﻿on short petioles, egg-shaped, acute, serrated, 2 or 3 inches long, 

 each accompanied at the base by a pair of small, awl-shaped, re- 

 flexed stipulas. Flowers yellowish-green, on axillary stalks, in in- 

 terrupted, slender, upright spikes, near the top of the stem ; in the 

 barren plant, longer than the leaves ; in the fertile one, concealed 

 among them. Flowers in the fertile or pistilliferous plant few ; in 

 the barren or staminiferous one numerous. There are 2 awl-shaped 

 bodies found occasionally on the opposite side of the germen, and 

 rising above the styles ; these are supposed to be the nectaries. 

 Whole herb rough with short, scattered, bristly hairs. The stami- 

 niferous and pistilliferous plants are rarely found intermixed, each 

 sort usually growing in large patches, whence it is most probable 

 that this plant propagates itself chiefly by roots. 



This species of Mercury has a nauseous taste, and a heavy dis- 

 agreeable odour, and is very poisonous ; it has, nevertheless, been 

 eaten boiled as a pot-herb, when mixed with mucilaginous and 

 oily substances. Instances are however recorded of the fatal con- 

 sequences of its use occasionally in this country. In the 3rd edi- 

 tion of Ray’s Sxjnopsis, p. 138, there is an account of the case of 

 a man, his wife, and three children, who experienced deleterious 

 effects from eating it fried with bacon. Sheep and goats eat it ; 

 cows and horses refuse it. In drying, it turns blue. Steeped in 

 water, it affords a fine deep blue colour ; but no means have been 

 discovered by which it can be fixed. 



Uredo conftuens, Grev. FI. Edin, p. 438, is not uncommon (at 

 least about Oxford) on the leaves of this plant. 



Natural Order, Euphoubia'cea?. — This order is composed of 

 Apetalous, dicotyledonous trees, shrubs, or herbaceous plants, most 

 of which contain a milky acrid juice. The leaves are alternate, 

 simple, rarely compound, and usually accompanied by stipulae. 

 The flowers are axillary or terminal, monoecious or dioecious ; and 

 usually furnished with bractecc ; sometimes they are enclosed within 

 an involucrum. The calyx is lobed, inferior, with various glandu- 

 lar or scaly internal appendages ; (sometimes wanting). In the 

 staminiferous flowers, the stamens are definite or indefinite, dis- 

 tinct or monad el phous ; and their anthers are 2-celled. In the 

 pistilliferous flowers, the ovarium ( germen J (fig. 6.) is superior, 

 sessile, or stalked, with 2, 3, or more cells. The ovules are either 

 solitary or in pairs, and are suspended from the inner angle of the 

 cell ; the styles are equal in number to the cells of the ovarium, 

 sometimes they are distinct, sometimes combined, and sometimes 

 they are wanting ; the stigma is either compound, or single with 

 several lobes. The fruit (see fig. 5.) consists of 2, 3, or more de- 

 hiscent cells, whicli separate with elasticity from their common 

 axis. The seeds are either solitary or in pairs (see fig. 5.) and are 

 suspended, with an arillus ; their embryo is enclosed in fleshy al- 

 bumen ; their cotyledons are flat ; and their radical superior. — 

 For an account of the important properties of this family of plants, 



I beg to refer the reader to Dr. Lindley’s Introduction to the 

 Natural System of Botany , p. 103 — 6. 



