A aa a a a ti i I a 
“THEA WB Be @ TISH HERBAL 
Ly 
The ftem is thick, round, and firm, and, when 
old, is covered with a-pale brown barks but the 
young fhoots and twigs are tender and green. 
‘The leaves are numerous, and are of the doubly- 
pinnated kind, each compofed of two or three 
pairs on a rib, and each of thefe of feveral pairs 
of feparate leaves joined to their rib, with an odd 
one at the end. ; 
The whole plant thus far refembles common rue, 
and is like it fhrubby, and three feet high, and 
very much branched. : 
The feparate leaves fhew a manifeft difference : 
they are in the common rue fhort, and roundith or 
blunt; in this fpecies they are oblong, narrow, 
and fharp-pointed : their colour is a greyifh 
green, and they are not fo flefhy asin the com- 
mon Te. 
The flowers ftand at the tops of the branches, 
and are large and yellow. ; 
The feed-veffel is large, and four-cornered, 
and the feeds are large and rough. 
It is a native of the Eaft, and flowers in July. 
C. Bauhine calls it Ruta fylveftris major. Do- 
donzus, Ruta graveolens. 
Go 3 higesN 
3. Little five-leaved Rue, 
Ruia pumila tenuifolia, 
The root is long, thick, divided, and furnifhed 
with numerous fibres, 
The firft leaves rife feparate from the ftalk, 
and lie upon the ground : they are pinnated in a 
fingular manner ; each is compofed of three or 
four paits of pinnae’, with an odd one at the end, 
fet on a flender, naked rib; but thefe pinne are . 
not compofed of fmaller leaves, as in the fpecies 
before defcribed, but are deeply and irregularly 
divided in a pinnated form, into long, narrow feg- 
ments ; fo that the whole large leaf has a very 
beautiful appearance. : 
The ftalks are numerous, weak, and tough: 
they are a foot and a half high, and have leaves 
placed irregularly on them, refembling thofe 
from the root, and of a pale green. 
The flowers ftand in tufts at the tops of the 
ftalks, and are fmall and yellow. 
It is a native of Italy, and flowers in June. 
C. Bauhine calls it Ruta fylveftris minor. The 
plant called in Latin barmala, and by many 
wild rue, is of another genus, to be defcribed 
hereafter. ; 
Ws igS II. 
EUPHORBIU™M. 
HE flower confifts of four petals: the cup is divided into four fegments, and thefe are’ 
placed alternately between each other: the feed-veffel is roundifh, but marked with three divi- 
fions, and contains three cells, in each of which there is a fingle feed: the body of the plant is 
thick, flefhy, and angulated. 
Linnzus places this among the polyandria monogynia, the filaments being numerous, and growing 
to the receptacle, and the ftyle from the rudiment of the fruit fingle. 
He joins under this name, as we have fhewn before, the common tithymals or JSpurges: it is true, 
that the flowers and feed-veffels agree ; but there is enough in the ftruéture of the plants to war- 
rant a diftindtion. ° 
1. Common Euphorbium. 
Euphorbium vulgatius. 
The root is large, black, divided into many 
parts, and hung with large fibres. : 
The plant rifes ftom this in a fingular man- 
ner, not with a ftalk and leaves, as all thofe 
hitherto defcribed, but with feveral robuft, thick, 
flefhy ftéms: thefe are formed into a number of 
fmall faces, with fo many angles, and are of a 
deep blackith green: they are as thick as a child’s 
arm at the bottom, fomewhat fmaller at the top, 
a foot or more in height, and artned at the edges 
of all the planes or angles with extremely fharp 
prickles placed two together. 
This is the general face and appearance of the 
plant, and is all that is with us ufually feen of 
it: there never are any leaves, nor any other {tem 
than thefe ftrange pieces. 
When it has flowers, they burft out in various 
parts at the angles or edges, and are of a yel- 
lowifh green colour ; each is fucceeded by a fingle 
capfule, of a roundifh form, but marked in three 
places with lines, and containing three feeds. 
It is a native of Africa, and flowers there in 
Auguft. 
N° 16, 
Ifnard calls it Euphorbium polygonum Spinofum 
cerei effigii, Others fimply Euphorbium, 
If any part of the plant be cut or broken, there 
flows out a cauftick liquor, which prefently har- 
dens into a refinous fubftance, of a burning, fiery 
tafte, and horrible qualities. 
The hardened juice of this plant is the drug 
called euphorbium. It was once given as a purge 
in dropfies, and other defperate diftempers, but 
a better practice has rejected it. The operation 
was by vomit and ftoo!, and both in extremes ; 
and it often inflamed the inteftines. We find at 
prefent medicines that anfwer the fame purpofe, 
without the danger of thefe terrible confe- 
quences. é 
Surgeons once ufed it in the cure of carious 
bones ; but they found it fo ungovernable even in 
that application, that it is now utterly neglected. 
The plant here defcribed affords the euphor- 
dium of late time brought into the thops; but it 
‘ was from another of the fame genus that the 
euphorbium was obtained in the times of the an- 
tients: the difference of the plant is, however, no 
more than that of fpecies of the fame kind 3 and 
that of the drug no more than might be expected 
in fuch a cafe. The euphorbium of the antients 
Sf was. 
