LA Fy sy wy bo se 2 EPs ay arte z 7. ‘LA ; © Rapoa ce : . (chal ae ie i * ‘ ae, ey < AY. hy ae z fas, yy x Sie i j ; } z Me } Te, : . - THE ba Zi — fH (es aa poy © i aie i 2 WILD. Eupa- torium teucrifolium. HORESTRANG. Peucedanum officinale. HORKELIA. A genus of the rose family peculiar to Oregon and California, and numbering about a dozen species. They are perennial herbs one to two feet high, with pinnatifid root-leaves, the stems ter- minating in crowded cymes of minute white or pink flowers. From Potentilla they differ in the small fiowers, and in the definite number of stamens (ten in two series). A. A. B.J HORMIDIUM. A section of the genus Epidendrum. HORMIN,. (Fr.) Salvia Horminum. HORMINUM. A small genus of labiate plants. The calyx is bell-shaped and two- lipped, the upper lip with three teeth, the lower with two; the tube of the corolla much longer than the calyx, and the corolla itself imperfectly two-lipped, the upper lip being very short and notched, the lower three-lobed. The anthers cohere in pairs. H. pyrenaicumis a tufted perennial | herb, with numerous root-leaves, simple almost leafless stems, and purplish-blue fiowers which grow in whorls of six, all turned thesame way. It isanativeof ‘the temperate parts of Europe,on the moun- tains, (C. A. J.j HORMOGYNE. A name applied to an Australian shrub belonging to the order Sapotacee. It may be recognised by the Trait HORN | Che Treasury of Botany. 598 by the jointed ring which surmounts the Ovary—whence the name, from ormos, a necklace. (M. T. M.] HORNBEAM. COarpinus Betulus. —, HOP. Ostrya vulgaris. HORNEMANNIA pinnata is a slender prostrate creeping Nepalese herb, with ovate pinnately divided leaves and small flowers, forming a genus of Scrophulariacee nearly allied to Sibthorpia, and differing chiefly in the corolla, which is more dis- tinctly contracted at the base into a short tube. The name Hornemannia had been previously applied to a species of Thi- baudia, and to Mazus rugosus. HORN OF PLENTY. Fedia Cornucopic. HORN PLANT. Ecklonia buccinalis. HORNSCHUCHIA. A Brazilian genus of doubtful affinity, placed by Von Martius in the ebony family. H. bryotrophe, so called from the moss growing on its leaves, is said to be a scrambling shrub, with three to five-nerved oblong unequal- sided leaves, and small white flowers in racemes arising from the lower naked shoots, each fiower with a cup-shaped nearly entire calyx, six petals, six stamens, and a three-celled ovary which developes into a fruit of three cylindrical carpels each about an inch long. [A. A. B.] HORNUS. Anything the produce of the same year ; thus Rami horni are branches not a year old. HORNWORT. Ceratophyllum. THorn- worts is Lindley’s name for the Ceratophyl- lacee. HORNY. Hard and close in texture, but not brittle, as the albumen of many plants. HOROLOGIUM FLOR. A time-paper of flowers; a table explaining the time at which the same flowers expand in different latitudes. HORSEBANE. QGnanthe Phellandriwm. HORSECHIRE. Teucriwmn Chamecedrys. HORSE-FLOWER. ticum. HORSEHEAL, or HORSHELE. Jnula Helenium. HORSEHOOR. Tussilago Farfara. HORSEKNOB. Centaurea nigra. HORSE-MUSHROOM. A term com- monly applied to the larger kinds of mush- room, as Agaricus arvensis, to the exclu- sion of the true pink-gilled A. campestris. Though the latter is doubtless the more delicate and makes the finest ketchup, the horse-mushroom need not be excluded on Me-anpyrum sylva- account of its supposed unwholesomeness. | Tt is largely consumed in London and all our greater towns, ana when eaten in mode- ration is an excellent article of food. The species is distinguishedfrom A. campestris by its paler gills andgenerally double ring, | dry closely-agglomerated drupes. but especially by its turning yellow when bruised. petals order. They are rough shrubby plants | impricated, upper one interiur; 3. Mé- (rarely trees) found in tropical Asia, Africa, | 5) 5 $41 he Creagury of Botany. [PAPA suborder of that family. Trees with alter- nate stalked leaves, and axillary solitary or clustered unisexual flowers. Sepals five, rarely two three or four ; petals five, rarely six, with scales placed opposite them ; stamens five or numerous; ovary free, one-celled ; ovules numerous ; placentas pa- rietal. Fruit one-celled, succulent, indehis- cent; seeds numerous; albumen oily ; em- bryo large. Natives of warm parts of India. Hydnocarpus venenaius bears poisonous fruit ; Gynocardia odorata yields chaulnoo- era seeds, used in India for skin diseases. Pangium, Hydnocarpus, Gynocardia, and Bergamia are the only genera, and there are very few species. (J-B.. BA | PANGIUM. A Javanese tree, which gives its name to asmall natural order, regarded by some botanists as a tribe of Flacowrtia- cece, differing in the petals bearing each a | seale at the base. The leaves are alternate | entire or three-lobed ; the flowers dicecious and axillary: the males in racemes, the fe- males solitary. The tree, known inits native | country under the name of Pangi, is said | to have a hard solid wood; the bark and leaves contain a poisonous principle, but the kernels of the seeds, when boiled, cut | are occasionally used as a condiment, al- them. PANICAUT. (Fr.) Eryngium. PANICLE. A branched raceme. PANICUM. A very extensive genus of | grasses, of the tribe Panicee, the essential | character of which consists in the plants | belonging to it having spikelets or locaste, | | of two flowers, one perfect and the other | imperfect, the latter having stamens only | or neuter. Steudel describes 850 species under this genus, divided into eighteen sections, many of the heads of sections being distinct genera of other authors. | Their geographical range is extensive, but they are chiefly natives of the tropical and subtropical regions of the earth, where in many instances one or other of the species constitute the principal fodder-grasses. For exainple, the Caapim de Angola, Pani- cum spectabile, grows from six to seven feet high in Brazil, according to Nees von Esen- | bach, as quoted by Dr. Lindley, whilst other | equally gigantic species form the field-crops on the banks of the Amazons. P. milia- ceum, called Warree, and P. piloswm, called | Bhadlee, are both extensively grown in In- | dia; while in the Deccan P. frumentaceum, | called Shamoola, is also grown. [D.M.] | PANIZA. A Spanish name for Millet. | PANKE. Gunnera scabra. | PANJAM. The resinous gum of Diospy- | ros Embryopteris. | PANMUHOOREE. An Indian name for | Feniculum Panmorium. | PANNA-MARAM. A Tamil name for | Borassus flabelliformis. 1 ) to pieces, and macerated in cold water to | remove their noxious narcotic qualities, | though rarely on account of their prejudi- | cial effects on persons unaccustomed to | PANNOSE. Having the texture of coarse cloth. PANOCOCO. A French name for Or- mosia coccinea; also for Swartzia tomen- tosa. PANSURI. Pens made from the mid- ribs of the leaflets of Arenga saccharifera. PANSY. Viola tricolor. PANTOUFLE DE NOTRE DAME. (Fr.) Cypripedium. PANUS. A genus closely allied to Aga- ricus, but of a more leathery persistent texture. Two or three species resemble Agaricus ostreatus, but are too tough to be eatable. P. stypticus is one of the most characteristic species, with its little fan- shaped mealy or bran-like brownish pileus and abrupt stem, growing gregariously on old oak-stumps or other wood. (M. J B.] PANYALA. -An Indian name for Fla- courtia cataphracta. PAO CRAVO. A Portuguese name for Dicypellium caryophyllatum, which pro- duces clove-bark. — D’ARCO. A species of Bignonia. — DE COBRA. The wood of Strychnos colubrinum. — DE GUARA- NA. Cakes prepared from Paullinia sorbilis. — DE ROSA. The beautiful rose-coloured wood of Physocalymma floribunda. — DE TINGUY. Magonia pubescens. PAPANGAIE. (Ffr.) Luffa egyptiaca. PAPANGAY, or PAPONGE. (Fr.) Cu- cumis acutangulus. PAPAREH. (Fr.) Momordica Charantia, PAPAVERACE. (Poppyworts.) A na- tural order of thalamifloral dicotyledons, belonging to Juindley’s ranal alliance of hypogynous Exogens. They consist of herbs or shrubs, usually with milky or co- loured juice, having alternate exstipulate leaves, and long one-flowered peduncles. Sepals two, deciduous ; petals hypogynous, usually four, cruciate—sometimes a mul- tiple of four, regular; stamens hypogynous, usually indefinite ; ovary solitary, the style short or none; stigmas two, or many and radiating; ovules one-celled, anatropal. Fruit either siliquiform with two, or cap- sular with several, parietal placentas ; seeds num2rous. The species are chiefly Euro- pean, but are found scattered over tropical America, Asia, China, New Holland, Cape of Good Hope, &c. The order possesses well-marked narcotic properties. Opium is the concrete milky juice procured from the unripe capsules of Papaver somniferum and its varieties. There are about a score of genera, as Papaver, Eschseholtzia, Arge- mone, Platystemon, and Chelidonium, and nearly 150 species. (J. H. B,J PAPAVER. A well-known genus typical of the Papaveracee, consisting of herbs withamilky juice, distributed over Europe | and temperate Asia chiefly, though one or two are described as natives of Australia and South Africa. Some of the species, however, are to be met with in many other Ze) ——, PAPA | parts of the globe, to which they have been introduced by cultivation or commercial intercourse. The roots are fibrous; the leaves generally lobed or toothed, and hairy; the flower-stalks axillary, solitary without bracts, but terminated by a single flower, with two or three concave decidu- ous sepals, four or six petals, very nume- rous stamens, and an ovary of four or more carpels conjoined, and capped by aradiating compound stigma. The fruit is capsular, with parietal placentz projecting into the interior, opening by pores or short valves, beneath the projecting margin of the stig- ma. The Field Poppy, P. Rheas, one of the most brilliant of our wild plants, decorat- ing cornfields, railway-banks, and waste places with a perfect blaze of crimson flow- ers, is distinguished from the other British species by its smooth and globular fruits, ‘and by the bristles which clothe the stem spreading out almost at right angles with it. The petals are collected for the purpose of making a coloured syrup, which has at the same time very slight narcotic proper- ties. The seeds might possibly be used for the oil they contain, and they are by no means destitute of nutritive properties. Double-flowered varieties of various co- Jours are not unfrequently grown in gar- dens as highly ornamental annual plants. P. dubium, frequently met with in some parts of the country, isa smaller more slen- der plant than P. Rhaas, and may be at once distinguished by the capsule which is twice as long as broad, and by the bristles which are flattened up against the stem. P.hybridum is less branched than the Field Poppy, which it greatly resembles, but differs in the filaments of the stamens, which are dilated from below upwards, and in the capsule, which, though globular, is covered with stiff bristles. This species is rare in this country. P. Argemoneis the smallest of the British poppies; its capsule is in shape like that of P. dubiwm, but it has a few stiff hairs or bristles which are directed upwards. Several species are cul- tivated in English gardens for ornamental purposes, the most beautiful being P. orien- tale, and some varieties of the Opium Poppy. A variety of the former, with the petals united so as to form afunnel-shaped corolla, has been recently introduced. The Opium Poppy, P. somniferwm, is sup- posed originally to have been a native of the Levant, but is now widely distributed. The writer has observed it growing on the cliffs between Folkestone and Dover, and also in other places where it had more ob- viously been introduced. Theplant varies much in the colour ofits flowers and seeds, and in gardens double varieties are com- mon. In general it forms an erect annual plant, slightly branched, about two feet in height, with the stem and leaves of a glau- cous green colour, usually without bristles, but sometimes, especially in wild speci- mens, with a few straggling hairs. The Jeaves are oblong in shape, irregularly sinuous at the margin, anc clasp the stem by their base. The flowers are usually ofa Whe Treasury of Botany. 842 light-violet colour with a purple centre. The Opium Poppy is cultivated in this country for the sake of its capsules, from which syrup of poppies is prepared, a fa- vourite remedy for children when a seda- tive is required; but owing to the varying strength of the preparation, tts Hability to adulteration with laudanum, &c., and the frequent great susceptibility of children to the influence of opium in any shape, it should be used only with great caution, and its operation should be carefully watch- ed. A decoctio.: of poppy-heads is often employed as an anodyne fomentation, and with excellent effect ; an extract of poppy- heads is also occasionally used in minute doses in place of opium. The seeds contain a large quantity of oil, which is extracted as an article of food, and for the use of painters. Olive oil is stated to be adulterated with it; an inter- mixture of comparatively little conse- quence, as the oil is destitute of narcotic properties. The seeds themselves, in Greece, Poland, and elsewhere, are eaten as articles of food, and have an agreeable nut-like flavour. It is, however, for producing opium that this plant is especially cultivated in India, Persia, Asia Minor, Egypt, &c.,and it seems to have been cultivated for this purpose from the earliest times of which we have any record, at least so far as Greece is con- cerned. The word opium is derived from the Greek opos, juice, as being the especial juice, just as cinchona bark is called bark. Two varieties of the plant are cultivated for the production of opium, one with vio- let-coloured or white flowers and black seeds, the other with white seeds and flow- ers. These two kinds are mentioned by Hippocrates. The latter is the one most generally cultivated in India. A very full account of the manufacture, as well as of the properties of opium, is contained in Dr. Pereira’s Materia Medica, and in the Pharmaceutical Journal for 1852. From these sources, as well as from the Aew Garden Miscellany (vol. vi.), the following remarks have been condensed. The pre- paration of the drug seems to be conducted in much the same way in the various dis- tricts whence opium is obtained, but in some much greater care is taken than in others. In India a very large extent of country is devoted to the cultivation of the Opium Poppy, and at Behar and Benares are government agencies established for the purpose of regulating the manufacture, insuring the purity of the drug, &e. When the flowers are in bloom the first step is the removal of the petals, which are used in packing the prepared drug. After afew days the imperfectly ripened capsules are scearified from above downwards by two | or three knives tied together and called | ‘nushturs,’ These make a superficial in- cision, or series of incisions, into the cap- sule,whereupon a milky juice exudes, which is allowed to harden and is then removed and collected in earthen pots. The time of day chosen for slicing the capsules is about three o'clock in the afternoon, when | | 843 Che Treasury of Botany. [PAPH | the heat of the sun causes,the speedy forma- , | tion of a film over the exuded juice, great | attention is also paid to the weather, pre- | yailing winds, dew, &c., as all these causes | modify the quantity, quality, or speediness oi exudation of the opium. The capsules are submitted to two or three slicing processes at intervals of a few days, and the drug is ultimately con- yeyed to the government factory, where it is kneaded into a homogeneous mass by native workmen. I[tis analysed by native examiners, whose tact and experience are such that the results of their examination differ but very slightly from those afforded | by the more scientific investigation of the European officers. In this mauner the qua- lity of the drug is ascertained, its free- dom from adulteration insured, and its strength reduced as nearly as may be toa uniform standard. When thus prepared, the drug isin a fit state for exportation ; and it is then, by means of earthen cups, moulded into spherical masses of the size of a child’s head, closely invested on the outside by the dried petals of the flower, compacted together by pressure and by immersion into the gummy fluid residue which drains off from the more solid opium during its preparation. It is re- markable that the natives and govern- | ment Officials, who thus are exposed to the fumes of this drug for several hours | daily, and this at a temperature of 90° to | | 100° and upwards, are seldom injuriously | | aifected : some of the operators are literally | immersed in opium for several hours daily, | | so far as regards their legs and arms, and yet slight drowsiness at the end of the ration, contracted pupils, and somnolency are induced, and in still larger quantities coma and death. These matters, however, as well as the effects of the habitual use of opium internally, or by smoking as prac- tised by the Chinese, hardly come within the limits of this article. The reader is referred to the works already mentioned, and to De Quincey’s Confessi. ns of an Opium Fater, It isnecessary, however,to caution the general reader against accepting as ordinary occurrences those that are excep- tional. (M. T M.]) PAPAW. A tropical fruit, the produce NORTH AMERI- | of Carica Papaya. 5 | CAN. Asimina triloba. PAPAYACE. (Caricee, Modeccere, Pa- payads.) A natural order of calycifloral di- cotyledons belonging to Lindley’s papayal | alliance of diclinous Exogens. They are | trees or shrubs, not branching, with alter- nate lobed leaves supported on long slen- der petioles, and with unisexual flowers ; and are found in South America and in other warm countries. Calyx minute, five- ' toothed; corolla monopetalous, inserted -iInto the base of the calyx: in the males tubular and five-lobed, in the females di- vided nearly to the base into five segments ; stamens ten,’ inserted into the throat of | the corolla; ovary free, one-celled ; ovules indefinite, attached to five parietal placen- te; stigma five-lobed, lacerated. Fruit usually succulent and indehiscent, some- times capsular and dehiscent, one-celled ; seeds indefinite, enveloped in a loose mu- cous coat, embryo in the axis of fleshy albumen. One of the most important day is the sole inconvenience ever expe- | rienced, and this by no means frequently. | The Indian opium is exported in enor- mous quantities to China, in spite of the prohibition of the Chinese government, | and its vigorous attempts to prevent the introduction of the drug. Comparatively | plants of the order is Carica Papaya, the papaw-tree, which yields an acrid milky | juice, and an ediblefruit. The juice of the | | unripe fruit is anthelmintic. This tree is said to have the property of rendering meat tender. Carica and Modecca furnish little Indian opium finds its way into the British niarkets, where the most esteemed and most largely used kind is known as | Smyrna or Turkey Opium. This is import- ed in irregular masses covered on the out- side with dock-seeds. | adulterated. Other kinds of opium are oc- | easionally imported, but in small quanti- | ties. Opium has been prepared of very good quality in this country, but its vre- | | paration is not profitable. The chemical constituzion of opium is somewhat intricate and variable; its me- dicinal effects, however, are mainly due to the presence of an alkaloid called morphia. To external appearance opium is a reddish- brown sticky gumlike substance, with a bitter taste, and a peculiar unmistakable perfume. It is beyond all doubt the most valuable of all drugs, and may be used with advantage in an immense number of conditions : to relieve pain, allay spasm, promote sleep, relieve restlessness, pro- duce perspiration, or check excessive dis- | | charges. In small doses its effects are those of a stimulant, followed by depres- sion 5 in larger doses constipation, perspi- It is frequently | examples of the few genera, which contain some score or more of species. [J. H. B.] PAPAYER. (Fr.) Carica. PAPEETA. An Indian name for the ! St. Ignatius Bean: see IGNATIA, © PAPER-TREE of Siam. Tvophis aspera. PAPERY. In texture, the same as Char- taceous. PAPHINIA cristata is a very curious orchid belonging to the Maxillaride group, native of Trinidad and NewGrenada. It forms a peculiar genus, technically distin- guished from its allies by having its four pollen-masses attached in two pairs to a long caudicle, setaceous at its apex, and a /Minute subtriangular gland. ‘The plant has oblong or ovate compressed, two or three-leaved pseudobulbs, from the base of which issne pendulous one or two-flow- ered peduncles; the flowers large and cun- | spicuous, with similar and nearly equal- sized fleshy, widely expanded, lanceolate sepals and petals, curiously streaked or barred and spotted with deep chocolate- ‘brown or purple on a aul] white ground, PAPT | he Treasury of Botany. % and a singular unguiculate three-parted smallish lip, of a chocolate-purple colour, tipped with a fringe of white filiform glands, and with four similar glands on the claw, and a crest between the side lobes. 7A. S.j PAPILIONACE.®. A suborder of legu- minous plants, characterised by having the flowers papilionaceous, and the petals imbricated in eestivation, the upper one exterior. The flowers are like those of the pea, and consist of five irregular petals, the upper being the vexillum or standard which covers the rest in the bud, the two lateral being ale or wings, and the infe- rior the carina or keel, consisting of two petals more or less completely cohering. The plants of this suborder have fre- quently beautiful flowers, as in Cutisus Laburnum, Wistaria, Lupinus, Clianthis, Erythrina or coral-flower, &e. They are often nutritious, as in the various kinds of clover, bean, pea, medick, lucerne, sain- foin, melilot, &c. Many are used for their medicinal qualities, as in the case of Gly- cyrrhiza glabra, the liquorice; Astragalus verus, creticus, gunmifer, and others, which yield gum-tragacanth , Myrospermum pe- | ruiferum and M. toluiferum, which yield bal- sam of Peru and balsam of Tolu ; Ptero- carpus Marsupium and P. erinaceus, which furnish kino, &c. Broom-tops, procured from Sarothamnus scoparius, are used as a diuretic; the hairs from the legumes of Mucuna pruriers in the West Indies, and of M. prurita in the East, under the name of cowhage or cowitch, are used as anthel- mintics. Others are valuable in commerce and the arts, as furnishing food, dyes, fibres, timber. Various species of Indigo- fera, as I. tinctoria and I. cerulea, furnish the indigo of commerce ; Plerocarpus san- talinusyields red sandalwood, which is used asadye; P, Draco yields gum-dragon ; and P. dalbergioides is said to yield Andaman redwood; Baptisia tinctoria gives a blue dye, and is the wild indigo of the United States ; Crotalaria juncea supplies fibres, which are known as sunn or Bengal hemp ; | the fragrant seeds of Dipterix odorata are | known as tonka-beans ; a similar fragrance is given out by some species of Melilotus ; Arachis hypogea produces its legumes un- derground, and hence receives the name of ground-nut. Robinia Psewd-acacia, the locust tree, vields a hard durable wood ; according to Bertoloni, a kind of ebony is the produce of Fornarinia ebenifera ; rose- wood is the timber of Dalbergia, Mache- rum, and Triptolemea. Thereare certain poisonous plants in this group: thus the seeds and bark of Cytisus Laburnwm are narcotic , the roots of many species of Phaseolus, as P. multiflorus (the searlet-runner) and P. radiatus, are poison- ous; the branches and leaves of Tephro- sia toxicaria, and the bark of the root of Piscidia Erythrina, are employed as fish- poisons. Physostigma venenosum yields the Calabar ordeal bean; Gompholobium uncinatum and Gastrolobium grandiflorum are deadly sheep poisons in the Australian 844 colonies. The suborder contains about 350 genera, and about 5,000 species. [J. H. B.] PAPILIONACEOUS. Having sucha co- rolla as that of the pea. PAPILLA. Soft oblong superficial glands; also the aciculz of certain fun- gals. PAPILLOSE, PAPILLIFEROUS. Cover- ed with minute soft tubercles or excres- cences. PAPOOSE-ROOT The root of Caulo- phyllum thalictroides. PAPPEA. A genus of Sapindacece, the only species of which is a small tree about twenty feet high, a native of the Cape of Good Hope, and hence called P. capensis. Ithas smooth leathery oblong leaves, with the edges bent backwards, and racemes of small unisexual flowers, both the leaves and the racemes of flowers being in clus- ters at the ends of the branches. The flowers have an unequally five-parted calyx, and four to six petals covered with hairs outside: the males containing eight to ten stamens inserted beneath a ring-like disk, and the females a three-celled ovary with a short style and trifid stigma. Its fruit,whichis called Wilde Pruime (i.e. Wild Plum) from its plum-like eatahle flesh, is formed of three carpels, but two are fre- quently abortive, and the other contains a single seed. A vinous beverage and ex- cellent vinegar are prepared from the pulp of the fruit, and an eatable though slightly purgative oil is extracted from the seeds, which, besides being used for food, is recommended as a remedy for scald-head and baldness. Its trunk affords a hand- some wood, used for small articles of fur- niture and for ploughs, &c. [A. S.] PAPPOPHORUM. A genus of grasses of the tribe Pappophorec. The inflores- cence is in contracted spike-like panicles, with the spikelets two to four-flowered, the lower flowers hermaphrodite, the upper sterile; glumes two, the outer shortest; pales two, membranaceous. Steudel de- scribes twenty-seven species, which are mostly natives of New Holland, Africa, and parts of the East Indies. [D. M.] PAPPUS. The calyx of composites, in which that organ is reduced to a mem- brane, or scales, or hairs, or a mere rim. Pappiform means resembling a pappus. PAPUL (adj. PAPULOSE). The same as Papille. PAPYRACEOUS. Ofa papery or charta- ceous texture. PAPYRUS. A genus of cyperaceous plants, belonging to the tribe Cyperece. The inflorescence is in many-fiowered spikelets, surrounded by long bracts; glumes imbricated, in two rows, one-flow- ered ; style three-cleft; scales two, mem- branaceous ; ovary without bristles under- neath ; seed three-cornered. P. antiquorum, the Paper Reed,is the plant which yielded the substance used as paper by the ancient Whe Treasury ot Botany. [PaRD | 845 Egyptians. The soboles, or underground rootstocks, spread horizontally under the mud in places where the plant grows, con- tinuing to throw up stems as they creep along. These stems are from eight to ten feet high, a portion of them being above the surface of the water. | made from thin slices, | ! The paper was cut vertically from the apex to the base of the stem, between its surface and centre. The slices were placed side by side according to the size required, and then, after being watered and beaten with a wooden instrument ‘until smooth, were pressed and dried in the sun. The stems were likewise used for ornamenting the Egyptian temples, and crowning the statues of their gods. The Paper Reed grows naturally in the south | of Italy, as well as on the banks of the Nile and Jordan , butin Britain it requires the aid of a stove to grow it properly, and then it must have a good supply of | water. The stems of P corymbosus form the Indian matting, of which large quan- | kingdom. tities are imported. These plants are some- | times still retained in Cyperus, the Paper | Reed being called Cyperus Papyrus. [D.M.] | PAQUERETTE. (Fr.) Bellis perennis. PAQUEROLLE. (Fr. Bellium. PARABOLICAL. Ovate, very obtuse, contracted below the point. PARACOROLLA. Any appendage of a corolla. PARADISANTHUS bahiensis is a little | terrestrial two-leaved stemless orchid, | with simple erect spikes of milky-white | flowers curiously marked with a succes- sion of deep purple transverse stripes on ! their jui by their = a forming circlesround | their juices, or by their presence produce It has similar | the | former connate at the very bottom, and, Pules are formed from’ the | the sepals and petals the centre of the flower and nearly equal sepals and petals, | the two lateral ones slightly unequal at the base ; a three-lobed articulate lip with a curious pentagonal-mouthed sac on its | hind part, at the base of which area couple | of diverging denticulate plates; a semi- terete column abruptly bent forward above | its middle; and four pyriform pollen- masses, sessile in two pairs upon a mark- edly transverse triangular gland. [A.S.j PARAGRAMMA. A group of eastern tropical creeping-stemmed polypodiaceous | ferns, usually associated with Grammitis or | platanifolia. the net-veined Polypodiew ; but their con- | Salix babylonica. Stantly elongated sori parallel with the costa connect them with the Tenitidee. They have simple coriaceous fronds, non- indusiate linear-oblong submarginal sori, free veinlets in the areoles. (Tt. M.] PARAIBA. A Brazilian name for Sima- ruba versicolor | VENOSE. Having the lateral ribs of a leaf straight, as in Alnus glutinosa ; also | having the veins straight and almost grasses. PARALLELINERVED, PARALLELI- | PARANEMATA. The paraphyses of algals and other cryptogams. PARAPETALUM. var 4 a ee 961 Che Treasury of Sotany. [RECC | RATSBANE, or RAT-POISON. A West African name for Chéilletia toxicaria. RATTAN. A commercial name for the long trailing stems of Calamus Royleanus, Rotang, rudentum, viminalis, and other species, which form a considerable article of import from India and the Eastern Ar- echipelago. —,GREAT. Calamus ruden- tum. —,GROUND. Rhaphis jlabelliformis. RATTANY, or RHATANY. The power- fully astringent root of Krameria triandra. — SAVANILLA. The root of the New Gre- nada variety of Krameria Ixina. RATTLE, RED. Pedicularis sylvatica. —, YELLOW. Rhinanthus Crista galli. RATTLE-BOX. Rhinanthus Crista galli; also an American name for Crotalaria. RATTLESNAKE-HERB. An American name for Acted. RATTLESNAKE-ROOT. The root of | Polygala Senega; also an American name for Nabalus. RATTLESNAKE’S MASTER. An Ame- rican name for Liatris scariosa and squar- TOS. RATTLESNAKE-WEED. Eryngium vir- ginicum. RATTLEWORT. Crotalaria. RAUCHE. (Fr.) Typha latifolia. RAUPO. Typha angustifolia. { cece,so called in honour of a botanical tra- veller,consists of tropical American shrubs, having the leaves opposite or whorled, and the flowers in corymbs. Thecorollaisfun- nel-shaped, with a hairy throat, and a limb divided into five oblique segments; the ovary is two-lobed, surrounded at its base taining astone, in which is enclosed a sin- gleseed. The fruits of R. canescens contain a black juice which has been used asa dye inthe West Indies. These plants aremore or less poisonous. Some of them are used medicinally as cathartics or emetics, as for instance R.nitida, of which the root is thus employed. (M. T. MM.) RAVE. (Fr.) Brassica Rapa. — DE SAINT ANTOINE. Ranunculus bulbosus. RAVENALA. plant constituting a genus of Musacee. The trunk is like that of the palm, and is built up of the sheaths of the leafstalks, the other portions of the leaves having } fallen off. The upper leaves are intwo rows on long stalks, and they diverge from the upper portion of the stem somewhat inthe same manner as the ribs of a fan, from its | centre. which are ranged in two rows along the terminal flowerstalks. In botanical cha- | racters the flowers are similar to those of | the species of Musa and Strelitzia, but they differ in the stamens which are six in num- RAUWOLFIA. This genus of Apocyna- | by a circular thickened rim; and the fruit | A is fleshy, divided into two halves each con- | 28,4t the base. The few species are small ; ber. The fruit also is woody, capsular, three-celled, and three-valved; and the seeds are arranged in two rows, in each of the compartments of the fruit, and have a pulpy blue arillus surrounding them. This noble plant is called by the French the Traveller's Tree, probably on account of the water which is stored up in the large cup-like sheaths of the leafstalks, and which is sought for by travellers to allay their thirst. The broad leaves are used as thatch to cover the huts in Mada- gascar. The seeds are edible, and the blue pulpy aril surrounding them yields an es- sential oil. The blades of the leaves are oblong in form, and are larger in size than those of any known plant, being simple, except the Victoria regia, (M. T. M.j RAVEN-BLACK. See PULLUS and Co- RACINUS. RAVENCHEENY. AnIndian name for Gamboge RAVENELLE. (Fr.) Raphanus Rapha- nistrum. —JAUNE. Cheiranthus Cheiri. RAWUND, or REWUND. Indian names for Rhubarb. REAUMURIA, REAUMURIACE. The first of these names represents a smali genus of dicotyledons, closely connected through Hololachna with Tamarix, and con- sidered by several botanists as belonging to the family of Tamaricacece, whilst others, relying uponits affinities with Hypericacee, propose it as the type of the small inde- pendent order Reawmuriacee. The foliage, | the free erect distinct placentez, and the | seeds,connect the genus with Tamaricacee, | from which it differs chiefly in the more /numerous stamens, and in the placente, which, although free from the sides of the ovary, rise up to the top of the cavity, with which they are often united there as well diffuse or much-branched saline shrubs, | natives of the eastern shores of the Me- | diterranean, or of the salt-plains of Central Asia; and bearing solitary conspicuous | fowers, which have a five-cut bell-shaped calyx surrounded by numerous overlapping bracts, five egg-shaped petals with two | fringed scales at their bases on the inside, | numerous stamens with narrow awl-shaped A splendid Madagascar | The flowers are closely crowded | in the axils of large bracts or spathes, | Aparine. filaments cohering togetherin five bun@les, and a sessile ovary terminating in five thread-like styles, and divided into five cells each containing four ovules. The five-celled fruits contain one or two hairy seeds in each cell. The bruised leaves of R. vermiculata are used at Alexandria as an external application for the cure of the itch. [A. 8] REBENTA CABALLOS. A Spanish Ame- rican name for Isotoma longifiora. REBLE, or RIEBLE. (Fr. Galium RECCHIA. A _ little-known Mexican shrub, 2. mexicana, is the only representa- tive of this genus of Dilleniacee whichis allied to Curatella; but distinguished from re) | | RECE | it by the five sepals being equal and widely spread, and by the stamens being only ten in number. It has twisted branch- es, oval or oblong leaves, and short-stalked yellow flowers produced along the upper part of the young angular pana and forming a kind of raceme. [A. 8.J RECEPTACLE. A general term expres- sive of a part which receives or bears other parts: as the receptacle of flowers or cli- nanthium, the receptacle of fruits or torus, the receptacle of ovules or placenta. Re- ceptacles of oil are cysts formed among the cellular tissue of plantsand containing an oily secretion, as in the so-called dotted leaves of the orange. Receptacles of se- cretion are those cavities of the interior of aplant into which natural secretions are drained. RECESS. The same as Sinus. RECHSTEINERA. A genus of Gesne- racee inhabiting Brazil, of which R. alla- gophylla (Gesnera allagophylla of the gar- dens) is the type. They have large tubers, an erect hairy stem, opposite or ternate | linear or oblong leaves, and a terminal spike of fine scarlet or yellow flowers. nearly bilabiate corolla is scarcely double | the length of the five-cleft calyx; and the ovary is surrounded by five glands, two of which are larger than the rest. R. alla- gophylla has long been a favourite in our hothouses, on account of its gay orange- scarlet flowers. [B. 8.] RECLINATE, RECLINING. Bent down upon some other part; falling gradually back from the perpendicular, as the branch- es of many trees. RECONDITE. Concealed; not easily to be seen. RECTEMBRYA2:. SAUVAGESIACEA, or SAUVAGEZ. A tribe of Violacew, considered by some botanists as a separate order, distinguished by the presence of staminodia in the shape of a ring of filaments or a tube or cup round the five perfect stamens. The group has also considerable affinity with some