bear a cap-like outgrowth or caruncle, which persists in the seed (well shown in castor oil, fig. 3).
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| Fig. 2.—Dog’s Mercury (Mercurialis perennis). | |
| 1. Male plant. 2. Female plant; 13 nat. size. 3. Female flower. |
4. Male flower. 5. Fruit beginning to split open. 6. Seed cut lengthwise showing the embryo. |
As the stamens and pistil are borne by different flowers, cross-fertilization is necessary. In Mercurialis and others with inconspicuous flowers pollination is effected by the wind, but in many cases insects are attracted to the flower by the highly-coloured bracts, as in many Euphorbias and Dalechampia, or by the coloured calyx as in Manihot; the presence of honey is also frequently an attraction, as in the honey-glands on the bracts of the cyathium of Euphorbia. The fruit is generally a capsule which splits into three divisions (cocci), separating from the central column, and splitting lengthwise into two valves. In the mancinil (Hippomane mancinella) of Central America the fruit is a drupe like a plum, and in some genera berries occur. In the sandbox tree (Hura crepitans) of tropical America the ovary consists of numerous carpels, and forms when mature a capsule which splits with great violence and a loud report into a number of woody cocci. The seeds contain abundant endosperm and a large straight or bent embryo.
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| From Bentley and Trimen’s Medicinal Plants, by permission of J. & A. Churchill. | |
| Fig. 3.—Castor Oil (Ricinus communis). End of shoot with flower-spike; about 13 nat. size. | |
| 1. Section of male flower, about nat. size. 2. Group of stamens. 3. Fruit. |
4. Seed. 5 and 6. Vertical and transverse sections of seed showing embryo in position. |
Several members of the order are of economic importance. Manihot utilissima, manioc or cassava (q.v.), is one of the most important tropical food-plants, its thick tuberous root being rich in starch; it is the source of Brazilian arrowroot. Caoutchouc or india-rubber is obtained from species of Hevea, Mabea, Manihot and Sapium. Castor oil (q.v.) is obtained from the seeds of Ricinus communis. The seeds of Aleurites moluccana and Sapium sebiferum also yield oil. Resin is obtained from species of Croton and Euphorbia. Many of the species are poisonous; e.g. the South African Toxicodendron is one of the most poisonous plants known. Many, such as Euphorbia, Mercurialis, Croton, Jatropha, Tragia, have been, or still are, used as medicines. Species of Codiaeum (q.v.), Croton, Euphorbia, Phyllanthus, Jatropha and others are used as ornamental plants in gardens.
The box (Buxus) and a few allied genera which were formerly included in Euphorbiaceae are now generally regarded as forming a distinct order—Buxaceae, differing from Euphorbiaceae in the position of the ovule in the ovary-chamber and in the manner of splitting of the fruit.
EUPHORBIUM, an acrid dull-yellow or brown resin, consisting
of the concreted milky juice of several species of Euphorbia,
cactus-like perennial plants indigenous to Morocco. It dissolves
in alcohol, ether and turpentine; in water it is only slightly
soluble. It consists of two or more resins and a substance
euphorbone, C20H36O or C15H24O. Pliny states that the name of
the drug was given to it in honour of Euphorbus, the physician
of Juba II., king of Mauretania. In former times euphorbium
was valued in medicine for its drastic, purgative and emetic
properties.
EUPHORBUS, son of Panthoüs, one of the bravest of the
Trojan heroes, slain by Menelaus (Iliad, xvii. 1-60). Pythagoras,
in support of his doctrine of the transmigration of souls, declared
that he had once been this Euphorbus, whose shield, hung up
in the temple of Argos by Menelaus, he claimed as his own
(Horace, Odes, i. 28. 11; Diog. Laërt. viii. 1).
EUPHORION, Greek poet and grammarian, born at Chalcis in
Euboea about 275 B.C. He spent much of his life in Athens,
where he amassed great wealth. About 221 he was invited by
Antiochus the Great to the court of Syria. He assisted in the
formation of the royal library at Antioch, of which he held the
post of librarian till his death. He wrote mythological epics,
amatory elegies, epigrams and a satirical poem (Ἀραί, “curses”)
after the manner of the Ibis of Callimachus. Prose works on
antiquities and history are also attributed to him. Like Lycophron,
he was fond of using archaic and obsolete expressions,
and the erudite character of his allusions rendered his language
very obscure. His elegies were highly esteemed by the Romans;
they were imitated or translated by Cornelius Gallus and also
by the emperor Tiberius.
Fragments in Meineke, “De Euphorionis Chalcidensis vita et scriptis,” in his Analecta Alexandrina (1843); for a recently discovered fragment of about 30 lines see Berliner Klassikertexte, v. 1 (1907).
EUPHRANOR, of Corinth (middle of the 4th century B.C.),
the only Greek artist who excelled both as a sculptor and as
a painter. In Pliny we have lists of his works; among the paintings,
a cavalry battle, a Theseus, and the feigned madness
of Odysseus; among the statues, Paris, Leto with her children
Apollo and Artemis, Philip and Alexander in chariots. Unfortunately
we are unable among existing statues to identify
any which are copies from works of Euphranor (but see a series
of attributions by Six in Jahrbuch, 1909, 7 foll.). He appears
to have resembled his contemporary Lysippus, notably in the
attention he paid to symmetry, in his preference for bodily
forms slighter than those usual in earlier art, and in his love of
heroic subjects. He wrote a treatise on proportions.
EUPHRATES (Babylon. Purattu, Heb. Perath, Arab. Frāt or
Furāt, Old Pers. Ufratu, Gr. Εὐφράτης), the largest river of
western Asia. It may be divided into three divisions, upper,
lower and middle, each of which is distinguished by special
physical features, and has played a conspicuous part in the
world’s history, retaining to the present day monumental
evidence of the races who have lined its banks.
Upper Division.—The upper Euphrates consists of two arms, which, rising on the Armenian plateau, and flowing west in long shallow valleys parallel to Mount Taurus, eventually unite and force their way southward through that range to the level of Mesopotamia. The northern or western and shorter arm, called by the Turks Kara Su, “black water,” or Frāt Su (Armenian, Ephrāt or Yephrāt; Arab. Nahr el-Furāt or Frāt), well known to occidentalists as the Euphrates, from its having been the boundary of the Roman empire, is regarded also by Orientals as the main stream. It rises in the Dumlu Dagh, N.N.W. of Erzerum, in a large circular pool (altitude, 8625 ft.), which is venerated by Armenians and Moslems, and flows south-east to the plain of Erzerum (5750 ft.). Thence it continues through a narrow valley W.S.W. to Erzingan (3900 ft.), receiving on its way the Ovajik Su (right), the Tuzla Su (left), and the Merjan and Chanduklu (right). Below Erzingan the Frāt flows south-west through a rocky gorge to Kemakh (Kamacha; Armenian, Gamukh), where it is crossed by a bridge and receives the Kumur Su (right). At Avshin it enters a cañon, with walls over 1000 ft. high, which extends to the bridge at Pingan, and lower down it is joined from the west by the Chalta Irmak (Lycus; Arab. Lūkīya), on which stands Divrik (Tephrike). Then, entering a deep gorge with lofty rock walls and magnificent scenery, it runs
