EUPHORBIACEAE EUPHORBIA 



601 



Fig. 337. Yellow Flowering or Cypress 

 Spurge (Euphorbia Cyparissias). A branch 

 with large bracts and small flowers. (Stras- 

 burger, Noll, Schenck and Schimper.) 



obtained by bees from the plant is poisonous and is rendered unfit for use. 

 The acrid properties of this species were described some years ago by Dr. 

 Schneck. The juice of E. corollata, according to Dr. Halsted and many other 

 observers, is acrid, and, on the authority of Dr. Bigelow, formerly was used for 

 blistering purposes. The bruised root will vesicate the skin. According to Dr. 

 J. C. White, the dust of this species produces painful swelling and vesicles 

 upon men who handle the plant. It is used as an emetic, and is troublesome to 

 those who collect it. 



The Euphorbia pilulifera is used as a sedative in spasmodic conditions of 

 the respiratory apparatus. It produces dermatitis. Dr. White, in his Derma- 

 titis Venenata, has this to say of the species of the genus : 



More than one hundred species of Euphorbia, or spurge, grow in the United States, either 

 indigenous or immigrants from Europe. Of every species Ixmdon says the juice is so acrid 

 as to corrode and ulcerate the body wherever applied; and of E. resinifera, from which the 

 official euphorbium is obtained, Pliny and Dioscorides, according to the Dispensatory, describe 

 the method of collecting juice, so as to prevent irritation of the hands and face. This sub- 

 stance is used as a plaster to prolong suppuration. 



Van Hasselt states that the juice of several species is used by quacks to remove warts, 

 freckles, as depilatory, etc.; and that the application of the juice, powder, and extract produces 

 not only erysipelatous, pustular, and phlegmonous inflammation, but even gangrene. In one 

 case mentioned the whole abdominal wall became the seat of gangrene. 