Ochnacece. SAUVAGESIA.. The type of the order Sawvagesiacee, by some botanists classed with Violacee. It is a genus confined to the tropics, and composed of small annual or biennial herbs found on roadsides and | amongst the grass of tropical meadows. Their leaves are alternate lanceolate, and their flowers regular, white or pink, and either axillary or in terminal racemes. The calyx consists of five sepals, and the corolla of five petals; opposite to which latter are five fertile stamens alternating with five scales. The style and stigmas are simple, the capsule ovate three-cor- nered, one-celled, and three-valved. Some of them are scarcely an inch high when be- ginning to flower. S. erecta, the Herb of St. Martin, is very mucilaginous: it has been used in Brazil for complaints in the eyes, in Peru for disorders of the bowels, and in the West Indies as a diuretic. [B.S.] SAUVE-VIE. (Fr.) Asplenium Ruta- muraria. SAVANNAH FLOWERS. A West In- dian name for various species of Hehites. SAVIA. A genus of the group of Eu- phorbracece, in which the cells of the fruit are two-seeded. The eight or ten known species found in the East and West Indies and Madagascar are evergreen shrubs, with somewhat laurel-like leaves, bearing in their axils a few stalked or sessile in- conspicuous flowers, which are either ste- rile and fertile on the same or on different plants. fA. A. B.] SAVIGNYA. eo > observed in the wood of many exogens, | and caused by the division of the medul- | | pappus in many rows. [SIMA shrubs from Mexico, with opposite leaves, and large yellow flowers. The calyx is tu- bular-campanulate, with the apex divided into five imbricate lobes; the tube of the eorolla is long, and the spreading limb is deeply cut; the stamens are ineluded, and the parallel cells of the anthers are nearly equal, and slightly mucronate at their base; the capsule is ovate and acute. [W.C.] SILYBUM. Robust herbaceous plants belonging to the thistle group of Compo- site, amung which they are distinguished by having the filaments united, and the S. Marianum, the Milk Thistle, grows to the height of three to four feet or more, with a furrowed stem, and large spreading wavy spinous leaves, of which those next the root are pinnatifid, and variegated with green and milk-white. The involucre is subglobose and spinous, and the florets purple with long tubes. The specific name Marianum was given to this plant to preserve the legend that the white stain on the leaves was caused by the falling of a drop of the Virgin Mary’s milk. It was formerly cultivated, the young leaves being used as aspring salad, the root boiled as a potherb, and the heads treated like the heads of the artichoke. It of England, and still retains its place in old-fashioned gardens. French: Chardon Marie; Carthame maculé. (C. A. J.J SIMABA. A genus of Simarubacee, con- sisting of trees and shrubs, natives of Tro- pical America, having the leaves alternate, and either simple or ternate or pinnate, and the flowers in axillary masses or ra- cemes. The calyx is small; the petals four or five, long and spreading; and the stamens eight or ten, each filament having a scale adherent to it. The ovary consists of four or five carpels, the styles of which are distinct, but become united above into one having a five-lobed stigma. The fruit is a drupe but often dry, usually having the same number of carpels as the ovary. Among the species S. Cedron is very re- | markable for the properties of its seed. It ) uses. is distinguished by its large pinnated leaves with twenty or more narrow ellip- tical leaflets, and its large panicles of flow- ers, Which are three or four feet long. It is a small tree, native of New Grenada, and bears a fruit about the size of a swan’s | egg, containing only one seed, four of the cells being barren. The Cedron of commerce, which looks like a blanched almond but is larger, is the kernel of the fruit. As a remedy for the bites of serpents it appears to have been known to the inhabitants from time immemorial, and was first reported in this country as deserving of notice in 1699, but it was not till very recently that anything certain was known either of the seed or its Part of its reputation is owing to its febrifugal powers in intermittent fever, it being successfully prescribed in that disease by the physicians of New Grenada, a country abounding in forests of quina- trees; but it principally rests upon its / SIMA | efficacy as an antidote for the bites of snakes scorpions and other noxious ani- mals, it being universally believed that its application will neutralise the poison even of the most dangerous among them. On the latter account it isso much valued, that there are scarcely any persons in New Gre- nada or the adjacent countrieswho havenot apiece of this seed, which they always carry with them, andasingle seed will sell for four shillings. When a bite has been re- ceived a small quantity mixed with water is applied to the wound, and about two grains scraped into brandy (or, if it cannot be obtained, into water) is given internal- ly. The active principle on which the me- dicinal qualities of the Cedron depend has been separated by M. Lecoy, who has named it cedrine. Every part of the plant but especially the seed is, owing to its presence, intensely bitter. Dr. Seemann has given a full account of the Cedron in the Botany of H. M. S. Herald. * [B. C.j SIMARUBACE. An order of polype- talous dicotyledons, consisting of trees or shrubs remarkable for the bitter taste of their bark, and natives of hot countries, a very few only being found without the | tropics. They have generally alternate compound leaves without transparent dots; no stipules;small unisexual regular flowers in axillary panicles or racemes; three to five sepals and petals ; as many or twice as many stamens inserted round the base of a disk; a free lobed ovary with as many styles and cells as lobes; and one ovule laterally attachedineach cell. Thefruit is various, the seeds solitary pendulous, with or without albumen, and having a superior radicle. All the above characters have, The Treasury of Botany. | Damson, is occasionally to be met with in however, exceptions in individual genera, | and it is only by various combinations of the majority of characters that the order | can be distinguished from Rutacece, and some others which are closely allied. Thirty genera are referred to it, including Quassia, Simaruba, Ailantus, Cneorum, Brucea, Suriana, Brunellia, Picramnia, and Balanites. SIMARUBA. Thenatives of Guianaapply this nametoatree,some parts of whichthey use with great success in dysentery. Bota- nically itis applied to a genus of Simaru- bacee, consisting of tropical American trees, with unisexual flowers ; calyx small cup-shaped, five-toothed; petals five, longer than the calyx, spreading; stamens five, surrounding as many rudimentary ovaries. In the female flowers are five ovaries, placed on a disk surrounded by ten scales or rudimentary stamens; styles five, se- parate below, above conjoined into one, and terminated by a hroader five-lobed stigma; fruit of five drupes. : S.amara, a native of the West Indies and Guiana, yields the drug known as Simaruba- bark, which is, strictly speaking, therind of the root. It is employed as a bitter tonic in Giarrhoea and dysentery, as well as in various forms of indigestion. In large doses itis said to act as an emetic purga- tive and diaphoretic. \S. versicolor, a Bra- | to Anthericum, but differing in the seg- 1060 zilian species, has similar properties. The fruits and bark are used as anthelmintics, and an infusion of the latter is employed in cases of snake-bite. The plant is so bitter that insects will not attack it, on which account the powdered bark has been Simaruba amara. employed to kill vermin. S. glauea, a native of Cuba, furnishesa glutinous juice, which is employed in certain cases of skin- disease. S.amara (officinalis), the Mountain hothouses in this country. SIMBI. Phaseolus trilobus. SIMETHIS. A genus of Liliacer allied [M. T. M.] ments of the perianth being combined at the base, the filaments being woolly on |) the lower part, and the seeds only two (or one) in each cell of the capsule, furnished with an arillus, It contains a single spe- cies, S. bicolor, common in Western Europe, || but in the British Isles only found in Dor- || set Devon and Kerry. It is a small herb || with a slender rootstock, emitting a tuft of thick and fleshy fibres. The leaves are all radicai, grass-like; the s¢ape branched at the top, with a paniculate corymbose cyme of rather small rose-coloured flowers, with a spreading perianth. (esa SIMILARY PARTS. The elementary organs or tissues of plants—such as cellu- lar tissue, woody tissue, spiral vessels, &c. SIMMONDSIA. The name of a genus of Euphorbiacee, in which it is remarkable from there being no albumen to the seed. There is but one species, S. californica, a small evergreen much-branched bush, regularly forked and furnished with oppo- site oblong-lanceolate entire leaves, and inconspicuous green flowers borne in their axils. The males are clustered, the fe- males solitary and nodding—the former with a five-parted calyx and ten or twelve stamens, and the latter with a five-parted calyx enclosing a three-celled ovary tipped with three short styles. The mature nuts resemble an ordinary acorn in size and shape. They are said to have a flavour like filberts, but the after-taste is nauseous, and they are apt to cause purging. The pei 1061 The Treasury of Botany. [SINA | } | plant is cultivated in some botanic gar- dens under the name Brocchia dichotoma. The genus commemorates T.W. Simmonds, a naturalist who accoinpanied Lord Sea- forth to the West Indies. cA. A. B.) SIMOCHILUS. A genus belonging to the order of heathworts. Its calyx is coloured | four-angled and fleshy in its nature, and | furnished with eight ribs; the border of | the corolla is four-cleft, and the seed- | vessel two or four-celled, very rarely one- | celled. The only species is a Cape shrub, the flowers in terminal heads. [G. D.) SIMPLE. Not consisting of several dis- tinct parts. j | . SIMPLER’S JOY. Verbena officinalis. SIMPLICISSIMUS. Not divided or branched at all. of Texas and Mexico, closely related to | Helianthus. They are perennial herbs one | to three feet high, the lower leaves oppo- | site trilobed and toothed, the upper usually | alternate and entire. The uniserial strap- shaped yellow ray-florets are neuter, the disk-florets tubular and perfect; and the- | compressed twuo-awned achenes are seated | ; on a chaffy receptacle, enclosed by an in- '| volucre of two or three series of narrow seales. Gercea belongs to this genus, and ,; a plant which has been called Barrattia Itsname commemorates Dr. Jolin Sims, for many years editor of Curtis’s Botanical | Magazine. (A. A. B.] SIMSON. Senecio vulgaris. SINAPIDENDRON A genus of Cruci- | fere of the tribe Brassicacee. They are of Brassica nigra or Sinapis arvensis, dif- fering from both genera in the more beaded pods, and especially in the sub- angular seeds partly imbedded in the somewhat spongy dissepiment. [J. T.S.j SINAPIS. Crucifere. In the opinion of most mo- dern botanists this genus is inseparable by any save arbitrary characters from Bras- sica. The features especially assigned to Sinapis are the following :—Calyx of four spreading sepals; style small short acute; fruit cylindrical, its valves traversed by | one or more. prominent nerves ; seeds in one row. The species are herbaceous | plants found in most quarters of the globe, but especially in the Mediterranean re- gion. The Black Mustard, S. nigra, yields the greater portion of the condiment so gene- rally used in this country. The plant is in- digenous, but is nevertheless largely culti- yatedin Yorkshire and Durham. The seeds are of a reddish-brown colour. Mixed with those of S. alba they are crushed between rollers, and subsequently pounded and | Sifted twice or oftener. From the residue 5 resembling a heath, whose leaves are in | whoris of three or four together, and | SIMSIA. A genus of Composite, natives | undershrubs from Madeira, with the habit | An adaptation of the Greek | word for ‘mustard’ applied toa genus of | left on the sieve a fixed oil is obtained by pressure. The powdered mustard is usu- ally mixed with a considerable quantity of wheaten flour and a small quantity of turmeric powder—admixtures which are readily detected by the microscope. The term ‘flour of mustard’ is not quite ac- curate, as the mustard-seeds themselves contain little or no starchy material. The chemical ingredients of mustard-seeds are somewhat complex. Among them are a peculiar acid called myronic acid, no- ticeable as. containing a proportion of sulphur, and which, when mixed with water and a peculiar substance called my- rosine (analogous to albumen), also found in mustard-seeds, yields Volatile Oil of Mustard, which has no separate existence in the seeds, but is formed artificially in the manner just stated. This oil is very acrid, and has been employed as a rube- facient. The fixed oil before mentioned as existing in the seed itself has little or no acridity, and has been used as a purga- tive and vermifuge. Hippocrates is said to have employed mustard medicinally, while Columella speaks of its irritant action on the eyes— Seque lagessenti fletum factura sinapis. In modern medicine mustard is most frequently employed in the well-known form of poultice. If its effects be properly watched, this application is safe and most | valuable where a speedy result is desired ; | only differs in the absence of pappus-awns. | bub) if allowed {to remainyjon top) lainey especially in persons who from disease or other causes are not sensitive to pain, it may produce ulceration and gangrene. Internally mustard is employed as an emetic in narcotic poisoning, &c. As a condiment mustard is valuable for its stimulant effects, which render it useful in cases of weak digestion, or as an ad- junct to fatty and other indigestible arti- cles of fod. The White Mustard, S. alba, is also in- digenous in this country. Its seeds are | larger than those of the Black Mustard, and of ayellow colour externally. Chemi- cally they differ in containing a crystal- line substance known as sulpho-sinapisin. Moreover, its myrosine yields with water a pungent oil of a different character from the Volatile Oil of Mustard previously mentioned. The seeds have similar pro- perties to those of S. nigra. They have been recommended to be swallowed whole as stomachics and laxatives, a process by no means free from danger. The seed- leaves or cotyledons of this pliant, together with those of Lepidiwm sativwm, form the well-known agreeable salad known as ‘mustard andcress.’ The facility and speed With which this salad may be grown at all seasons and in all places, together with its wholesome properties, are great advan- tages. It is, moreover, both interesting and instructive to watch the germination of these seeds, and the peculiar shape of their seed-leaves. The seeds of S. arvensis, the Common Charlock, yield an oil that is good for £ = ee Che Treasury of Botany. 1062 burning. In France the leaves are used as forage for cattle. It isa pity that in this country no use is made of so common and troublesome a weed. The leaves of S. cernua are eaten in Japan, while the seeds furnish an oil. S.jwnceais cultivated for its oil, called in India Soorsa; it is used for burning , and also forrubbing the body in illness. “Various other species are culti- vated for their leaves or for the oil de- rived from the seeds. Among them are— S. chinensis, S. dichotoma, S. pekinensis, S. ramosa, and S. glauca. 8S. nigra may be discriminated by its lyrate leaves, the upper ones entire; and the pods on short stalks, smooth and pressed against the stem: whiie in S. alba the pods are spread- ing, very hairy, and terminated by a long beak containing asingleseed. The micro- scopical structure of the skin of these seeds is very curious, and has been de- scribed by Dr. Hassall in his work on The Adulteration of Food. Among the six-sided cells constituting the outer skin of the seed may be seen, according to this ob- server, funnel-shaped cells penetrating into the interior of the seed. S. nigra,which grows some ten or twelve feet high in Palestine, is regarded hy some as the Mustard of Scripture, in preference to Salvadora. See BRASSICA and DIPLo- TAXIS. (M. T. M.j SINCLAIRIA. A trailing Mexican bush belonging to the Vernonia tribe of Com- posite, and closely related to Andromachia, from which the naked instead of frilled receptacle serves to distinguish *t. It has opposite stalked elliptical leaves, and the twigs terminate in panicles of nume- rous yellow flower-heads; the ray-florets are strap-shaped and pistil-bearing; the disk- florets tubular and perfect, and the cylin- drical-ribbed achenes are crowned with a biserial pappus of tawny rough hairs. It isuamed after Dr. A. Sinclair, R.N., a bota- nist who collected largely in New Zealand, and died there in 1861. [A. A. B.] SINDHOOKA, SINDUYA. Indian names for Vitex Neg egundo. SINDOC. An Indian name for Culila- wan-bark. SINDUVARA. A Sanscrit name for Vi- tex trifolia. SINISTRORSE. Twining to the left hand; a term usually confined to the stems of plants. SINKFIELD. Potentilla. SINNINGIA. A small genus of Gesne- racee inhabiting South America, and named by Nees von Esenbeck in honour of the curator of the Botanic Garden at Bonn, M.Sinning. The Sinningias are suf- fruticose plants with rather large fleshy more or less ovate leaves, a bell-shaped generally five-winged calyx, a five-lobed corolla the tube of which is variously in- flated, five distinct giands surrounding the ovary, and a mouth-shaped stigma. pebey are closely allied to the Ligerias (of: by the base, with a simple or compound which the old Gloxinia speciosa of the gar- dens is the type), aud are frequently met | with in hothouses. S. velutina may be re- garded as the type of the geuus. [B.S.] SINUATED. Having the margin alter- nately uneven with deep concavities and convexities. Sinuato-dentate is sinuated and dentate at the same time. SINUS. The recesses formed when the edge of any part is lobed. SIPHOCAMPYLUS. This name, derived from the Greek siphon ‘a tube’ and campulos ‘curved,’ in allusion to the corolla,isusually applied to a genus of tropical American undershrubs of the family Lobeliacece. The flowers in some of the species are placed on solitary axillary stalks, while in others they are aggregated into a dense raceme or corymb. The corolla is tubular, with an undivided tube which is dilated or curved, rarely straight, its limb five-cleft and two- lipped, the segments being of nearly equal size; stamens five,inserted with the corolla on to the upper part of the calyx-tube, two or all of the anthers hairy or pointed at the top; ovary partly inferior, two-celled; style within the corolla: stigma divided into two rounded lobes; capsule two-valved. The flowers are showy, of a scarlet or yel- lowish hue. Several species are in -culti- vation, S.microstoma being one of the hand- somests it has closely-packed corymbs of rich crimson flowers. S. Caoutchouc is said to be so named from the abundance of viscid juice which it contains. [M. T. M.) SIPHONACANTHUS. A genus of Acan- thacece, containing afew herbs, natives of Brazil. It differs from Ruellia in having a slightly swollen tubular corolla with a short limb, a more fleshy fruit with fewer seeds, and in the flowers being without bracts, and arranged in a spicate manner at the apex of the stem. [W. C.] SIPHONANDRACE. An order of mo- nopetalous dicotyledons proposed by Klotzsch to include the Vacciniacee and the tribes Arbutee and Andromedee of EHri- cacece, a rearrangement which has not been generally adopted. SIPHONANDRA. A genus of Vaccini- acee comprising a Peruvian shrub, with elliptic spine-pointed leaves, and clustered flowers, whose diagnostic characters reside in the anthers and filaments being all of equal length, and especially in the long tubular anthers, which equal the corolla in length and open by two pores. The } name of the genus is expressive of this peculiarity, being derived from siphon ‘a tube,’ (M. T. M.] SIPHONANTHUS. A genus of Verbe- nace, by some considered as only a sec- tion of Clerodendron, containing those species witha funnel-shaped corolla, very long tube, and almost equal limb. [W. C.] SIPHONEA. A natural order of green- spored Aige, rooting or merely attached 1063 frond formed of a single thread-shaped branched cell, or of a number of such cells united together into a spongy frond. Itis divisible into two distinct suborders: in one of which, Cauwlerpee, the main cell ts filled with anetwork of branching fibrils, amidst which the minutezoospores are dispersed; in the other, Codiew, the filaments, which may be either free or closely united into a common frond, are filled with green endochrome, and give rise here and there to capsules which ultimately contain one or more zoospores. The Caulerpee are all jnhabitants of warm coasts, but the Codiec are often found in colder climates. In either division we have species which are truly aquatic orterrestrial, or at the least amphibious. In the second division there are many species, as for example those of Halimeda, which resemble corallines from | ters into their composition. and Bryopsis we have the threads whether branched or single perfectly free, and in Botrydium the vegetative part is reduced mass of bladdery capsules. [M. J. B.] SIPHONIA. To this genus we are in- debted for the greater part of our supply of Caoutchouc or India-rubber. to the Euphorbiacee, and consists of some half-dozen species, one of which, S. elastica, | districts of Brazil. They are called Seringa- trees by the Brazilians, from the Portu- guese word seringa, signifying a syringe or Siphonia elastica. || the generic name, derived from the Greek || siphon, has reference to the same use. | The species are trees varying from twenty- || five to seventy or upwards of a hundred || feet in height, and all contain a milky | juice in more or less abundance, though | they do not all yield caoutchouc of good {| quality, thatfrom some of the species being {| brittle. Theirleaves consist of three en- ee It belongs | is anative of French Guiana, and the re- | | mainder of the Amazon and Rio Negro | clyster-pipe, the caoutchouc having first | been used for making those articles; and | The Treasury of Botany. the quantity of carbonate of lime which en- | In Vaucheria | to aminimum, and all that is visible isa ! tire leaflets radiating from the top of a long stalk, and are clustered towards the ends of the branches; and their flowers are borne in loosely-branched panicles,with numerous little branchlets consisting of a few male flowers and a female at the top. Both sexes have a bell-shaped five-toothed or five-parted calyx, and no corolla; the males containing a central stamen-column bearing five or ten anthers in one or two series or whorls some distance below the apex; and the females a three-celled ovary bearing a more or less three-lobed,stigma with or without a short style. Their fruit is a rather large capsule composed of three one-seeded pieces, which split in halves when ripe. The raw seeds are poisonous to man and to quadrupeds, but macaws eat them greedily, and they are an excel- lent bait for fish; long boiling, however, deprives them of their poison, and renders them very palatable. The bulk of the Caoutchoue exported from Para, whence our chief supply is derived, is obtained from S. brasiliensis, which is the one common in the forests | of the province of Para; but that brought down to Para from the Upper Amazon and Rio Negro is derived from S. lutea and S. brevifolia. These three species are all slender smooth-stemmed trees averaging | one hundred feet in height: the Para spe- cies, however, yields the greatest abun- dance of caoutchoue. Europeans first be- came acquainted with caoutchouc in the early part of last century,and its botanical history was made known by M. de la Con- damine in 1736, but it is only within the | last forty or fifty years that it has become | such an important article in our manufac- | tures and commerce. It exists in the tree in the form of a thin white milk, and is obtained by making incisions in the trunk, | from which it exudes and is collected in little earthen vessels, and afterwards con- verted into the black homogeneous elastic mass familiar to us as india-rubber, by | pouring the milk upon moulds and imme- diately holding them over the dense smoke ' caused by burning the nuts of the Urucuri palms (Attalea excelsa and Cocos coronata) until it is sufficiently hard to bear another coating, when the process is repeated un- til the requisite thickness is obtained, and the mould is then removed. Formerly | these moulds were always in the form of shoes or bottles, and hence one of the kinds of caoutchouc is known commer- cially as bottle-rubber; but they are now frequently shaped something like battle- dores for folding linen, only thinner. in 1863 65,649 cwts. of caoutchouc were im- ported into the United Kingdom. [A.8.] SIPHONODON. A name given by Grif- fith to a tree from the Indian Archipelago, which constitutes a genus agreeing in most respects with the order Celastracee, but very peculiar in the structure of its pistil. The ovary, half immersed in the calyx, has numerous unioyulate cells ar- ranged in two or four series; and the co- nical upper portion has a cavity at the | [SIPH ] seeded capsule, and round seeds. S. ga- srr | top, stigmatic inside, from the centre of which arises astyle-like column, the ho- mology of which is not well understood. The only species known has alternate cre- nate coriaceous leaves, and axillary pe- duncles bearing an umbel of three or four small greenish-yellow flowers. SIPIRI-TREE. Nectandra Rodici. SIPO-DE-CHUMBO. Cuscuta racemosa. SIRABALLI. A fragrant valuable tim- ber of Demerara, supposed to be the pro- duce of a Nectandra or Oreodaphne. SIRI, or SIRIH. Chavica Siriboa. SIRIEHOUT. A South African name for Taurchonanthus canvphoratus. SIRITCH. An Arab name for the sweet oil of the seeds of Sesamuwm orientale. SIRKI. Munjia. SISARUM. Siwmn. SISON. A genus of Unmbelliferce, in which each half of the fruit has five nar- row equal ribs, and one club-shaped vitta in each groove. The species are perennial herbs, natives of Europe and Asia, with the uppermost leaves narrower and more deeply divided than the lower. 8S. Amo- mum is a species well known in some parts of Britain, with cream-coloured flowers and aromatic seeds. The name is said to be from the Celtic 'siwm ‘running stream,’ some of the species formerlyincluded grow- ing in moist localities. (G. D.) SISSOO. Dalbergia Sissoo, a valuable timber-tree of India. SISYMBRIUM. A genus of uninteresting herbaceous plants belonging to the Oruci- Jere, not easily to be distinguished from several allied genera. There are numerous species, of which the most frequent in Bri- tain are: S. Alliaria,or Garlic Mustard, some- times called Sauce-alone, a tallish hedge- weed with heart*$haped leaves, white flowers, and erect pods; S. officinale, an erect branched plant, with rough stems aud leaves, the latter jagged with the points turned backwards (runcinate), mi- nute pale-yellow flowers, and rough pods, which are pressed close to the stem—a common hedge-weed; and S. Thalianum, another hedge-weed six to eight inches high, with oblong toothed leaves, aud slender stems bearing a few inconspicu- ous white flowers. The other species are of less common occurrence, but possess no interest. [C. A. J.J SISYRINCHIUM. A genus of Iridacee, the species of which are indigenous to the tropical and temperate parts of America and New Holland. They are herbs having fibrous roots leaves arranged in two rows, astem frequently branched, « two-valved general spathe, inconspicuous flowers, a perianth consisting of six parts, three stamens, an inferior three-celled many- An Indian grass, Saccharum Che Treasury of Gotany. ‘of small white flowers. ‘roots,’ | evergreen 1064 laxoides is a mild purgative, and used as such in South America, [B. 8.] SITAL-PATI. An Indian name for mats made from Maranta dichotuma, SITOBOLIUM. Dennstcdtia. SITUS. The position occupied by an organ. SIUM. A genus of Umbellifere, in which the fruit is compressed laterally, and crowned by the head-shaped styles; each half of it has five equal blunt ribs, and numerous oil-cells in the furrows, as well as at the line of junction. The spe- cies are terrestrial or aquatic herbs, chiefly found in the temperate parts of the Northern Hemisphere. Their leaves vary greatly in subdivision and outline. The name is from the Celtic siu ‘water, in allusion to their habitat. [G. D.] Of the several species of strong-smelling’ weedy-looking plants belonging to this genus only one is grown for culinary pur- poses—S, Sisarum, better known by its common name of Skirret. This plant, al- though usually treated as an annual, is a hardy perennial, a native of China, and | lias been cultivated in this country since A.D. 1548. The lower leaves are pinnated, having from five to nine oval oblong | leaflets finely toothed; at the base they are sheathing and of a reddish colour; the stem, which rises about a foot high, is channelled, and terminated by an umbel The roots, for which this plant is cultivated, are com- posed of small fleshy tubers about the size | of the little finger, joined together at the crown. When boiled and served with butter they form a nice dish, declared by Worlidge, when writing in 1682, to be ‘the sweetest, whitest, and most pleasant of CW. B. B.j SKIMMIA. The name of a genus of shrubs, with oblong entire stalked leathery dotted leaves, and flowers in terminal panicles. The flowers are polygamous, with a four-parted persistent calyx; four petals; four deciduous sta- mens attached to the receptacle alternate with the petals; a fleshy four-lobed disk and afree ovary, with a solitary pendulous ovule in each of its four cells. The fruitis fleshy and drupe-like, with four cartilagi- nous one-seeded stones, containing an albuminous embryo. ? : The true position of the genus is doubt- ful, it having been referred to Celastracece and Aurantiacee. Professor Oliver, in his memoir on the latter group, says that the present genus differs from citronworts in its albuminous seeds, stamens in one row, and abortion or tendency to abortion of one sex. In other respects it is ex- ceedingly like Aurantiacee in structure, especially agreeing in the form of the pistil, and in the succulent fruit. S.ja- ponica is a pretty dwarf-growing holly-like shrub, with dark shining evergreen entire fiat leaves, and clusters of bright red ber- ries, which give the plant a very handsome appearance. It is now frequent in cultiva- tion. Gther species are natives of Northern India and Japan. [M. T. M.) SKINNERA. A genus of Onagracee, distinguished by the tube of .the calyx being dilated above the seed-vessel, the petals small and scale-like, and the fruita many-seeded berry. 8S. excorticata, alias Fuchsia excorticata, is a New Zealand shrub, with the leaves alternate acute slightly toothed, and whitish beneath; the calyx purple and yellow-green, the petals violet. | The genus was named in honour of Mr. Skinner, an English botanist. (G. D.] SKINNERIA. A genus of Convolvulacee, containing a single species, a czspitose herb from India. The calyx consists of five sepals; the corolla is small and some- what urceolate; the single style has a two-lobed capitate stigma; and the ovary is one-celled, and has four ovules. [W. C.] SKIRRET. Siwn Sisarum. SKULLCAP. Scutellaria. SKUNKWEED. Symplocarpus fetidus. SLASHED. The same as Laciniate. SLATE-GREY. Grey bordering on blue. SLAVEWOOD. Simaruba officinalis. SLEEP-AT-NOON. Tragopogon pratensis. SLEEPWORT. JLactuca sativa. SLIMY. Thesame as Mucous. SLIPPER-PLANT. Pedilanthus. SLIPPERWORT. Calceolaria. SLOAK, SLOKE, or SLOUKAWN. Sy- nonyms partly of the common Porphyre, partly of Ulve, but more especially of the | former, the latter being usually called Green Sloke. (M. J. B.) SLOANEA. A tropical American genus oi Tiliacee, comprising upwards of thirty species, some of which on slight differ- ences have been separated as distinct genera with thenames Ablania, Dasynema, and Dasycarpus. They are trees, often up- wards of ahundred feet high, with alternate feather-veined leaves, either evergreen or deciduous, and varying in length from a few inches to upwards of a foot and a half, with the inconspicuous white or greenish- yellow flowers disposed in racemes pani- cles or clusters in their axils. The sta- mens are very numerous, inserted on a broad flat and not conical disk, as in Eleocarpus. The fruits vary from the size of a hazel-nut to that of an orange, of a woody consistence, clothed outside with stout bristles like those on the husk of a Spanish chestnut, ana when ripe split into four or five pieces, with a few seeds in each. The wood of many species is extremely hard and difficult to work; that of S.jamaicensis is known in Jamaica as Breakaxe and Ironwood. The genus bears the uame of Sir Hans Sloane, the founder of the British Museum. (A. A. B.] SLOE. The fruit of Prunus spinosa. Che Treasury of Botany, [sain SLOGWOOD. Hufelandia pendula. SLOKE. The edible Porphyre; also called Laver. —, GREEN. A name given to several species of Ulva, also called Oystergreen. See SLOAK. SMALLAGE. The Wild Celery, Apium graveolens. SMARAGDINUS. Grass-green. SMARTWEED. Polygonum Hydropiper. SMEATHMANNIA. A genus of Passi- floracee from tropical Africa, remarkable for its erect habit, in a natural order in- cluding sO many creepers and twiners. The three or four species comprising the genus have alternate oblong or obovate often ‘serrated leaves, and axillary white flowers. Both calyx and corolla (or peri- gone, aS some writers call them) are five-lobed; the corona is urn-shaped, the stamens twenty, and the styles five in number; whilst the fruit is an inflated one-celled five-valved capsule, enclosing numerous seeds. S. levigata has for some years been an inmate of our hothouses, being one of the numerous introductions of the late Mr. Whitfield from Sierra Leone. i [B. 8.) . SMILACEA. An order of monocotyle- dons, with the six petal-like divisions of the perianth, six stamens, aud three-celled ‘free ovary of Liliacee, but differing from that order in their netted veined leaves, and in their fruit being a small berry in- stead of a capsule. They are for the most part climbers with small flowers, and are distributed over the tropical and tempe- rate parts of the world. The order is re- stricted to the large genus Smilax, with one or two lately separated from it, and Ripogonum. Many botanists unite it with Liliacece as a tribe or suborder. SMILACINA. A genus of herbaceous plants, principally inhabiting North Ame- rica, belonging to the Smilacee. SS. bifolia is a small plant, having the stem furnished with two alternate triangular leaves; the flowers, which are small white and four- parted, grow in the form of a spiked raceme; stamens four; fruit a two-celled berry, yellow with brown spots. It is a na- tive of the North of Europe. Several Ame- rican species are cultivated. [C. A. J.] SMILAX. An extensive genus, giving its name to the order Smilacee. The spe- cies are climbing shrubs, natives of the warmer temperate and tropical regions of both hemispheres. The rootstocks are tuberous or fibrous; the stems usually prickly; the leaves stalked net-veined, and bearing on eitner side of the leafstalk atendril; and the flowers are in globular heads, sessile or stalked in the axils of the leaves, rarely clustered, still more rarely || solitary. The latter are polygamous, and havea six-parted spreading perianth, the three outer segments of which are rather larger than the three inner; stamens six, filaments thread-like; fruit baccate, one to three-seeded. r SMT | Che Creagury of Botany. 