SPURGES 489 



reduced. Fig. 1 is a cluster of anthers detached from a male flower ; 2 

 is a separated female blossom ; and 3 is a section through the same. 



Natural Order Euphorbiace^. Genus Euphorbia 



Euphorbia (the classical Greek name ; according to Pliny, so named in 

 honour of Euphorbus, physician to King Juba, of Mauritania). An 

 enormous genus comprising about six hundred species of trees, shrubs, 

 and herbs, including stove, greenhouse, and hardy subjects. The leaves 

 are usually alternate. The flowers are very singular, unisexual, the 

 perianth wanting, or, if present, very minute. The male flowers consist 

 of a single stamen on a flower-stalk. The female flowers consist of an 

 ovary on a footstalk which lengthens; the stigma is divided. One 

 female flower and several males are grouped together within an involucre 

 which is four- or five-Iobed, and bordered by marginal glands, which 

 appear like petals or calyx-lobes. The fruits are three-celled capsules. 

 The species are distributed throughout all regions except the Arctic; 

 twelve species are British, and a thirteenth is naturalised here. 



^^^^ Comparatively few members of this extensive genus are 



suitable subjects for the gardener, and some even of these 

 not so much on account of their flowers as of their peculiar shapes and 

 near resemblance to species of Cactus. The genus is noted for its milky 

 juice, usually acrid, and in many cases highly poisonous. This varies 

 greatly in the different species, that from some being used medicinally, • 

 from others for poisoning arrows and killing fish, whilst from others 

 again it furnishes products useful in the arts and as food. The powerful 

 drug Euphorbium, now little if ever used on account of its violent and 

 dangerous character, is the solidified juice of certain of the succulent, 

 leafless species. Euphorbia cattimandoo furnishes caoutchouc. In some 

 of the species the involucral bracts, instead of being of the prevailing green 

 hue, are brightly coloured, and this is the case with those chiefly culti- 

 vated. Among these may be mentioned E. cyparissias, a Continental 

 species which has long been naturalised in Britain; E. Characias, E. 

 aleppica, and E. pilosa, all hardy species. Among those suited for green- 

 house culture are the following :—E. Myrsinites, from South Europe, 1570; 

 E. meloformis, a curious succulent, introduced from South Africa, 1774 ; 

 E. atropurpurea, from Teneriffe, 1815 ; E. splendeTis, from the Isle of 

 Bourbon, 1826 ; E. pulchem-ima, from Mexico, 1834; E, fulgens, also 



III.— 42 



