256 MONOCHLAMYDE^ 



Spurge is extensively used by the peasants of Kerry for poisoning, 

 or rather stupefying fisli. So powerful are its effects that a small 

 creel, or basket, filled with the bruised plant, suffices to poison the 

 fish for several miles down a river. Euphorbia Lathyris is some- 

 times, though erroneously, called in England the Caper-plant. Its 

 unripe seeds are pickled, and form a dangerous substitute for the 

 genuine capers, which are the unexpanded flower-buds of Caparis 

 epinosa, a shrub indigenous to the most southern countries of 

 Europe. Among the foreign Spurges, some species furnish both 

 the African and American savages with a deadly poison for their 

 arrows. Another, called in India Tirucalli, furnishes an acrid 

 juice, which is used in its fresh state for raising blisters. Other 

 kinds are used in various parts of the world as medicines, but 

 require to be administered with caution. The gum resin, Euphor- 

 bium, of chemists, is procured from the species growing in Africa 

 and the Canaries, by wounding the stems and collecting in leathern 

 bags, the sap which exudes. It is an acrid poison, and liighly in- 

 flammable, and so violent in its effects as to produce severe in- 

 flammation of the nostrils if those who are employed in powdering 

 it do not guard themselves from its dust. Pliny relates that the 

 plant was discovered by King Juba, and named by him after his 

 chief physician, Euphorbus. The Manchinecl tree (Hippomane 

 Mancinella) is said to be so poisonous that persons have died from 

 merely sleeping beneath its shade. Its juice is pure white, and 

 a single drop of it falling upon the skin burns like fire, forming an 

 ulcer, often difficult to heal. The fruit, which is beautiful and 

 looks like an apple, contains a similar fluid, but in a milder form ; 

 the burning it causes in the lips of those "who bite it guards the 

 careless from the danger of eating it. Jatropha Manihot, or Manioc, 

 is a shrub about six feet high, indigenous to the West Indies and 

 South America, abounding in a milky juice of so poisonous a nature 

 that it has been known to occasion death in a few minutes. The 

 poisonous principle, however, may be dissipi^ed by heat, after 

 which process the root may be converted into Wn most nourishing 

 food. It is grated into a pulp and subjected to heavy pressure, 

 until the juice is drained off. The residue, called cassava, requires 

 no further preparation, being simply baked in the form of thin 

 cakes on a hot iron hearth. This bread is so palatable to those 

 who are accustomed to it as to be preferred to that made from 

 wheaten flour, and Creole families, who have changed their resi- 

 dence to Europe, frequently supply themselves with it at some 

 trouble and expense. The fresh juice is highly poisoi.ous, but if 

 boiled with meat and seasoned, it makes an excellent soup, which 

 is wholesome and nutritious. The heat of the sun even is suffi- 

 cient to dissipate the noxious properties, for if it be sliced and ex- 

 posed for some hours to the direct rays of the sun, cattle may eat 

 it with perfect safety. The roots are sometimes eaten by the 



