On the salivary Defluxions of Horses, 353' 



for. It comes forward, flowers and ripens its seed, about 

 the same time with the second crop of clover. And as 

 clover seed is generally gathered from the second crop, 

 it must be very liable to have some of the seed of the 

 euphorbia maculata gathered with it, if any of it had 

 grown among the clover; and in this way may be exten- 

 sively diffused over the country. The salivation was 

 observed in the neighbourhood of West Chester, and 

 other parts of Chester county, before it was seen in this 

 neighbourhood ; and as the farmers here have generally 

 obtained their clover seed from thence, it seems highly 

 probable, that it has been introduced in that manner. 



As but few of the grasses, except timothy, were pro- 

 pagated by seed 'to any considerable extent in this 

 country, before the introduction of clover, and as the 

 low flat grounds on which timothy grows, and the closer 

 sod it forms about its roots, are unfavorable to the eu- 

 phorbia maculata, it is not singular, that, before the culti- 

 vation of clover, it should have been confined to the 

 margins of fields and open uncultivated grounds, its 

 native place. As this plant is not furnished with any 

 of those astonishingly curious apparatus for dispersing 

 its seeds that many are, and not being eaten by any ani- 

 mals except by accident ; it had not the advantages of 

 any means of emigrating from its native location, pre- 

 vious to its connexion with its friendly associate clover » 



All the plants of the genus euphorbia contain an ex- 

 tremely acrid juice; — many of them stand at the head of 

 the catalogue of vegetable poisons, many of them, when 

 rubbed on the skin, will produce excoriation: and the least 

 acrid, when taken into the mouth, act as powerful masti- 



Y V 



