EUPHOR B IA Lathjris.
Caper Spurge.
DODECANDRIA Trigynia.
Gen. Char. Cal. o f 1 leaf, inflated, inferior. Nectaries
4 or 5, standing on the calyx. Caps, stalked,
3-lobed.
Spec. Char. Umbel of four branches, repeatedly
forked. Leaves opposite, sessile, entire; heart-
shaped at the base.
Svn, Euphorbia Lathyris. Linn. Sp. PL 655. Turn.
8$ Dillw. Guide, 27. slit. Hort. Kew. v. 2. 140.
Sm. Prod. FI. Grcec. v. 1. 326. Bulliard. Fr.
t. 103,
Lathyris. Camer. Epit. 968. Fuchs. Hist. 455.
Ger. em, 503,
S E N T last July from Berkshire by the Rev. Dr. Beeke, on
•whose authority it is said, in The Botanist’s Guide, to be
“ certainly wild, and perhaps indigenous, in several places
in and near the parish of Uflon near Reading, springing up
in*dry stony thickets, periodically for a year or two after they
have been cut, and till choked by briars, &c.”
The root is biennial, with numerous strong spreading fibres.
Herb of a dark but glaucous green, Stein solitary, two to
four feet high, erect, round, hollow, beset with numerous
• oblong sessile entire spreading opposite leaves, crossing each
other in pairs, heartshaped at the base. Four great branches
compose the umbel, each of which is repeatedly forked, and
so large that we can exhibit only a part of one. General and
partial involucrums heartshaped, pointed. Flowers pale yellow,
with tinges of purple about them and their stalks. Capsules
large, smooth. The latter are called Capers by cottagers, and,
as- we have heard, are sometimes pickled for such, though
when recent abounding with a virulent milky juice; but the
real Caper, Capparis, when fresh, is perhaps not less acrid or
poisonous, like other vegetables used for pickling, which the
vinegar renders eatable at least, if not wholesome. We cannot
recommend a trial of this Spurge on our own knowledge; and
should be very loth to venture upon it.
22JS.