Although introduced into this country so long ago as 1690, 
by the Earl of Portland, the Muphorbia cotinifoiia seems 
still to be a rare and little known inhabitant of our gardens ; 
nor can I refer to any tolerably satisfactory figure of it, except 
the one in SEBa’s Thesaurus; drawn, however, avowedly, 
from a dried specimen. That author tells us, that the natives 
of Curassoa poison their darts with the milky juice of this. 
tree, and thus render the wounds inflicted by them speedily 
mortal, on account of the violent inflammation which imme- 
diately ensues. — 
| Most authors describe the oe of this plant as being 
notched, which I do not, however, find to be the case; nor have 
its flowers ever been correctly described. Indeed, these would 
appear to be of rare occurrence, since so many authors have ne- 
glected to notice them, and since MM. Humpoupt and 
BonPLAND, who found this plant in woods near Cumana, 
Bordones and Caraccas, in South America, remark that they 
have not seen the blossoms. 
Cultivated in the Botanic Garden of Glasgow, where it 
forms a graceful shrub, whose purplish foliage mingles well with 
the vivid green of its accompanying inhabitants of the bark-— 
pit. ) | | 
From a slight wound, or the rupture of one of its slender 
leaf-stalks, copious drops of the acrid juice flow out. It flowers 
in September. | 
Fig. 1. Peduncle and involucre. Fig. 2. Involucre cut open. Fig. 3. Male 
flower. Fig. 4. Female flower.—All more or less magnified. 
