Who named Euphorbia?
By Chelsie Vandaveer June 13, 2003 killerPlants Tendrils: ~~1~~2~~3~~4~~5~~ Suggested Reading—>Click here. In his second volume of The Herbal or General Historie of Plants, John Gerard was most upset with an apparent error on the part of Pliny the Elder, “Pliny…putteth the herbe in the feminine gender, naming it Euphorbia…” Of course, he corrected Pliny, “…we are faine in English to use the Latine word, and to call both the herbe and juyce by the name of Euphorbium…” (In Gerard’s day, any plant considered “barren”, “unworthy”, or “having no use” were given the feminine forms of Latinized names.
