318 SHORT NOTES. 



On the 6th I found it in a ditch and adjacent pond on Wrotham 

 Long Green, between Melliss and Redgrave, in East Suffolk. 

 Here it occurred in great abundance, almost filling the ditch to 

 the exclusion of other plants. It was very sparingly found in 

 fruit. — Arthur Bennett. 



Cesia obtusa, Lindberg. — In the notice, inserted in the ' Journal 

 of Botany' for August (p. 243), of the discovery of Cesia obtusa as 

 a British plant, there is a mistake which I take the first opportunity 

 of correcting. Being away from home, I trusted entirely to my 

 memory, and hence the mistake. On referring to my herbarium, 

 I find the specimen labelled by Professor Lindberg as follows : 

 "Cesia obtusa, Lindb., n. sp. $, Westmoreland, Hill Bell, June, 

 1870. J. A. Martindale." On the same date (June 7th), in 

 company with my friend Mr. Martindale, I gathered finely- 

 fruited specimens at the same place. In addition to the above 

 station I may add: — Head of Mardale, Westmoreland (G. S.), May, 

 1869 ; Each na-gain (G. E. Hunt), July, 1869 ; Bow Fell (G. S.), 

 July, 1875. The specimen found on the boulder (see p. 213), 

 I find, is correctly marked Cesia creiiulata, Gottsche, a species not 

 uncommon in some parts of the English lake districts. — G. Stabler. 



uphorbium 



— For the past three or four 



years a good deal of interest has been attached to the species of 

 Euphorbia growing in South Africa, on account of the milky juice, 

 with which it is well known they all abound, being used in the 

 preparation of a marine paint. It is to a similar juice, hardening 

 on exposure to the air after incisions made in the fleshy branches 

 of Euphorbia rmnifera, that Gum Euphorbium of commerce owes 

 its origin. This brittle acid resin was at one time used in medicine 

 as an emetic and purgative. It is now, however, nearly obsolete 

 so far as its medicinal uses are concerned. In Fluckiger and 

 Hanbury's 'Pharmacographia,' p. 504, 1st edition, 1874, under the 

 article " Euphorbium, " which refers more particularly to Euphorbia 

 resinifera just alluded to, it is stated that the demand for the 

 so-called Gum Euphorbium for medicinal purposes in this country 

 is extremely small, twelve hundredweight only being imported into 

 London in 1870; but the authors further say:— "We have been 

 told that it is now in some demand as an ingredient of a paint for 

 the preservation of ships' bottoms. " This seems indeed to be the 

 use to which Gum Euphorbium is now put, a company having been 

 formed under the name of the Protector Fluid Company, for the 

 purpose of making and supplying this new paint. The value of 

 the juice of the Euphorbias, whether in its fresh and milky, or its 

 dry and resinous state, for covering ironwork in exposed situations, 

 lies in its acid nature. Experiments were made so long ago as 

 1873 by painting a large sheet of iron with a solution of Euphorbium 

 and spirits of wine, and lowering the iron into one of the basins of 



Chatham Dockyard. At the end of two yens, when the iron was 

 taken out, it was found to be quite clean, and free from fouling and 



