,38 



EU P 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



EUP 



hotter ; the ends are beset with narrow leaves, between which 

 he white flowers come out. It is a native of Africa. This 

 species will require to be supported, to prevent the weight of 

 the branches from drawing them upon the pots, and by train- 

 ing the stems up to stakes, they will grow four or five feet 

 high, and a great number of side-branches will be produced. 

 For further particulars respecting its propagation and culture, 

 see the first and fifth species. 



12. Euphorbia Clava ; Club Spurge. Imbricate: tuber- 

 cles furnished with a lanceolate leaf; flowers peduncled; 

 petals quite entire. This is a perfectly smooth species, 

 abounding with a milky juice, which seems to be but slightly 

 acrid ; stem and branches erect, and round, gradually thicken- 

 ing upwards, till they arrive at the diameter of an inch ; leaves 

 sessile, spatule-shaped, and elongated, very entire, and about 

 four inches long, with a prominent back-rib ; peduncles one- 

 flowered, axillary, solitary, coated with lanceolate bractes. 

 It flowers from January to August, and is a native of the Cape 

 of Good Hope. For its propagation and culture, see the first 

 species. 



13. Euphorbia Anacantha ; Scaly Spurge. Imbricate : 

 tubercles furnished with a roundish leaflet; flowers terminat- 

 ing, solitary, sessile; petals palmate. This is one of the 

 smaller shrubby species, and has a scaly and tuberous 

 branched stem ; the petals are each thvet-toothed ; the leaves 

 are extremely small, few, and are chiefly produced towards 

 the top of the branches ; the flowers are large in proportion to 

 the plant, and spring to the number of three or four, from the 

 top of some of the upper branches, which in this species are 

 covered over with prominent tubercles, and thick scales. It 

 flowers in September and October. Native of the Cape. For 

 its propagation and culture, see the first species. 



14. Euphorbia Mauritanica ; Barbary Spurge. Half- 

 naked, shrubby, filiform, flaccid ; leaves alternate ; stems 

 many, taper, succulent, about four feet high, and requiring 

 support ; they have a light green bark, and their lower parts 

 are naked, but their upper parts have oblong, smooth, entire 

 leaves, placed alternately on every side ; flowers in small 

 clusters at the ends of the branches, of a yellowish green 

 colour, and sometimes succeeded by smooth round fruit; but 

 the seeds rarely ripen in England. It grows naturally on the 

 African shore of the Mediterranean. For its culture and 

 propagation, see the first and the fifth species. 



15. Euphorbia Piscatoria ; Smooth Spear-leaved Spurge. 

 Shrubby, strict; umbels five-cleft, terminating; involucels ob- 

 long ; leaves linear, even. Native of Madeira, and the Cana- 

 ries. For its propagation and culture, see the first species. 



16. Euphorbia Glabrata ; Smooth Spurge. Unarmed, 

 shrubby, branched ; leaves opposite, ovate-acute, smooth, 

 quite entire. The whole of this plant is smooth ; stem erect, 

 unarmed, jointed, purplish ; branches dichotomous, covered 

 with leaves nt bottom ; flowers at the ends of the branchlets, 

 axillary, and at the divisions solitary, small, peduncled; cap- 

 sule nearly the size of a Coriander seed, smooth, and quite 

 even. Native of the Caribbee islands. For its propagation 

 and culture, see the second species. 



17. Euphorbia Linifolia; Flax-leaved Spurge. Stem suffru- 

 ticose, woody at the base, round and smooth at bottom, 

 striated-angular and subhirsute above ; leaves opposite and 

 alternate, linear-lanceolate ; peduncles from the top of the 

 stem and branches, in fives or thereabouts, umbelled ; calix 

 smooth, as is also the throat ; petals obovate, truncate, yellow- 

 ish-green; capsules smooth, quite even, the size of u small 

 pea. Native of the island of Dominica. For its culture and 

 propagation, see the first species. 



