E U P 



EUP 



the spring or autumn, in the places were they 

 are to remain, a moist situation being chosen for 

 the purpose. Some prefer sowing them in beds, 

 and afterwards transplanting them, but the for- 

 mer is probably the better practice. 



In the latter method, the off-sets or heads 

 should be carefully taken off and planted out 

 early in the autumn. The last sort, being the 

 most tender, should be covered with tan in the 

 winter, and the same practice is useful in 

 many of the others, especially the young seedling 

 plants. 



The plants should afterwards be kept clean, 

 and have the stalks removed, and the earth care- 

 fully dug about them in the spring. 



These plants are very ornamental in the large 

 clumps and borders of pleasure grounds, among 

 ether flowering kinds. 



EUPHORBIA, a genus containing plants of 

 the herbaceous and shrubby succulent kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Dodecandrid 

 Trigi/nia, and ranks in the natural order of 

 TricocccB. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a one- 

 leafed perianthium, inflated, somewhat coloured, 

 four-toothed at the mouth, (in some few five- 

 toothed,) permanent : the corolla has four petals, 

 (in some few five,) turbinate, gibbous, thick, 

 truncate, unequal in situation, alternate with the 

 teeth of the calvx, with their claws placed on 

 the margin of the calyx, permanent : the sta- 

 mina consist of several filaments, (twelve or 

 more) filiform, jointed, inserted into the recep- 

 tacle, longer than the corolla, breaking forth at 

 different times: anthers twin, roundish: the 

 pistillum is a roundish germ, three-sided, pedi- 

 celled : styles three, two-cleft: stigmas obtuse : 

 the pericarpium is a roundish capsule, tricoccous, 

 three-celled, starling open elastically: the seeds 

 solitary, and roundish. 



The species chiefly cultivated are : 1 . E. anti- 

 quorum, Triangular Spurge; 2. E. Cannricnsls, 

 Canary Spurge; 3. E. officinarum, Officinal 

 Spurge; 4. E. caput-MeduseP, Medusa's-hcad 

 Spurge; 5. E. tithymaloides, Myrtle-leaved 

 Spurge; G. E. heplagona, Seven ansjlcd Spurge; 



7. E. mammettaris, Warty-angled Spurge; 



8. E. latliyris, Caper Spurge. 

 Other species may be cultivated. 



The first has a triangular, compressed, suc- 

 rulent stem, rising to the height of eight or ten 

 feet, and sending out many irregular spreading 

 twisting branches, for the most part three-cor- 

 ncred, but having some two, and others four 

 angles ; at their extremities arc a few short 

 roundish leaves, which soon fall off; and near 

 these come out occasionally a few flowers, which 

 have five thick whitish petals, with a large three- 



cornered germ in the centre ; the flowers soon 

 dropping off without producing seeds. It grows 

 naturally in the East Indies. 



It has generally been taken for the true Eu- 

 phorbium ; but Martyn observes, that it is from 

 the second sort that the drug now imported under 

 that name is taken. 



Therfe is a variety with a naked three-cornered 

 compressed stalk, sending out a great number of 

 erect branches, which are also generally three-cor- 

 nered, but sometimes four-cornered ; armed with 

 short crooked spines, having no leaves. The 

 plants have not produced flowers here. It is 

 also a native of India. 



The second species, in its native country, 

 grows to the height of twenty feet or more, but 

 in this climate it is rarely seen more than six or 

 seven: the stem is very thick, green and succu- 

 lent, having four or five large angles, closely 

 armed With black crooked spines, which come 

 out by pairs at every indenture: it sends out from 

 every side large succulent branches of the same 

 form, which extend to the distance of two or 

 three feet, then turning their ends upwards, so 

 that the plants when well grown have some re- 

 semblance to a chandelier ; they have no leaves, 

 but are closely armed with black spines like the 

 stem : at the ends of the branches come out the 

 flowers, which are shaped like those of the first 

 species. It is a native of the Canary Islands, 

 flowering in March and the following month. 



The third puts out many stalks just above the 

 surface, which are thick, succulent and roundish, 

 having eight or ten angles whilst they are young, 

 but as they grow old they lose their angles and 

 become round ; the branches grow distorted and 

 irregular, first horizontal, but afterwards turning 

 upwards; theangles arearmed with small crooked 

 spines ; and on the upper part of the branches, in 

 June and July, come out the flowers ; they are 

 small, and of a greenish white colour. It is a 

 native of Africa. 



The fourth species has thick, roundish, suc- 

 culent stalks, which arc scalv ; they send out 

 many branches from their sides of the same form, 

 which are twisted, and run one over another, so 

 as to appear like a parcel of serpents, whence it 

 has the appellation of Medusa's head : at the end 

 of these are narrow, thick, succulent leaves, 

 which drop off; and round the upper part of them 

 the flowers come out ; these are white, and of the 

 same form with those of the other sorts, but 

 larger; and frequently succeeded by fruit. 



There is a variety termed Little Medusa's Head, 

 which has a thick short stalk, seldom more than 

 eight or ten inches high, from which come out 

 a great number of slender trailing branches, 

 about a foot in length, intermixing and having 



