Bot. Also 4 euforbia. [a. L. euphorbea, f. Euphorbus, the name of a physician to Juba king of Mauritania.] The Latin and botanical name of the Spurge genus (N.O. Euphorbiaceæ), comprising many species, which vary from a herbaceous plant in temperate regions, to a tree-like growth in warm climates. They are marked by two almost constant characteristics, the secretion of a viscid milky juice, and the peculiar inflorescence of having a number of stamens round a stalked and three-celled ovary. Some of the species, as E. punicea, are cultivated for the beauty of their involucre, the bracts of which are a brilliant scarlet, with the appearance of a real flower. Cf. SPURGE.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XV. xciii. (1495), 524. In Mauritanea groweth an herbe callyd Euforbia … the whyte juys therof is wonderly praysyd in clerenesse of sight.
1601. Holland, Pliny, II. 222. Iuba king of Mauritania, found out the herb Euphorbia, which he so called after the name of his own Physitian Euphorbus.
1794. Martyn, Rousseau’s Bot., xx. 281. Euphorbia has a corolla of four, and sometimes of five petals.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 147. Different species of Euphorbia emit a milky juice.
1834. Pringle, Afr. Sk., vi. 209. The lofty candelabra-shaped euphorbias towering above the copses of evergreens.
1878. H. M. Stanley, Dark Cont., I. vi. 139. The villages … are surrounded by hedges of euphorbias, milk-weed.
Hence Euphorbiaceous a. [+ -ACEOUS], of the Natural Order Euphorbiaceæ. Euphorbial a. [+ -AL.] = prec.
1852. Th. Ross, trans. Humboldt’s Trav., II. xvi. 52, note. The juice of a euphorbiaceous plant (Sapium aucuparium) … is so glutinous that it is used to catch parrots.
1863. Bates, Nat. Amazons, iv. (1864), 86. The tree which yields this valuable sap [India-rubber] is the Siphonia Elastica, a member of the Euphorbiaceous order.
1864. Webster, Euphorbial, citing Ogilvie; and in mod. Dicts.