1066 Some of the species of this genus furnish the drug known as Sarsaparilla, so called from the Spanish sarza ‘a bramble,’ and parilla ‘a vine,’ in allusion to the thorny stems of the plants. The Sarsaparilla of the shops consists of the roots, to which are attached portions of the rootstocks, of various species of this genus. It is by no means ciearly ascertained what are the exact species yielding the varieties of this drug met with in commerce. That im- ported from Columbia and Guatemala is supposed to be the produce of S. officinalis. Mexican Sarsaparilla is yielded by S.medica, Smilax medica. Brazilian or Rio Negro Sarsaparilla is fur- nished by S.papyracea. Other species are mentioned as occasionally used, but much doubt prevails on this subject. cies named S. Sarsaparilla, which is com- mon in the United States, does not appear to be used medicinally, notwithstanding its name. the drug. The immediate effects of Sar- saparilla are those of a diaphoretic; in large doses it creates nausea and vomiting. Its more remote effects appear to be those of atonic; it is considered a valuable re- medy in those weakened and depraved conditions ascribed toa poisoned state of the blood—hence it is administered in old syphilitic cases, in chronic rheumatism, and in certain skin-diseases. Practitioners, however, differ in opinion as to the value of the drug, as much as botanists do as to the proper species to be employed. Much of this uncertainty no doubt depends upon the employment of an inert kind. Pereira, from whose work on Materia Medica these remarks have been condensed, also alludes to the China root, the produce of S. China,which was first introduced from China in A.D.1535 as an infallible remedy for gout. It has shared the fate of many so- called infallible remedies, and has fallen into disuse. S. aspera, a native of the South of France, Italy, &c., yields Italian Sarsaparilla, which has the same properties as the American kinds. S. ovalfolia is used medicinally in India, as are also the large tuberous rootstocks ofS. lanceefolia. Aus- tralia also supplies a medicinal species, S. | glyciphylla ; of this species the leaves also are used as tea. S. Macabucha is employed in the Philippines in dysentery and other complaints. S. anceps is employed medi- cinally in the Mauritius. The fact that so many species are employed medicinally, in so many quarters of the globe, is strong evidence of their value. Other species furnish articles of food: ) such are S. China, the rootstocks of which | are eaten by the Chinese. The spe- In commerce the various kinds of Sar- | saparilla are divided into two principal groups. according to thequantity of starchy material they contain. parillas contain an abundance of farina- ceous matter in the inner part of the rind. To this group belong Caraccas Sarsaparilla, the produce probably of S. officinalis or S. | siphilitica; Brazilian Sarsaparilla, which is imported in cylindrical bundles, and is considered to consist of the roots of S. | papyracea and S. officinalis; and Honduras Sarsaparilla, the botanical origin of which is not known. Thenon-mealy Sarsaparillas are known as Jamaica or Red-bearded Sar- saparilla, which is imported into Jamaica from Columbia, and is probably the pro- duce of S. officinalis; what is known as Lima Sarsaparilla, which belongs to this division, consists of roots, imported not only from Lima, but also from Costa Rica. S. oficonalis is supposed likewise to be the | source whence these kinds are derived; Vera Cruz Sarsaparilla is the produce of S. medica. Of these several kinds, the Jamaica and Lima sorts are most esteemed; the more acrid the taste, the higher the value seton The mealy Sarsa- | The rootstocks of S. Pseudo-China are manufactured into akind of beer in South Carolina; they are also used tofatten hogs. The young shoots of some of the species are employed as asparagus in Persia, &c. The rootstocks of S. China yield a yellow dye with alum, a brown one with sulphate of iron. The pliant stems of S. Psewdo-China and other species are employed for the manufacture of baskets, &c. Several of the species are in cultivation, moreas objects of botanical interest than for any beauty. The name Sinilaw was employed by the Greeks to designate some poisonous tree; others de- rive the name from smile, a cutting or scratching implement, in allusion to the rough prickles on the stem. [M. T. M.) SMITHIA. A genus of Leguminose of the suborder Papilionacee, consisting ot herbs or undershrubs from tropical Asia and Africa, with pinnate leaves, small leaflets, and yellow purple or blue flowers in axillary racemes. The genus is exceed- ingly well defined by its deeply two-cleft striate calyx, by the stamens united in two parcels, and by the jointed pod folded back into the calyx asin Uraria and Lourea. It consists of ahout eighteen species, some of them handsome, but chiefly to be reck- oned among tropical weeds. Some are said to have sensitive leaves. SMOKE-PLANT. Rhus Cotinus. | | | ‘4 * : SMOKEWOOD. Clematis Vitalba. SMOKY. Having a dull greyish-black colour. SMOOTH. Free from asperities or hairs, or any sort of uuevenness. SMUT. An affection of wheat, barley, oats, and other plants of the same natural erder, deriving its name from the black sooty mass into which the receptacle of the germen and the base of the glumes are converted, the pistiland stamens being completely abortive. It commences its growth long before the sheath opens to give liberty to the inflorescence. Smut is produced by a fungus of the genus Ustila- go, belonging to the division Coniomycetes, and characterised by its simple spores springing at first from-delicate threads or produced in the form of closely-packed cells, which ultimately break up into a powdery mass. It is far more common in oats and barley than in wheat, and some- times does considerable damage, affecting the ultimate produce; but as the spores are blown away at an early stage, and there is nO appearance of the malady, like bunt, at harvest, it is not much regarded by agriculturists. It isacommon notion in- deed amongst them that it may be pre- vented by proper dressing, and several preparations aresold for the purpose, which make great promise, but itis quite clear from the nature of the fungus that they must be wholly inoperative. The spores are dispersed over the whole face of the country, and do not adhere to the grain itself. As soon as the seed is sown, they are ready in the soil to contaminate the young plant. Wehave in vain attempted to impregnate grain with smut, though rubbing healthy seeds with bunt-spores seldom or never fails. The probability is that the smut-spores require a long season of rest hefore their germination takes place, whereas bunt-spores develope their peculiar spawn afew hours after being sown. Smut occurs in all parts of the world where cereals are cultivated, as, for example, on the hot banks of the Indian River Soane’ and is subject to slight varia- tions according to the different plants upon which it is developed, but not such as to justify the separation of several species. On Indian cornit attains an enormous size, measuring frequently some inches in dia- meter. The Smut fungus is described under thename of Ustilago segetum. [M. J. B.] SMUT-BALLS. The same as Bunt. SMYRNIUM. The name of a genus of Unbellifere, known by each half of the fruit having five ribs, three of which are prominent and sharp, and the two mar- ginal ones indistinct; there is a single vitta in each furrow. The species are biennial herbs, natives of Middle and East- ern Europe, with umbels of yellow or yel- low-green flowers. One species, S. Olusa- trum, is not uncommon in some parts of Britain ; its flavour is strong, resembling | that of celery, and it is used as a potherb. The name is derived from the Greek smur- na, one of the names of myrrh, in allusion to the odour. (G. D.J The Alisander or Alexanders, S. Olusa- trum, is a biennial, a native of Britain, and usually met with near the sea, as well as in the vicinity of old residences, where it might have been formerly cultivated. The plant grows from two to three feet high, the stem-leaves being ternate stalked ser- rate, and of apale-green colour. Before the introduction of celery,the leafstalks, which are the partsthat are edible, were blanched and used either as a salad or potherb. The flavour somewhat resembles that of celery, but is stronger and not so agreeable, on which account it has been neglected, and we believe is almost entirely gone out of cultivation. cw. B. B.j SNAG. Prunus spinosa. | 1067 Ghe Creasury of Botany. [sNow also M. Helix; the pods of these are called snails from their resemblance to those mollusks. SNAKE-ROOT. The root of Polygala Senega. —, BLACK. Botrophis actcoides ; also Sanicula marilandica. BUTTON. Eryngium aquaticum; also Liatris. —, CANADA. Asarum canadense. —, CHY- LON. The tubers of Ariseema papilloswm. —, VIRGINIAN. Aristolochia Serpentaria. —, WHITE. LEupatorium ageratoides. SNAKE'’S-BEARD. Ophiopogon. SNAKE’S-HEAD. Fritiliaria Meleagris ; also an American name for Chelone. SNAKE’S-TAIL. Lepturus incurvus. SNAKE’S-TONGUE. Lygodium. SNAKEWEED. Polygonum Bistorta. SNAKEWOOD. Brosimum Aubletti, sometimes called Piratinera guianensis. SNAPDRAGON. Antirrhinum majus; also Silene 7 Chee SP ie DA. ee eee 1077 The Treasury of Botany. [SPER SPATHACE®. A Linnean order equi- ', yalent to Amaryllidacee. ' SPATHACEOUS. Having the appearance of a spathe, or being furnished with one. SPATHE. A large bract rolling over ' an inflorescence aud guarding it while ) young. SPATHELIA. A genusof Simarubacea, ' comprising trees, natives of mountainous || regions in the West Indies. They are ‘lofty and handsome, with large pinnate || leaves, and terminal panicles of small red- | | dish flowers. The calyx is five-parted; the | | petals five, overlapping; stamens of the |’ male flower five, flattened, generallybut not | always having a cleft scale at their hase; | ovary rudimentary, on a short stalk. In | the perfect flowers are five stamens and a three-celled ovary, surmounted by a short | three-cleft style; fruit dry three-cornered winged, three-celled. S. simplex is a very handsome stove-plant, with large spread- ing panicles of red flowers. {M. T. M.] SPATHELL®. The pales and glumes of grasses. SPATHICARPA. This name has been ' given to an herbaceous plant forming a genus of Araceew.. The species is a native of La Plata, and throws upa single hastate leaf, a slender erect stalk longer than the leaf, and terminated by the inflorescence, which consists of a spathe adherent to the spadix. The flowers are arranged in three rows; the central one consists of male flowers, the lateral ones of female flowers 5 the anthers open by pores; the ovaries are free one-celled, with a single ovule; and the fruit fleshy. [M. T. M.] SPATHILLA. spathaceous inflorescence, as in Palins, SPATHIUM. One of the subdivisions of the genus EHpidendrum, including those species (between forty and fifty in nuin- | ber) with slender leafy erect stems, and flowers on along peduncle proceeding | from a spathe consisting of one or more equitant bracts. The flowers, have the lip wholly attached to the column. [A.8.] SPATHODEA. A genus of Bignoniacee, composed of tall trees inhabiting Tropical Asia and Africa, haying imparipinnate leaves, panicuiate flowers, a spathaceous calyx, a more or less bell or funnel-shaped corolla of a bright-yellow orange or pur- plish colour, and acapsular fruit divided into two cells by a partition placed con- trary to the direction of the valves. S. levis is an inmate of our hothouses, and is like all the other species highly orna- mental on account of its foliage and blossoms. All the climbing species (na- tives of America) formerly classed with this genus have been referred to Doli- chandra and Macfadyena; whilst all the white flowering kinds (including the New Holland ones) constitute the genus Doli- chandrone. i [B. S.] SPATHOGLOTTIS. One of the genera of | A secondary spathe ina | : t | five stamens with flat hairy filaments, a , the Bletidee tribe of epidendreous orchids, distinguished from Bletia itself by the | middle segment of its deeply three-parted | lip having a claw or stalk, with two tuber- cles or plates at its base, and by its two- celled anther. All its species are Asiatic, and terrestrial plants, with subterranean corms, plicate sword-shaped leaves, and generally yellow flowers. [A. 8.] SPATHULATE. Oblong, with the lower end very much attenuated, so that the whole resembles adruggist’s spatula. SPATHULEA, or SPATHULARIA. A genus of Fungi allied to Helvella, and dis- tingished by the compressed receptacle running down the stem on either side, and confluent with it. The only species, S. Jlavida, which has the hymenium of a beautiful buff, contrasting well with the whitish stem,is not uncommon in firwood, and 1s very beautiful. {M. J. B.) SPATULE. (Fr.) Jvis fetidissima. SPATULUM. A North-west American name for Lewisia rediviva. SPAWN. The same as Mycelium. SPEARMINT. JDMentha viridis. SPEARWOOD. Acacia doratoxylon. SPEARWORT. Rununeculus Linguaand R. Flaminula. SPEAUTRE. (Fr.) Triticwm Spelta. SPECIFIC CHARACTERS. The short descriptions by which botanists endeavour to distinguish one species from another. SPECULARIA. A genus of Campanu- lacee having the tube of the calyx long, the corolla wheel-shaped and five-lobed, short style with ten lines of hairs, anda long seed-vessel opening by valves above the middle or near the apex. The species are small herbs, natives of Middle Asia (one found in America), having the leaves alternate, the lower differing in form from | the others, and the flowers varying in colour—blue purple or white. The name is from the Latin speculum ‘a mirror,’ to indicate the brightness of the flowers in sunshine. [G. D.J SPEEDWELL. Veronica. SPELT. An inferior kind of wheat grown in France and Flanders, Triticum Spelta. SPERAGE. Asparagus officinalis. SPERGULA. Herbaceous plants of hum- ble growth, with slender stems and very narrow leaves belouging to the order Jlle- cebracee. The characters are :—Calyx five- parted ; petals five, entire; stamens five or ten, inserted on aperigynous ring; styles five, distinct; seeds numerous, keeled or winged round the edge. S. arvensis, the Corn Spurrey,a common weed in cornfields and cultivated ground generally, especially where the soil is light or sandy, is a strag- gling plant about afvot high, with some- Che Treasury of Botan. 1078 what downy stems and leaves, the latter awl-shaped and nearly cylindrical—the Jongest an inch long or more, disposed in opposite tufts at the knots of the stems which are swollen. The flowers, which are white,grow in loose terminal panicles; and their stalks, when the fruit is approaching maturity, become reflexed so as to form an acute angle with the stem. According to Don, this plant is grown on the Continent to serve as pasture for cattle, imparting a fine flavour to mutton, and enriching the milk of cows. S. pilifera has of late years been grown in English gardens as a sub- stitute for grass on lawns. Its foliage is texture; it soon establishes itself, and possesses the recommendation of retaining its verdure in the dryest and hottest sea- sons. The latter advantage it owes to the fact that it belongs to a class of plants which evaporate their moisture slowly, while its long fibrous roots descend to a sufficient depth to be little affected by drought. French: Spergule; German: Ackerspergel. [C. A. J.] SPERGULARIA. A genus of Illecebracece often called Lepigonwm, and consisting of small weedy herbs, occurring in the tem- opposite or fasciculate-whorled setaceous or more or less cylindrical fleshy leaves, scarious stipules, and lilac or pink flowers in dichotomous or racemose cymes, the pedicels reflexed after flowering. calyx is five-parted ; the petals five, rarely absent; stamens five or ten (sometimes fewer), situated on an obsolete perigynous ring; style three or five (rarely two) cleft ; | capsule three or five-valved ; seeds often margined ormembranously winged. There are several British species. iJ. T. 8.) SPERMACOCE. Tropical weeds of the family Cinchonacee. The flowers are axil- lary sessile or somewhat whorled, white or blue, the corolla salver-shaped. When ripe the fruit splits into two valves from above downwards, one valve remaining attached to the partition,and therefore the cavity formed by those parts remains, for a time at least, closed; the other valve becomes detached from the partition, so that the second cell of the fruit is thus opened. Both cells contain a single seed. S. ferruginea is employed instead of Ipeca- cuanhain Brazil ;so also is S. Poaya. In the West Indies S. verticillata is used for the same purpose. The root of S. hispida is employed in India as asudorific: itis stated to possess similar properties to Sarsapa- rilla. The generic name is derived from sperma ‘seed’ and ake ‘ point,’ said to be in allusion to the point-like calyx-teeth surmounting the seed-vessel. [M. T. M.) SPERMANGIUM. The case containing the spores of Algals. SPERMATIA. See SPERMOGONIA. SPERMATOCYSTIDIUM. The supposed male organs of the muscal alliance. See ANTHERIDIA. of a pleasant green colour and delicate | perate zones chiefly on the seacoast, with | The | SPERMATOZOIDS. It is nowas certain that impregnation takes place in many cryptogams as in phiwenogams, but the mode in the two is very different, and that in cryptogams follows rather the type of the animal than that of the vegetable king- dom. As however there was some doubt on the subject when the structure of the male organs was at first well ascertained, the spiral bodies by which impregnation js accomplished in acrogens were called Spermatozoids, to distinguish them from the spermatozoa of animals. In acrogens they appear always to be more or less spiral, though the spire is sometimes much ex- pinded ; and the bodies in this case, with their two lash-like appendages,approach the type which isusualamongst Algc, in which class they are sometimes with difficulty distinguished from the really reproductive zoospores. In Fungi, unless Saprolegnia and its allies be included, the impregnating bodies or Spermatia are more like minute pollen-grains, though there is no evidence at present that they perform their func- tions by a kind of germination. Jn ferns, Equiseta, and Salvinia, instead of the two long appendages there area multitude of shorter ones. Their motion when im- mersed in water is very lively and various. They are produced in a peculiar cellular tissue from the endochrome, and not, as has been supposed, partly from that and partly from the walls of the cells. It was once believed, in consequence of the faith reposed in Schleiden’s theory of reproduc- tion in phxenogams, that,the Spermatozoids of ferns when entering the archegonia did not perform the office of impregnation, but themselves by cellular division becaine the new plant. This notion, however, is now exploded. [M. J. B.J SPERMIDIUM. the Achene. SPERMODERM. The skin or testa of a seed. SPERMODON. A genus of sedge-grasses, belonging to the tribe Rhynchosporee. Spikelets of inflorescence one or few-flow- ered; flowers hermaphrodite or polyga- mous; scales subdistichous, without bris- tles ; stamens one to three; styles two to three-cleft. The few species described under this genus are natives of Brazil and New Holland. [D. M.j SPERMOGONTA. Almost all Lichens exhibit in different parts of their thallus black or brownish specks, whose nature has been variously interpreted by authors. Some have considered them as transfor- mations of the shields by which Zecidee or other shield-hearing genera are trans- formed into Endocarpa or Verrucariee ; while others like Hedwig, with more pro- hability, have regarded them as male or- gans. With the older microscopes it was impossible to ascertain their structure. It now however appears that they all produce, either on naked extremely minute bodies, which are mostly short and linear and straight or One of the names of simple or branched threads, —____— 5 | the Tulasnes and Dr. Lindsay, it is highly | probable that they are of sexual impor- | little consequence, as it does not follow, | because they exist in some Crrptogams, curved, but in some cases elliptic or irre- gular like the stylospores of Fungi. These bodies were at first asserted by Itzigsohn to have active motion, but this has not been confirmed by the generality of ob- servers, who regard whatever motion may appear as simply molecular or (as it is some- times called) Brownian. Certain it is that they have no whip-like appendages, such as are so commonly found in the sperma- tozoids of Alg@, or even in their zoospores. As these bodies are so general in Lichens, as appears from the admirable memoirs of tance. The case scarcely admits of direct proof, but the absence of motile threads or active motion, however produced, is of that they should existin all. Since there is some difference of structure, and doubts may exist as to their real nature, the Messrs. Tulasne have thought it best to propose for the cyst# the name Spermo- gonia, and for the spore-like bodies that of Spermatia. In a few cases, as in Peltidea, the spermatia, as said above, resemble stylospores, but on the contrary in several Fungi there are bodies exactly resembling spermatia as well as stylospores. [M.J. B.] SPERMOPHORUM. A cord which bears the seeds of some plants ; also the placenta itself. SPERMOTHECA. The seed-vessel ; the case in which seeds are contained. SPERMUM. In Greek ‘compounds a seed, or any seed-like part. SPHACELE. A genus of Labiate, dis- tinguished from its congeners by the fol- lowing characters :—Corolla having a wide tube, the upper lip slightly bifid, the lower longest and notched ; filaments of the sta- mens smooth. The species are undershrubs, natives of Western America from Califor- nia to Chili, with wrinkled and opposite leaves, which are hoary beneath, the flow- ers in loose whorls. The name is from the Greek word sphakos ‘sage, indicating some resemblance to that plant. [G. D.] SPH ZRALCEHA. Closely allied to Valva, and belonging to the Malvacee, this genus is principally distinguished by the presence of three ovules in each compartment of the ovary ; the upper one ascending, the two lower ones pendulous. The fruit is globular, consisting of several carpels con- taining three seeds,or by abortion oneonly. The carpels open along one edge, and ulti- mately separate one from the other. The species are natives of Tropical America. Some of them are employed medicinally for their demulcent properties, as marsh- mallow is with us. (M. T. M3 SPH RANTHUS. A genus of the Com- posite containing about a dozen species of much-branched glutinous smooth or downy annual weeds, found in tropical or tubtropical parts of Asia, Africa, and Aus- ralasia. They have winged stems furnisned Che Treasury of Botany. with oblong or lance-shaped decurrent leaves, and the flower-heads are borne in dense spherical clusters, so that without examination a cluster of flower-heads might be readily mistaken for asingle one. The florets are pink, all tubular, the outer ones fertile and three-toothed, the inner sterile and five-tcothed ; the achenes are sinooth or downy, and without pappus. S. mollis, 2 common Indian weed on dry cultivated land, is remarkable when fresh for the strong honey-like odour secreted by the innumerable soft glandular hairs which clothe the whole plant. [A. A. B.] SPH RENCHYMA. Spherical or sphe- roidal cellular tissue, such as is found in the pulp of fruits. SPH/ERIACEI. A large and interesting order of sporidiiferous Fungi, but more important in a botanical than an economi- cal point of view. They are characterised by carbonaceous or membranaceous cysts, or perithecia composed of cells or very rarely of interwoven threads pierced at the tip with a pore or narrow slit, and often ending ina distinct short or elon- gated nipple or crest-like process. The [SPH | walls are lined within with a diffluent ge- latinous mass of asci and barren threads (paraphyses). The cysts are either free from any stroma, whether. naked or ex- posed, or variously seated on or withina filamentous fleshy or corky cellular mass called, according to the prevalence of a floccose or cellular structure, a subiculum or stroma. Though the normal form of fruit is ascigerous, there is reason to | believe that many of them produce asecond form of fruit, consisting of naked spores contained like the asci within a perithe- cium. In the highest genus, thesporiferous state, if we may judge from Cordiceps pur- purea and its allies, is a mere thin stratum of exposed cells, while in some true Sphe- rie and Hypoxyla it assumes the form of different genera of moulds. The subject is, however, still in its infancy, and the whole theory of secondary fruit requires many repeated observations before if can be considered as decisive, though the ana- logy of the red-sporedAlggand some others, is in its favour. Spheriacei are abundantly produced upon decayed wood, herbaceous stems, &c. ; they affect also more fugacious organs, and ap- pear sometimes when there is some degree of vitality left in the matrix. They occur also on dung, on the naked soil, and on ani- mal substances, as caterpillars, chrysalises, &c. They are not uncommon on crypto- gams, and occur even on marine Alge, while one at least in every stage of growth is covered by the sea. One or two curious species are found on truffles while still in their native place of growth. They are found in all parts of the world which are not subject to such extremes of tem- perature as are hostile to all vegetation, save that of the lowest Alge. ([M.J.B.] SPHARIA. The typical genus of the na- tural order of Fungi Spheriacei, formerly | | | ————————— Che Treasury of Botany, SPH | 1080 almost coextensive with the order,and con- | A year or two since this little plant excited sisting of at least 1500 species, but still con- taining numerous representatives, after repeated reduction by the separation of distinet genera. Spheria as now defined consists of those Spheriacei which have earbonaceous perithecia which are not im- mersed in a distinct stroma, but are either quite exposed, partially sunk into their matrix, or covered by the cuticle, and accompanied by a more or less decided growth of threads constituting the myce- lium, A few genera are separated in con- sequence of slight modifications of the perithecia and their contents which it is not necessary to indicate here, After every reduction we have still above 200 species in Great Britain, and there are probably at least 500 good species. The characters de- pend on the mode of growth, on the form clothing and sculpture of the perithecia, | on the comparative abundance of myce- lium or subiculum, but above all on the structure of the sporidia, which exhibit a marvellous .variety of colour, outline, division, &¢., which makes them admirable subjects for the microscope. Though the whole development of each sporidium must be taken into account, together with the variations to which it may be subject, and species must not be proposed on slight or untenable grounds, there are certain | limits within which change can take place, and with proper caution the fruit affords | the most certain distinctive characters. | Though, however, the sporidia afford good | specific characters, they are not in general to be depended upon for generic distinc- | applies to | in the rest of England. tions—an observation which other Spheriacei, and to the great mass of lichens. (M. J. B.] SPHARINE. A genus of Amaryllida- | cere, consisting of perennial herbs, with erect or adscendent stems, scattered leaves, and umbellate terminal flowers. considerable alarm in a large establish- ment in Scotland, especially from its pre- valence in an crchid-house. The very walls of the houses, the leaves of the or- chids, and, in short, every substance in the conservatories were studded with little brown pellets, which adhered with great tenacity. The gardener, ignorant of the cause, fancied that it must be some new disease, which might possibly prove as fatal as the vine and potato murrain. He was, however, requested to send some of the Sphagnum which surrounded the orchid-roots, which was suspected to be the seat of the mischief; and when a portion of this was placed under a bell-glass the in- side was soon in the same condition as the orchid-leaf, and the origin of the sup- posed mischief was clear, to the great delight of the gardener. All lovers of curious plants should look out for this singular fungus, which will amply repay a close observation. [M. J. B.j SPHAROCARPUS: A genus of Liver- worts allied to Riccia, and distinguished by the superficial fruit being collected in clusters on the filmy frond, surrounded by a sessile or pedicellate undivided pitcher- shaped or ovate proper involucre. The spores have their surface divided into little are, each of which has a minute wart in the.centre. The cells of the walls of the capsule are filled with starch-grains. S. terrestris is found on the ground in clover-fields or fallows, but appears to be more common in the eastern counties, than {[M. J. B.] SPHAZROCARYA. A genus of sandal- worts, distinguished by having the calyx persistent and five-cleft, the tube club- sbaped; ten glands in the throat of the calyx, five of which (alternate with its | divisions) are small and petaloid ; and five It is closely related to Alstriomeria, but the | ovary is but little superior, and the cap- sule is indehiscent. Peru. [T. M.] SPH ROBLASTUS. A cotyledon which rises above-ground, bearing at its end a spheroid tumour. SPHAZROBOLUS. A curious genus of Nidulariacei, distinguished by the sporan- giuim being solitary, and at length ejected by the eversion of the lining-membrane of the common peridium, which splits in a stellate manner, and remains attached by the points of the rays like a little bladder. S. stellatus is the most common species, and is found occasionally on rot- ten sticks in woods, though in such situa- tions seldom abundantly. On the contrary, it occurs in the greatest profusion on heaps of sawdust, or in hothouses. The sporangia are thrown like a shell out of a mortar to a considerable distance con- sidering the size of the plant, which scarcely exceeds that of a hemp-seed, and adhere closely to whatever substance they stamens opposite the divisions of the ca- lyx. The species are Indian trees, with They are natives of | alternate oblong leaves, and clusters of small green flowers. 3S. edulis, indigenous to Nepal, bears a fruit which is used by the natives. The name is derived from Greek words signifying ‘ sphere’ and ‘nut,’ in al- lusion to the shape of the fruit.. [G.D.J SPHAROCEPHALUS. Having flowers growing in close spherical heads. SPHAROCIONIUM. Hymenophyllum. SPHAROCOCCOIDE., A natural order of rose-spored Alge@ belonging to the series with spores contained in necklace-like strings, the nucleus lodged in an external conceptacle, which is hollow, and has a placenta at the base; all the cells of the fertile threads being gradually changed into spores, and at length separating. The substance of the frond is cartilaginous or membranaceous. It contains many of our most heautiful Alge belonging to the genera Delesseria and Nitophyllwm, and has representatives in most parts of the habitable world. Delesseria Leprieurii oc- curs in the Hudson River at Westpoint, may chance to meet with in their course, | | become globular heads, hispid with the | | humerous abortive sepals. | of the deserts about Aden, and forms an | | exceptional genus of Caryophyllacee, allied | placenta. | the Irish shores, but rare in Great Britain, — ih ate ee | Che Creasurp of Botany. sixty miles from the sea, and in the estua- ries of several rivers in the Southern |; States of America. The same species is | found also in New Zealand. [MeJe Bal SPHZROCOCCUS. A genus of rose- spored Algc, the type of the natural order Spherococcoidee. it once embraced many species now referred to other genera, and is now nearly restricted to the European S. coronopifolius and S. crinitus. The cha- | racters of the genus, as given by Dr. | Harvey, are :—Frond cartilaginous, com- pressed, two-edged, linear, with two-ranked branches and an internal rib, cellular; cen- | tral cells fibrous ; medial many-sided, those | of the surface minute and disposed in fila- ments. Fruit spherical tubercles, having a thick fibro-cellular pericarp, and contain-_ ing a mass of minute spores ona central S. coronopifolius is common on |} excepton the southern coasts. [M. J. B.] SPH ROCOMA. A dwarf much branch- ed shrub or undershrub, with small oppo- site linear fleshy leaves, and small flowers | in dense clusters, which after flowering | It is a native | to Polycarpea, but having only two ovules to the ovary, and a single seed in | the small utricular fruit. j SPH#ROLOBIUM. A genus of a small group of Leguminose, exclusively Austra- | Jian, in which the ten stantens are free, and the minute pods contain, but two seeds. It differs from its near allies in the distinctly two-lipped calyx, the upper lip the larger and bifid, the lower three- | parted. The species are small bushes, | with wiry terete rush-like stems usually | ! devoid of leaves, and abundantly clothed | near the apex with small red or yellow | pea-flowers. S. dlatum is exceptional in | having winged stems; and S. viminewm— | cultivated in England—is peculiar to Tas- | mania and South-eastern Australia, while all the others are natives of Western Australia. [A. A. B.] SPHZROPTERIS. Peranema. SPH ROSPORE. The quadruple spore of some algals. SPHZROSTEMA. A name under which the Asiatic species of Schizandra lave been distinguished as a genus. SPH#ROSTEPHANOS. Mesochlena. SPH#ROSTIGMA. About 2 dozen spe- | cies of nothera, having spherical instead | of four-lobed stigmas, have been on this account separated as a distinct genus by some botanists with the above name. The most desirable species is @. bistorta, a large-flowered variety of which, called Veitchiana, is in cultivation. Itis a pretty annual, with stems about a foot high, fur- nished with linear or lance-shaped and ses- sile sharply-toothed leaves, and axillary solitary bright-yellow flowers about an inch | handsome plant. | abundant in some hot springs, where they ' quantities an alkaline iodide. | perfectly across. Itis anative of California, as are most of the species, and was introduced into England in 1858. The flowers of most of the species are diurnal. (A. A. B,J SPHA | SPH #ZROTHALAMUS. Under thisname Dr. Hooker has described a new genus of Anonacee, comprising a shrub, native of Borneo, with lance-shaped nearly sessile | leaves, handsome orange-coloured flowers, | having three roundish leafy erect sepals, | six thick petals in two rows, placed with the numerous stamens on a globular tha- lamus, and numerous carpels, each witha short style and two ovules. The only spe- cies, S. pulcherrimus, is stated to be a very [M. T. M.] SPH.EZROZYGA. A genus of green- spored Alge containing many beautiful microscopical objects, allied to Oscillatoria, and distinguished by the free threads, which are not immersed in a dense jelly, as in Nostoc, exhibiting at intervals large swollen connecting joints, either solitary er in chains, which are sometimes fur- nished with cilia, and ultimately contain zoospores. 