The BRITISH HERBAL. 
'57 
The ftetn is thick, round, and firm, and, when 
old, is covered with a pale brown bark ; but the 
young fhoots and twigs are tender and green. 
The leaves are numerous, and are of the doubl/- 
pinnated kind, each compofed of two or three 
pairs on a rib, and each of thefe of feveral pnirs 
of feparate leaves joined to their rib, with an odd 
One at the end. 
The whole plant thus farrefembles common rue, 
and is like it fhrubby, and three feet high, and 
very much branched. 
The feparate leaves Hiew a manifeft difference : 
they are in the com?!2on rue fhort, and roundifh or 
blunt i in this Ipecies they are oblong, narrow, 
and lharp-pointcd : their colour is a greyifli 
green, and they are not lb flefliy as in the co?n- 
mon rue. 
The flowers ftand at the tops of the branches, 
and are large and yellow. 
The feed-veffel is large, and four-cornered, 
and the feeds are large and rough. 
It is a native of the Eaft, and flowers in July. 
C. Bauhine calls it Ruia fyhejlris major. Do- 
donsus, Ruta grcveokns. 
3, Little five-leaved Rue, 
Ruta fumila lenuifolia. 
The root is Jong, thick, divided, and furniflied 
with numerous fibres. 
The firfl: leaves rife feparate from the ftalk, 
and lie upon the ground : they are pinnated in a 
Angular manner ; each is compofed of three or 
four pairs of pinnas, with an odd one at ihe end, 
fet on a flender, naked rib ; but thefe ptnnas are 
not compofed of fmaller leaves, as in the fpecles 
before defcribed, but are deeply and irregularly 
divided in a pinnated form, into long, narrow feg- 
ments ; fo that the whole large leaf has a very 
beautiful appearance. 
The fbalks are numerous, weak, and tough : 
they are a foot and a half high, and have leaves 
placed irregularly on them^ refembling thofe 
from the root, and of a pale green. 
The flowers ftand in tufts at the tops of the 
flalks, and are fmall and yellow. 
It is a native of Italy, and flowers in June. 
C. Bauhine calls it Ruta fyhejiris minor. The 
plant called in Latin harmala, and by many 
•wild rue, is of another genus, to be defcribed 
hereafter. 
G E N U S iL 
EU P n O R B lU M 
THE flower confifls of four petals : the cup is divided into four fegments, and thefe arc 
placed alternately between each other: the feed-veffel is roundifb, but marked with three divi- 
fions, and contains three cells, in each of which there is a fingle feed: the body of the plant is 
thick, fiefhy, and angulated. 
LinnEEUs places this among the polyandria monogynia the filaments being numerous, and growing 
to the receptacle, and the ftyle from the rudiment of the fruit fingle. 
He joins under this name, as we have (hewn before, the commoji tithymals or /purges: it is true, 
that the flowers and feed-veffels agree i but there is enough in the fi;rua:ure of the plants to war- 
rant a difl;in£tion. 
I. Common Euphorblum. 
Enphorbium vulgatius. 
The root is large, black, divided into many 
parts, and hung with large fibres. 
The plant rifes from this in a fingular man- 
ner, not with a ftalk and leaves, as all thofe 
hitherto defcribed, but with feveral robufl, thick, 
flefliy ftems ; thefe are formed into a number of 
fmall faces, with fo many angles, and are of a 
deep blackifli green : they are as tiiick as a child's 
arm at the bottom, fomewhat fmaller at the top, 
a foot or more in height, and armed at the edges 
of all the planes or angles with extremely fliarp 
prickles placed two together. 
This is the general tace and appearance of the 
plant, and is all that is with us ufually feen of 
it : there never are any leaves, nor any other ftem 
than thefe ftrange pieces. 
When it has flowers, they burfl: out in various 
parts at the angles or edges, and are of a yel- 
lowifli green colour ; each is fucceeded by a fingle 
capfule, of a roundifli form, but marked in three 
places with lines, and containing three feeds. 
^ It is a native of Africa, and flowers there in 
Auguft. 
N'^ 16. 
Ifnard calls it Euphcrhium polygonum fphiofum 
cerei e_ffigii. Others fimply Euphorbium. 
If any part of the plant be cut or broken, there 
flows out a cauftick liquor, which prefently har- 
dens into a refinous lubftance, of a burning, fiery 
taft:e, and horrible qualities. 
The hardened juice of this plant is the drug 
called euphorbium. It was once given as a purge 
in dropfies, and other defperate diftempers, but 
a better practice has rejeded it. The operation 
was by vomit and ftool, and both in extremes ; 
and it often inflamed the intefl:ine-. We find at 
prefent medicines that anlwer the fame purpofe, 
without the danger of thefe terrible confc- 
quences. 
iJurgeons once ufed it in the cure of carious 
bones ; but they found it fo ungovernable even in 
that application, that it is now utterly negledtcd. 
The plant here defcribed affords the euphor- 
hium of late time brought into the Ihops ^ but it 
was from another of the fame genus that the 
euphorbium was obtained in the times of the an- 
tients: the difl*crence of the plant is, however, no 
more than that of fpecies of the fame kind ; and 
that of the drug no more than might be expeifled 
in fuch a cafe. The euphorbium of the antients 
S f was 