18. Euphorbia Cuneata. Shruhhv leaves obovate no- 



dunclcs lateral, three-flowered ; stem unarmed ; branches 

 round, smooth, with an ash-coloured bark. Leaves petioled, 

 several from the tubercles of the branches, unequal, smooth, 

 veinless, quite entire. Native of Arabia Felix. For its pro- 

 pagation and culture, see the first species. 



19. Euphorbia Balsamifera; Balsam Spurge. Shrubby, 

 strict : head terminating ; leaves lanceolate, even, glaucous. 

 Native of the Canary islands. For its propagation and 

 culture, see the first species. 



20. Euphorbia Tirucalli; Indian-tree Spurge. Half-naked, 

 shrubby, filiform, erect : branches patulous, crowded in an 

 orderly manner; stem taper, succulent, eighteen or twenty 

 feet high, sending out many branches of the same form, sub- 

 dividing into many smaller ; they are jointed, but at a great 

 distance, smooth, and of a deep green colour, having a few 

 small leaves at their extremities, which soon fall off. As the 

 plants grow older, their stalks become stronger and less suc- 

 culent, especially towards the bottom, where they turn to a 

 brown colour, and become a little woody. It does not pro- 

 duce any flowers here. Native of the East Indies. For its 

 propagation and culture, see the first species. 



21. Euphorbia Tithymaloides. Shrubby: leaves in a 

 double row, alternate, ovate. This is a wandlike suberect 

 plant, six feet high, the whole of it abounding in a white, bit- 

 terish, milky juice. Stems numerous, round, smooth, weak, 

 very pliant, branched, the thickness of a finger or of the 

 thumb, the older ones ash-coloured, the younger green ; pe- 

 duncles one-flowered, short, aggregate about the extremities 

 of the branchlets, coming out principally when the plant is 

 without leaves ; flowers void of scent, of a beautiful scarlet 

 colour, and on account of their singular structure, perhaps 

 rightly claiming to form a distinct genus, although possessed 

 of the same characters with the other Euphorbia. The South 

 Americans give a strong decoction of this plant, particularly 

 of the stalks, in venereal cases, and in suppressions of the 

 menses. It is a native of the Caribbee islands, and of the 

 neighbouring continent. Mr. Miller makes two species of 

 this, under the names of Tithymalus Myrtifolius, and Lauro 

 Cerasifolius, or Myrtle-leaved and Laurel-leaved Spurge. 

 The first grows naturally near Carthagena in South America, 

 whence Mr. Robert Miller, surgeon, sent the branches, which 

 were planted here, and succeeded, rising into shrubby suc- 

 culent stalks K> the height of twelve or fourteen feet; but 

 though often as large in circumference as a man's little finger, 

 were too weak to sustain the weight of their succulent 

 leaves, which bore down the unsupported branches. The 

 leaves are oval, and terminate in acute points ; they are two 

 inches and a half long, and one inch and a half broad near 

 their base, about the thickness of bay-leaves, and are ranged 

 alternately on two sides of the branches, to which they sit 

 close. The flowers are produced at the ends of the branches, 

 three or four together ; they are of a scarlet colour, of 

 one petal in the shape of a slipppr. The Laurel-leaved 

 Spurge grows naturally in Barbadoes, and most of the 

 other islands in the West Indies, where the English 

 inhabitants know it by the title of Poison-bush : this has 

 thick, shrubby, succulent stalks, which will grow to the 

 height of ten or twelve feet; these are larger than those 

 of the first sort, and are garnished with oblong oval leaves, 

 ending with blunt points; they are above three inches 

 long, and an inch and a half broad in the middle, of a 

 very thick consistence, and of a dark green colour, ranged 

 alternately on two sides of the stalk. The flowers grow at 

 the ends of the branches, are of a deep red colour, and 

 shaped like the other variety. This variety abounds with an 

 acrid milkv juice, which will draw blisters wherever it is 



