BRITISH WILD FLOWERS. 
275 
THE ORDER URTICEAE, (Ass.), 
Contains the Pellitory of the "Wall ( Parietaria , Lin.), the Nettle ( Urlica ), and the Hop ( Humulus , Lin.). 
THE ORDER RESEDACE^E, (tin.), 
Contains only two British plants; viz., the Dyer’s Rocket, Yellow Weed, or Weld (Reseda luteola , Lin.), and 
the Base Rocket or Wild Mignonette ( R. lutea , Lin.) Neither of these plants is ornamental. 
CHAPTER LXX. 
THE SPURGE FAMILY. (Euphorbiace x,Juss.) 
Character of the Order. —Flowers monoecious or dioecious. 
Calyx lobed, inferior, with various glandular or scaly internal appen¬ 
dages, sometimes wanting. Males. Stamens definite or indefinite, 
distinct or monadelphous; anthers two-celled. Females. Ovarium 
superior, sessile, or stalked, two, three, or more-celled ; ovules solitary, 
or twin, suspended from the inner angle of their cell; styles equal in 
number to the cells, sometimes distinct, sometimes combined, some¬ 
times none; stigma compound or single, with several lobes. Fruit, 
consisting of two, three, or more dehiscent cells, separating with elas¬ 
ticity from their common axis. Seeds solitary or twin, suspended 
with an arillus ; embryo inclosed in a fleshy albumen; cotyledons 
flat ; radicle superior. Trees, shrubs, or herbaceous plants, often 
abounding in acrid milk. Leaves opposite or alternate, usually with 
stipulae. Flowers axillary or terminal, usually with bractese, some¬ 
times inclosed within an involucrum. ( Lindley ,) 
Description, &c.— There are three genera containing British plants in this order; viz. Euphorbia, Mercu- 
rialis, and Buxus; and of these only the first contains any ornamental plants: Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis), 
and the common Box (Buxus), having inconspicuous flowers. Even the genus Euphorbia only contains two or 
three ornamental species. Dog’s Mercury is a poisonous plant. 
GENUS I. 
THE SPURGE. (Euphorbia, Lin.) 
Lin. Syst. MONCECIA MONANDRIA 
Generic Character. —Flowers collected in moncecious heads, sur¬ 
rounded by an involucrum, consisting of one leaf with five divisions, 
which have, externally, five glands alternating with them. Males 
naked, monandrous, articulated with their pedicel, surrounding the 
female, which is in the centre. Female naked, solitary. Ovarium 
stalked. Stigmas three, forked. Fruit hanging out of the involu¬ 
crum, consisting of three cells, bursting at the back with elasticity, and 
each containing one suspended seed. (Lindley.) 
Description, &c. —This genus contains upwards of four hundred species, many of the exotic kinds of which 
are highly ornamental in their flowers, though their stems are frequently of grotesque forms, and beset with 
spines. All the species abound in an acrid milky juice, which thickens by exposure to the air, and which in a 
nearly allied plant, Siplionia elaslica, becomes the well-known Caoutchouc or Indian rubber of the Brazils ; the 
Indian rubber brought from the East being the produce of a species of fig, Ficus elasticus. The name of 
Euphorbia is said to be derived from that of Euphorbus, physician to Juba, king of Mauritania. The genus is 
now generally placed in the Linncean class Monoecia, because the male and female flowers are distinct, though 
they are on the same plant; but it was formerly included in Dodecandria Trigynia, each head of flowers being 
regarded as a single flower, consisting of several stamens, and three styles. Only a few of the British species of 
Euphorbia are ornamental. 
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