EUPHORBIA, SPURGE; a genus of the trigynia order, belonging to the dodecandria class of plants. There are 62 species, six of which are natives of Great Britain. They are mostly shrubby and herbaceous succulents, frequently armed with thorns, having stalks from 10 or 12 inches to as many feet in height, with quadripetalous flowers of a whitish or yellow colour. They are easily propagated by cuttings; but the fo-
reign kinds must be always kept in pots in a stove. If kept dry, they may be preserved for several months out of the ground, and then planted; when they will as readily take root as though they had been fresh. The juice of all the species is so acrid, that it corrodes and ulcerates the body wherever it is applied; so that physicians have seldom ventured to prescribe it internally. Warts, or corns, anointed with the juice, presently disappear. A drop of it put into the hollow of an aching tooth, gives relief, like other corrosives, by destroying the nerve. Some people rub it behind the ears, that it may blister. One of the foreign species, named esula, is such a violent corrosive, that, if applied to any part of the body, it produces a violent inflammation, which is soon succeeded by a swelling that degenerates into a gangrene, and proves mortal. PECACUANHA is the root of another species. A third hath obtained the name of sterculia, or dirt-wood, from its smell, which is said exactly to resemble human excrements.