FLOWERS AND GRASSES. 79 



markets of Paris as a salad. It might prove bene- 

 ficial to our healths, in this meat-loving country, if 

 we acquired a little more of the Continental pre- 

 dilection for vegetables and salads. 



The Wood Spurge 1 is the only spurge usually 

 found in woods : other of the woodland species are 

 all rare. These plants are so filled with a milky 

 juice that wherever broken, or a leaf plucked, the 

 white milk oozes from the wound. This juice is 

 somewhat of the nature of caoutchouc or India- 

 rubber when evaporated. The dried juice of some 

 of the large Indian spurges is employed to some 

 extent as a substitute for gutta-percha. The milk of 

 the spurges is acrid and poisonous. 



The Herb Mercury 2 often covers large patches 

 several square yards in extent, about a foot high, and 

 not altogether unlike young nettles. Some of the 

 plants are males and others are females, but both 

 grow harmoniously together. If the leaves are 

 steeped in water, they are said to afford a blue 

 colouring matter, somewhat like indigo, but very 

 fugitive. Children gathering flowers may be re- 

 minded that nettles will grow in woods. The flowers 

 in mercury and nettles are green, small, and very 

 uninteresting to any except botanists, or those who 

 desire to become such. There is, however, a sug- 

 gestion of interest in the fact stated above, that in 

 these plants there are separate male and female 

 flowers, and these sometimes on different plants. 

 How do the ovaries become fertilized under 'such 



1 Euphorbia amygdaloides. 2 Mercurialis perennis. 



