[ ^56 ] 



On the salivary Dejluxions of Horses, 



Wilmington^ December 21 th 1810. 



My Dear Sir^ 



The plant that has been supposed to produce ptya" 

 lism m horses, of which I gave you a verbal account last 

 summer, and of which you now wish a description, I 

 take to be Euphorbia maculata of Linneus, It is placed 

 in the class of dodecandria, and order monogynia^ of the 

 sexual system. The genus is characterised as follows, 

 in the last edition of the system of nature. 



Calyx 1 leafed inflated, inferior : nectaries 4 or 5, 

 standing on the calyx : capsules on a pedicle 3 lobed. 



The noxious species which is the particular object 

 of our investigation, is thus described in the same work. 



Forked : leaves serrate oblong, hairy ; flowers auxil- 

 iary, solitary : branches spreading. 



Leaves when young, marked with a brown spot. 



The Euphorbia are a very numerous as well as natural 

 family of plants, and all the species appear to possess a 

 particular acrimony. 



Ov\X. oi one hundred and twenty-two species enume- 

 rated in Tur toil's edition ofLinneus^ only five of that num- 

 ber are described as natives of North America ; several 

 other species, however, are now known to the botanists. 

 There are three species to be met with in this neigh- 

 bourhood viz. The E. colorata, E. canescens, and E. ma- 

 culata. The E. colorata is generally found growing in 

 uncultivated situations, but mostly within uncultivated 

 enclosures, as in hedges and by the side offences. It is an 

 erectplant, and grows to the height of several feet; branch- 



