iv.] OF THE ANCIENTS. 125 



general characters of the genus known by that 

 name ; and in lib. xxvi. c. 39, he describes various 

 kinds of Tithymalus, which from the name of milk- 

 plant, as well as from other properties ascribed to 

 it, seems to be rightly identified with our Euphorbias. 

 The same word, viz. TiOvfjiaXos, or Ti^u/uaAAoy, 

 occurs in Theophrastus and Dioscorides, and various 

 sorts are mentioned by those writers which may 

 with greater or less probability be referred to par- 

 ticular species of this genus. But of the frutescent 

 species the only two that can be identified are 

 1st. E. characias, which seems to be the TiOv^aXof 

 apprjv, Th., \apOKtas, Dios. ; and the E. dendroides, 

 a plant introduced from the East, which is the 

 Ti0vfjia\o? SevSpcoSrjs of Dioscorides. 



Sibthorp states, that the word Ti0vfj,a\a) is given 

 to the Euphorbia by the Greeks at present ; Fraas, 

 however, says that he never heard that name ap- 

 plied to the plant during his visit in the country. 



Buxus. 



Pliny notices three varieties of Buxus. The 

 Gallic, which is trained to shoot upwards in a 

 pyramidal form, and attains a considerable height, 

 is no doubt the Buxus sempervirens, or the common 

 Box of this . country ; but the second, which, he 

 says, is worthless as wood, and emits a disagreeable 

 odour, cannot so well be identified ; and the third, 

 known as the Italian Box, is more spreading than 

 the others, and forms a thick hedge. It is pro- 

 bably the dwarf variety of our common Box. 



