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BOTANICAL NOTICES. 



Notice of Euphorbia dulcis. By Archibald Jerdon. 



In the month of June last I gathered a small Euphorbia near 

 Langlee House, about two miles from Jedburgh, which I 

 could not identify with any British species. I therefore sent 

 specimens to Professor Balfour, of Edinburgh, who informed 

 me that it was Euphorbia dulcis of Linnaeus — E. purpurata, 

 Thuill ; — a species which had been collected by Dr Graham 

 in 1829, among trees in an old deserted garden, on the side 

 of the Ochills near Tullibody, and of which he had also 

 specimens from the neighbourhood of Dumfries. 



The locality in which my specimens occurred, resembled 

 that in which Dr Graham found his — being among grass, 

 under trees, in a place called the Old Orchard ; — but it is not 

 at all a likely plant to have been cultivated, unless for some 

 real or supposed medicinal properties, as it is by no means a 

 handsome or conspicuous plant. The nearness to a dwelling, 

 however, throws a doubt upon its being truly wild. 



Additional Note on the same. By James Hardy. 

 I have followed this plant through the old authorities, but 

 there is no instance of its being appropriated to any medicinal 

 purpose. The absence of acridity from its milk, so character- 

 istic of the Spurges, had early marked it out as peculiar, and 

 given it a name. It is first noticed in Bock's " Kreuter- 

 buch," 1546, fol. 112, 113, and figured as " Guss Wolff's 

 Milch " ; and in the Latin edition by Kyber, p. 296, as 

 " Esula dulcis." It was also known as " Dulce Lupinum 

 Lac." (Pena and Lobel, " Adversaria," p. 216). That it 

 had obtained a place in botanic gardens may be inferred from 

 "Gesner, Hort. Geim.," fol. 257, 258, a.d. 1561 ; although 

 he well knew its native habitat in the moist bottoms of the 

 Swiss mountains. " Amat montium umbrosa." (Suter (i Flor. 

 Helv." I., p. 335 ). Italy, France, and upper Germany like- 

 wise produce it. Although mentioned by Johnson (Gerard) 

 and Parkinson, it had no place in English gardens when they 

 wrote. Ray had to go to Geneva to gather it. It was intro- 

 duced to cultivation in Britain by Mr Phillip Millar in 1759. 

 (Aiton's Hort. Kewensis, III., p. 165.) It seeds, when 

 matured, spring from the capsules. (Bock). It becomes black 

 in drying. " Dignoscitur exsiccata facillime, quoad sicea 

 nigricat, uti Orobus niger." (Linnaeus, "Amcenitat Acad./* 

 III.,p. 122). 