8S. spiralis is remarkable for its spiral threads, which occur in such quantities as to tinge the water in which they grow of a delicate green. The spe- cies occur in various parts of the world, and though many of them affect com- paratively high latitudes, they are also | are used e2 masse as an application to diseased glands, to which they may pos- sibly do good from containing in minute [M. J. B.J SPHAGNEI. A natural order of mosses distinguishable at once by their habit, but technically characterised by their apparent sessile globose capsule, sup- | ported upon the elongated swollen sheath (vaginula), within which is a very short stem, the spore-sac passing over the top of the short columella, their pale tint often changing to lilac, their fasciculate | branchlets, the absence of proper roots, | and the peculiar structure of the leaves, which consist of large cells with orbicular perforations in their walls, hetween which runs a spiral thread, and surrounded by narrow elongated cells derived from the stem. The veil does not burst till the lid flies off. When thisis ruptured, according | to some authorities, a slight but distinct detonation takes place. The female flowers occupy the place of a branch, while the | male flowers (which are globose and stalked like those of Jungermanniacec) are | seated at the tips of the branches—not in «|, the axils but at the side of the leaves, as in Fontinalis. The branches, moreover, lave a similar origin. Sphagnei are essentially aquatic plants, and though sometimes left dry by the subsiding of the water, they cannot flou- rish without considerable moisture. Few plants more rapidly form turf-beds, but unless mixed with other plants the turf which arises from them is useless for economical purposes on account of its | SPHA | spongy nature. No plant affords a better material for packing than dry Sphagnum on account of its great elasticity, and when slightly moistened it is the best of all substances for enveloping the roots of plants which have along distance to tra- vel before planting. They afford also a useful material in the cultivation of or- chids and some other plants in the conser- vatory. There is but one genus, Sphagnum, which occurs in all parts of the world in temperate climates. The species are diffi- cult of definition, and are probably far less numerous than is supposed. [M. J. B.] SPHAGNUM. See SPHAGNEI. SPHAIGNE. (Fr.) Sphagnum. SPHALEROCARPIUM. A bony one- seeded seed-vessel, inclosed in a fleshy cup, not belonging to the pericarp. SPHENOCLEA. A genus of bellworts, having the following characters :—The calyx has five deep-keeled lobes; the corolla is shortly tubular, its five divisions with inflexed margins concealing the anthers ; the style is very short, ending in two obscure points; and the capsule is two-celled, opening by a lid at the top. The only species is an Indian herb inhabit- ing marshy places, having alternate nar- row and entire leaves, and flowers in close terminal heads. (G. D.] SPHENOGYNE. A genus of Cape Com- posite, some of which form handsome annuals in our flower-gardens. They have an imbricated inyolucre, the inner scales of which or all have a dilated scarious ter- mination; the receptacle is paleaceous, and the pappus simple in asingle row of obovate or wedge-shaped blunt scales, which become opaque-white when mature. The stigmas have a dilated truncate apex. They are herbs or subshrubs, with the aspect of Anthemis ; and have large spread- ing rayed flower-heads, of an orange colour barred with black. [Pal SPHENOTOMA. A small genus of Epa- cridacee distinguished by its calyx of five sepals, with two bracts at the base ; its salver-shaped corolla, with a slender tube and beardless limb divided into five obtuse spreading wedge-shaped segments; its included stamens, and its five-celled seed- vessel. It comprises shrubs, natives of the southern coast of Australia, having the branches annulated when naked; imbri- cated sharp-pointed leaves, cucullate and half-sheathing at the base; and white flowers, in simple terminal spikes. [R. H.] SPHEROIDAL. Any solid with a figure approaching to that of a sphere. SPHERULA. A globose peridium through whose opening sporidia buried in pulp are emitted. SPHINCTOLOBIUM. A name given by Vogel to three Brazilian trees of the Leguminose, with unequally pinnate leaves, and panicles of rose-coloured flow- ers. These plants are now placed in Lon- Che Treasury of Botany. 1082 chocarpus, O£ which they have all the cha- racters. (A. A. B.] SPHONDYLIUM. Heracleum. SPHRIGOSIS. We have already under the article RANKNESS noticed one form of this disease, which may be either consti- tutional or the effect of over-nutriment. Fruit-trees are not however the only mem- bers of the vegetable kingdom which suffer from this evil, which is notoriousin many of our cultivated crops, and no less deceptive than injurious. Here, however, over-luxuriance may arise from constitu- tional defects rather than from injudicious manuring. Those persons who undertake to supply good turnip-seed check the luxuriance of the root by repeated trans- planting, as it is found that seed raised from the finest roots produce plants which have a tendency to make a luxuriant head rather than a large and sound root. Where crops are to be consumed in the green state, itis always aquestion whether increased weight may not be attained at the expense of nutritious quality ; and in the ease of potatoes, though a large crop of tubers may be obtained, their keeping properties willin proportion be diminished, —a circumstance which may not beof much consequence where an immediate sale is the object, except indeed to the purchaser, but which would prove disastrous where the crop is to be stored. Fungi seem occasionally to exercise some influence on the apparent luxuriance ofacrop by their action on chlorophyll. No crops look better than those of the potato which will ultimately fall a prey to the murrain, and the peculiar green hue of bunted wheat foretells the disease to the practised eye months before the ear bursts through the sheath. The bright green of fairy rings is perhaps due merely to the manure from the fungi of the pre- vious year, but we could quote other in- stances in which the presence of the spawn of fungi in tissues increases the green tint of the leaves. [M. J. B.) SPIC. (fr.) Lavandula Spica. SPICA. See SPIKE. SPICANARD FAUX. Victorialis. SPICANTA. Blechnum. SPICE-BUSH. Oreodaphne californica ; also Benzoinr odoriferum. SPICEWOOD. A Worth American name for Benzoin odoriferum. SPICKNEL. Athamanta. SPICULA (adj. SPICULATE). fleshy erect point. SPICULA, or SPICULES. The points of the basidia of fungals; also their aci- cule. SPICULZA. (Fr.) Allium A fine A terrestrial genus of orchids, belonging to the tribe Neottee. The only described species is from South- western Australia, and is a small glabrous f | ] { 1083 Che Treasury of Botany. [SPIN brown herb, the stems provided with one thick cordate leaf, and the flowers brown numerous, minute and racemose. The scape has one bract about the middle. It differs from Drakea in the claw of the lip not being jointed, and in some other par- ticulars. The fiowers are very irritable, | and in their outline resemble the body of a spider. (Ww. B. H.] SPIDERWORT. Tradescantia. MOUNTAIN. Lloydia serotina. SPIELMANNIA africana, which is the only known species of a genus of Verbena- | cee, is a Cape shrub with opposite slightly hairy leaves, from the axils of which arise singly sessile white flowers. The distinguishing characteristics of the genus are to be sought in the calyx, which is split into five linear segments; while the salver-shaped corolla has a nearly regular limb, the throat or aperture of which is closed with fine hairs. There are two ovules in each of the two cavities of the ovary; the style is short, surmounted by a hooked stigma; and the fruit when ripe forms a kind of drupe. [M. T. M.j SPIGELIA. A well-known genus of | Loganiacee, readily known among the | others by the style being jointed above | the base, and especially by the two-lobed capsular fruits, which when ripe open at the apex and fall away, leaving their cup- shaped hardenea base attached to the calyx. There are about thirty known species, natives of tropical or subtropical Ame- | Tica, annual or perennial herbs, with op- posite or whorled ovate or lance-shaped leaves, and purple or blue flowers (with | funnel-shaped corollas) arranged in ter- minal one-sided spikes. The Pink-root, Worm-grass, or Indian-pink of the shops is the produce of S. marilandica, a native of the Southern States of America, a herb of from six to eighteen inches high, with pe- rennial fibrous roots, rather large ovate leaves, and beautiful carmine funnel- shaped corollas contracted at the apex, and not unlike those of the scarlet honeysuckle. Both roots and leaves of this and of S. Anthelmia, a common South American weed, ‘are active anthelmintics, but their efficacy is much They are also purgative and slightly narco- || tic, and are apt to produce very unpleasant || symptoms after being exhibited: dimness of sight, giddiness, dilated pupil, spasms of the muscles of the eye, and even con- yulsions are reported by Barton to have been brought on by them. S. glabrata is | reckoned by Martius among poisons ; and Mr. Hartweg reports that a species of the | same genus kills dogs in Equatorial Ame- | rica.’ | | (Lindl. Veg. Kingd.) The Pink-root and some of the other species have been in cultivation; but being difficult to keep, they are not oftenseenin gardens, though extremely pretty plants. The genus is named after Dr. Spigelius, a surgeon and anatomist of Brussels, who died at Padua in A.D. 1625. (A. A. B.) impaired by keeping. | SPIGNEL. Mewm Athamanticum. SPIKE, SPICA. An inflorescence con- sisting of flowers sessile on a long axis, A compound spike is a collection of spikes arranged in a racemose manner. SPIKELET. The small terminal collec- tion of florets among grasses. The same as Locusta. SPIKENARD. Nardostachys Jatamansi ; also Valeriana celtica. — of Crete. Va- leriana Phu. —, AMERICAN. Aralia racemosa. —, FALSE. dAralia nudicaulis; also Smilacina racemosa. — PLOUGH- MAN’S. Baccharis ; also Conyza squarrosa. —, SMALL, or WILD. Aralia nudicaulis. —, WEST INDIAN. Ayptis suaveolens. SPIKENEL, or SPICKNEL. Jewm Athamanticum. SPIKE-RUSH. Eleocharis. SPILANTHES. Of this genus of Com- posite upwards of forty species are enu- merated, natives of the tropics of both hemispheres, mostly smooth annual branching weeds, with opposite lance- shaped or ovate leaves, and stalked termi- nal solitary yellow flower-heads, with or without short strap-shaped ray-florets. | The latter when present are pistil-bearing, capitatum, the others tubular and perfect. Achenes of the disk compressed without pappus, those of the ray with two short awns3; receptacle conical and chaffy ; involucre of two series of scales, the outer foliaceous. The leaves of many of the species have a singularly pungent taste, whichis especial- ly noticeable in the Para Cress, S. oleracea. This plant is cultivated as a salad and pot- herb in tropical countries, and like many cultivated plants ise natiye country is un- certain. It is a smooth erect branching annual, about a foot high, with stalked elliptical or heart-shaped blades, and in- | conspicuous yellow flower-heads, solitary at the ends of the branches. The Japanese call the plant Hoko So. [A. A. B.) SPILOCAHA. Aspurious genus of Fungi, arising from the obscure growth of certain species of Cladosporium, which is worthy | of notice here, because the greater part of the round black patches which are com- mon upon apples, and take so much from their market value, are referable to this genus. spots, or a closely-allied species, is common also on pears and pear-trees, and is ex- tremely mischievous. Unfortunately, its attacks are so insidious as to give very little hope of remedy. The same measures whick are so efficacious against the white mildew of peaches and vines seem useless here. [M. J. B.] SPINACH, or SPINAGE. Spinacia ole- racea, the leaves of which are a common and esteemed potherb. —--NEW ZEALAND. Tetragonia expansa. —, PRICKLY, and ROUND. Garden varieties of Spinacia STRAWBERRY. Blitum oleracea. —, The fungus which produces these | SPIN] Che Treasury of Botany. 1084 | SPINACIA. A genus of Chenopodiacee, composed almost entirely of uninteresting weedy-looking plants, with small flowers of no beauty. Of this genus, which is bisexual, the male flowers being borne on one plant and the female flowers on another, there is only one species, the S. oleracea, Well known as a favourite pot- herb during the early spring and summer months. The Common Spinach is a hardy annual whose native country is unknown, though enerally supposed to be Western Asia. t has been cultivated in this country for more than 300 years, and is noticed in Turner’s Herbal of 1568 as ‘an herb lately found, and not much in use.” The plant has large thick succulent deep-green leaves, of a somewhat triangular form, produced on long footstalks. The stem is erect large round and hollow, about two feet high. The male plants are distin- guished by their green uninteresting flowers, growing in long terminal spikes ; while those of the females are axillary ses- sile and clustered. The seeds are prickly in some varieties, and smooth in others. Spinach is solely cultivated for its large fleshy leaves, which, although rather in- sipid, are considered wholesome; and when properly dressed, and thoroughly deprived of all moisture before being mashed with butter or rich gravy and a few sorrel leaves, they make an excellent dish, which may be eaten with any kind of meat. Itisa singular fact that the water drained from Spinach after being boiled is capable of making as good match-paper as that made by a solution of nitre. [W. B. B.] SPINDLE-SHAPED. The same as Fusi- form. SPINDLE-TREE. Huwonymus europeus. SPINE. A stiff sharp-pointed body, con- sisting of woody tissue covered with cellular tissue. A hardened leafstalk, sti- pule, abortive branch, or any other process into the composition of which woody tissue enters. Spines of the leaves are the hardened extremities of lobes, or in some cases superficial spiny elevations. SPINESCENS, SPINIGER, SPINOSUS. Covered with spines. SPINIFEX. A genus of grasses be- longing to the tribe Panicece, and having the heads or bundles of inflorescence terminal and axillary, with the maie and fruiting plants distinct ; glumes thin and membranaceous, seven to nine-nerved, those of the male plant unequal, the inner the shortest, those of the fruiting plant equal and acuminate; flowers two, sessile; anthers three; lowest flower neuter, upper hermaphrodite. The few species belonging to this small genus are mostly natives of New Holland. cD. M.]« SPINKS. Cardamine pratensis. SPINOSO-DENTATE. Having teeth tip- ped with spines. | white flowers; S. hypericifolia and S. cha- | meedrifolia, with white flowers; S. bellafrom SPINULOSO-CILIATE. Ciliated with fine spines. SPIRAA. An extensive genus of shrubby or herbaceous plants belonging to the tribe Spirwide of rosaceous plants, and thus characterised :—Petals five ; seed- vessels oblong, opening at the side (fol- licles), and containing one to six seeds suspended from the inner edges of the follicle. The best-known British species is S. Ulmaria, the Meadow-sweet, or Queen of the Meadows, an herbaceous plant with pinnate leaves having a large terminal lobe, erect slender rigid stems about two feet high, and terminal dense corymbs of white highly fragrant flowers. It is com- mon hear watercourses and-in damp meadows. S. Filipendula, or Dropwort, also a British species, is a plant of similar habit ; but the leaves are pinnate, with all the leaflets jagged and deeply serrated. The white scentless flowers while in bud are tinged with crimson externally. This species grows in dry pastures and on heaths; a pretty variety of it with double flowers is frequent in gardens. S. salici- folia, a shrub with terminal compound clusters of dull rose-coloured flowers, is found in woody places in Scotland and the North of England, and in some parts of North Wales is very abundant. Of the foreign shrubby kinds of Spircea some are very handsome: for example, S. prunifolia, with double flowers, a native of Japan, a heautiful shrub, with leaves like those of the plum, silky beneath, and pure Nepal, with rose-coloured flowers growing in lateral and terminal corymbs; S. tomen- tosa from Canada, with cottony leaves and pyramidal panicles of rose-coloured flow- | ers; S. Fortunet from China, with ovate smooth toothed leaves, often tinged with purple, and rose-coloured flowers—and many others. Some are valued from the rapidity of their growth, and others for their remaining in flower during many months. French : Reine des prés; German: Wiesenkinigen. [C. A. J.] SPIRH ANTHEMUM. A genus referred | to Saxifragacee by A. Gray, comprising Polynesian plants, with opposite or verti- cillate leaves, interpetiolar deciduous sti- pules, and small paniculate perfect or poly- gamo-dicecious flowers. The calyx is eight or five-cleft ; petals nine ; stamens four or ten ; follicles four or five, compressed de- hiscent, one or two-seeded. [J-LSa SPIRALTHREAD. Spironema. SPIRANTHES. A terrestrial genus of orchids forming the type of a tribe called the Spiranthidece, consisting of about fifty species, for the most part inhabitants of the New World. One species, S. australis, is common to Australia, New Zealand, and tropical and subtropical Asia. They are herbs with tuberous or thick fibrous roots, numerous linear grass-like leaves growing from the root and stem (occasionally want- ing, or represented by small brown scales), | 1080 he Creasury of Botany. spike, by which the genus is easily recog- nised. The name is derived from speiraa ‘spiral’ and anthos a ‘flower,’ in allusion to the spiral arrangement of the flowers. The tuberous roots of S. autwmnalis were formerly esteemed as an aphrodisiac. S. diuretica is administered in Chili in cases of ischury. Three species are found in the British Isles. CW. B. H.j SPIREE. (Fr. Spirea. SPIRES. Phragmites communis; also applied to Rushes and Sedges. SPIRIDENS. A genus of mosses remark- ' able both as regards size and structure. The peristome is double, the outer com- | posed of sixteen long teeth, which when | free curl upfrom within intoa spiral, while the inner consists of a membrane divided ! into as many cilia, in part free, in part ’| combined above. The capsuie is lateral and unequal. Though the genus is pleuro- | carpous, it hasrather the habit of a gigan- | tic Bartramia than of a Hypnum. S. | Reinwardtii occurs in Java, Tahiti, and the | Philippine Isles, attaining a length of | more than a foot. It belongs to a small ; natural order, Cryptothecei, distinguished | by the cylindrical stem, imbricated leaves, | and mitriform veil. The order is repre- | sented in this country by Cryphea hetero- malla, which is common on trees, and by the rare Daltonia splachnoides, which has not been found out of Ireland. A species of Dendropogon, which belongs to the . same order, hangs down in great masses from trees in Mexico, and is an admirable substance for packing. [M. J. B.] SPIRIT-LEAF, or SPIRIT-WEED. | Ituellia tuberosa, now called Cryphiacan- thus barbadensis. SPIROCHTA. A genus of Composite, comprising an annual herb of Columbia. The stem is decumbent; the involucre is of two rows of bracts; the flowers equal, each with a slender ‘tube, dilated above | into a five-cleft throat; and the style di- | vided into two linear awl-shaped branches. | Fruits multicostate, oblong, covered with if sisting of four smooth hairs twisted |, spirally at the points, whence the name of || the genus. [M.T. M.] || SPIRODELA differs from Lemna in the || presence of spiral vessels in all its parts, | as Well asin some pvints of less cardinal importance. The genus is represented in | this country by the Greater Duckweed, S. polyrhiza, the largest of our British | species. Its fronds. are roundish fleshy, | nearly half an inchin length, green above, | purple below, the roots eaaecore and clus- | tered. The flowers are very rarely observed, | and the fruit is unknown. (M. T. M.] | SPIROLOBEZ. One of the divisions of | the Crucifere, distinguished by having | the cotyledons incumbent and spirally | twisted. || glandular hairs; pappus in one row, con- | s | most remarkable of mosses, especially those SPIRONEMA. A genus of Commelyna- ' | and small flowers in a spirally-twisted ; cee, established by Lindley for a Mexican plant, more curious than handsome, with | large oblong-lanceolate acute radical leaves, and erect leafless almost rush-like flower- ing stems, havingthe small fragrant flowers clustered along its rigid branches, in the axils of chaffy scales. The three rigid sepals and three extremely delicate petals are the same us in many other Commelynacece, but the structure of the stamens is peculiar: the very slender filaments contain spirally- twisted bundles of vessels, and the anthers are placed transversely at the base of a large delicate heart-shaped connective. SPIROSTACHYS. A South African tree constituting a genus of LHuphorbiacee. The leaves are entire stalked smooth ; the flowers moncecious; the males in crowded catkins, with spirally arranged bracts, their calyx enclosed within the bract; and the females solitary at the base of the male catkin, or in pairs, with a three- cejled ovary, and thick style supporting three thick recurved stigmas. The generic name is given in allusion to the spirally arranged bracts of the catkin. [M.T. M.] SPITHAMA (adj. SPITHAMZUS). Se- ven inches, or the space between the tip of the thumb and the eae ee sepa- rated as widely as possible. SPIXIA. A genus of Brazilian trees of the family Euphorbiacece. The leaves are large and leathery; the flowers are axillary dicecious, surrounded by an involucre of somewhat globular form, studded by star- shaped hairs; the calyx is small, two to three-parted ; stamens two to three, longer than the calyx, surrounding four rudi- mentary ovaries. In the female flowers there isa two-leaved calyx surrounding an oblong hairy three-celled ovary; stigma entire ; fruit capsular. (M. T. M.] SPLACHNET. A natural order of acro- carpous mosses, characterised by a straight capsule with a well-marked and often large | swelling (apophysis) at the base, diapha- nous large-celled leaves, the spores radi- ating in lines from the columella, and the | plants growing on decayed wood or the dung of animals. They are amongst the which oecur in the Northern Hemisphere. The peristome is generally well-marked, and in Tayloria splachnoides the teeth are remarkably long, and singularly curled af- ter the lid has fallen. In Gdipodiwm, how- ever, there is no peristome. It is singular that the species of the Northern Hemi- sphere grow on dung, while those of the Southern Hemisphere (with one exception) only occur on decayed wood. ([M.J. B.] SPLACHNUM. A beautiful genus of mosses remarkable for the immense de- velopment of the apophysis in several species, which gives them a very striking appearance. In 8S. rubrum and lutewm (the former of which is European, and the lat- | ter extends to America) itis shaped likean | umbrella, and is of a red or yellowish hue; | while in S. vasculorum, which occurs in the | a eee nrc | SPLE | —— en Che Treasury af Botany. 1086 Scottish Highlands, it is rugged, and of a deep purple. In S. Gunnii, a fine Tasmanian species, it resembles a Turk’s-cap gourd ; while in S.ampullaceum, which occurs in marshy places on a level with the sea or on the dung of animals, it is pitcher-shaped, and of a reddish or golden-yellow colour. The swelling is hollow, the central portion (a continuation of the axis) being connect- ed with the outer by delicate threads. Several genera have been separated from it, but most of them rest on insufficient grounds. French: Splane. [Mn J.B. SPLEENWORT. Asplenium. SPLENDENS. The same as polished, but having the lustre a little broken from , slight irregularity of surface. SPLITGERBERA. A Japanese shrub forming a genus of Urticacee. The leaves are opposite or in threes, entire or two- lobed, membranous; and the flowers in | axillary spikes, with four-leaved unequal involucre; perianth of the male flowers four-parted, with four stamens opposite its segments ; filaments flattened petaloid, at first infolded, afterwards spreading. The female flowers are placed above the males in the upper part of the stem; they have an ovate perianth closely applied to the ovary, and nearly adnate to it. The ovary is one-celled, with a single ovule, and a cylindrical style terminated by an elongated hairy stigma. NY a NAY | SPODO. In Greek compounds = ash- grey. SPONDIACEA, or SPONDIE®. A tribe of Anacardiacece, considered by some bo- tanists as a distinct order, but only differ- ing from the other tribes by the ovary \ exudes from the bark of this tree. S. Mombin has astringent leaves, while its fruits are laxative, and its seeds are said to be poisonous. The bark of S. venulosa has aromatic astringent properties. S. tuberosa is also employed in fevers; the fruit is the part used. S, Birrea affords to the natives of Abyssinia an edible kernel, while its fruits are employed in Senegal in the preparation of an alcoholic drink. The flower-buds of S. Mombin are used as sweetmeat with sugar. One or two species are in cultivation in this country. The generic name is said to be derived from the Greek name for a kind of plum; it may also be derived from sponde ‘a cup,’ in allusion to the peculiar cup-like disk in the flowers. (M. T. M.) SPONEE. (Fr.) Sperguila. SPONGELET, SPONGIOLE. The young tender extremity of a root, by which fluid food is absorbed from the earth. SPONGE-TREE. Acacia Farnesiana. | in the present day. being completely two to five-celled instead | of being reduced by abortion to a single | cell. Besides Spondias itself, it only in- cludes nine species distributed into six | genera. SPONDIAS. By some authors this ge- nus is considered as the type of a distinct natural order, while others refer it to | Anacardiacee. The points of distinction are to be sought in the alternate dotless | leaves, andin the cup-like disk surrounding the five distinct carpels, each of which contains a single pendulous seed. The species are natives of the tropics of both hemispheres, and the fruits of some of them are edible. Thus in Brazil and the West Indies, S. lutea, S. Mombin, S. tuberosa, &c. yield fruits eaten under the name of Hog Plum, the taste of which is said to be peculiar, and not agreeable to strangers. These fruits are chiefly used to fatten swine. S. dulcis, a native of the Society Isles, yields a fruit compared in flavour to that of the pine-apple. S. man- gifera yields a yellowish-green fruit, which is eaten in India, and is used as a pickle in the unripe state. . Some of the species are employed medi- cinally. Thus the bark leaves and wood of S. mangifera are used in various com- plaints in India. An insipid gum also} almost magical. SPONGEWOOD. Aschynomene aspera. SPONGIOCARPE. A natural order of rose-spored Alg@, consisting of a solitary genus, POLYIDES: which see. [M. J. B.] SPONGY. Having the texture of a sponge, that is to say, very cellular, with the cellules filled with air: as the coats of many seeds. SPONTANEOUS GENERATION. In the days of Aristotle, and to a late date in the last century, the notion that corruption is the source of life was almost universal, and itisa common popular opinion even In the scientific world indeed, except amongst a few philosophers of the German school, the opinion has been all but exploded, that organised beings can arise without pre-existent germs. If has, however, of late been re- vived by Pouchet and others in France; and if their facts could be implicitly de- pended upon, the doctrine would certainly be in a condition less exposed to doubt than it has of late been considered. Its opponents, however, in France—amongst whom may be reckoned men of no mean pretensions, as Payen, Quatrefages, Ber- nard, and Dumas—have met the subject with counter-statements which appear quite irresistible. Wherever due attention has been paid to prevent the possibility of access of atmospheric air, no vegetation has ever appeared, provided proper precautions have heen taken to place all possibly pre- existent germs in such a condition that their reproductive powers must be de- stroyed. If the residue of rain or snow- flakes or the dust of tradewinds is care- fully examined, numerous animal and vegetable productions may always be detected ; and the lower forms of either kingdom are propagated with such ex- treme rapidity, that the swarming of animals or vegetables in infusions seems Some of these will bear. 1 ng Ip et noe. === 1087 a heat equal oreven much superior to that | ef boiling-water for some time withcut | losing their vitality ; therefore the simple boiling of water is not sufficient, even should care be taken to exclude the out- ward air, or to prevent its containing re- productive germs by passing it through a furnace. Concentrated sulphuric acid has sometimes been used for the same pur- | pose, but this plan is subject to error, as, whatever may be the case with germs which may be present on the outside of a bubble passing through the acid, it does not follow that those in the middle of the bubble should be killed. The existence of intestinal worms even in infants in the woinb, and that in situations in which it seemed impossible that there could be any access from without, was once regarded as decisive on the question ; but the discove- ries of Van Beneden and others have set this at rest, except with the sworn advo- cates of Heterogenesis, who deny their doc- trine with a sneer at their small preten- sions to credit, inasmuch as they are not Frenchmen. No observations, indeed, re- quire greater caution and nicety than those which are requisite to establish or disprove the doctrine, and there is no subject which has less excuse for anything like dogma- tism. In trustworthy hands the proof of Heterogenesis has always failed, and true philosophy will not readily adopt a theory which is @ priori opposed by such a mul- titude of facts. A parting observation may be offered ; Or protoplasm in plants. Undoubtedly new living cells and structures seem to be | immediate connection with the contiguous | | generated in such substances without any tissues. It must, however, be remembered that such matters can only generate new tissues or organs when still endowed with life and in contact with living tissues. The serum of blood, for instance, when removed from its fountain (though kept | at the proper temperature), will never ge- nerate blood-globules, and other similar | examples might be adduced. [M. J.B] SPOONWORT. Cochlearia officinalis. SPORANGIOLUM. A case containing sporidia. SPORANGIOPHORUM. The axis or columelia on which are borne the spore- cases of some ferns. SPORANGIUM. A word used in crypto- gams to denote the case in which the spores are formed. In fernsit is applied | to the little cysts with their elastic ring ; in pseudoferns to the organs imme- | diately containing the spores, whether naked or contained in a common recep- | tacle; in mosses to the urn-shaped bodies | which are often called capsules and thece. Amongst alge lichens and fungi it is seldom used in a general sense. In the latter it is sometimes applied to asci when large and pear-shaped as in truffles, to the spore-bearing vesicles of moulds, or to the Ghe Treasury of Dotany. respecting organisable lymph in animals, | tacies of plants like Nidularia, though they are certainly not of the same nature as ior in scientific language homologous with) the organs just mentioned. {(M. J. B.] SPORE. As the reproductive bodies of eryptogams do not contain an embryo, but are merely cellular, consisting of one or more cells variously combined together, they are called spores to distinguish them from true seeds. Amongst Fungi the name is restricted to those reproductive bodies which are produced either singly, or in little chains at the tips of the fruit- bearing threads. In many cases, however, these bodies are generated within cells or | asci, and they are then for distinction’s sake termed sporidia. It is however de- sirable that the word spore should be | used in the more general sense as opposed | to seed, the grand distinction between cryptogams and phenogams consisting in the different nature of their mode of re- production. The spores of acrogens are |/produced mostly in mother-cells four | together, after the manner of pollen-grains | —often however retaining their original | form, so that when mature they have one | spherical and three plain sides. In a few genera, however, there is only a single | spore in each sporangium. In Alg@ the | Spores are sometimes, as in Desmiospermec, | nothing more than the transformed Joints | of certain threads ; sometimes they appear, 'as in most if not all Gongylospermee, to be formed from the contents of a cell, asin the ascigerous Fungi, sometimes they are | endowed with active motion like animals, aud are ther. called Zoospores. In lichens they are of the same nature as the sporidia of Fungi. The word sporules is sometimes |} used generally in the sense of spores, |sometimes to denote distinct granules within spores. These are occasionally called sporidiola. Spores germinate either by elongation of , Some particular part, and subsequent cell- division, er by cell-division without any protrusion of a thread or membranous ex- pansion. In Myxogastres they germinate sometimes after the fashion of other Fungi, but sometimes the outer case is ruptured, and a body appears with the attributes of some of the lower Infusoria, celium peculiar to those Fungi. [M. J. B.] SPORE-CASE. The immediate covering of the spores of cryptogams. SPORENDONEMA. A genusof Fungi proposed at first on erroneous characters, of which one suppcsed species, which forms scarlet masses on decayed cheese, differs from Torula only in its bright colour. S. Musce occurs in flies in autumn, oozing out between the rings of the abdo- men, and at length killing them. The species requires further study, and will probably be traced to some higher stage of development. The flies which are attacked by it before death fasten themselves by their proboscis to leaves or other sub- [SPOR | lens-shaped bodies contained in the recep- | which, apparently without any cellular | division, produces the semigelatinous my- | i SPOR | The Treasury of Dotann. stances, where they remain attached for the reproductive bodies of some algals some time. See SAPROLEGNLA. [M. J. B.] SPORIDESMIUM. An obscure genus of naked-spored Fungi (Contiomycetes), con- sisting of a multitude of species forming conspicuous black soot-like patches on rails, decayed wood, &c. Many of them are probably merely conditions of Fungi and lichens. There is scarcely any myce- lium, and the whole plant consists of no- thing more than cellular spores of various shapes. The genus is worthy of notice here only as explaining the origin of the above-mentioned patches, which must at- tract every eye the least attentive, and whose nature it may be desirable to ascer- tain. [M. J. B.] SPORIDIA. A name given tothe spores of Fungi and lichens when they are con- tained in asci. Sporidia like spores may consist of one or more cells, and these may be covered with a distinctly organised cuticle as in many truffles. They have frequently a thick gelatinous coat, which is usually absorbed as the contents of the cells become fully organised. They ger- minate by the protrusion of the inner membrane, the outer being ruptured or perforated, or in some cases by the elon- gation of both. In compound sporidia a distinct germinating thread is often pro- duced by each cell. Sporidia often contain one or more oil-globules, and occasionally distinct cytoblasts, which are sometimes confounded with the oil-globules. Like other organs they are subject to disease, | and may be either wholly effete, or so dis- torted and altered in chemical composition as to be incapable of germination. Itisa mistake to suppose that they are constant in size and form. Great differences of dimensions and outline may exist in the same ascus. Microscopical measurements are therefore valuable only within certain | | ments are reflexed, and the lower sloped limits, and the same may be said of form. Sporidia have sometimes a very different | outline when seen from the back or side; and in some eases, like the spores of so many agari¢es, they are hollowed out on one side like the seed of a Veronica or a frag- | | flowers, | edged hollow and one-flowered. ment of a bombshell. In manycases the ascus in whieh they were generated is absorbed, so that they appear naked; and it is probable that occasionally they undergo further development when free, as iS certainly the case with some spores or protospores of Fungi. (M. J. B.