prickly-stemmed

Updated: May 14, 2025

He has said and must be allowed to say again, for he sees no reason to alter his words in speaking of the wonderful variety of forms in the Euphorbiaceae, from the weedy English Euphorbias, the Dog's Mercuries, and the Box, to the prickly-stemmed Scarlet Euphorbia of Madagascar, the succulent Cactus-like Euphorbias of the Canaries and elsewhere; the Gale-like Phyllanthus; the many-formed Crotons; the Hemp-like Maniocs, Physic-nuts, Castor-oils, the scarlet Poinsettia, the little pink and yellow Dalechampia, the poisonous Manchineel, and the gigantic Hura, or sandbox tree, of the West Indies, all so different in shape and size, yet all alike in their most peculiar and complex fructification, and in their acrid milky juice, "What if all these forms are the descendants of one original form?

Charles Kingsley - Glaucus, or the Wonders of the Shore