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E U P H O R B I A Characias.
Red Spurge.
-D O D E C A N D R I A Trigynid+
G en. Char. Petals 4 or 5, ftanding on the calyx. Cal
of one leaf, inflated. Cap/. 3-lobed.
Spec. Char. Flower-ftalks fcattered and umbellate,
cloven. Partial involucra perfoliate with a notch
between, and tipped with a fmall point. Leaves
lanceolate, entire. Stem fhrubby. Fruit hairy.
S y n . Euphorbia Characias. Linn. Sp. PI. 66a. Hudf
2 f t . With. 431.
Tithymalus characias Monfpelienfium. Rail Syn.312.
O b SERVED in the foreft of Needwood, Staffordfhire, in
great plenty, undoubtedly wild, by Mr. Whately, furgeon in
the Old Jewry, London. Ray mentions its growing in that
county, but fufpefted it to have been planted there. The root
from which our fpecimen was taken, was found wild two years
fince.
This is a large handfome fpecies; but not pleafant in a garden,
on account of the difagreeable fmell of its flowers. The root
is perennial. Stem fhrubby, 3 or 4 feet high, round, clothed
with foft down; as are alfo the leaves, which are numerous,
thick-fet about the upper part of the branches, lanceolate,
bluntifh, dark green above, pale beneath, fpreading. Flower-
ftalks, many of them axillary, the reft forming a terminal many-
rayed umbel, as in E. amygdaloides, t. 256, with which E. Characias
agrees much in habit, but is more fhrubby, the leaves
more thickly clothed with fhorter downinefs, the petals dark-
red and lefs pointed, the antheras of two roundifh (not wedge-
fhaped) lobes, and the germen and fruit very hairy inftead of
being quite fmooth. The partial involucra in both are perfoliate,
with a notch between them on each fide half way to the
bafe, to which we prefume Linnaeus alluded when he defined
thofe of the Characias “ emarginate for in their termination
they are rather more pointed than thofe of the amygdaloides, and
by no means notched either in his own or any other fpecimens.
I f his definition is not to be reconciled on this ground, it is
erroneous, and at any rate it belongs equally to both thefe
fpecies. The above-mentioned differences diftinguifh them bell:.