| 释义 |
‖ Euphorbia Bot.|juːˈfɔːbɪə|
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 (family 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.
1398Trevisa 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. 1601Holland Pliny II. 222 Iuba king of Mauritania, found out the herb Euphorbia, which he so called after the name of his own Physitian Euphorbus. 1794Martyn Rousseau's Bot. xx. 281 Euphorbia has a corolla of four and sometimes of five petals. 1813Sir H. Davy Agric. Chem. (1814) 147 Different species of Euphorbia emit a milky juice. 1834Pringle Afr. Sk. vi. 209 The lofty candelabra-shaped euphorbias towering above the copses of evergreens. 1878H. M. Stanley Dark Cont. I. vi. 139 The villages..are surrounded by hedges of euphorbias, milk-weed.
Hence ˌeuphorbiˈaceous a. [+ -aceous], of the family Euphorbiaceæ. euˈphorbial a. [+ -al1] = prec.
1852Th. Ross 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. 1863Bates Nat. Amazon iv. (1864) 86 The tree which yields this valuable sap [India-rubber] is the Siphonia Elastica, a member of the Euphorbiaceous order. 1864Webster, Euphorbial [citing Ogilvie; and in mod. Dicts.] |