CLASS XXI. ORDER I. ] EUPHORBIA. 1133 
lanceolate, membranous. J lowers solitary, axillary, on a short stalk 
of the same colour as the plant. Glands of the involucre four, ovate, 
mostly with a few membranous scales beneath. Capsules reflexed, 
ovate, three lobed, three celled, the valves smooth, keeled, each cell 
containing an obovate smooth white seed. 
Habitat—Sandy coast, in Devonshire and Cornwall, and the 
Channel Islands —Babington and Christy. 
Annual; flowering from July to September. 
This species is readily distinguished, by its prostrate stems and 
oblique leaves. It varies in colour from glaucous green to a deep 
reddish purple ; the smaller starved plants grown in a dryer situation 
are the deepest in colour. It is the 727415, Peplis, of Dioscorides. It 
is frequent on the coast of the Mediterranean, and is less deleterious 
than many others of the genus. It appears to have been used by the 
Greeks as a purgative medicine, but like most others of the genus it 
is too powerful for general use. 
2. Tirnymatus. Tournef. Leaves without stipules. § 1. Glands 
of the involucre roundish, or transversely oval, not truly lunate, 
or horned. 
a. Seeds netted. 
2. EZ. Belioseo'pia, Linn. (Fig. 1360.) Sun Spurge. Leaves mem- 
branous, obovate, wedge-shaped, obtuse, or notched, serrated towards 
the point, or entire, smooth ; umbel of five principal branches; glands 
entire ; capsules smooth; seeds netted and pitted. 
English Botany, t. 883.—English Flora, vol. iv. p. 63.—Hooker, 
British Flora, ed. 4. vol. i. p. 326.—Lindley, Synopsis, p. 221. 
foot tapering, the whole plant smooth, pale green, occasionally 
scattered over with a few hairs. Stem erect, about a foot high, 
mostly branched from the base, rarely upwards, round, often purplish, 
scattered over with leaves, which soon fall away. The stem and 
branches terminating in an umbel, usually of five branches, with a 
solitary flower in the axis of the branches, and bracteated leaf at the 
base of each, and each branch is divided at the top into three short 
branches, with a solitary flower in the axis of these also, each of 
these branchlets are furnished with smaller bracteas, and bear 
flowers. Jnvolucre bell-shaped, bearing four roundish or ovate entire 
glands on the margin. Capsules smooth, three celled, the cells 
keeled, forming the angles of the capsules, each cell containing an 
ovate seed, beautifully netted and pitted. 
Habitat.—Fields, gardens, and waste places ; very common. 
Annual ; flowering in July and August. 
The milky juice with which the plant abounds is very acrid ; it is 
used by the country people as an application to warts, and when 
freely applied, induces an inflammatory action, which, if kept up, 
sometimes destroys the wart. From this use it has the common 
