Eitphorbia.] euphoebiace.i;. 441 



Westlirooke farm, between Rvde and Nettlestone, and remarkably fine and abun- 

 dant in a corn-field by Beaper's farm, between Eyde and Brading. Fields above 

 the new church at E. Cowes. In a large field a little S. of Beanacve farm, 

 between Long Phillis and Inwards coppice, plentiful but of diminutive size, 1844. 

 Copse on the W. side of the Wootton river at its mouth, 1845. Wheat-field 

 between Preslwood and Smallbroot farm, 1849. About Brading, B. T. W. 



W. Med. — Corn-fields at Thorley and by Shalcombe. Near Ganson's, by Gat- 

 combe. Cornfields near W. Cowes, not un frequent. Between Yarmouth and 

 Ningwood, in a field of oats, most abundantly, 1840. About Colwell, B. T. W. 



Plant copiously secreting an acrid, glutinous, milky latex, and excepting the 

 leaves and bracts perfectly smooth and glabrous. Root annual, whitish, long, 

 slender, tapering and flexuose, with horizontal simple or branching fibres. 

 Slem solitary, erect or, slightly ascending at the very base, from a foot or 

 less to 18 or 20 inches high, later in the year often attaining to 3 feet, round, 

 hollow, quite smooth and glabrous, simple below or very commonly with a 

 pair of opposite ascending branches from the very bottom, which towards 

 the end of the summer attain very nearly the height of the main stem, 

 become, like that, much expanded at top, firm and harder in texture, and fre- 

 quently assuming a blight coral-red colour. Leaves alternate or scattered and 

 somewhat remote, pale grayish, bluish or whitish green, faintly nerved, thin and 

 flexile, spreading or partly deflexed and decurved, on extremely short almost 

 obsolete petioles, from which the leaf is extended nearly at a right angle, as 

 remarked by Jacquin, 1. s. c. ; central stem-leaves the largest, from about 1^ to 2 

 or 2\ inches in length and from 5 to 8 or 9 lines in width, elongato-oblong or 

 elongato-obovale, the superior leaves elongate -lanceolate, the lowermost much 

 smaller, more or less truly obovate, attenuated into the petiole, entire and often 

 glabrous, rounded or retuse; all the rest pointed, minutely and acutely serrulate, 

 particularly on their upper half, glabrous or very nearly so above, clothed beneath 

 with extremely fine, soft, erect hairs, rounded and subcordate or auricled at base, 

 those above the middle of the stem bearing flowering peduncles, those below its 

 centre short leafy shoots or branches in their axils, which are partly embraced by 

 the petioles and the cordate bases of the leaves. Umbels of the main stem and 

 lateral basal branches large, spreading, about 5 times forked or compounded, the 

 flowers of the two ultimate divisions very shortly stalked, or in the fifth and highest 

 quite sessile and reclining in the cup-like folded bracts ; ■primary rays mostly 5, 

 sometimes 3, with an abortive flower in their centre ; of the secondary umbels 

 3, 4, or 5, the central flower mostly perfect, tertiary and subsequent divisions bifid 

 or 2-rayed, also bearing perfect flowers between them ; umbels of the lateral pe- 

 duncles mostly 3-rayed, twice or thrice compounded. Bracts of the main divi- 

 sions of the terminal umbel like the upper leaves in shape and colour, those of the 

 secondary and subsequent divisions of that and of the lateral umbels yellowish 

 green, varying as they ascend from ovato-elliptical to broadly ovate and in the 

 highest cordate, mucronato-apiculate, serrulate, sparingly pilose or even glabrous 

 underneath. Glands of the involucre first green, then dull orange, truly oval or 

 suborbicular, depresso-punctate, nectariferous. Anthers green, of 2 obovoid, flat- 

 tish, diverging lobes; pollen amber-yellow. Styles 3, erect, greenish, bifid, sub- 

 globose, yellowish and viscid at apex. Capsules small, globose, with 6 furrows, 

 the intermediate lobes or faces closely beset with wart-like granulations. 



E. platyphylla, when allowed to reach its full dimensions in autumn, in which 

 state it is often 3 feet high, with the main umbel more than a foot wide, and those 

 of the twin branches nearly as broad, is one of the most elegant of British plants, 

 from its regularity of growth, the bright red of its shining stem and branches, the 

 delicate green of its leaves, and graceful slenderness of its habit. 

 I have gathered this species by roadsides near Montreal in plenty. 



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