} SPORIDIIFEROUS. Bearing sporidia. of thallogens and acrogens. SPOROBOLUS. A genus of grasses be- longing to the tribe Agrostidee, the species of which are now placed in Vilfa, &c. Steudel. [D. M.) SPOROCARP. The involucre:of pepper- | worts; the spore-cases of lycopods; any spore case. SPOROCLADIUM. A branch on which by | | free, SPORIDIOLA. The spores or sporules | | upright branching shrubs; are found. SPOROCYST. The spore-case of algals, SPORODERM,. The skin of aspore. SPOROPHORE. A name given to the fertile cells in the naked-spored Fungi, and synonymous with the basidia of French authors. In such Fungi as agarics the sporophores are clavate or swollen above, and bear generally four little points called spicules, or by the French sterigmata, on which the spores are seated. In Tremella the sporophores are globular or quadri- partite, the spicules being drawn out into long threads. In Coniomycetes they are often very short and obtuse, or thread-shaped, and occasionally branched. (M. J. B.] SPOROPHYLLA. A name given to the little leaflets which, as in Plocamium, bear the tetraspores. ({M. fie B.] SPORULE. See SPORE. SPRAGUEA. A Californian herb form- ing a genus of Portulacacee allied to Claytonia, but differing in the petals being reduced to four, the stamens to three, and the styles and valves of the capsule to two, and by the remarkable large orbicular cordate thin and transparent sepals. The leaves are all radical, and somewhat suc- culent; the flowers are densely imbricate in spikes, several of which form a dense umbel on a leafless scape, the large sepals giving it an elegant and singular aspect. SPREADING. Having a gradually out- ward direction, as petals from the ovary. SPREKELIA. The genus of the Ja- cobean Lily, S. fornosissima, and one or two other species. It is remarkable for its declinate perianth, with scarcely any tube, anda limb of which the upper seg- downwards and convolute at the base. The filaments are inserted equally with a connecting membrane, and are fasciculate declinate and recurved like the style; the leaves are linear-lorate, produced after the and the scape somewhat twwo- Els Zila SPRENGELIA. A small genus of Zpa- cridacee, natives of South and Eastern Australia and Tasmania, distinguished by having a five-parted slightly-coloured ca- lyx, surrounded by numerous bracts; a five-parted beardless corolla; stamens the anthers occasionally united ; and the seed-vessel five-celled: They are the leaves sharp-pointed cucullate and half-sheath- | ing at the base; and the flowers terminal, on short lateral branchlets, [R. H.] SPRING-BEAUTY. An American name for the Claytonias. SPRINGERS. A local name applied to the variety of Agaricus arvensis figured by Bulliard, and distinguished by its elon- gated pileus, tall stem, and thinner ring. 1088 j | | | | | | | | | t | | | i } i he Treasury of Botany. [squz They grow in very large rings, and some- times (as in 1860) occur in thousands, yielding excellent buttons for pickling where it is not thought essential to retain a pale colour, as in the buttons of A. cam- pestris. This, however, is next to impos- sible, as the plant when bruised at once ' turns yellow, and unless thrown at once ‘into water acquires soon a brown tint | which is indelible. | are very good fur stewing, though not so When full-grown they delicate in flavour as the true mushroom, neither do they yield such good ketchup as that species. {M. J. B.] SPRIT. Juncus articulatus. SPRUCE. Abies. A.nigra is the Black Spruce, A. alba White Spruce, and A. rubra | | | Red Spruce. —, HEMLOCK. Abies cana- densis. —, NORWAY. . Abies excelsa. SPRUCE. A fermented liquor made from molasses or treacle, and a decoction of the twigs of the Spruce Fir. SPRUCEA. A handsome tall bushy shrub discovered by Mr. Spruce on the shores of the Amazon near the mouth of the Rio Negro, and named after him as a genus of Cinchonacee. The flowers, of a yel- lowish eream-colour and with a fine scent The almost globular tube of the corolla with minute broad lobes, and the long | projecting stamens, distinguish it from all allied genera ; the two-celled ovary, with | numerous imbricate ovules, and the evi- | dently capsular fruit, show that it belongs either to the tribe Cinchonee or to that of Rondeletiee, but the ripe seeds being as yet unknown it cannot at present be de- termined to which of these groups it should be referred. SPUMARIA. One of spicuous genera of the semigelatinous | puffballs, occurring in the form of frothy and at length lobed masses, white without and dusty within, on the stems of grasses, amongst dead leaves, &c. The péridia are at length completely confluent. There is no beauty to recommend the two or three species of the genus. [M. J. B.] SPUNK. Polyporus igniarius. SPUR. A hollow terete extension of some part of the flower. The same as Calcar. SPURGE. Zuphorbia. —, BRANCHED. Ernodea littoralis, —, CAPER. Euphorbia Lathyris. parissias. —, PETTY. Enphorbia Peplus. —, SUN. Euphorbia helioscopia. SPURGEWORTS. Lindley’s name for the Euphorbiacee. SPURRY. Spergula. —, CORN. Sper- guia arvensis. —, KNOTTED. Sagina nodosd. —, SAND. Spergularia. SPUR-TREL. Petitia domingensis. SPURWORT, Sherardia arvensis. the most con- | : i | bears them, or being so arranged. —, CYPRESS. Euphorbia Cy- | comprising a considerable number of Australian species very nearly allied to Trymalium and to Cryptandra, and many of them have been described under one or other or both of these genera. They agree also with both genera in their more or less inferior three-celled ovary, and in their capsule enclosing three membranous or crustaceous cocci; but differ from 7ry- malium chiefly in their flowers being closely sessile in little heads, surrounded by small brown bracts; and from Cryptan- dra in their stamens being inserted imme- diately round the disk, not adnate to the calyx-tube above the disk. They are all small procumnbent or heath-like shrubs, more or less hoary with a close tomentun, with small entire leaves, and very small flowers, the heads usually collected into axillary or terminal cymes or compound heads. Few, if any, out of nearly thirty species known, are likely to be ornamental enough for cultivation. SQUAMA. A scale-like rudimentary leaf, such as coats and guards the leaf-bud. SQUAMATE. Covered with small scale- like leaves. SQUAMATIO. A disease, consisting in f | ! | a preternatural formation of rosettes of of Vanilla, are in dense terminal corymbs. | scale-shaped leaves, such as occasionally appears on the rose-willow. SQUAMELLA. A scale-like membranous bract, such as is found very commonly on the receptacle of composites. SQUAMOSE. Scale-like. SQUAMULA. The hypogynous scales of grasses. SQUARROSE. Covered with bodies which spread at right angles, or at a greater angle, from the surface which SQUARROSO-DENTATE. Having teeth which do not lie in the plane of the leaf, but form an angle with it. SQUARROSO-LACINIATE. in a squarrose way, SQUARROSO-PINNATIPARTITE. Deep- ly pinnatifid with squarrose divisions, as the teaf of Achillea Millefoliwm. Lacerated SQUARROSO-PINNATISECT. Pinnati- | fid, with the segments so straggling as to appear on Gifferent planes. SQUASH. A variety of Cucurbita Melo- pepo. —, LONG. An American name for Cucumis verrucosa. SQUAW-ROOT. Conopholis. SQUAW-WEED. Senecio aureus. SQUILL. Urginea maritima; also the genus Scilla. —, CHINESE. Barnardia. —, ROMAN. Bellevalia. SQUILLE. (Fr.) Uvginea maritima. SQUINANCY-BERRY. Ribes nigrunt. SQUINANCYWORT. Asperula cynan- chica. | SPYRIDIUM. A genus of Rhamnacec, | | sQuI]. * SQUINE. (Fr.) Smilax China. SQUIRREL-CORN. An American name for Dicentru canadensis. SQUIRREL-TAIL. mune. SQUITCH. Triticumvrepens; also Agrostis stolonifera. ; SRIGUNDA, An Indian name for Sandal- wood. STAAVIA. A genus of Briuniacee, dis- tinguished by the corolla being of five lanceolate petals, thick and fleshy below; and the seed-vessel half-inferior and two- horned. The species are Cape shrubs, with linear leaves hard at the end; and flowers intermixed with chaffy scales, arranged in heads with numerous white bracts. The genus was named after Martin Staaf, a cor- Hordeum mariti- respondent of Linnzeus. {G. D.] ‘STACHIDE. (Fr.) Stachys. STACHYANTHUS. A genus of Compo- site, comprising a Brazilian herbaceous | plant of somewhat shrubby habit, covered with closely-pressed white hairs, and hay- ing partially-toothed leaves, globular flower-heads surrounded by an involucre | of oblong scales; the achenes hairy, sur- mounted by a pappus of many rows of hairs, the outer ones shorter than the inner. (M. T. M.] STACHYS. In Greek compounds =a spike. STACHYS. The generic name of plants helonging to the order ZLubiate, and dis- tinguished from their congeners by the following characters :—The calyx is some- what bell-shaped, with five nearly equal teeth ; the tube of the corolla is about as long as the calyx, its upper lip arched and entire, the lower three-lobed, the two late- ral lobes bent down; and the two anterior stamens are longest. The species are herbs shrubs or undershrubs, widely dis- tributed, and varying greatly in habit. The flowers are two or more in a whorl, usually in terminal masses. The name is from stachys, the Greek for ‘spike,’ in allusion to the aspect of the inflorescence. fG. D.) STACHYTARPHA, or STACHYTAR- PHETA. A genus of Verbenacece, gene- raliy considered as a.section of Verbena. lt differs from the true Verbenas in having atwo-celled fruit, splitting into two seed- like nutlets, and having the two upper stamens without anthers. The species are aromatic herbs or shrubs, natives for the most part of tropical or subtropical Ame- rica. The flowers are densely packed upon somewhat fleshy spikes. S. jamqaicensis is possessed of remarkable medicinal virtues aceording to the Brazilians ; its leaves are sometimes used to adulterate tea, and in Austria they are sold under the name of Brazilian tea. (Ww. C.] STACKHOUSIA, STACKHOUSIACEA, A genus of polypetalous Gieotyledons allied to Celastracee, but differing in so Che Treasury of Botany. 1090 many points that it is universally adopted as a distinct order. It consists of about twenty species,.all Australian excepting two, one from New Zealand, the other from the Philippine Islands. They are all herhs, with a perennial often woody stock, and simple or little branched erect stems; the leaves are alternate narrow or small, the flowers white or yellow in a terminal raceme. The calyx is small five-lobed, the tube lined with the disk, on which the sta- mens are inserted alternately with the petals as in Celastracee; but the petals are more or less combined ina tubular corolla, the stamens are unequal, and the ovary and fruit are divided into two to five (usually three) lobes or cocci, all which characters are as different from those of Celastracece asisthe habit. None of the species present any interest beyond their botanical struc- ture. The genera Tripterococcus and Plo- kiostigma, proposed to be separated from | Stackhousia, haye not been generally adopted. STEHELINA. A genus of Composite, so named in honour of a Swiss physician and botanist. The species are shrubs, natives of the Mediterranean regions, with narrow leaves, downy on the under- surface, and terminal flower-heads, sur- rounded by a cylindrical involucre of over- lapping scales; receptacle flat, scaly ; co- rollas all tubular, five-cleft; style tumid, and hairy at its upper part; achenes ob- long, surmounted by a pappus of one row of hairs, combined at the base into four or six bundles. [M. T. M.] STAFF-TREE. Celastrus. STAGGER-BUSH. Lyonia mariana. STAGGERWORT. Senecio Jacobeea, STAG’S-HORN. Rhus typhina; also Cenomyce cervicornis, and Lycopodiun cla- vatum. STALK. The stem or support to an organ; as the petiole of a leaf, the pedun- cle or pedicel of a flower, &ec. STALKLESS. See SESSILE. STALKLETS. Secondary petioles; pe- tiolules; the stalks of leaflets. STAMEN. That organ of the flower to which the pollen belongs. —, STERILE. A body belonging to the series of the stamens, but without pollen. STAMINAL. Consisting of stamens. STAMINIDIA. The antheridia of cryp- togamic plants, STAMINIGEROUS. Bearing stamens. STAMINODE, STAMINODIUM. A rudi- mentary stamen, or what appears to be so. STANDARD. The fifth petal of a papi- lionaceous flower. STANDERWORT. Orchis mascula. STANE-RAW, or STANEY-RAG. A name of the omphalodes variety of Par- melia suxatilis, which is also called Black 1091 | flowers. The Treasury of Botany. [STAP Crottles. It is employed by the Highland peasants to prepare a brown dye which is much used for domestic purposes. Both the dye and the lichen are called by the Shetlanders Scrottyle. [M. J. B.J STANGERIA. A very remarkable genus of Cycadeacee, quite distinct from any other of the order in its fern-like foliage. It isa Natal plant, with a thick napiform trunk, a few coarse pinnate leaves, the | pinns of which are oblong-lanceolate spinuloso-serrate, and traversed by paral- lel forked veins like those of a Lomaria. \ \\s NY Stangeria paradoxa. The fructification is in cones, the male cylindrical, with numerous stamens in- serted on the under-side of its compound scales; the females on separate plants, ovoid, with two inverse ovules in the base of each scale. The genus, of which only | one species (S. paradoxa, figured above) is | known, is closely related to Encephalartos in structural characters, but differs re- markably in habit and foliage. (T. M.J STANHOPEA. A most beautiful though not very extensive genus of epiphytal | orchids belonging to the Vanda tribe. About twenty-six species have been de- scribed, natives of South and Central America: one, S. grandiflora, being found in Trinidad. They are _ pseudobulbous herbs, with broad membranaceous plicate | leaves, radical sheathing often pendu- lous scapes, and large spotted fragrant The species may generally be recognised by the lip being divided into hypochil or lower cavity, mesochil or middle part (from which the horns pro- ceed), and epichil or front moveable lobe; and by the pendulous flowers, with a spreading or reflexed perianth. The genus is named in honour of Earl Stanhope, who | Was at one time President of the Medico- Botanical Society of London. S. tigrina, of which a figure is subjoined, together with S. Barkeriana, Wardii, and Bucepha- lus, are amongst the finest species of this ? [W. B. H.] genus. \ YW SAT Stanhopea tigrina. STANHOPEASTRUM. An epiplytal ge- nus of orchids belonging to the Vandee. The only species at present known is highly curious, and until lately has been referred to Stanhopea; but it differs from that genus in having a lip quite free from horns, and not divided into separate parts. The lip is described as being ovate, obso- letely triangular at the end, short, in form resembling a slipper, very fleshy, of a bright-yellow orange colour passing towards the point into pure white, and mottled on its sides with handsome purple blotches. The remaining parts of the \flower are white, with purple spots near /native of Central America. the base of the petals. The flowers, which grow in pairs, are large and showy. It isa [W. B. H.] STANLEYA. A genus of Crucifere from North-western America, consisting of smooth glaucous perennials, with lyrate- pinnatifid or entire leaves, and long ra- cemes of yellow flowers. The pod is slender cylindrical on a long stipe. (J.T. S.] STANMARCH. Smyrniwm Olusatrum. STANNIA. A genus of Cinchonacee, differing little from Posoqueria, save in the one-celled berry. The corolla is fun-/ nel-shaped, with a very long tube; its limb divided into five lobes, opposite to which are five scaly prominences; and the stamens are of unequal length,and project beyond the mouth of the corolla. SS. for- mosé, a native of the Caraccas, is a fine tree with lance-shaped laurel-like leaves, and white fragrant flowers three to four inches in length. It isin cultivation asa highly ornamental stove-plant. (M. T. M.] STAPELIA. An extensive genus of Asclepiadacee, containing upwards of 100 species of succulent branching plants without leaves, natives of the Cape of | | | STAP | The Treasury of Botany. Good Hope. The branches are generally four-sided and toothed, and covered over with dark tubercles, giving the plants a very grotesque appearance; the calyx is five-parted; the corolla rotate five-cleft and fleshy; the staminal corona double, the outer series of leaves or lobes entire or cleft, the inner subulate and entire or bifid; the gynostegium is generally ex- serted ; the anthers are simple at the top, the pollen-masses being fixed by their base, and having one edge cartilaginous and Stapelia Asterias. pellucid; and there are two subcylindri- eal follicles containing numerous comose seeds. The singular and heautiful large flowers spring from uncertain points of the succulent stems. They exhibit a va- riety of colours, forming exquisite marbled or dotted patterns; and notwithstanding | the repulsive odour (like carrion) which almost all the flowers possess, they are extensively cultivated because of their beauty. One of the finest of the species is S, Asterias, figured above. (W. C.] STAPHISAGRIA. Delphiniwm Staphis- agria. STAPHYLEACEZE. (Bladder-nuts.) A small group of polypetalous Fhalamiflore, formerly united with Celastracece, but now recognised as having the essential characters of Sapindaceew, and added hy many botanists to that order as a tribe, dis- tinguished by the stamens being inserted outside instead of inside the disk, and by Ibuminous seeds. They consist of trees or shrubs, with opposite pinnate leaves furnished with stipules, and white usually small flowers in racemes or panicles. They are natives of Europe, Asia,and Tropical and North America, and comprise three genera, Staphylea, Huscaphis, and Turpinia. By some they are made a separate order. STAPHYLEA, A genus of Staphyleacee, distinguished in that order (or suborder) chiefly by the large inflated capsule. There are four species known, dispersed over the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere. They are all shrubs, with opposite pinnate leaves, consisting of three five or more leaflets, and white | in Central Asia. pendulous flowers in axillary racemes or panicles. 8S. pinnata from Central and Eastern Europe, and sometimes also S. trifoliata from North America, are culti- vated in our shrubberies under the name of Bladder-nuts. STARCH-CORN,. Triticum Spelta. STARCHWORT. Arum maculatum. STARE, or STARR. Amvmophila arun- dinacea, Carex arenaria, and other coarse seaside sedges and grasses. STAR-FLOWER. Trientalis americana, STAR-FRUIT. Damasonium siellatum alias Actinocarpus Damasonium. STAR-HHAD. Asterocephalus. STAR-JELLY. WNostoc commune. STAR OF BETHLEHEM. Ornithogalum unibellatum ; also Hypoxis decumbens. i STAR OF JERUSALEM. Tragopogon porrijolius. STAR OF NIGHT. Clusia rosea. STAR OF THE EARTH. Plantago Co- Tonopus. STARRY. Arranged in rays like the points of astar. The sameas Stellate. STARRY PUFFBALL. Geastrum. STAR-SHAPED. The same as Stellate. STAR-SLOUGH. A name which is ap- plied in some districts to the common Nostoc, supposing it to be the remains of fallen stars. [M. J. B.] STARWORT. Stellaria; also Aster Tri- polium and Helonias dioica. —, ITALIAN. Aster Amellus. —, WATER. Callitriche. STATICH. A very extensive genus of herbaceous or subshrubby plants of the order Pluwmbaginacee, characterised by their flowers being spiked or panicled; the calyx funnel-shaped, of one piece, plaited and somewhat scarious; the petals five, slightly connate; tached to the base of the petals, and the nut one-seeded, enclosed in the calyx. They are amongst the most interesting ornaments of our greenhouses and flower- gardens, and are found in the south and east of Europe, in the Canary group, and (Lf. M.] STATICH. (Fr. Armeria vulgaris. STAUNTONIA. Now that the Indian plants formerly referred to Stauntonia have been separated and formed into dis- tinct genera under the names Parvatia and Holbellia, the present gelus is reduced to two species, one of which (S. chinensis) is a native of China, and the other (S. hexaphylla) of Japan. These are woody climbing shrubs, with compound. leaves composed of from three to seven (usually five) radiating leaflets, and few-flowered racemes of largish unisexual flowers pro- duced from the axils of the leaves. Both sexes of flowers have six fleshy sepals, but neither possess any petals; and the 1092 the stamens at- ‘| | remedy for opkthalmia. genus is thus distinguished from the two allied genera above mentioned, both of which have petals. The males contain six stamens, with the filaments united instead of free, as in Holbellia; and the females six sterile stamens and three distinct Ovaries, containing several ovules inter- mixed with hairs. The generic name is given in honour of Sir George Stanton, who accompanied Lord Macartney to China in A.D. 1792, and afterwards wrote the account of the embassy. It belongs to the Lardizabalacee. The Japanese species has leaves composed of five or six lance- shaped leaflets terminating in short bristly points. Itis called Nibe Kadsura or Tuso So by the Japanese, who eat its roundish watery berries, and use their juice as a [A 8] STAURACANTHUS. A genus of Legu- | minose, including a Portuguese shrub, | destitute of leaves, and with the habit of | Of Glossanthus. | Ulex nana ; the branches being spiny, each | of the spines branching into two smaller spines at the sides, and the flowers yellow; calyx two-lipped, the upper lip deeply divided into two segments, the lower three-toothed; vexillum folded, Stamens ten, monadelphous; pressed hairy many-seeded. S. aphyllus, a | dwarf shrub, is a handsome plant, but only half-hardy. The generic name is derived from the Greek stauwros a ‘ cross’ and akantha ‘a thorn, in reference to the cross-like spines. [M. T. M.] STAURANTHERA grandifolia ceyrtandreous Gesneracee, peculiar to Pulo Penang, and having very much the habit It is a herb with rather large leaves; the flowers are paniculate, the | calyx subrotate bell-shaped and almost | teu-cleft; the corolla is large, furnished | with a short tube having a spur at the | base, and a border divided into five lobes. There are four fertile stamens, and the | | anthers are coherent, whilst the capsule is dehiscent. [B. S.J STAURANTHUS. The name of a Mexi- can evergreen tree, with alternate leathery dotted leaves, and greenish flowers arrang- ed in racemes. Calyx persistent, with four small teeth ; petals four, longer than the calyx, bent downwards, and having thickened margins ; stamens four, inserted on the receptacle, alternate with the petals; ovary sessile one-celled, with a single pendulous ovule; stigma sessile, four-lobed ; fruit fleshy olive-shaped red, covered with small glands like an orange. | This tree is doubtfully referred to Cela- stracee or Aurantiacee, with neither of which however does it agree well. The | name is derived from the Greek stauros ‘a | cross’ and anthos ‘ flower,’ inallusion pro- bably to the four petals. [M. T. M.] STAUROGLOTTIS. Phalenopsis. STAUROPHRAGMA. A genus of Scro- phiulariacee, having the calyx deeply longer | | than the lance-shaped wings; keel blunt ; is the | | only known representative of a genus of he Treasury of Botany. | stouy pericarp of that genus. pod com- | = : S [ STEL divided into five segments, the capsule cylindrical indehiscent, and the valves involute at the margin. 8S. natolicwm, a native of Natolia, has the leaves covered with grey down, and the flowers yellow and scented. The name, from the Greek stauros ‘a cross,’ refers to the appearance presented by a transverse section of the capsule. [G. D.J STAVERWORT. Senecio Jacobea. STAVESACRE. The acrid emetic pur- gative seeds of Delphiniuwm Staphisagria. STAVEWOOD. Simaruba amara. STAY-PLOUGH. The Restharrow, Ono- nis arvensis. STHBE. (Fr. Stebe. STEENHAMMARIA (often written STEENHAMMERA). A genus of Boragi- nacece, usually called Mertensia, included in Pulmonaria by Linneeus, from which it dif- fers by the short open five-parted calyx and longer stamens, as well as by the nuts being slightly fleshy on the outside. It has also been referred to Lithospermum, but the limb of the corolla is not spread- ing, and the nuts have not the hard and The species have blue or red flowers, in paniculately or corymboseiy arranged scorpioid racemes, and smooth glaucous leaves. S. maritima, which is hot uncommon on the northern coasts of Britain,isa trailing glaucous plant with fleshy ovate leaves, tasting like oysters (whence it is some- times called the Oyster-plant) ; and pretty blue flowers, red while in bud. The other species are from Siberia, Kamtschatka, and North America, (J.T. S.J STEEPLE-BUSH. Spirca tomentosa. STEGANIA. Lomaria. STEGNOGRAMMA. A genus of poly- podiaceous ferns related to Gymnogramma, | and having the veins connivently anasto- mosing as in Nephrodium. They are her- baceous pinnately or pinnato-pinnatifidly divided ferns, with a stoutish caudex,some- times subarborescent, and linear or oblong oblique parallel sori. There are two or three species, from India and the Hastern Archipelago. (T. M.j STETRODISCUS. A Cape annual plant, forming a genus of Composite. Theleaves are pinnately divided; and the flower- heads terminal, surrounded by a ventricose many-leaved involucre; receptacle naked; florets yellow—those of the ray strap-shap- ed, of the disk tubular; stigmas conical ; fruits linear smooth, with no pappus, the inner ones always sterile—whence the name of the genus, from the Greek steiros ‘sterile,’ [M. T. M.] STELIS. A genus of orchids belonging to the tribe Malaxidee, consisting of about 130 species, inhabiting South and Central America and the West Indian Islands. They are small herbs, from two or three inches to two feet high, generally x STEL | Che Treasury of Botany. 1094 found growing on the trunks and branches of trees. The stems are simple, with one sheathing leaf, and ochreate bracts; and the flowers are in terminal spikes or ra- cemes, usually very minute, green yellow or purple. Stelis is distinguished from Pleurothallis, to which genus it is closely allied, by having a short truncate three- lobed column, the front angles of whose anthers are uniformly mucilaginous. The flowers of some species are irritable, closing suddenly when moved or touched. In one species, S. purpurascens, eight pollen-masses have been found, the only case at present known. [W. B. H.] STELLARIA. A genus of herbaceous plants belonging to the tribe Alsinece of the order Caryophyllacee, and _ distin- ‘guished by the following characters :— Sepals five ; petals two-cleft ; stamens ten ; styles three; capsule opening by six valves. Several species are indigenous to Great Britain. &. Holostea, the Greater Stitchwort, called also Satin-flower and Adder’s-meat, is one of our early hedge- flowers, with long straggling quadrangular stems, narrow grass-like leaves, and large panicled lustrous white. flowers with deep- ly-cloven petals. SS. media is the common Chickweed, sufficiently marked by a line of hairs on one side of the stem, changing to the opposite side whenever it reaches a pair of leaves. French : Stellaire ; German : Augentrostgras. (Cc. A. J.J STELLATA, or STELLATES. A group of monopetalous dicotyledons, scarcely differing from Cinchonacee, but some- times distinguished as a separate order under the name of GALIACE& : which see. STELLATE, STELLIFORM. Having a number of narrow divisions placed round the stem like the rays of a star. STELLATO-PILOSE. Having hairs formed in a stellate manner. STEM. That part of a plant which bears or has borne leaves or their rudiments; the ascending axis of growth. It may be either subterranean, or exposed to the air and light. STEM-CLASPING. When the base of a leaf surrounds a stem. The same as Am- plexicaul. STEMLESS. Having no visible or ob- vious stem. See ACAULIS. STEMONACANTHUS. A genus of Acan- thacee from tropical America, containing afew species of shrubs or herbs, with the flowers in paniculate or contracted cymes. The calyx is five-cleft or five-parted ; the co- rolla-tube slightly curved and clavate, with the subequal lobes spreading or reflexed ; the didynamous stamens exserted; the | anther-cells parallel, and often produced beyond the connective; and the capsule four to eight-seeded. (Ww. C.] STEMONITIS. A genus of myxogas- trous Fung? with a more or less elongated delicate single deciduous peridium, filled with a network of threads connected with the stem, which penetrates more or less completely the whole mass. S. fwscais one of those species which occasionally occur in great profusion in hothouses, and is common in woods amongst fallen leaves, é&c.; forming large tufts of cylindrical peridia supported on dark bristle-shaped stems, which are often more persistent than the network. This species is found in all parts of the world with slight modi- fications. [M. J. BJ STEMONOPORUS. A name proposed by Thwaites for a genus of Dipteracece, which other botanists consider as a section only of Vateria, as it has the fruit of that genus, and only differs from the original type in the stamens not numbering more than fifteen, with obtuse not acuminate an- thers. It consists of several species, tall resiniferous* trees, with alternate entire coriaceous leaves, and white flowers either axillary or in terminal panicles. There are several species known, natives of Tro- pical Asia, but chiefly of Ceylon. STEMONURUS. A genus of Olacacee, established by Blume for three or four trees from the Indian Archipelago. In the species which suggested the name the anthers have at their back a curious long tuft of hairs, which is turned inwards over their face. This species, however, proves to be strictly a congener of the previously published Zasianthera from Tropical Africa; and the other species, for which Blume’s name is no longer appli- cable, belong to Wallich’s genus Gom- phandra. The name Stemonurus is there- fore now suppressed. STENACTIS. A genus of erect branched herbs, natives of North America, Northern India, &c. The leaves are toothed; the flower-heads solitary at the ends of the branches, surrounded by an involucre of two or three rows of narrow overlapping scales; receptacle flat, naked; florets of the ray strap-shaped, white or violet,— those of the disk yellow, tubular; achenes compressed; pappus of the outer ones hairy deciduous, arranged in one row, that of the inner in two rows. [M. T. M.j STENANDRIUM. A genus of Acanthacee, containing several smali plants from South America. It is aliied to Crossandra, differ- ing chiefly in its more lowly habit, and in having more slender anthers. rw. C.J STENANTHERA. A genus of Epacri- dacee containing a single species, S. pini- folia, which has a five-parted calyx sur- rounded by numerous bracts; a tubular corolla twice the length of the calyx, with a short spreading half-bearded limb; | stamens included within the throat of the corolla; and a one-seeded drupe. The flowers are axillary erect, with a slightly swollen scarlet tube and greenish-yellow limb; and the leaves needle-shaped, and much crowded on the branches. [R. H.] STENANTHIUM. A North American genus of Melanthacee allied to Veratrum, ee | Mazillaria, but it may easily be distin- | not being articulated with the foot of the 1095 ments being united at the base, and there adhering to the ovary. It is a smooth perennial, with a rod-like leafy stem from a somewhat bulbous base; the leaves are long and grass-like ; and the flowers small white, in a long terminal panicle. [J. T.S.] STENIA. An epiphytal genus of orchids belonging to the tribe Vandeew. The only species, S. pallida, is from Demerara, and is a stemless herb without pseudobulbs, having oblong leaves narrowed at the base, recurved at the apex: and solitary radical yellow flowers about two inches in diameter. In habit it very much resembles guished from that genus by the labellum column. [W. B. H.) STENOCARPUS. A genus of Proteacece, having atubuler calyx, cleft at the back; the four sepals bear each a sessile anther ;* the style is filiform, with an oblique | stigma; and the seed-vessel a linear or cy- lindrical follicle containing several seeds Che Treasury of Batann. ‘| from which it differs in the perianth-seg- Stenocarpus Cunninghami. having a wing at their base. They are mostly large shrubs, one species however, S. Cunninghami, being a lofty tree, its flow- ers dark-yellow or orange, in axillary or terminal umbels, and its leaves leathery, entire or sinuate. The species are natives of New South Wales, Tropical Australia, and New Caledonia. (R. H.j STENOCHILUS. A genus of Myopora- cece, containing several species, natives of | Australia. They are shrubs with alternate leaves, and solitary sometimes double axillary pedicels ; the calyx is five-parted, and the lobes are imbricate at the base; the corolla is irregular and funnel-shaped ; the four didynamous stamens are ex- serted; the stylehasasimple apex; and | the two-celled ovary has two pendent ovules in each cell. [w. C.} | pale blue flowers. | glands, and the stigma mouth-shaped. | hirsuta isastemless perennial, with almost ' radical leaves, several clothed with long [STEN STENOCHL/ENA. An acrostichaceous genus of ferns having dimorphous fronds (the sterile ones pinnate, the fertile con- tracted and either pinnate or bipinnate) borne on scandent rhizomes. The pinne have a marginal gland near the base on the upper edge, and the veins form narrow costal areoles (sometimes hardly distin- guishable), from which parallel forked veins run out tothe margin. One tropical species abounds in India and the Pacific Islands; another is met with in South Africaand Madagascar. The costal areoles | are often apparent near the apex of the pinne when they are not evident near the base. (T. M.] STENOCORYNE. A genus of orchids belonging to the tribe Vandew. Itisan epi- phytal herb, with elongated quadrangular pseudobulbs, solitary cartilaginous leaves, | and the flowers in a close raceme, orange The scape is pro- | The | spotted with brown. duced from below the pseudobulbs. genus is nearly related to Bifrenaria, but differs in having two distinct glands at the base of the caudicles. The only known |; species is from Demerara. STENOGASTRA. flowers in a branched spike arranged in pairs between two coloured bracts. The distinguishing characteristics reside in the inner segments of the corolla, of which there are two of unequal size, while the third (or lip) is absent. The staminode is petal-like, very large, roundish concave at the top; the two stamens are petaloid, united at the base with the staminode ; the sterile one concave at the top, the concavity concealing the deflected stigma; the fertile stamen bears a one-celled an- ther on its outer surface; the ovary is [M. T. Me] STROMBOCARPA. A section of Proso- | pis, distinguished by the pod being spiral- ly twisted like a corkscrew, and. which some botanists have proposed to adopt as | a distinct genus of Mimoseew. There are several species, chiefly bushy shrubs, some of them ahundant in the plains of Buenos Ayres and Patagonia, as well as in New | Mexico, and known by the names of Retor- | quillo and some others, expressive of the singular shape of their fruits. STROMBOSIA. A genus of Olacacec, consisting of trees with alternate entire coriaceous leaves, and very small flowers in axillary clusters or small cymes. Itis distinguished in the order by having five stamens opposite the petals, and the ovary almost completely superior, divided nearly to the top into three four or five cells; whilst the fruit, a one-seeded drupe as in other genera, isalmost completely inferior. There are six species known, one from Tropical Africa, the remainder from Tropi- cal Asia. STROMBUS-SHAPED, STROMBULI- FORM. Twisted ina long spire, so as to resemble the convolutions of the shell called a Strombus—as the pod of Acacia strombulifera or Medicago polymorpha. STRONG-MAN’S-WEED. Petiveria allia- ced. STROPHANTHUS. This name, derived from the Greek strophos ‘a twisted cord or rope,’ and anthos ‘a flower,’ is expres- sive of the chief peculiarity of the flowers 1104 | | ) 1 11065 Che Treasury of Botany. [ STRY in this genus of Apocynacece, the species referred to which are shrubs, natives of Tropical Africa and Asia. The flowers are in terminal heads; the corolla funnel- shaped, its throat partly closed by ten scales, its limb divided into five long tail- like segments, whence the name of the genus; the style thread-like, dilated at the top, with a eylindrical stigma; the fruit a double follicle. Two or three In- dian and West African species are grown in this country for the pretty appearance and singularity of their flowers. The wood of S. dichotomus is used for planks, &c. in India. tT. At) STROPHE. A term applied to the spi- rals formed in the development of leaves. STROPHIOLE. A tubercle found sur- rounding the hilum ofsome kinds of seeds. STRUMA. A cushion-like swelling; a goitre. A protuberance at the base of the spore-cases of some urn-mosses. STRUMARIA. A genus of Amarylli- dacew, consisting of Cape bulbous herbs, with lorate linear leaves, and solid scapes bearing many-flowered umbels of erect blossoms, which have a regular six-parted perianth with a short tube and stellated patent limb, six stamens, the filaments connected at the base, andan erect filiform angular columnar style, thickened or stru- mous below, with a trifid stigma. The flowers are white lined with red or green, or wholly red. (tT M.] STRUMIFORM. Having the appearance of a struma. 