SEA-SIDE PLANTS. 85 



Spurge, often growing as a weed in gardens, and 

 called in villages Churn-staff, or Milk -weed, be- 

 cause of its acrimonious milky juice. This belongs 

 to a family containing fourteen native species, 

 three of which are maritime plants. The Purple 

 Spurge (Euphorbia Peplis), with its oblong, heart- 

 shaped leaves, and yellow greenish blossoms, is to 

 be found flowering from July to September, on 

 the sandy coasts of Cornwall and Devon. It may 

 be known from most other species by its stems, 

 often tinged with a deep purple tint. Like the 

 sun spurge it contains a quantity of milky juice. 

 Indeed, this corrosive secretion is common to all 

 the spurges, and it is so acrid, as that if not care- 

 fully applied it will blister the skin. Village 

 people, however, make much use of the juice, not 

 only for curing warts, but they even venture to 

 apply it to the mouth in cases of tooth-ache, or 

 rub it behind the ears to raise a blister, which it 

 will certainly do very quickly. The different 

 species of this plant were once so valued as a 

 medicine, that the name of the first physician 

 who used them was gratefully recorded by it; 

 and Euphorbus, the physician of Juba, king of 

 Mauritania, has been thus remembered for many 

 centuries by those who were learned in medicine 

 and surgery. The spurge of the Materia Medico, 

 is a native of America, and so powerful is its 

 milky juice in corroding the skin wherever it 

 touches it, that persons who collect it are obliged 

 to tie a cloth over the mouth and nostrils to protect 

 them from the acrid dust of the withered branches, 

 which causes sneezing. The two remaining species 

 of spurge which are to be looked for on our 



