DODECANDRIA. TRIGYNIA. Euphorbia. 589 
(5) Umbels with many spokes. 
(E. e'sula. Umbel with many forked branches: bracteas nearly 
heart-shaped: (all the leaves uniform: nectaries rhomboid., bi- 
cornate : capsule smooth. E.) 
E. Bot. 1399— Hall. Hist.Helv. 1046— Scop. Cam. 580— Fuchs. 812. 
( Root woody, creeping. Stems one to two feet high, upright, smooth. 
Lateral branches numerous, leafy, chiefly without flowers, except the 
uppermost. Capsule without warts or hairs. Nectary tawny brown. 
E.) 
Leafy-branched Spurge. (Spurge Flax. Irish: Gear Neve. E.) 
Sent by Mr. Brown, as found in the Hopetown woods, Linlithgowshire, 
by Mr. J. MHlay; and also in a wood about sixteen miles south from 
Edinburgh by Mr. Keil; in both these places undoubtedly wild. (At 
Slinfold, Sussex, plentifully near the Parsonage. Mr. Borrer, in Bot. 
Guide. P. July. E.)* 
£. chara'cias. (Umbel of numerous forked downy branches, with 
axillary crowded stalks beneath: bracteas somewhat pointed, 
perfoliate : leaves lanceolate, downy: capsule hairy. E.) 
Jacq. Ic. i.— (E. Bot. 442. E.)— Kniph. 1— liiv. Tetr. 227. Esula caule 
crasso. — Clus. i. 188. 1 —Bod. 368. 2— Lob. Obs. 194. <2—Ger. Em. 499. 8 
— Park. 186. f. 2, from the left .— J. B. iii. 672— Matth. 1250. 
( Stem shrubby, three or four feet high. E.) Whole plant , except the flowers, 
woolly. The stem, the edges, and the mid-ribs of the lower leaves 
sometimes tinged with red. Lateral fruit-stalks numerous, solitary. 
Umbel spokes seven or eight, less than an inch in length. Involucrum 
leaves inversely egg-shaped, entire. Involucellum leafits slightly notched 
at the end. Petals dark purple, almost black. Germens very woolly. 
Bed Shrubby Spurge. Woods and hedges, rare. (Not now to be found) 
in Hey wood Park ; see Ray, and Plot’s Staffordshire. On Malvern Hill, 
between the Inn and the Wells. Near the great road betwixt Yoxall 
and Sudbury, Needwood Forest. Mr. Whately. (There is reason to ap¬ 
prehend that this rare plant has disappeared from the latter situation 
within these few years, the forest having been inclosed. E.) 
S. March—June.t 
* (The berries, bruised, applied to warts and such like excrescences, will speedily re¬ 
move them. E.) 
+ The powdered leaves, in doses of fifteen to twenty-five grains, are cathartic. The 
juice of every species of Spurge is so acrid, that it corrodes and ulcerates the body wherever 
it is applied, so that physicians have seldom ventured to use it internally. Warts or corns 
anointed with the juice soon disappear. A drop of it put into the hollow of a de¬ 
cayed and aching tooth, destroys the nerve, and consequently removes the pain. It 
is sometimes rubbed behind the ears, that it may blister, and by that means give 
relief. (In case of dangerous inflammation from the acrid milky juice, Dr. Smith 
recommends oil to be plentifully applied. It is said to disorder cattle. Indeed we might 
infer that a concentrated essence prepared from the gummy exudation, even of our native 
Euphorbiae, would almost rival in virulence the deadly poison concocted from the tro¬ 
pical species, with which the Africans point their arrows, and render the waters of the desert, 
(for the destruction of wild beasts,) fatal as the Stygian fountain. Our forefathers were wont 
to ascribe to plants of such qualities positional operations, as they might be plucked 
upiuards or dowmvards, (which latter process we admit surpasses our comprehension) 5 » 
