THE SPURGE TRIBE. 125 



reputed to be so caustic as to blister the skin, and 

 produce dano-erous ulcers ; whence many persons have 

 found their death by only sleeping beneath its branches. 



This statement is contradicted by some writers, and 

 doubted by others ; but there is no sufficient reason 

 for calling it in question. It is perfectly certain that 

 the juice, when applied to the skin, produces a pain 

 like that of red-hot iron, as is proved by the infamous 

 practice of slave-drivers having steeped their scourges 

 in Manchineel juice, before they flogged their negroes. 



We have no wild plant that well illustrates the 

 structure of this order, except the common Box. But 

 we have a most common genus, that to a certain 

 degree explains it, and which has a singular struc- 

 ture of its own. This, therefore, which is the 

 common Spurge or Euphorbia, I have selected for 

 illustration. 



The common dwarf Spurge (^Euphorbia Peplus, 

 Plate XXXVIII. 2.) is an annual, wdth a slender, 

 smooth, branching stem, which discharges in profusion 

 a milky juice when wounded. It is a general pro- 

 perty of its tribe to do the same. Its leaves are 

 obovate, tapering to the base, stalkless, and placed in 

 a ring of three, immediately below the branches that 

 bear the flowers. The leaves of the flower-branches 

 are diff^erently shaped from those of the stem, opposite 

 in pairs, ovate with a heart-shaped base, and sharp- 

 pointed. 



The flowers either grow in the forks of the branches 

 (fig. 1. a. a.), or among the uppermost leaves singly. 

 They are green cups {Jig. 2.), of a most curious con- 



