil's Milk because it was supposed 

 to be associated with the Evil One. 



The juice is acrid, causing ulceration wherever applied. It has 

 been applied externally to warts or corns, and to hollow teeth, to 

 remove the pain and destroy the nerve, or in earache behind the ears, 

 causing blistering. 



ESSENTIAL SPECIFIC CHARACTERS: 



274. Euphorbia amygdaloides, L. Stem erect, leafy, glabrous, 

 purple below, leaves obovate, entire, alternate, flowers in umbels, with 

 rounded connate bracts. 



Dog's Mercury (Mercurialis perennis, L.) 



This common hedgerow plant is found in Interglacial beds in 

 Sussex, and Neolithic beds in Essex and Edinburgh. To-day it is 

 found in the N. Temperate Zone in Europe and N. Africa. In Great 

 Britain it is absent in Hunts, Cardigan, S. Lines, Mid Lanes, Isle of 

 Man, E. Sutherland, Hebrides, Shetlands, but elsewhere general north- 

 wards to the Orkneys, up to 1700 ft. in the Highlands. It is native 

 in Ireland and the Channel Islands. 



What exactly are the requirements of this plant are somewhat 

 puzzling, for it is absent in the same district from large areas which 

 possess the same characteristics of shade which it requires; but it is 



