THE SPUKGE. 375 



afterwards be eaten with impunity, though a case 

 is on record (and many more are probably un- 

 written) in which several persons were destroyed by 

 merely drinking the milk of a goat which had eaten 

 euphorbia ; the animal itself, being the last to 

 close the long list of deaths which ensued. 



The question whether this plant was the eisule of 

 Shakespeare, has been much discussed ; but though 

 myself inclining to the opinion that it was I con- 

 fess it is an intricate one ; and positive evidence on 

 the subject is too slight to permit of a satisfactory 

 decision. The reader, however, who wishes to ex- 

 amine it, will find much valuable information in the 

 pages of "Notes and Queries." 



We have, in Great Britain, fifteen, or, perhaps 

 more truly, thirteen species of the euphorbia ; 

 several of which are pretty, though inconspicuous 

 plants. The order to which they belong is a pecu- 

 liarly distinctive one, representing, as it does, in 

 the old world the grand and varied cacti of the new. 

 There are at least twelve species in Egypt, and more 

 than sixteen in Dalmatia. 