5 STRUMULOSE. Furnished with a small struma, STRUTHIOLA. A genusof Thymelacee, consisting of South African shrubs, with the heath-like habit and foliage and almost all the characters of Gnidia, but differing from that genus essentially in their sta- mens, which are always four instead of eight ; and generally in their flowers, which are axillary along the upper branches, and not in terminal heads. Nineteen species have been described, amongst which 4S. tirgata with pink flowers, S. erecta, and some others have occasionally been grown in our greenhouses amongst Cape shrubs. STRUTHIOPTERIS. A genus of hardy ferns of the polypodiaceous division, re- markable for their handsome growth. The fronds grow erect around a short upright caudex : the sterile ones in an outer series pinnato-pinnatifid ; the fertile in the centre pinnate, with the pinne contracted mo- niliform, the margins rolled inwards so as to cover the sori. Theveinsare free. They are easily recognised by their dissimilar fronds, though technically very little differ- ent from Polypodium beyond the contrac- tion and revolution of the fertile fronds. One species is European, another (or per- hana variety) North American, and a third is found in India and Japan. cf. M.]J STRYCHNIN. The poisuinvus principle obtained from Strychnos nux vomica. STRYCHNOS. Certain solanaceous plants were known to the ancient Greeks by this name, which is now applied to a genus of Loganiacee, The species consist of trees or climbing shrubs, natives of the tropics of Asia and America. The leaves are en- tire strongly-nerved opposite, one of them, however, being frequently abortive, and developing from its axil a tendril-like branch. The flowers are in terminal or axillary corymbs or panicles, greenish- white and generally fragrant; the calyx has four or five overlapping segments; the corolla is tubular, its limb divided into four or five valvate segments; there are four or five stamens; and the fruit is a kind of berry, enclosing a single cavity, and generally many-seeded; the seeds being flattened disk-like and silky, surrounded by pulp. The valvate westivation of the corolla and the succulent indehiscent fruit are the distinguishing characteristics. The species to which the greatest in- terest isattached is that yielding the seeds: known under the name of Nux-vomica. uo. Lh ws Strychnos nux vomica. This is a moderate-sized tree, destitute of spines or tendrils, native of theCoromandel | Coast and Cochin China. The fruit is very like an orange in appearance, and contains numerous seeds of a flattened circular out- line, about the size of a halfpenny, rather thicker near the circumference than else- where, the exterior of an ash-grey colour, covered with fine silky hairs, and the interior consisting of very hard grey albu- | men, in which, near the circumference, the embryo is embedded. The seeds have an intensely bitter taste, owing to the presence of two most energetic poisons, strychnin and brucin, which exist in the seeds conjoined with certain peculiar acids; but the pulp is innocuous, and is said to be greedily eaten by birds. If nitric acid be added to the powdered seeds a deep orange- yellow colour is produced. Nux-vomica acts as a Foison on man and animals, producing stiffness of the muscles, ! procured, as he thought, a new alkaloid | ; and that it had been derived from nux- | natives of Guiana. Che Treasury of Botany. 1106 great distress, tetanic convulsions, and ul- timately death. Strychnin and brucin pro- duce precisely similar effects, but are far more powerful; insomuch that Dr. Christi- son reports that he has seen a dog killed in two minutes, when not more than the sixth part of a grain had been injected into the animal’s chest. These substances act for the most part on the spinal cord. In cases of poisoning by these formidable drugs, but little can be done beyond emptying the stomach immediately, as no antidote has yet been discovered. As-j tringents and narcotics are recommended, and also the use of artificial respiration. It is also said that the fruit of the cucur- bitaceous Fewillea cordifolia is an antidote against this and other poisons, but this statement requires confirmation. Medici- nally nux-vomica is used, in the shape of extract or tincture, in certain forms of paralysis and indigestion; and in small doses it acts asatonic and diuretic. The bark of the tree possesses similar proper- ties to the seeds, but in a less degree. Serious consequences ensued in the early part of the present century from this bark having been imported and used as Angos- tura bark (see GALIPEA) ; and in Calcutta it is still said to be sold for the harmless bark of Soymida febrifuga, or Rohun-hark. | Owing to the timely interposition of Dr. O'Shaughnessy, an error was rectified which otherwise might have had frightful consequences. It appears that a chemist from the Rohun-bark, analogous to qui- nine, and which was therefore manufac- tured for the purpose of being employed in the Indian Army as a substitute for that drug. Dr. O'Shaughnessy, however, detect- ed that the alkaloid in question was brucin, | vomica bark sold under the name of the harmless Rohun-bark. The wood of the nux-vyomica tree is hard and very bitter; it is said to be used in Tndia in cases of intermittent fever and in snake-bites. A decoction of the leaves is used externally in rheumatism. S. Tieuté, a climbing shrub, growing in Jaya, yields a juice which is used by the natives for poisoning their arrows. Its effects are precisely similar to those of nux-yomica, being dependent on the samme ingredients. This poison is ealled Upas Tieute, but must not be confounded | with the true Upas: see ANTIARIs. 5S. toxifera also yields a frightful poison ealled Ourari or Wourali, employed by the It has been tried in cases of hydrophobia, but with no good result. S. colubrina, a native of Ma- labar, furnishes one kind of lignium eolu- brinum, or Snakewood: it is considered by the natives as an infallible remedy in cases of snake-bite, and is also given in fevers and other complaints. S. ligustrina and other species are said to yield in Java yarious kinds of Snakewood, used for similar purposes to the one last mentioned. | S. Pseudo-Quina, a native of Brazil, yields Colpache-bark, which is largely used in! thas country in cases of fever, and is con- sidered to equal quininein value ; its fruit is edible. It is stated that this species does not contain stryehnin in spite of its bitter taste, and hence it is not considered to be poisonous, ; From S. potatorum, a tree found in the mountains and forests of India, are ob- tained the seeds known in that country as Clearing Nuts. The fruit is black, of the size of a cherry, and contains only a single seed. These seeds are employed to clear muddy water; they are simply rubbed round the inside of the vessel for a minute or two, and then the water is allowed to settle. Their efficacy for this purpose depends, according to Dr. Pereira, on their albumen and casein, which act as fining agents, like those employed for wine or beer. Many other seeds might be used for the same purpose. The fruits and seeds are also used medicinally in India. The pulp of the fruit of several species is harmless and edible: thus in Egypt and Senegal the natives eat the fruit of S. in- nocua ; the Indians do not scruple to eat the fruits of S. potatorum ; and the pulp of the Tieute even is said to be edible. The plant yielding St. Ignatius-beans is not known with certainty ; itis, however, sur- mised to be a species of Sirychnos from the quantity of strychnin contained in the seeds : see IGNATIA. [M. T. M STRYPHNODENDRON. A _ genus of Leguminose, closely allied to Inga, but distinguished by the following character- istics :—Stamens ten ; pod linear compress- ed, indehiscent leathery, pulpy within, and becoming baccate as it ripens; seeds numerous, pendulous. mostly natives of Brazil, and possess as- tringent properties, whence the name of the genus, from struphnos ‘astringent’ and dendron * a tree, [M. T. M.] STUARTIA. A genus of Ternstrimiacee, consisting of North American shrubs, with membranous serrate leaves, white on the under-surface ; and Jarge white flowers, on solitary or double axillary stalks. The calyx is persistent, divided into five lan- ceolate segments ; petals five, somewhat coherent at the base, crenulate at the margin ; stamens numerous, in many rows, adherent to the petals; ovary free five- celled, with two ovules in each compart- ment; styles five, distinct or connate; fruit capsular, five-valved ; seeds winged. S. virginica and S. Malachodendron are grown in this country; they are somewhat tender, but the beauty of their flowers renders them very desirable inmates of a garden; they flower in autumn. [M. T. M.] STUBWORT. Ovxalis acetosella. STUPA (adj. STUPPEUS, STUPOSE). Tow; a tuft of long hairs. STURMIA. A terrestrial genus of or- chids, belonging to the Malaxidee, gene- rally included in the genus Liparis, con- sisting of one species, which is found in bogs and wet places in Europe and North These trees are_ SS The Treasury of Botany. | [STYL America. It grows about six inches in height, and has a tuberous root, and two leaves about half the length of the stem ; e the flowers arefew small and racemose. It is a native of some of the south-eastern { f | 1107 counties of England. [W. B. H.) STURTIA. A genus of Malvacee, named in compliment to an Australian explorer, and founded upon a somewhat shrubby species, with smooth stalked leaves, and solitary stalked flowers, the outer calyx of which consists of three entire leaves, the inner being five-toothed, the petals wedge- shaped, the ovaries five many-seeded, the styles united, and the stigmas linear. The plant is a native of Central tropical Aus- tralia. [M. T. M.] STYLAPTERUS. A genus of Penceacee, comprising a small number of heath-like small-fiowered undershrubs from Southern Africa, chiefly distinguished from Pencea by the want of the large persistent colour- ed bracts of that genus. STYLATE. Having a persistent style. STYLE. The narrowed upper end of a earpellary leaf; the part which bears the stigma. STYLEWORT. Stylidium. STYLEWORTS. Lindley’s name for the Siylidiacee. STYLIDIACEZ. A small order of mo- nopetaious dicotyledons, nearly allied to the irregular-flowered Campanulacee or Lobeliacee, of which it has the inferior two- celled ovary and capsular fruit, with nu- merous albuminous seeds ; but it isremark- able for the stamens, two in number, being united with the style in a highly irritable column of curious structure, the stigma lying in a cavity at the apex, surrounded and concealed by the anthers. of small herbs or undershrubs, Zealand, the Straits of Magelhaens, or Tro- Dical Asia; and is divided into three four or five genera, of which Stylidiwm itself | contains the great majority of the species. from two to five divisions ; a monopeta- lous corolla, with an irregular limb and a the style into a column longer than the limb of the corolla; the stigma lying ina |; cavity at the apex of the column, sur- | rounded and concealed by the anthers. | This column is extremely irritable; | hangs down on one side of the flower eee it is touched, when it instantly | Springs up, and shifts at once to the oppo- site side with great force. The seed- | vessel is two-celled, and contains nume- | rous smal) seeds, which are sometimes | stalked. The species are herbaceous plants or small shrubs, with scattered entire ee sometimes in whorls, and pink white or violaceous (rarely yellow) flowers. They are natives of most parts of Aus- | dia particularly the south-western por- It consists | chiefly | Australian, with a few species from New | STYLIDIUM. A genus of Stylidiacee, | having an adherent two-lipped calyx of | twisted tube; two stamens, united with | it | tion, and also of Tasmania. Two species, S. Kunthii and S. tenellum, are found in India; and §S. wliginosunm is a native of Ceylon. (R. H.] STYLINE. Of or belonging to the style. STYLISCUS. The channel which passes from the stigma through the style into | the ovary. { STYLOBASIUM. The name of an Aus- | tralian shrub, with entire smooth leaves, | and polygamous flowers, in the axils of the upper leaves; the calyx is five-lobed, coloured; the corolla absent; stamens ten, hypogynous; ovary one-celled, with two ovules; style lateral or basal; fruit drupaceous. The genus is included in the order Chrysobalanacee. [M. T. M.] STYLOCERAS. A genus of American trees of the Huphorbiacee. The leaves resemble those of the cherry-laurel, Cerasus Laurocerasus; aud the flowers are either moncecious or dicecious : when mo- neecious, arranged in solitary or double axillary spikes, the lower flowers of which are male, the terminal female; when dice- cious, the males in spikes, and ‘the females ! solitary, stalked. The fruit is capsular globose, surmounted by the persistent horn-like styles, from which latter organs the genus derives its name. The fruit is said to be edible. [M. T. M.] STYLOCORYNE. One of the genera of Cinchonacee, consisting of trees, with flowers on axillary stalks. The limb of the calyx is short tubular five-toothed; the corolla salver or funnel-shaped, its ‘limb five-parted ; stamens five, inserted on to the throat of the corolla ; the anthers linear and very long; the style projecting beyond the corolla, and terminated by a club-like stigma; the fruit succulent, sur- mounted by the limb of the calyx. The name is expressive of the club-like stigma surmounting the style. [M. T. M.] STYLODISCUS. A genus of Huphor- biaceew, represented by a large tree, native of India, the leaves of which are pinnate, and the flowers dicecious, very numerous, small, and arranged in axillary panicles. The calyx bas five concave sepals, encir- cling as many stamens, which are united below into a column; ovary rudimentary ; in the female flowers there is a five-parted calyx, with five glands opposite to the seg- ments, and representing the stamens. Fruit baccate three-celled, each cell with two seeds. [M. T.M.] STYLOGYNE. A genus of Myrsinacee, including a Brazilian shrub, whose leaves are entire, marked by pellucid spots; and whose flowers are in terminal panicles. The calyx is five-parted, its segments con- volute ; corolla five-parted, twisted in the bud like the calyx, ultimately reflected ; stamens five, the anthers nearly as long as the filaments ; style as long as the corolla; fruit drupaceous. The unusual length of | | t | ) the upper | are grown in this country. STYL | the style probably suggested the name of the genus. (M. T. M.] STYLOPHORUM. Certain North Ame- rican ‘herbs of the family Papaveracec have been comprised in a genus of this name. They are described as having a yellow juice, divided leaves, and yellow somewhat corymbose flowers. The calyx is of two hairy caducous sepals; petals four ; stamens numerous ; ovary one-celled, with three to four parietal placentz ; style column-like; stigma three to four-lobed ; fruit a capsule, bursting by three or four valves. The genus derives its name from the presence of a style surmounting the ovary, a rare circumstance in the plants of the poppy family. (M. T. M.] STYLOPODIUM. The double fleshy disk from which the styles of umbellifers arise. STYLOSANTHES. A genus of papilio- naceous Leguminose, consisting of herbs or undershrubs, usually covered with sticky hairs, and natives of the tropics of both hemispheres. The leaves have three leaflets, and the flowers are grouped in adense terminal or axillary spike, bearing anumber of bracts, in the axils of which the flowers are placed either singly or in pairs—if in pairs one of them frequently imperfect. The flowers are polygamous: the hermaphrodite ones are sterile, and have a calyx with a long tube surmounted by a two-lipped limb, a papilionaceous co- rolla, and ten monadelphous stamens, while the female flowers are fertile, and |} have no calyx or corolla, but an erect ovary with two ovules, a short hooked | style, and a thick stigma. The pod is | jointed, the lower joint occasionally empty, terminated by the persistent style, whence the name of the genus. The dimorphism of the flowers is curious. Some of the species with yellow blossoms (M. T. M.] STYLOSPORE. A name proposed by the Tulasnes for the naked spores in such genera as Diplodia, Hendersonia, &c., in consequence of their being produced at the tips of short thread-like cells, or more rarely on branched threads. If the dis- tinction of spores and sporidia hold good there is no necessity for the name, except in connection with the theory that these genera are mere conditions of true as- cigerous Fungi belonging to the genus Spheria and its allies. This theory is founded on the fact that supposed species | of these genera often grow on the same | Matrix with Spheria, and are not distin- guishable without microscopical examina- tion; that, as in the case of Spheria | inquinans, the naked and inclosed spores are produced on different parts of the same thallus; and that in some genera, as in Tympanis, naked spores and asci are produced from the same hymenium. These stylospores are regarded therefore as a secondary kind of fruit, comparable with | the conidia of other Fungi, or the oidioid spores of Erysiphe, though in that genus L stylospores of two kinds (or possibly Che Treasury of Botany. 1108 stylospores and spermatia) are produced as well as conidia. It is not supposed that these stylospores have sexual func- tions, as they are sometimes observed to germinate, and in several Fungi spermatia have been observed very similar to those of lichens—as, for instance, in Valsa hy- podermia. The cysts which inclose the stylospores are called Pycnidia. [M, J. B.] STYLOSTEMON. An epigynous stamen. STYLOTEGIUM. The coronal or orbi- cular mass which forms part of the an- droeceum of such asclepiads as Stapelia, STYPANDRA. A genus of Liliacece from Southern Australia, consisting of perennial herbs, with creeping rhizomes, and linear-ensiform leaves. The flowers _ are blue or whitish, on pedicels articulated with the perianth, paniculate-corymbose 5 the perianth is ‘six-parted, with equal spreading segments; the stamens six, with curved filaments, bearded at the apex 5 the capsule subglobose, three-celled ; the seeds few oval smooth, without a strophiole at the hilum. (J. 2. S.J STYPHELIA. A genus of Epacridacee, distinguished by having a five-parted ca- lyx, surrounded by a few bracts; 3n elongated tubular corolla, the segments of the limb bearced and revolute; stamens longer than the tube, with oblong-linear anthers; and a five-celled nearly dry seed- vessel containing a single seed. They are harsh erect shrubby plants, natives of New South Wales and Tasmania, with scattered oblong or lanceolate sharp- pointed leaves on short footstalks; and the flowers generally axillary, drooping, red or green. fR. H.] STYPHNOLOBIUM. A genus of papi- lionaceous Legwminosce, represented by a tree, with unequally pinnate leaves, and flowers in terminal racemes or panicles ; calyx five-toothed ; vexillum rounded re- flected, scarcely larger than the wings; keel blunt, as long as the wings; stamens ten, monadelphous or distinct; ovary stalked ; style filiform, curved ; pod moni- liform fieshy indehiscent many-seeded, the seeds encircled by austere pulp, whence the name of the genus, from the Greek stuphnos ‘astringent’ The pulp of the fruit of S. japonicu yields a yellow dye. This tree, which is better known as Sophora japonica, thrives well in this country. A fine example of it may be seen growing in the Oxford Botanic Garden. [M. T. M.] STYPTIC. Astringent. STYRACACEA. (Symplocacew, Symplo- cine, Halesiacece, Storaxworts.) An order of dicotyledons connecting in some mea- sure Monopetale with Polypetalw, but usually classed with the former. It con- sists of trees or shrubs, chiefly tropical, a very few heing found in North America. They have alternate undivided leaves with- out stipules, and solitary clustered or pa- niculate flowers, often white and usually axillary. The calyx is free or more or less | | 1109 adherent, with four or five teeth; the corolla consists of as many divisions or petals, often only cohering by their adhe- sion to the staminal ring; stamens defi- nite or indefinite, inserted on or adhering to the base of the corolla: ovary superior or more or less inferior, with two or more ovules in each cell; fruit drupaceous, with one or few seeds containing a slender embryo in the midst of albumen. The two principal genera, Symplocos and Styrax, are considered by some botanists as types of two distinct orders, but are more gene- rally regarded as tribes only of Styracacee. Among the smaller genera Halesia, or the American Snowdrop-tree, is the onl general interest. STYRAX. The typica Styracacee, consisting of natives of Asia and No leaves are entire, frequ star-shaped hairs; and t in racemes. The calyx shaped, five- toothed ; corolla five-pagfed, longer than the calyx ; stamens ten,"adherent to the base of the petals, filameiits cohering be- low, distinct above ; ovary partially three- celled ; fruit globose, adnate to the base of | -the persistent calyx, one-celled one-seeded. | S. officinale, a native of the Levant, &c., yields a balsamic resinous substance known as Storax, and which is obtained by strip- ping off pieces of the bark of the shrub, and submitting them to pressure. In this way liquid storax is obtained : solid storax | appears to be the same substance mixed with fine sawdust and dried. Storax is | used by perfumers on account of its agree- able odour, andit is employed in medicine | as a stimulating expectorant. S. Benzoin, a native of Sumatra, Borneo, &c., yields the resin called Benzoin. In- cisions are made into the tree, the juice exudes, dries, and the dried mass is re- moved by a knife or chisel. Each tree yields annually about three pounds of | benzoin, that which is formed during the first three years being of better quality than that which exudes subsequently. Benzoin is employed medicinally in chronic pulmonary disorders, and also by perfumers for various purposes. It is used in Roman Catholic churches in the composition of in- cense. Other species, besides those just mentioned, yielda fragrant resin. Some of the kinds are grown in this country, their pure white flowers rendering them very ornamental in shrubberies. [ML T. M.] SUZDA. The plants belonging to this genus of Chenopodiacee grow only on sea- shores, or in saline plains and other places where the soil is impregnated with salt. They are almost exclusively confined to the temperate and tropical regions of the Northern Hemisphere, very few being found in the Southern. They are smooth or downy herbaceous or more frequently shrubby plants, with alternate somewhat tapering fleshy stalkless leaves, bearing solitary or clustered stalkless or short- stalked usually perfect flowers in their axils. Their fruits, called utricles, are Che Treasury of Botany. [suce enclosed in the slightly enlarged or in- | flated berry-like calyx, but do not adhere toit. S. fruticosa alias Chenopodium fruti- cosum, or Salsola fruticosa, is one of our rarer British species; but itis very common in the warmer parts of Europe, and also in Northern Africa and Western Asia. It is a shrubby erect branching evergreen pe- rennial plant, froin two to three feet high, with thick and succulent semicyvlindrical bluntish pale green leaves, and small stalkless flowers, either solitary or two or three together. In England it is found only on some parts of the eastern and southern coasts. It is one of the plants burned in Southern Europe for the manu- facture of barilla. [A. S.J SUB. In composition usually = some- what ; as sub-rotund, somewhat round; or sub-globose, approaching the globular form. Also nearly; as sub-insipidus, nearly in- sipid. SUBARBORESCENT. Haying a some- what tree-like aspect. SUBER (adj. SUBEROSE). Cork. The epiphloeum of bark, when it acquires an elastic soft texture, and is preternaturally enlarged. SUBER. Quercus Suber, the Cork-tree. SUBJEE. An Indian name for the leaves or capsules of the Indian Hemp. SUBMERSED. Buried beneath water. SUBMARGINAL. — Situated near the margin. SUBORDER. One of the minor groups into which Natural Orders are divided; as the Papilionacee and Mimosec of the order Leguminose. SUBRAMEAL. Growing on a branch below a leaf. SUBRAMOSE. Havinga slight tendency to branch. , SUBROSEUS. Having something cf a rose-colour. SUBULARIA. A minute stemless aqua- ticannual belonging to the order Crucifere, common in ditches lakes and streams | which have a sandy or gravelly bottom, in most of the colder countries of Europe. The whole plant consists merely of a tuft of white fibrous roots, a few very narrow awl-shaped leaves about an inch long, and a leafless stalk two inches high, bearing 2 few scattered small white flowers whick expand and ripen their seeds under water. S. aquatica, or Awlwort, the only species, is indigenous to Scotland and the North of England and Ireland. French: Subulaire; German: Wasserpfricmen. fC. A. J.J] SUBULATE, SUBULIFORM. Awl- shaped ; linear, very narrow, tapering to a very fine point from a broadish base. SUBULI. Theacicule or sharp processes formed by some fungals. SUCCISE. (Fr.) Scabiosa succisa. —————— lesnoen SUCCISUS. Abruptly broken off, or appearing to be so. SUCCORY. Cichoriwm Intybus. —,GUM. ' Chondrilla. —, HOG orSWINE’S. Hzyose- ris. —, LAMB. Arnoseris. —, POISON- OUS. 2 ENUIE WasWS SULT Bec Aan | PLUME. Cirsium ; also applied to Carduwus Rees [THLA lar campanulate perianth, with six lobes, of which five are produced into long tails; by its six stamens; and by its one- -celled ovary, with three parietal placentas. THISTLE. Cardwus. —, BLESSED. Cnicus benedictus. —, CARLINE. Carlina. —, COTTON. Onopordon Acanthium. > CREEPING. Cirsiwm arvense. —, DIS- TAFF. Carthamus lanatus. —, FISH- BONE. Chameepeuce Casabone. —, FUL- LER’S. Dipsacus Fullonwm. —, GLOBE. Echinops. —, GOLDEN. Scolymius; also Protea Scolymus.. —, HOLY, Carduus (Silybum) marianus. —, HORSE. Cirsium. —,JERSEY. Centaurea Isnardi. —--MELON. Melocactus. —, MEXICAN. Erythrolena conspicua. —, MILK. Silybum (or Cardwus) marianum. , MUSK. Carduwus nutans. b} lanceolatus, and some other species having a feathery pappus. —,SAFFRON. Cartha- mus tinctorius. ST. BARNAEY’S. Centaurea solstitialis. —, SCOTTISH. Ono- pordon Acanthium, one Gi the plants con- sidered to be the emblem of Scotland. —, SOW. Sonchus, —, SPEAR. Cardwus lanceolatus, generally regarded as the na- STAR. Centaurea Calcitrapa. —, SYRIAN. WNoto- basis syriaca. —, TORCH. Cereus. —, YELLOW Argemone mexicana. THITSER. WMelanorrhea usitatissima, the Varnish-tree of Burmah. THLADIANTHA dubia is the repre- sentative of a genus of Cucurbitacee from China and India, forming a tall scram- bling pale-green pubescent branched climber, with simple tendrils, broadly ovate-cordate irregularly toothed leaves, and bright-yellow axillary flowers, which are dicecious. The males are dimorphous, with a campanulate calyx-tube, and large complanate sepals—the larger flowers with the petals nearly free erect, forming a campanulate coroila longer than the sepals, and the smaller ones having the petals shorter than the sepals; theanthers are five, one-celled. The females have the ealyx and corolla of the males, with their short style terminated by reniform capi- tate stigmas. The fruit is oblong, very succulent, with about twelve longitudinal ribs connected by network, between which the surface is hollowed. Thefruit is eaten by the natives of the Himalayas. [T. M.] THLASPI. A genus of unpretending herbaceous plants giving name to the tribe Thlaspidee of cruciferous plants. The characters are:—Pouch laterally com- pressed, notched, valves winged at the back; cells two to eight-seeded. T arvense, the Field Penny Cress or Mithridate Mustard, occurs as a weed in cornfields, in some places in great abundance. It grows to the height of from ten to twelve inches, with bright-green oblong leaves, which are toothed, and at the base arrow-shaped the stems are slender, and bear numerous minute white flowers, which are succeeded by very large orbicular pouches, rendering ; | L THLA | The Treasury of Botany. 1146 | the plant conspicuous, when it often perhaps but for them would remain un- noticed among other weeds. TT. perfolia- tum, a rare species occasionally found in chalky pastures, is best distinguished by its pouches, which are inversely heart- shaped. French: Bourse de Pasteur; Ger- man: Hirtentasche. [C. A. Jd THLASPI BLANC VIVACE. (Fr.) [beris sempervirens. — DE LA PETITE ES- PECE. Jberis amara. — DES JARDI- NIERS. Jberis wmbellata. — JAUNKH. Alyssum saxvatile — VIVACEH. Iberis semperflorens. THLIPSOCARPUS. A genus of Com- positce, whose species have a similar habit and form of leaf to those of Taraxacum. The involucre consists of two rows of or- gans—the inner of numerous erect scales, ' the outer of eight or nine spreading bracts ; the corollas are all strap-shaped, | yellow above, purplish below; the outer marked | ' on one side by two or three ridges, the | inner more slender, cylindrical, tapering fruits are compressed, rough, towards the top; the pappus is uniform, and consists of two rows—the inner row of five long scales, prolonged at the apex into a rough hair; the outer row of numerous rough hairs, shorter than the inner series. The plant is a native of Gibraltar and the adjacent parts of Spain. The generic name refers apparently to the roughness of the fruit: it is derived from thlibo ‘ to rub against, [M. T. M.] THOMASIA. The name of a genus of | shrubs, natives of the south-western dis- | tricts of Australia, and belonging to the Byttneriacee. The leaves are covered with star-shaped hairs, and provided with per- manent stipules; the flowers are borne in clusters, opposite the leaves, and have each a tripartite bract at the base of the petaloid bell-shaped five-parted calyx; a) corolla with five small scale-like petals, | | or none; ten stamens, five of them sterile, the filaments awl-shaped, distinct or united; a three-celled ovary; and a cap- | sular fruit, with few seeds, provided with a little strophiole or crest. Five or six of the species are valued in this country as elegant greenhouse plants. The flowers are white or purple, and the plants have very much the general appearance of some species of Solanum. [M. T. M.] THOMASSINIA. A small genus estab- bearing five flowers. These latter have four sepals, four smaller petals, a corona of fine threads arranged in one row, and eight stamens. By these characters it may be distinguished. [M. T. M.] THONNINGIA. A genus of Balanopho- racee, comprising a fleshy parasitical jeaf- less plant growing on the roots of trees in Western Tropical Africa. The root- stock is brown, and sends up flower-stalks clothed with red scales; the stamens are united together into a solid column, which is garnished with a few scales to- wards its base. [M. T. M.] THORA, Ranunculus Thora. THORN. A common name for various thorn-bearing trees, especially applied in this country to the Crategus Oxyacantha. BLACK. Priunus spinosa. —, BUCK. Rhamnus. —, num. —, CAMEL’S. Alhagi Camelorum. —, CHRIST’S. Paliurus aculeatis. EGYPTIAN. Acacia vera. —, ELEPHANT. Acacia tomentosa. —, EVERGREEN. Crategus Pyracantha. —, GLASTON- BURY. Crataegus Oxyacantha prcecox. —, GOAT'S. Astragalus Tragacantha. ; HAW. Crategus Oxyacantha. —, JERU- SALEM. Parkinsonia aculeata. —, LILY. Catesbeea spinosa. —, MOUSE. Centawrea myacantha. —, ORANGE. —, SALLOW. Hippophaé rhamnoides. —, THIRSTY. Acacia Seyal. —, WASH- { INGTON. Crategus cordata. —, WHITE. | Crategus Oxyacantha; also Orategus punctata, the hardwood of which is used | of West | in Canada for engraving. —, Indies. Macromeriwmjamaicense. —, W1L- LOW. Hippophaé rhamnoides. THORN-APPLE. Datura Stramoniwmn. THORN-BROOM. Ulex europeus. THOROUGH-W AX, or THOROW-WAX, Bupleurum rotundifolium. | THOROUGHWORT. Hupatorium per- foliatum. THOTTEA. A tropical Asiatic shrub, constituting a genus of Avistolochiacee. The stem is wavy, jointed, swollen at the joints ; the leaves entire ; the flowers very large, in clusters opposite the leaves; the perianth has a four-sided tube, which expands above into abell-shaped coloured | and three-cleft limb, downy within, and lished to include several perennial umbel- | liferous herbs, which differ from Angelica in the want of general or partial invo- lucres; in the free calyx, with five ovate acuminate teeth ; in the roundish fruit, with five equidistant ribs; and in the acutely carinated commissure of the car- | somewhat prickly without; the stamens are from thirty to forty in number, adhe- rent to a disk surmounting the ovary, and confluent with the style; stigma de- pressed, radiate; fruit rod-like, quadran- gular, two-celled. [M. T. M.j THOUINIA. Under this name was for- merly included several genera belonging to cifferent natural orders, but it is now ex- | clusively applied to a genus of Sapindacee, pels. The three species are natives of the | Mediterranean region. [w. C.J THOMPSONIA. A shrub, native of Madagascar, has been considered to form a separate genus of Passifloraceew, under the above name, It has unequally pinnate leaves, axillary tendrils, and flower-stalks consisting of trees or shrubs, frequently of climbing habit, and natives of Brazil and of Tropical Australia. The leaves are sometimes simple, but usually pinnate ; and the flowers growin axillary racemes, occa- | BUFFALO. Acacia latro- | Citriobatius. | '| of mnuch-cut fan-shaped 5 flower-spikes grow from the axils of the} he Treasury of Botany. [THUS | sionally replaced by tendrils. and petals are four or five in number; stamens eight, inserted within a thick disk, ovary three-lobed, with a single ovule in each of its three compartments ; fruit a three-winged samara. TJ. pinnata is cultivated as a stove-plant in this coun- try. The genus is named in honour of M. Thouin, Professor of Agriculture at Paris. ([M. T. M.] THREE-CLEFT, THREE-PARTED. Split into three parts or divisions, deeper than when three-lobed. THREE-EDGED. Having three, acute angles with concave faces, as the stems of many plants. THREE-LOBED. Divided lobes or segments. THREE-VALVED. Applied to capsules which open by three valves or divisions. THRELKELDIA. An Australian genus into three The sepals ; baskets, and the undeveloped leaves or | | no attractive properties which render them | 4 ee | worthy of cultivation. of Chenopodiacee, comprising a sniooth | u branebed undershrub, with alternate semi- terete leaves, and solitary sessile axillary | flowers, which have an urceolate perigone | with three membranous scales within the margin; three stamens, opposite the scales; and an utricle enclosed in the enlarged fisshy perigone, with a single Vertical seed. (J.T. S.J THRIFT. Armeriavulgaris. —, PRICK- LY. Acantholimon. THRINAX. TUFTED. Growing in tufts, or close dense cushion-like or tussock-like masses. TULA. Under this name is described a little known Peruvian herb, supposed to constitute ‘a genus of Cinchonacee. The limb of the corolla is five-cleft, its seg- ments toothed and crisped; cluded; fruit capsular, two-celled, many- seeded. (M. T. M.) TULASI. Michelia Champaca. TULASNEA. A small genus of Melasto- macere, consisting of herbs, probably an- nuals, confined to Brazil. Their stem is simple, thread-like, and either erect or ascending: the leaves are small, ovate, and obscurely serrated ; and the flowers termi- nal, and either solitary or in panicles, The calyx is four-toothed, the corolla tetra- petalous; the number of stamens four; the capsule two-celled, two-valved, ald many- seeded. {B. 8.3 TULIP. Tulipa. TULIPACE.®. A name sometimes given to the whole or a portion of the order Liliacee. TULIPA. A well-known genus of lilia- ceous plants, distinguished by the erect position of the anthers, and by having the stigma sessile on the ovary. T. Gesneriana, | the Tulip of gardens, has been a favourite | object of the florist’s care for three centu- ries. Gesner, who first made it known by | a botanical description and figure, saw it in A.D. 1559 at Augsburg, the seeds having been brought from the Levant. It was at | that time known in Italy under the name of tulipa, given to it on account of its re- sembling a turban, ‘ tulbent.’ In the middle of the seventeenth century, Tulips became the object of a trade such as is not to be met with again in the history of commerce, |} and by which their price rose above that It is a mis- Colchicum autum- ine |) = “ : anthers in- | Stenocarpus Cunntnghanr. } dium. take, however, to suppose that the high prices paid for bulbs, amounting in some instances to 2,500 and even 4,600 florins, represented the estimated value of a root, since these large sums often changed hands without any transfer of property. Bulbs were bought and sold without being seen, without even being in existence. In fact, they were the subject of a speculation not unlike that of railway scrip in this country at no very distant date. The tulip however was, and still is, extensively cultivated, there being many hundreds of named varieties. Y.sylvestris is considered by some botanists to be a distinct species, by others to have been derived from use- less roots of 7. Gesneriana, discarded from gardens soon after its introduction, and reverted to its natural condition. It grows wild in the South of France and other countries of Europe, and is found, also in a wild state, in chalk-pits in Eng- land. The flowers are yellow and fragrant ; and the leaves much narrower than in any of the cultivated varieties. (C. A. J.j TULIPE. (Fr.) Tulipa. — DES FLEU- RISTES. Tulipa Gesneriana. — DU CAP. Hemanthus. TULIPIER. (Fr.) Liriodendron. VIRGINIE. Liriodendron tuliprfera. TULIP-TREE. Liriodendron tulipifera ; also Paritium elatum, —, QUEENSLAND. Dil TULIP-WOOD. The striped rose-colour- ed wood of Physocalymma floribunda. —, AUSTRALIAN, or QUEENSLAND. Cupa- nia (Harpulia) pendula, TULOSTOMA. A genus of puffballs, distinguished by its paper-like peridium distinet from the tall stem, at first covered With a scaly or powdery coat cr veil which soon falls away, and opening with a deter- minate orifice, filled with spores mixed with a few threads adherent to the peri- The species are few, and occur in either hemisphere. J. mammosum is the only British species, but it is local, though not unfrequent on the tops of old mossy walls about London. In Sweden this spe- cies occurs only on vast sandy tracts, while TZ. fimbriatum, distinguished by its fringed mouth, grows on decayed heaps of seaweeds. The other species belong to Africa, Cuba, or the islands of the South Pacific Ocean. (M. J. B.) TUM. A kind of Mastic obtained from Pistacia atlantica. TUMBEKY. The narcotic leaf of a spe- cies of Lobelia. TUMBO. The African name for Wel- witschia ; applied also to other plants. TUMTUM. An Arabian name for Sumach, Rhus Coriaria. TUNA. TheSpanish-American name for several Opuntias, hut adopted by botanists as the scientific designation of one of the Prickly Pears, Opuntia Tuna. 1 f ‘ones spreading, all ultimately | teeth. | Bastard Bully-tree of Guiana. _Thizomes winged hy thehasesof the leaves, 1183 The Treasury of Botany. [rurx TUN-HOOF. Nepeta Glechona. TUNICA. A genus of Caryophyllacee, | intermediate between Dianthus and Gypso- phila, having the peltate seeds and | straight embryo of the former, and the short few-nerved calyx of the latter. The species are natives of Europe and the Me- diterranean region, and also of Central Asia. (fal We St TUNICA (adj. TUNICATE). The skin of a seed: any loose membranous skin not formed from epiderinis. i TUNNA. An Indian name for the Toon- | tree, Cedrela Toonu. TUPA. One of the genera of Lobeliacee, consisting of tall herbaceous plants or undershrubs, with unbranched stems, al- ternate lance-shaped leaves, and many- | flowered leafy racemes. The calyx is five- lobed, the corolla persistent, its tube slit on the upper side, its limb bent down- wards, and consisting of five petals irre- gularly united together—the two lateral crowded together after fiowering; stamens five, united together, some or all of the anthers hairy; capsule two-valved. These plants are natives of Peru, Chili, and the West Indies. TT. Fewillet yields an acrid poison in Chili, where the root is chewed to relieve the pain of decaying So acrid is this plant, that Feuillee says that even the odour of the flowers will cause excessive vomiting, and if taken internally, or even applied to the skin, | Violent inflamimation and pain are pro- duced, sometimes resultingin death. Some | of these plants are grown in this country for their handsome purple scarlet yellow or greenish flowers, [M. T. M.] TUPELO-TREE. Nyssa. TUPISTRA. A genus of the group called Aspidistree, which is usually regarded as | belonging to Liliacee, though differing in habit from most of the order. They are natives of India, and have thick tuberous which are two-ranked, and resemble those of the Zingiberacee. The flowers are ona scape, dingy purple or green, with a bell- shaped six or eight-cleft perianth, having Six or eight stamens inserted on the sides of its tube, and the stigma radiating and four-lobed. (J.T. Sj TURANIRA-WOOD. The timber of the TURBINATE. The same as Top-shaped. TURBITH. A genus of Umbellifere, containing a single species, an herbaceous | of linear scales ; the outer florets are ligu- ‘tubular, five-toothed, perfect and yellow; _ by a pappus of silky hairs. ‘wards becomes a stem; as in asparagus. | also Lilium Martagon. plant with tripartite decompound leaves, the segments of which are very narrow and linear; and terminal umbels, which lave deciduous involucres, and many- leaved involucels. The calyx-tube is five- toothed and deciduous ; and the petals are obovate, with an inflexed appendage. The fruit is contracted at the side, and the carpels have five obtuse equal ribs, with one vitta in the intervals and two in the commissure. The carpophore divides into two. Thespecies is a native of the moun- tains of Carnia and Piedimont. (wW.C.] TURBITH BLANC. (Fr.) Globularia Alypum. TURCZANINOWIA. This latinised ver- sion of the name of a celebrated Russian botanist is applied toa genus of Composite. The species is a perennial plant, native of Dahurian marshes. The leaves are eutire, the flower-heads borne in a many-headed corymh, each surrounded by an involucre. late, eutire, female, white; the central ones the achenes compressed, and surmounted (M. T. M.J TURGENIA. A genus of: Umbellifere, consistingof herbs,with pinnatisect leaves, and few-rayed umbels, and with the general and partial invelucres having three to five leaves. The sepals are setaceous. The fruit is contracted laterally and subdidy- | namous; the carpels have five primary j ridges with a single row of prickles, and four large secondary ones with two or three rows of prickles. In other respects the characters of the genus are as in Cau- calis, of which it is by many considered only a section. The species are natives of the Mediterranean region, [W. C.] TURIO. A scaly sucker, which after- TURKEY-BERRY. A West Indian name for Solanum torvum and S.mammosum. TURKEY-BERRY TREE. Cordia Collo- cocea. i TURKEY-BLOSSOM. A West Indian name for Tribulus cistoides. TURKEY-FEATHER LAVER,. Thecom- mon name of Padina pavonia. TURK’S-CAP. Melocactus cominnis ; TURK’S-HEAD. Melocactus communis. TURMERIC. A medicinal and tinctorial substance obtained from the root of Cur- cuma longa. It forms one of the ehief in- gredients in the preparation of Indian curry-stuff or eurry-powder, to which it imparts its yellowish hue. TURMERIC-TREE. A species of Zieria. TURNEP. Brassica Rapa. TURNERACE#. (Turnerads’. A small order of polypetalous dicotyledons, con- sisting of trepical herbs or undershrubs, chiefly American or African, with alter- nate leaves, and yellowish or blue axillary flowers. They agree with Passifloracee, H maliacee, and some others in their petals alternating with the lobes of a cam- panulate or tubular calyx, and in their one- celled ovary with three parietal placentas ; and are chiefly remarkable for their forked styles. It is doubtful whether the two or three small genera associated with Turnera Ze i i TURN] he Treasury of Rotany, 1184 in the order, should not be rather treated as sections only of that genus, which has a considerable number of species chiefly Brazilian, but mostly of a weedy aspect. to the order Turneracew, and consists of herbs or undershrubs inhabiting the West Indies and South America. The leaves are notched or sometimes more deeply cleft,and provided with two small glands at the base. The flowers arise singly from the axils of the leaves, and are either ses- sile or stalked, in which latter case the flower-stalk is often adherent to the leaf- stalk. Very rarely the fiowers are in ter- minal racemes. The calyx is coloured and five-parted; the petals and stamens five, at- tached to the calyx; ovary free, one-celled, with three parietal placentas; styles three; stigmas three, fan-shaped; capsule one- celled, bursting into three pieces. Several species are in cultivation in greenhouses, and have for the most part yellow flowers. An infusion of the leaves of 7. opifera is employed as an astringent by the natives of Brazil. T. ulmifolia is also considered to have tonic and expecto- rant properties. (M. T. M.] TURNIP. Brassica Rapa. —, DEVIL'S. Brassica Napus. —, INDIAN. Arisema atrorubens; also applied to the tubers of Psoralea esculenta. —, LION’S. The tuber- ous roots of Leontice. —, PRAIRIE. The tubers of Psoralea esculenta. —, ST. AN- THONY’'S. Ranunculus bulbosus. SWEDISH. Brassica campestris rutabaga. TURNIP-RADISH. A variety of Rapha- nus sativus. TURNIP-SHAPED. Napiform. | TURNIP-TOPS. The young green leaves ' of the common or Swedisk turnips, eaten as a vegetable by the working classes. | TURNSOLE. A purple dye-drug, the | inspissated juice of Crozophora tinctoria ; ; also an old name for Euphorbia heliosconia. TURPENTINE. A resinous exuda‘ion, which flows from incisions made in the | stem of trees of the pine family. —, | BOSTON. American Turpentine, obtained | from Pinus palustris and P. Teda. —, | BOURDEAUX. A resin obtained from Pi- | nus Pinaster, —, CHIO, SCIO, or CYPRUS. i The limpid fragrant balsamic resin of Pistacia Terebinthus. } A resin obtained from Abies pectinata. —, '| VENETIAN. An oleo-resin obtained from | Abies Larix, the common Larch. | TURPENTINE-TREE. Pistacia Terebin- || thus; also Bursera gummifera. —, AUS- TRALIAN. Tristania albicans. | TURPENTINE VESSELS. Tubes formed } in the interstices of tissue, into which | rally drained during the growth ofa plant. | They are common in conifers. TURPINIA. This genus of Staphyleacee, | named in compliment to M. Turpin, a TURNERA. This genus gives its name. —, STRASBURGH. | 1 | | | Bryonia dioica. —, FRENCH. A variety of | well-known French naturalist and artist, consists of certain West Indian and tro- flowers in terminal panicles. These have a coloured five-parted calyx; five petals, inserted upon aten-lobed disk, as also are the five flattened awl-shaped filaments of the stamens; a sessilethree-lobed ovary, with numerous ovules in the inner corner of each compartment; three styles, and a succulent three-celled fruit, with two or three seeds in each cell. The fruit of some of these plants is edible. [M. T. M.J TURQUETTE. (Fr.) Herniaria glabra. TURQUOISE. (Fr.) <--> — + 1193 is of a most beautiful ultramarine colour, and yields an essential oil. A dye is ex- tracted from the capsules. An American species, referred by some authors to this genus (U. guianensis) properly belongs to Phenacospermum. Sj URARI. The Ourari or Wourali hoison | of Strychnos toxifera. URBUREE. Cicer arietinum, also called Chenna. URCEOLA. The single species of this genus of Apocynacee, called U.elastica, isa large climbing milky-juiced shrub or tree, frequently with a trunk as thick asaman’s body. It is confined to BorneoSumatraand other islands of the Eastern Archipelago, where its milky juice, collected by making incisions in its soft thick rugged bark, or by cutting the trunk into junks, forms one of the kinds of Caoutchouc called Juita- Urceola elastica. care in its preparation, this Eastern caout- chouc is inferior in quality to the South American, the milk being simply coagu- lated by mixing with saltwater, instead of being gradually inspissated in layers on a mould. The plant has sharp ovate-oblong | opposite leaves, roughish on the upper and hairy on the under surface; and bears many-flowered terminal cymes of small greeuish blossoms, which produce double fruits, consisting of two large roundish apricot-coloured rough leathery-skinned pieces about the size of oranges, contain- ing numerous kidney-shaped seeds nest- ling in a copious tawny-coloured pulp, which is much relished both by natives and European residents, and is said to taste like well-bletted medlars. The flow- ers have a five-cleft calyx ;a pitcher-shaped hairy corolla with five short erect teeth; five stamens, rising from the base of the corolla, and having very short filaments and arrowhead-shaped anthers, with tufts | wan; but, owing principally to want of | Che Treasury of Botany. | of white hairs in the centre and pollen- ae bearing at the top; and an entire disk surrounding two flat-topped ovaries, bear- | ing a short style and egg-like stigma divided by a circular line into two differ- | ently coloured halves. [A. §.] URCEOLATE. Pitcher-shaped, that is, similar to Campanulate, but more con- tracted at the orifice, with a small limb. URCEOLINA. A genus of Amaryllida- cee, the two or three species of which as yet known are found in Peru. They have roundish bulbs, broad oval petiolated leaves growing up with the flowers, anda tall scape supporting an umbel of several (five to eight) pendulous flowers, two inches long or more. The tube has a straight slender cylindrical green hase an inch long, and a yellow ventricosely bell- shaped upper portion, which is contracted at the mouth, with short reflexed green segments; there are six stamens inserted in the tube, and joined at the base bya membrane (an abbreviated corona); the style is erect filiform, with an obtuse three-cornerea stigma; and the capsule is cordiform, three-cornered three-furrowed three-celled, and many-seeded. They are handsome plants. (T. M.J URCEOLUS. The two confluent bracts of Carex; any flask-shaped or cup-shaped anomalous organ. URCHILLA. A Spanish name for the Orchella-weed. URCHIN. (Fr.) Hydnum. UREDINEI. A section of Puccini@i, a natural order of Fungi including those genera, whose protuspores (except in one case, where there are two forms of fruit) | are not septate and disposed in regular sori. All were formerly included in one genus, Uredo, but this has been gradually divided, till the group so named contains comparatively few species. Some are un- doubtedly merely the secondary fruit of other Fungi, but many, so far as is at pre- sent known, are true species. In Uvredo proper the little heaps of brown or yellow protospores are composed of several layers | of cells, each of which encloses a spore. The stroma which supports them is com- posed of little irregular cells. Of the brown species, Uredo Circee on enchanter’s nightshade may be quoted as one of the most common; and of those with yellow spores U. confiwens,which abounds inspring on Mercurialis perennis. Trichobasis—most of whose species are referrible as a second- ary form of fruit to different Puccinie, which they often accompany—has free ca- ducous protospores attached to a short stalk; Uromyces, of which U. Ficaric, found on the lesser celandine, is a good ex- ample, has stalked protospores which are not caducous. Coleosporium has two kinds of protospores, the one consisting of short strings with deciduous joints, the otherof obtuse clavate three to four septate bodies, while a third form, with the terminal spore polygonal (asfigured in Berkeley’s Intro- | ‘plants. URED | duction to Cryptogamic Botany, p. 10), con- stitutes the genus Physonema of Bonorden. C. Tusstlaginis and C. pingue are common every where, the one on coltsfoot, the other on roses. Jecythea is distinguished by its elongated abortive protospores surround- ing those which are fertile. The species, however, are mere conditions of Melamp- sora, So common on willows spurge and poplars, and distinguished by its wedge- shaped closely-compacted protospores. Cystopus alone remains, which is remark- able for its white protospores, disposed in short necklaces. The mycelium in this genus is strongly developed, and consists of coarse branched threads. Uredinei have been considered by some authors, as for example Unger, as mere transformations of the cellular tissue of The researches, however, of Tu- lasne and others, show that they possess a far more complicated structure than has been usually assigned to them, and are de- cisive against such an opinion. [M. J. B.] UREDO. See UREDINEI. URENA. A genus of Malvacee, distin- guished from its congeners by its flowers having a five-cleft involucre outside and alternate with the true calyx, which is likewise five-cleft, and a style divided at the top into ten branches ; and also by its fruits, which consist of five unopening carpels, being covered with prickles, di- vided at the top into numerous radiating hooks, the carpels ultimately separating from each other. It consists of a few ex- tremely variable species, very extensively distributed over the tropics of both hemi- spheres: but, owing to their great varia- bility and wide dispersion, numerous spurious species have been described. They are woody annuals or perennial shrubby plants, with entire or more or less deeply- lobed leaves, usually furnished at the base with one tothree slit glands on the under- side of the principal nerves; and their flowers are.yellow red or rose coloured, and either solitary or clustered towards the points of the branches. U. lobata and U. sinuata are both common. tropical weeds. They possess mucilaginous pro- perties. for which they are used me- | dicinally ; and their inner bark affords an abundance of fibre, resembling jute rather than flax or hemp. [A. S.] URENS. Stinging. URERA. This genus of Urticacee is sometimes merged in Urtica by botanical writers, from which, however, it is known by its alternate not opposite leaves, and by the obliquely ovate fruit, included within the inner succulent leaves of the perianth. In the genus Urtica the peri- anth leaves do not become succulent as the fruit ripens. See UrTicA. [M. T. M.] URGERAO. Stachytarpha jamaicensis. URGINEA. A genus of Liliacee, very closely allied to Scilla, but differing in the more widely-spreading segments of the ee: and in the greater number of Che Treasury of Batanp. 1194 seeds. The species are natives of the Mediterranean region, and have large bulbs, whence proceed the leaves and long- stalked racemes of flowers, the latter however being produced first. The bulbs of U. maritima, the old Scilla maritima, are known in medicine as Squills. These bulbs are of large size, covered on the outside with thin brownish layers, which enclose a large number of thick fleshy scales. They are imported from Malta and elsewhere, some having the scales white, while others are of adarker colour ; the lighter sort is preferred by druggists. It has been supposed that the Red Squills are the produce of another species, U. Pancration, but this seems doubtful. Fresh squills are very acrid, causing irritation and even vesication of the skin ; the drug is, however, usually imported in the dried _ state, when its acridity isin great measure dissipated. The bitter taste of squills is due to a substance called scillitin. Squills are used in medicine as a diuretic in certain forms of dropsy, and as an ex- pectorant in coughs. In large doses it causes vomiting, and in extreme quantity it acts as an acrid poison. (M. T. M.] URHUR. An Indian name for the peas of Cajanus indicus. URJOON. An Indian name for Termi- nalia alata. URKAN. The Arabian name for Law- sonia alba. URN. The spore-case of urn-mosses. URN-MOSSES. -An English name for the Bryacee or true Mosses. UROCARPUS. A genus of Rutacee, com- prising a West Australian shrub, covered with scale-like hairs, having ovate leaves, and white flowers arranged on the ends of the branches, in an umbellatemanner. The calyx is minute, five-toothed; petals five spreading, much longer than the calyx; stamens ten, all fertile; ovaries two, united by their inner angles, elsewhere distinct ; styles two, connate; stigma thickened, two-lobed; fruit of two horned valves, from which the inner cartilaginous lining separates with elasticity ; seed solitary by abortion. The generic name. is derived from the Greek oura ‘a tail,’ in allusion to the horned fruit. (M. T.M.] UROCHLAINA. A genus of grasses he- longing to the tribe Irestwcee. The inflo- rescence forms terminal ovate spikes; spikelets many-fiowered; glumes herha- ceous, five-nerved; lower pales seven to nine-nerved, hairy at the base, the upper slightly bidentate or toothed; stamens three; styles short and distant. Only one species has been described, viz. U. pusilla, which is annual and a native of South Africa. ~ [D. M.] UROCHLOA. Panicum. UROOS. An Indian name for Adhatoda vasica. UROPEDIUM. A terrestrial genus of | 1195 | orchids belonging to the Cypripedece, com- prising one very handsome species, U. Lin- deni, a native of New Grenada, growing at an elevation of 8,500 feet above the sea- level. It is closely related to Cypripedium, Uropedium Lindeni. | from which it differs in its broader flatten- | ed lip, and extremely long-tailed petals. | | The leaves are about a foot long, cblique | | at the extremity, shining and fleshy in texture. The flowers are solitary, on long peduncles ; sepals ovate-lanceolate, yellow, | streaked with orange; petals linear-lanceo- | late, extended into a long narrow tail, | afoot or more in length, purple-orange at the base. [W.B.H.) UROPETALUM. A genus of bulbous Liliacee, from the Cape of Good Hope and | the Mediterranean region. They have a | green-and-orange flowers, which have a shaped and bell-shaped; the filaments of the six stamens are dilated at the hbase; the capsule is three-edged many-seeded ; the seeds horizontal, compressed, with a | hard black seed-coat, over a spongy inner covering. U. serotinium occurs in many places in the South of Europe, (J. T.S.] UROPHYLLUM. A genus of shrubs, in the order Ciuchonacee. The leaves have a very long tail-like point, while the flower- stalks are short, and bear greenish flowers in whorled heads, surrounded by numerous bracts. The limb of the calyx is short, bell-shaped; the corolla is funnel-shaped, hairy at the throat, and with its limb dividec into five ovate lobes ;stamens five; ovary surmounted by a glandular disk,and having five compartments, each contain- ing numerous ovules ; stigma five-lobed ; fruit small succuient globular, crowned by the calyx-limb, and having pores. The name is derived from the Greek oura ‘a lhe aud phyllon ‘leaf,’ (M. T. M.] | simple scape, bearing a raceme of green Or | deeply six-cleft perianth, between funnel- ; natives of Southern India, and included | Che Treasury of Botany. [ URTI UROSKINNERA spectabilis is the sole representative of a Central American ge- nus of Scrophulariacee, named in honour of Mr. G. Ure Skinner, to whom our gardens are indebted for so many new plants. It is an undershrub, somewhat resembling in habit certain Gesneracee, and covered im all parts with soft hairs. The leaves are oblong toothed, the flowers arranged in terminal crowded panicles. and supported by filiform bracts. The corolla is infundi- buliform, and its five lobes are ranged in two lips; it is of a pale-violet colour out- side, and nearly white inside. [B. 8.) UROSPERMUM. The name of a genus of Composite, consisting of Mediterranean annual plants, with alternate amplexicaul divided leaves, and flower-heads on long stalks surrounded by an involucre of eight bracts, arranged in one series. The receptacle is somewhat convex, destitute of scales; the corollas all ligulate and yellow ; the achenes tubercled, provided with along empty beak distended below; and a feathery pappus in one row. The generic name is from the Greek outros ‘a tail’ and spermim ‘a seed,’ in allusion to the long beak above described. [M. T. M.] UROSTIGMA. One of the genera into which Miquel has proposed to divide the | large Linnean genus Ficus, but which are more conveniently considered as sections or subgenera. It comprises the greater number of the tropical species with coria- ceous laurel-like leaves, and is distin- guished chiefly by the long three-cleft perianth with a single stamen of the male flowers, and by the usually elongated stigma of the females. In habit the nu- merous species do not differ from some of | those retained in Ficus. URTICACES. (Urticee, Nettleworts). A large order of apetalous dicotyledons, con- sisting of trees shrubs or herbs from al- most every part of the globe, with alter- nate or opposite leaves furnished with stipules, and sinal]l unisexual fiowers usu- ally in cymes or in heads, not in catkins. The small calyx-like perianth has from one to five divisions, with as many staimens Opposite to the segments. The free ovary | has one cell containing a single ovule, and a simple terminal style or stigma. Taken in an extended sense the order includes Artocarpacee, with pendulous ovules and no albumen to the seed, and | Moracee, with pendulous ovules and albu- minous seeds; but it is more frequently confined to Urticece proper, which have erect ovules and albuminous seeds. These are also remarkable for the causticity of their limpid juice; their stipules are not convolute, and they are frequently herba- ceous, many species yielding exceedingly tenacious fibres. The order thus restricted still comprises about forty genera, amongst which the most important are Urtica, Pilea, Bihmeria, Procris, Forskolea, &c. URTICA. This genus gives its name to the order Urticacee, and consists for the most part of erect herbaceous plants, co- oe EEE EEE ee See URTI| posite leaves, and moncecious or dicecious flowers inaxillary clusters or spikes. The fruitis an achene enclosed in the perianth ; seed erect, conjoined with the wall of the fruit. ° The species are numerous, and some of them are very widely distributed. Two are commonly found wild in this country, while a third, U. pilulifera, a native of Southern Europe, is occasionally found in the neighbourhood of villages. U. dioica, the Common Nettle, is a perennial plant, with stems two to three feet high, dark- green heart-shaped leaves, coarsely tooth- ed, and the flowers in branchedspikes. U. urens, the Small Nettle, is amuch smaller more delicate-looking plant, with its male and female flowers intermixed in small loose nearly sessile clusters. U. pilulifera, commonly called the Roman Nettle, is also an annual plant, intermediate in size be- tween the foregoing; its male flowers are in loose spikes, the females in stalked glo- bular heads. -Although the species are for the most part herbaceous, sume are more or less shrubby ; while one, U. Gigas, a native of New South Wales. is described as a ‘ for- midable tree” We areindebted to Bennett's Wanderings of a Naturalist in Australia for the following account of it -— “A specimen seen by Sir William Mac- Arthur, still in full vigour, rises from its base by a series of buttresses of singn- larly regular outline, gradually tapering without a branch to the height of 120 to 140 feet; the trunk then divides into a regularly-formed wide-spreading head, which excites admiration by 1ts extraord1- nary size: but the ordinary elevation of this tree is from twenty-five to fifty feet, with a circumference of twelve to twenty feet. The leaves, when young and in vigorous growth, attain a breadth of from twelve to fifteen inches, and are of a beau- tiful dark-green colour. AS may be ex- pected, the poisonous fiuid secreted from the foliage is very powerful, particularly in the younger leaves, and their sting is exceedingly virulent, producing great suf- fering, not unattended with danger. It is found in the northern part of New South Wales, and is a great impediment to the traveller,’ The stinging property just referred to is also met with to a slight extent in our English nettles. Some of the Indian species seem to be particularly powerful in this respect, especially U. crenwlata and U. sti- mulans. Both these, however, are ex- ceeded by U. urentissima, a native of Timor, where it is called by the natives the Devil’s-leaf; its effects are so violent as to last for twelve months, and even to produce death. The sting of the nettle has a bulbous base, which serves as a reservoir for the acrid fluid. From this extends a long sharply-pointed tubular hair. When the hand touches the nettle the point of the sting enters the skin and breaks off, allowing the passage of the caustic fluid from the reservoir, through The Treasury of Botan. vered with stinging hairs, and having op- the tube, into the wound ; but if, in accord- ance with the old precept, the nettle be grasped forcibly, the hair is broken off below the point, which then does not pene- trate, and the fluid is poured out on the skin, not beneath it. In the case of the more noxious species it would, we imagine, make little difference whether the poison were on the skin or beneath it, except in rapidity of action. Some of the Nettles are considered to have medicinal properties: thus U. bacci- Jera in the West Indies is used as an aperient; the root of U. pilulifera is astringent and diuretic; and Nettle-tea, an infusion of the leaves of U. dioica, is much used by the peasantry in this country to purify the blood. The herbageand seeds of U. membranacea, an Egyptian plant, are used in Egypt medicinally. The tubers. of U. twberosa, according to Roxburgh, are eaten, raw boiled or roasted, by the natives of India. Among the miscellaneous uses of these plants, it may be mentioned that, in Java, the leaves of U. stimalans are or were employed to excite and guad bulls in their combats with tigers. The Nettles, taking the namein the wide sense, are remarkable for the excellent fibre they produce. U.argentea is employed in the Sandwich Islands for making ropes, 1s is U. baccifera in the West Indies. U. can- nabina, or Kentucky Hemp, yields abund- ance of useful fibre; so also do JU. hetero- | phylla, U. Puya, U. tenacissima, and U. nivea—species severally referredto URERA, BoHMERIA, and GIRARDINIA: which see. The Stinging Nettle of our hedges and roadsides, U. dioica, is a very ancient tex- tile plant, 1ts inner bark affording a tough fibre suitable for many purposes, and used by the inhabitantsin many parts of Europe for making cordage, fishing-lines, coarse cloth, &c. Nettles have been from ancient times used externally as stimulants incases of paralysis. The young tops of nettles are eaten as a vegetable, and may easily be forced for that purpose, if nothing better is to be had; but in our experience they are always gritty, probably from the abundance of crystalloid matter contained in the cells of the epidermis (cystolithes). These tender tops are much more com- monly employed in this way throughout Germany, Belgium, and other parts of the Continent than with us. According to Sir Walter Scott, the Nettle was at onetime cultivated asa potherbin Scotland. Cattle will eat the leaves in a dried state for forage; and in some places the fresh topsare given to pigs, and when chopped up, to fowls and young turkeys. Both the dried leaves and seeds are given to fowls in the winter- time, to make them lay eggs. In Holland, and also in Egypt, it is said that the horse- dealers mix the seeds of nettles with oats or other food, in order to give the animals a sleek coat. A yellow colouring-matter, employed in domestic dyeing, is obtained by boiling the roots with alum ; and a de- coction of the plant mixed with salt coagu- lates milk. The seeds yield oil when press- ed. The generic name is derived from the 1196 | ———— | 1197 Che Treasury of Botany. [UTRI Latin wre ‘to burn,’ in allusion to the sting- ing hairs. [M, T. M.] URUCURI, URUCURI-IBA. Brazilian names, respectively, for Attalea excelsa and Cocos coronata. URVILLEA. A genus of Sapindacee, distinguished from its allies by the three | unopening pieces of which its fruits are | composed being winged along the back, | somewhat inflated in the middle, and | at length separating from each other and | from the central axis; each piece contains a | single roundish seed, partly enveloped in | an aril, and having thick fleshy straight- | ish cotyledons or seed-leaves. The few | species belonging to it are all climbing | shrubs, natives of Tropical America and | the West Indies, and have leaves consist- ing of three leaflets, and racemes of whitish | flowers with two tendrils near the top of | the main stalk. [A. S.] USEREKEE. An Indian name for the Emblic Myrobalan, Emblica officinalis. USHOKA. The Bengalee name of Jonesia Asoca. USNEA. A genus of lichens belonging to the order Parmeliacee, being the typical genus of the division Usneacei, in which the disk is open from the first, and the thallus mostly vertical and shrubby, with- out any hypothallus. The thallus of Usnea itself is rounded branched and generally ' pendulous, with a central thread; occasion- | ally in very old specimens the thread vanishes, andis replaced by acavity. The | apothecia are terminal orbicular and pel- | tate, formed of the substance of the thallus and nearly of the same colour, the circum- | ference mostly without a border and gene- rally ciliated. The species grow on rocks or trunks of trees, from which latter cir- cumstance they are often called Tree Mess or Tree Hair, and seem to be what Milton had in mind when he talks of th’ humble shrub And bush with frizzled hair implicit. We have three species in Great Britain, which are also widely distributed over the world. Some of the Southern species, as U. melaxantha, are magnificent. In the stem of this (which attains a considerable size) concentric zones of growtli have been observed by Dr. Hooker. We have not, however, been able to verify this, but, cn the contrary, we have observed radiating wedges, which present another analogy in their resemblance to the medullary rays of exogens, ([M. J. B.]J USTERIA. A genus of Loganiacece, com- prising a shrub with terminal panicles of flowers on hairy pedicels; calyx short, four- cleft, the anterior division largest, petal- like; corolla salver-shaped, its tube dis- tended helow, the limb unequally four- parted ; stamen one, on the corolla; ovary two-celled; ovules numerous, placed on placentas ascending from the base of the compartments; styleshort ; fruit capsular; seeds numerous winged, on placentas that are ultimately detached from the walls of the capsule. (M. T. M.] USTILAGINEI. A section of Fungi of the natural order Puccinici, in which group the protospores are not disposed in orbi- cular or elliptic sori, but, except in one or two instances, form irregular profusely Gusty masses. Where there is anything | like sori they are much elongated, asin U. longissima, SO common on Glyceria aqua- tica. The protospores of Ustilaginei are either produced from very delicate branch- ed tissue or from closely-packed cells. In Polycystis, e.g. those of the meadow-saffron and violet, they are irregular, and com- posed of a few cells; in Tilletia, the com- mon bunt, globose with a minutely cellu- lar cuticle ;in Tuburcinia very irregular in form, ana either subglobose or conchiform, consisting of minute cells; and in Ustilago, which is the typical genus, simple with a simple coat. Tothis genus Ustilago belong the various kinds of smut, which are so injurious to corn and grasses, A large species occurs on the common reed, the spores of which are very troublesome to the labourers employed in the reed-beds, causing severe headaches. The largest of the genus is the maize smut, which is often many inchesin diameter. The protospores are mostly black or brown, but occasion- ally they are claret-coloured, violet, &ec. In Thecaphora, of which no species has yet been gathered in Great Britain, they have a foxy tint, and havea few straight septa. The species of this genus occur amongst the tissues of seeds. (M. J. B.] USTILAGO. Smut, a disease in which the natural tissue is replaced by black powder. Also the typical genus of USTI- LAGINEI: which see. USTORUK. An Indian name for Storax. USULSOOS. An Arabic name for Liquo- rice-root. UTLARASHA. An Indian name for Ad- hatoda vasica, UTERUS. The volva or receptacle of certain fungals. UTR. An Eastern name for the essential oil or attar of roses. UTRICLE, UTRICULUS. A seed-vessel consisting of a very thin Joose pericarp, enclosing a single seed; any thin bottle- like body; the two confluent glumes of Carex. UTRICULAR, UTRICULOSE. ing many utricles. UTRICULARIA. A genus of aquatic plants belonging to the order Lentibularia- cee, with a two-lipped spurred corolla, and two-parted calyx of which the upper seg- ment is entire. There are three British species of Bladderwort, which agree in having finely-divided capillary leaves, and delicate yellow flowers, rising above the surface of the water, the rest of the plant remaining submersed. Their roots stems and leaves are furnished with numerous Bear- = | blance presented by the fruit of some of UTRI] Che Treasury of Botany. 