. The vegetable kingdom : or, The structure, classification, and uses of plants, illustrated upon the natural system. , thejuice of Euphorbia, Commia, and Hura, the seeds of Ricmus, Croton Tighum, &c. &c.,are purgative. Many are dangerous, even in small doses, and so fatal in some cases,that no practitioner would dare to prescribe them ; as, for example, Manchineel. Infact, there is a gradual and insensible transition, in this Order, from mere stimulants tothe most dangerous poisons. The latter have usually an acrid character, but some ofthem are also narcotic, as those Phyllanths the leaves o
. The vegetable kingdom : or, The structure, classification, and uses of plants, illustrated upon the natural system. , thejuice of Euphorbia, Commia, and Hura, the seeds of Ricmus, Croton Tighum, &c. &c.,are purgative. Many are dangerous, even in small doses, and so fatal in some cases,that no practitioner would dare to prescribe them ; as, for example, Manchineel. Infact, there is a gradual and insensible transition, in this Order, from mere stimulants tothe most dangerous poisons. The latter have usually an acrid character, but some ofthem are also narcotic, as those Phyllanths the leaves of which are thrown mto waterto intoxicate fish. Whatever the stimulating principle of Spurgeworts may be, itseems to be volatile, because application of heat is sufficient to dissipate it. Thus the Fig. CXCI.—Eremocarpus setigerus —Bentham. 1. a young pistil; 2. a ripe fruit after CXCII.—Monotaxistridentata. 1. a ? flower surrounded by several Ss; 2. a (? apart; 3. astamen ; 4. a sspal; 5. a ? apart; 6. a transverse section of the oxaTx.—Endlicher. EUPHORBIALES.] EUPHORBIACEiE. 277. Fig. CXCIII. Starchy root of the Manihot or Cassava, which when raw is a violent poison, becomeswholesome nutiitious food when roasted. In the seeds of some the albumen is harmlessand eatable, but the embryo itself is acrid and dangerous. Many of the species furnishCaoutchouc, that most innocuous of all substances, produced by the most poisonous of allfamilies, which may be almost said to have given a new arm to surgery, and which hasbecome an mdispensable necessary of life ; it exists in Artocarpads and elsewhere,but is xlso the produce of species of Spurgeworts. The properties of this Order are so important, that the object of this work would beunfulfilled if I did not, in addition to the foregoing general view, add a detailed list ofthe quahties of the most remarkable species named by ^Titers. Among milking species, the fii*st to be noticed are the Cactus-shaped kinds, inha
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