1198 membranaceous vesicles or small ladders, ; which during the early stage of the plant are filled with water, but when the flowers are ready to expand become filled with air. After the season of blossoming, the vesicles become again filled with water, and the plant descends to ripen its seeds | at the bottom. There are many foreign species, some of which are highly orna- mental to the watery places in which they grow, but they arerarely if ever cultivated. | The flowers are of delicete structure, and turn black in drying. French: Utriculaire ; German: Wasserschlauch. {C. A. J.J UTRICULIFORM. Having the shape of ; a bottle. UVA DE GUANCHES. Sempervivum | uviferwum. — DEL MONTE. Chondoden- dron convolvulacewm. — MARITIMA. Ephedra distachya. — URSI. Arctostaphy- los weu-ursi. UVARIA. This name, derived from the Latin wea ‘a grape,’ is applied to a genus of Anonacece, in consequence of the resem- the species to a bunch of grapes. The species are numerous, all climbing plants, covered with star-shaped hairs. They oc- cur in the tropicaland subtropical districts of the Old World, from Western Africa to the Philippine Islands. The principal cha- racters by which the genus may be recog- nised are the following :—Flowers herma- phrodite, with the petals equal, overlapping one another in the bud, and the flattened stamens arranged ona flat receptacle, which bears also a number of linear-cylindrical Ovaries, each witha very short style. The roots of U. Narwm are fragrant and aromatic, and are used medicinallyin India, in intermittentfevers and liver- complaints; bruised in saltwater they are employed as | an application in certain skin-diseases 5 by distillation they yield a fragrant green- ish oil. The bark of U. tripetaloidea yields by incision a fragrant gum. JU. triloba | is said to contain a powerful acid; its leaves are used as an application to boils and abscesses, while its seeds are emetic. | U. sebrifuga is so called from the feprifugal properties ascribed to the flowers by the Indians on the Orinoco. The fruits of U zeylanica and U. cordata are edible. Several of the species have very fragrant flowers; andin Bourbon an oilis extracted from those of U. longifolia, which is used as a perfume. (M. ‘f. M.] UVETTE. (Fr.) Ephedra. UVULARIA. A genus of Melanthacee, the type of the suborder Uvularee, which is intermediate between the true Melantha- cece and the Liliacew. They have sessile or amplexicaul leaves, and solitary drooping flowers, in which points they have consi- derable resemblance to Polygonatum. They, however, have the style more or less deeply three-cleft, the anthers with their faces turned outwards, and the fruit is a dry three-celled pod. The perianth is narrowly bell-shaped, usually pale-yellow, with spa-1 thulate-lanceolate segments having a honey-pore at the narrow base of each. The greater number of species inhabit North America, but some occur in the mountains of India; they are astringent, and the bruised leaves of U. grandiflora are con- sidered in the United States as a remedy for the bite of the rattlesnake. [J.T.S.] VACCARIA. Agenus of Oaryophyllacec scarcely distinct from Saponaria, the chief points of difference being that the calyx is pentangular, and much enlarged after flow- ering. From Gypsophila it differs in the calyx, Which is narrowed at the top, and in the petals, which have their claws con- niventat the throat. They areannuels, with smooth connate leaves, and dichotomous cymes of rose-coloured fluwers. (J.T. S.] VACCINIACE®. (Vacciniece, Cranberries). An order of monopetalous dicotyledons, closely allied to Hvicacee in their stamens being free from the corolla, in the pecu- liar form of their anthers, as well as in most other characters, but separated by |! almost all botanists on account of their constantly inferior ovary and fruit. They consist of much-branched shrubs or small trees, often evergreen, with alternate un- divided leaves, without stipules. The flow- ers, growing solitary or in racemes, are often richly coloured ; and the fruit,usually a berry, is frequently edible. The species are numerous in the temperate and colder parts of the world, especially in swampy or subalpine countries, as well as in high mountain-chains within the tropies; and many of them are known as garden shrubs. They are distributed into about fifteen genera, the greater number of spécies being included in Vaccinitwm and Thi- baudia. VACCINIUM. A name used by classical writers to designate some now-unknown plant, and applied in modern botany toa genus of low-growing heath-like shrubs, which are found dispersed through a very wide area in both the Old and New World, and generally in mountainous districts or moist heathy places. The genus is the type of the order Vacciniacee. The leaves are alternate, and are generally evergreen, and the flowers are solitary or clustered. The calyx isadherent to the ovary below,while its upper portion is divided into four or five small teeth ; the corolla is generally urn-shaped or bell-shaped, four or five- toothed at the free edge, concealing eight or ten stamens ; the anthers have each of them two horns, and open by pores at the summit; the fruit is a globular four or five-celled berry, with several seeds in each compartment, at least in the young state, Three species are natives of Great Britain, VY. Myrtillus is the Whortleberry or Bil- berry ; this is an erect little shrub, with angular branches, and deciduous leaves of a bright-green colour, but which turn red in autumn ; the flowers are globular, pink- ish, with two-awne@ anthers ; and the glo- bular fruit is of a bluish-black colour. The fruits are frequeltly niade into preserves, Che Treasury of Botany. [ VAHE syrups, puddings, tarts, &c.; and they are said to be used on the Continent for colour- ing wine. V. uwliginosum, a less common plant than the preceding, has roundish branches and small deciduous entire leaves. V. Vitis idea, the Cowberry, has short procumbent stems ana evergreen leaves ; its flowers are of a pale-pink, and arranged in terminal drooping clusters ; and its fruits are of areddish colour, and edible, and are frequently sold as cran- berries. The leaves and stems are used for dyeing yellow ; the former, moreover, are sometimes mixed with those of the bear- berry, Arctostaphylus wva-urst, from which, however, they may be distinguished by the dots on their lower surface. The fruits of several other species are gathered for table use in America, and some of them are use- | ful on account of their astringency, or! from their yielding a blue dye. Several | species are grown in this country as orna- menta! shrubs. ; The true cranberry, Oxycoccus, is distin- guished from Vaccinium by the corolla} being split into four linear segments. See | OXYCOCCUS. [M. T. M.] VACH. The Sanscrit name for the Sweet | Flag, Acorus Calamus. VACHELLIA. This genus was estab- ; lished by Drs. Wight and Arnott upon the well-known Acacia Farnesiana (see ACA- CIA), but the characters relied upon for | distinguishing it from Acacia—viz., the | pods being swollen and nearly cylindrical, filled with pulp,and not opening when ripe !—are common to numerous American and African acacias; and many botanists consequently reunite them, or retain the | group merely as a section of that exten- | sive genus, including the guin-arabic tree (Acacia arabica) and other guin-producing Vachellia (Acacia) Farnesiana. | species. ¢ 1 | cia) Farnesiana, like those ' fumers, who extract their fine violet-like odour by macerating them in purified fat ' or the finest olive-oil, which they use in the preparation of various bouquets, or for The flowers af Vuchelli« (or Aca- of so many | other acacias, grow in little globular heads; | they form the Cassie-flowers of the per- | fera—hoth Madagascar species, are known mixing with violet perfumes to increase their strength. This species is a large shrub or low tree, and has bipinnate leaves composed of from four to eight pairs of pinnz, each with from ten to twenty pairs of little narrow blunt leaflets. Originally it appears to have been confined to the. tropics of the Western Hemisphere, but it is now common in nearly all tropical countries, and also in many parts of the South of Europe, where it was introduced early in the seventeenth century, and from whenee the perfumers derive their supply of the flowers. Large quantities of gum, resembling inferior gum-arabic, exudes from its trunk and branches. (A. 8.] VACIER, or VACIET. (Fr.) Vacciniwmn Myrtillus. VACILLANS. Swinging, as the anthers of grasses, which oscillate lightly from the end of thelr filament. VACONA. (Fr.) Pandanus utilis. VACUOUS. Empty; aterm applied to eases when an organ does not contain | what usually belongs to it. Bracts which usually support flowers are said to be vacu- ous When they have no flower in their axils. VADARI. An Indian name for Zizyphus Jujuba. ' VAGARIA. A name given by Herbert to a plant which he afterwards ascertained to be Lupiedra Placiana. VAGIFORM. Having no certain figure. VAGINA (adj. VAGINANS, VAGINATE). A sheath ; a petiole rolled round astem, as in grasses ; or any part which sheaths some other part. VAGINERVOSE. Having the veins ar- ranged without any order. VAGINULA. A sheath that surrounds | the base of the seta in urn-mosses. VAGUS. Having no particular direction. VAHEA. Nearly the whole of the large | quantities of Caoutchoue or India-rubber consumed by our manufacturers is ob- tained from a spurgewort (Siphonia brasi- | liensis) and a fig (Ficus elastica); but the | milky juice of numerous plants belonging | to the Apocynacee likewise contain it, such as various species of the genera Urceola, Cameraria, Collophora, Willughbeia, and the present genus Vahea, although, with the } exception of the first-named, it is-not col- lected from them for commercial purposes. Vahea contains four species, three from Madagascar and the neighbouring islands, | and one from Western Tropical Africa ; and two of these—viz., V. madagascariensis, the Voua-Here of the natives, and V. gummi- to afford an abundanve of caoutchouc, which will probably at no distant date form an article of export from that mag- nificent island. These plants are tall climbing shrubs or trees, with opposite smooth more or lesselliptical blunt leaves, and dense terminal cymes of rather large | mre VAHL] Che Creasury of Botany. a 1200 white flowers, producing pear-shaped or round fruits filled with granular pulp, in whick the bean-like seeds nestle. Their calyx is five-parted, without glands; their corolla has a five-cleft limb and a cylin- drical tube, hairy inside, but destitute of scales at the mouth, and somewhat bulged out at the base, where the stamens are in- serted ; and their single two-celled ovary is seated within acup-shaped disk, and bears a short thick style and long conical stigma, tipped with two narrow erect lobes. (A. 8.] VAHLIA. A genus of Saxifragacee from Africa and Asia. They are subdichotomous herbs, often more or less woolly, with opposite linear or lanceolate leaves, and thin axillary white shortly-stalked flowers, which have the calyx-tube adherent to the ovary, and the limb five-parted, the petals ; spreading, the stamens five, the styles two, and the capsule one-celled, opening be- tween the styles. V. capensis has the aspect of a Silene. (J. T. S.J VAILLANTIA. A genus of Galiacee, containing two species of annual branch- ing herbs indigenous to Southern Europe. It is nearly allied to Galiuwm, from which it differs in having a campanulate corolla, and in the flowers being arranged in threes, of which the central one is perfect and four-cleft, while the lateral are barren and three-cleft. French: Vaillantie. [W.C.] VAINGA. An Indian name for the gum- resin of Pterocarpus Marsupiuim. VALBRICK. The Danish natine for the Maple. VALDIVIA. A genus of Sarifragacee, consisting ofa single species of ornamental aspect, V. Gayana, a native of Chili. It is distinguished by the following among other peculiarities :—Calyx-tube connate with the ovary, the limb five-cleft; corolla of five to seven perigynous converging late filaments, and oblong anthers dehis- cing longitudinally ; ovary inferior three- celled, with two placentas in each cell affixed to the central angie; style simple, persistent; stigma capitate, three-furrow- ed ; capsule three-celled, inferior, crowned by the persistent calyx-limb; seeds nume- rous. The species is an evergreen herba- ceous perennial, with rather large spathu- late oblong rugose serrated radical leaves, and short erect pyramidal panicles of pretty rose-coloured flowers, the tube-like portion of which is angular, and the tips of the petals recurved; the flowers are three- quarters of an inch long. The plant is now an inmate of our gardens. (T. M.) VALENTINIA. A genus of Sapindacee, | comprising a West Indian shrub, with sessile rigid leaves, wavy and spiny at the margins like those of the holly, and flowers placed in umbel-like groups at the ends of the branches. The calyx is five-parted, scarlet, spreading, persistent; corolla none; | count of their highly stimulant and anti- | Spasmodic properties. That now most used | is the Wild Valerian, common in marshy stamens eight ; ovary free, roundish ; style thick ; capsule somewhat pulpy, dividing | into three or four revolute valves, white at | fined to such localities. They have a pe- petals; stamens five to seven, with subu- rennial rootstock, with a tuft of leaves at | | Jeaves is frequently very different even on first but becoming scarlet ; seeds three or four, embedded in yellow pulp. (M. T. M.) VALERIAN. Valeriana. —, GREEK. Polemonium cerulewm. —, RED. Centran- thus ruber. VALERIANACE. (Valerianee, Vale- rianworts.) An order of monopetalous dicotyledons, consisting of herbs usually strong-scented or aromatic (especially their roots), with radical or opposite entire or pinnately-divided leaves, and rather small but often elegant flowers, in terminal cymes or panicles, rarely contracted into heads. | They agree with Composite and Dipsacee in their inferior one-celled ovary witha single ovule, in their calyx being often reduced to a membrane or feathery pappus border- ing the tap of the ovary, and in the inser- tion of the stamens in the corolla-tube alternating with its lobes; but the flowers: are not collected into heads resembling a single blossom, the anthers are free, the ovule is pendulous, and the seed has no albumen. The corolla is sometimes irre- gular, with the stamens fewer than its lobes, and the ovary has occasionally two additional empty cells. There are about, 150 species known, natives of temperate | climates, chiefly of the mountains of the Northern Hemisphere or of South America, ascending sometimes to great elevations. They are distributed into about a dozen genera, Valeriana, Centranthus, and Vale- rianella being the most familiar examples. VALERIANA. An extensive genus of herbaceous plants, the type of the order Valerianacee. The species are widely dis- | tributed over Tropical and Extratropical America, India, and Central Europe, and more sparingly in North America. For the most part they especially affect mountain- ous districts, although by no means con- | its top, froin amid which the erect flower- | ing stem is thrown up. The form of the the same plant, the lowermost being en- /| tire, while the upper ones are more or less : pinnatedly divided. The flowers are white ; or red, generally numerous, and arranged j in terminal panicles or heads. The limbot | the calyx at the time of flowering is entire | and rolled inwards, but as the fruit ripens | it gradually unrolls, and forms a bell-shaped ; feathery pappus, consisting of numerous | finely-branched hairs. The cerolla has a ; short tube, without a spur. Fruit small, indehiscent, one-celled, one-seeded when ripe. : Many of the species of this genus are or | have been employed in medicine, on ac- and wet places in this country and Cen- tral Europe, the roots of which are col- lected for medicinal purposes; they have a warm aromatic slightly bitter taste, and when dry a peculiar fetid odour, which seems to be especially agreeable to cats, | 1} feathery pappus. | 1201 Che Creasuryp of Uotanyp. [ VALL who become, as it were, intoxicated with ; it. This odour seems to be due to the presence of valerianic acid. It is stated that rat-catchers avail themselves of this root as a means of attracting their prey. What is known to chemists as volatile oil of Valerian seems not to exist ma- | turally in the plant, but to be developed by the agency of water. Valerian is used in medicine as a powerful stimulant to the nervous system in hysteria, and even in epilepsy. On the Continent it is likewise used as a febrifuge. V. celiica is supposed to be the Saliunca of ancient writers. Its perfume is highly prized by Eastern nations, for the purpose of aromatising their baths. Theroots are collected by the Styrian peasants with no slight difficulty and labour, and are export- ed by way of Trieste to Turkey and Egypt, whence they are conveyed to India and Ethiopia. V. montana, V. Phu, V. pyrenai- ca, V. supina, and V. paniculata (a native of Peru), all possess similar properties. V. sitchensis, a native of North-western America, is considered by the Russians as the most powerful species. V. Diosco- vidis is stated by Dr. Sibthorp to have been the ‘Phu’ of Dioscorides; it has a much more aromatic and a less nauseous odour than the British species. Two Valerians are natives of this country, and a third is now well-established in certain parts of Scotland and Western England. V. officinalis, the most common species, has erect stems two to four feet high, irregularly pinnated leaves, and small white or pink flowers in broad terminal corymbs. This plant is usually found in moist hedgerows oron the banks of ditches and streams. V. dioica, a native of bogs ‘and marshes, has stems not attaining toa height of more than six to eight inches; the lower leaves are ovate entire, the upper j ones pinnate, with one large segment at the end; the flowers are small, unisexual. V. pyreiaica, occasionally found wild, is a larger plant than the common Valerian, | from which also it may be known by its broad heart-shaped toothed leaves. ral other species are grown in gardens, many of them handsome flowering plants. The generic name is derived from the | Latin valere ‘to heal,’ in allusion to the curative properties of the plants; but some derive it from Valerius, whois sup- posed to have been the first to employ them medicinally. [M. T. M.] VALERIANE. (Fr.) Valeriaona. — DES JARDINS. Valeriana Phu. — DES MA- RAIS. Valeriana dioica. GRANDE. Valeriana Phu. —GRECQUE. Polemonium ceruleum. — ROUGE. Centranthus ruber. VALERIANELLA. Common herbs be- longing to the order Valerianacew, and allied to Valeriana, from which they are distinguished by having the fruit crowned | with several unequal teeth, and not with a Several species are in- digenous to Britain, of which the most frequent is V. olitovria (the common Lamb’s | Lettuce), a weak succulent herb, six to Seve- | twelve inches high, with repeatedly forked stems, oblong blunt leaves, and nume- rous bluish-white semitransparent flowers, some of which are solitary in the forks of the stems, and others crowded into leafy heads at their summits. This species is often cultivated as a salad, not so much on account of its flavour, which is insipid, as because it is in perfection early in the year. There are several other native species, which are discriminated mainly by minute differences in the fruit. The foreign species resemble VY. olitoria, and may also be cultivated as salad. French: Mache; German: Ackersalat. [C. A. J.J VALERIANWORTS. The plants of the order Valerianacee. VALISALOO. An Indian name for Ram-til oil. VALLEA. The name of a genus of Peruvian trees of the family Tiliacew. The leaves are entire heart-shaped, provided with large leafy stipules ; and the flower- stalks are axillary and terminal, two to three-flowered. Calyx of five lanceolate coloured segments, valvate in the bud; petals five, overlapping, three-lobed ; sta- mens numerous, in two rows, the anthers opening by pores at the top; ovary sessile, surrounded by a disk at the base, and con- taining two ovules in each of its compart- ments; fruit capsular, muricate, three to five-valved, the valves spreading, and each bearing two seeds, attached along its centre. M. T. M.)} VALLECUL. The channels or furrows lying between the ridges upon the fruit of umbellifers. VALLESIA. A genus of Apocynacee, | containing several shrubs or trees from Tropical America, with alternate ovate and petiolate leaves, and white flowers in cymes opposite to the leaves. The calyx is five-parted ; the corolla salver-shaped ; the tube slightly inflated both above and below ; the stamens included, their ovate anthers supported on short slender fila- ments; and the two ovate compressed ovaries contain four ovules. One of the drupes is sometimes averted. [w. C.] VALLISNERIACEA. A name under which if has heen proposed to separate as a distinct order, Vallisneria, Hiodea, and a ; few other Hydrocharidacee which have a one-celled ovary They are, however, more generally considered as a tribe only of the latter order. : VALLISNERIA. This genus, so remark- able on account of the extremely curious manher in which the process of fertilisa- tion is effected, belongs to the order Hy- drocharidacee, and consists of two species, one of which is confined to Australia, while the other is widely dispersed over the tropical and warm regions of the eaith —both of them, however, inhabiting only fresh-water rivers or lakes. V. spiralis the best-known species, and the one com monly grownin aquaria in this country VALL| Whe Treasury of Botany. 1202 is found wild in many parts of Southern Europe. It is a perennial herb, and has a very short stem, bearing a tuft of thin narrow green grass-like leaves, hardly a quarter of an inch broad, but often a yard or more long, with their apices finely saw- toothed: the stem also sending off suckers from its sides, which ultimately take root and produce new plants. The two sexes are borne on separate plants. The male flowers are extremely minute, white, and of a globular form, without special stalks, but seated upon and entirely covering a short general stalk of a conical form ; the whole being enclosed while young in a very short-stalked spathe, which splits into two or three valves at maturity, when also the little flowers become severally detached from the general stalk, and rise by their natural buoyancy to the surface of the water, where their three-parted calyx expandsand permits of the escape of the pollen from the anthers. The stamens vary from one to three in number, and alternate with several rudimentary ones. The female flowers are altogether different from the males. They have a cylindrical ovary, bearing three small spreading calyx- lobes at the top, and contain three rudi- mentary stamens, and three large oval often split stigmas. Each flower is en- closed in a tubular spathe, borne singly at the end of a very long slender spirally- twisted stalk, which uncoils more or less according to the depth of the water, so as to allow the flower to float upon the sur- face, where it expands and is fertilised by its stigmas coming in contact with the | closely allied to Cyrtanthus. to two inches in length, and containing numerous cylindrical seeds marked with longitudinal ridges. The leaves of this plant form an ex- ceedingly beautiful object under the mi- croscope, the extreme tenuity anc trans- parency of their cellular tissue allowing the observer to watch the movement of the fluid contents of the cells. (A. §.] VALLOTA. A genus of Amaryllidacee, much cultivated for the beauty of its rich searlet flowers. There is but one | S wy fll c \\ il "e Wy) Vallota purpurea. species, V. purpurea, of which some varie- ties occur. This is a stoutish bulb, with lorate leaves, and a scape supporting se- veral large erect flowers, which have a straight tube, a funnel-shaped limb, con-, niving filaments adhering by one side only to the tube, and a declinate style. It is (T. M.] VALONIA. A commercial name for the large capsules or acorn-cups of Quercus Aigilops. VALONIACE®. A natural order of | green-spored Algc, characterised by the rooting yariously-shaped frond, made up of large bladder-like cells filled with a green watery endochrome. In Anadyo- | mene the cells are disposed in a fan-shaped membrane; in Chamcedoris the stem is | annulated ; in Penicillus there is a spongy | stem formed of interwoven filaments. | In both these genera it is terminat- ed by a brush-like head. Valonia forms | irregular masses of large cells or sacs | repeatedly constricted, resembling the membranous eggs of some moiluse. In | Vallisneria spiralis. pollen of one or more of the very nu- merous detached male flowers floating about. After this latter process has taken place, the spiral stalk coils up again, and by that means conveys the flower to the bottom of the water, where it produces a cylindrical berry varying from half an inch Dictyospheria, Which consists of an irre- gular membrane, the surface is marked with the outlines of hexagonal cells, in- dicative of strong dissepiments within. In Blodgettia, which has exactly the habit of a Jarge Cladophora, the walls areformed of two or three membranes, the innermost of which is veined and reticulated, a free vein in each mesh of the network being terminated by a short necklace of spores. They are all natives of warm seas, not a 1203 Ohe Treasury af Botany. [ VANI single species occurring on our coasts, though afew arefound on the shores of the Mediterranean. [M. J. B.] VALORADIA. A small genus of Plum- baginacee, natives of Abyssinia and China. They are branching undershrubs, with al- ternate ciliate leaves, and flowers in ter- minal fascicles. The calyx and corolla are five-parted; the five stamens have linear anthers; the ovary is one-celled, with a single ovule; and the filiform style termi- nates in five acute stigmas. (Ww. C.J VALVARIS, VALVATE. United by the margins only ; as the sepals of rhamnads, or the valves of a capsule. VALVES. The doors by which various bodies open; as the separable sides or face of anthers, the carpels or parts of carpels | of fruits. VALVUL, VALVULES. The bracts of sedges. VANCOUVERIA. A genus of Berberi- dacee, consisting of a stemless herb from | North-western America. The rhizome is | slender and horizontal; the leaves all radi- eal, twice or thrice ternate ; and the scape simple, bearing a slightly compound ra- |! | eemte of white flowers on nodding pedicels. The six sepals are caducous membranous, | with three tonine much smaller bracteoles | at the base; the six petals are reflexed, and | there aresix stamens. Thefruitis follicu- lar, with numerous seeds. Es) VANDA. A magnificent genus of epi- | phytal orchids from Tropical Asia, con- taining upwards of a score of species, most of which attain a considerable size, and are amongst the largest found in the Old World. The leaves are distichous, coriaceous, from a few inches to two feet in length, oblique at the point. The flow- ers are large, beautifully coloured, in late- ral erect or pendulous racemes ; the peri- anth spreading, the sepals and petals similar, the lip saccate, more or less three- lobed, with the central lobe fleshy. The species of this genus are, on account of their size and the great beauty of their fiowers, among the most conspicuous of epiphytes cultivated in the hothouses of Europe. better kinds—V. suavis, Batemanni, gigan- tea, cerulea, Lowti, and tricolor. In India the crushed leavesand stems of V.spathulata are mixed with oil, and used in the preparation of an ointment for skin-diseases ; the pow- dered leaves are also taken internally in cases of diarrhea, &c. [wW. B. H.) VANDELLIA. A genus of herbaceous plants of the family Scrophulariaceew. They | have axillary tufted flowers; a nearly equal tubular or bell-shaped five-toothed calyx; a five-cleft and two-lipped corolla, the | upper lip being the shortest of the two; | four stamens, all fertile, the filaments of which havea tooth-like appendage at the base ;and the anthers are coherent, the cells diverging below. The fruit is a globose two-celled two-valved capsule, containing numerous seeds. Some of these plants have emetic and purgative properties. A decoction of V. diffusa is employed medici- nally in Guiana in fevers and disorders of the liver. The species are natives of the East Indies, China, Burmah, and Sofith America. Some of them are grown in this country. The generic name commemorates a Professor of Botany at Lisbon. [M.T. M.j VANELLE. (Fr.) Stylidiwm. VANGLO. A West Indian name for Til- seed, Sesamum orientale. VANGUERIA. A genus of Cinchonacee, comprising certain shrubs which are na- tives of Madagascar and India. The flowers have a minutely five-toothed calyx-limb, a white bell-shaped corolla with a hairy throat, to which the five stamens are attached by very short filaments. The fruit is succulent, in shape like an apple, having on the top an irregular scar, and containing five stones. The fruits of V. edulis and also those of V. Commersoni are eaten in Madagascar, under the name of Voa-vanga or Voa-vanguer, which latter word has been adapted to serve as the de- signation of the genus. In the Mauri- tius, where these plants are naturalised, the Creoles employ the leaves in dysen- tery, and as external applications in stran- gulated hernia. Two or three species are in Cultivation as stove plants. [M. T. M.] : VANILLACE®. A nameunder which it was formerly proposed to separate Va- nilla from the bulk of the Orchidacee. VANILLA. A small genus of climbing orchids belonging to the Avethusew, na- tives of Tropical Asia and America. Their The following are some of the} leaves are oblong,somewhat succulent, cor- Vanilla aromatica. date at the base, and articulated with the stem ; and their flowers are thick fleshy and dull-coloured, the sepals and petals being nearly equal spreading, ana the lip entire, attached to the column, and bearded. The fruit is linear-oblong and fleshy. The climbmg habit of this genus is sufficient to distinguish it from most others. This is, perhaps, the most important VANI| genus of the whole family, anc tue only one which possesses any economical value. The fruit of several species is largely employed by confectioners to flavour chocolates creams and liqueurs, under the name by which it is botanically known. The best Vanilla is the produce of V. planifolia, a native of Mexico, but several other South Ameyican species arealso used. Aboutfive or six ewts. are annually imported into this country. See Plate 14, fig b. [W. B. H.] VANILLA. The thin pod-like capsule of Vanilla planifolia aud other species, Vaniila pods. much used for flavouring purposes. —, CHICA. The Panama name for the fruit of a species of Sobralia. —, CUBA. Crito- nia Dalea. VANILLOES. A sort of bastard Vanilla obtained from Vanilla Pompona. VANTANEA. The name of a tree, na- tive of Guiana, constituting a genus of Tiliacee. The leaves are entire alternate, and the flowers in terminal corymbks. Calyx five-cleft ; petals five, inserted on a very short disk; stamens numerous, in- serted with the petals; ovary surrounded by a disk; style filiform. The fruit is un- described. [M. T. M.] VANZEY. An Abyssinian name for Cor- dia abyssinica. VAQUETTE. (Fr.) Arum maculatumn. VARAGOO. The,Tamil name for Millet, Panicum miliaceum. VARAIRE. (Fr.) Veratrum. VARANA. An Indian name for the Gar- lic Pear, Crateva Tapia. VARANGOO. An Indian name for Pas- palum frumentaceum. VAREC. (Fr.) Fucus. VARECA. The name of a Cingalese plant of which little is known, except of the fruit, which is a six-sided one-celled berry, placed upon a six-lobed disk, and surmounted by ashort spine. The genus is referred to Passifloracee. [M. T. M.] = 1204 | Che Creasury of Botany. VARIABILIS, VARIANS. constant in appearance. VARIEGATED. Having colour disposed in various irregular spaces. VARIEGATIO. A diseased condition of plants, inconsequence of which the leaves become partially white, from a total sup- pression or modification of the chlorophyll; it is distinguished from chlorosis by its being more or less permanent, and not materially affecting health, much less end- ing in destruction. It is indeed said that planting in a rich soil and free exposure to light will sometimes cause the variegation to cease. In some cases, however, of this Not being kind chlorosis may be confounded with variegation, and in others the affection has been produced by external causes, as in that of Meyen’s beech, which had been eaten down the first year by snails and in the second by deer, and which then for a season or two produced variegated leaves, which, however, entirely disappear- ed after two or three seasons. Individual shoots, indeed, will often revert to the original condition in variegated plants, and these probably if propagated would remain true, The cause of this disease is com- | pletely unknown. It may take place origi- nally in a seedling, but more frequently it occurs In some particular shoot of a tree, from whence itis propagated by cuttings or grafts. Occasionally variegated plants have a tendency to revert to their original condition, but this is not usually the case. Variegated grafts sometimes affect the stock, and, on the contrary, grafts may contract the disease from the stock. Va- riegated plants have also been cbtained by crossing, as in the vine. (M. J. BJ VARIETY. grade of subdivisien, next to the species ; as the different sorts of pears or apples. VARIOLA. Pustular shields, such as are found in the genus Variolaria. VARIOLARIA. A spurious genus of Fungi, arising from Porina pertusa, the soridia being multiplied at the expense of the fruit, and often to such an extent as to obliterate the crust altogether. In very old specimens the crust quite vanishes, and the productions are then referred to Lepraria. [M. J. B.) VARIUS. Liable to change—of colour. VARNISH-TREE, BLACK. Melanorrhea usitatissima. —, FALSE. Ailantus glan- dulosa. —,JAPAN. Rhus vernicijera. —-, MARTABAN. Melanorrhea usitatissima. —, NEW GRENADA. Eleagia utilis. —, SYLHET. Semecarpus Anacardiwn. VARRONIA. A genus of Boraginacer, consisting of three species, two of which are found in Tropical America, and one in Africa. V. rotundifolia is one of the chief features of the Peruvian deserts, and pro- duces a fleshy fruit, which fattens poultry. The Varronias are bushes or small trees, with simple ovate or nearly orbicular leaves, and terminal panicles bearing A term indicating a lower | 1205 The Treasury of Botany. highly ornamental white or yellow flowers. The calyx is five-toothed striate and near- ly bell-shaped; the corolla funnel-shaped ; the stamens are five in number and exsert- ed; and thefruit a fleshy drupe, including a two to four-celled nut, each cell containing one seed. (B. S.J VARSAR. A Sanscrit name for the aro- matic seeds of Cleome pentaphylla. VASA. The tubes which occur in the interior of plants, and serve for the con- veyance of sap or air. V.laticis and pro- pria@ are names given to the milk-vessels or cinenchyma; V. spiralia, chymifera, and spiroidea are spiral vessels; V. scalarifor- mid, annulata, and moniliformia are modi- fied spiral vessels or ducts; V. porosa and punctata are the dotted vessels which con- stitute bothrenchyma; and V. exhalantia are the stomates. VASCOA. The two South African plants to which this generic name was given by M. De Candolle are now by most botanists referred to Rafnia, of which they are al- lowed to form a section, characterised by the flowers having the lower or keel-petals blunt instead of beaked as in the true Rafnias, and by their leaves clasping the stem. Both species are shrubs from two to five feet high, with simple roundish heart-shaped leaves, placed alternately upon the lower parts of the branches and oppos#tely upon the upper; the latter bear- ing clusters of yellow pea-shaped flowers in their axils—the genus belonging to the pea-flowered section of Leguminose. The Dutch colonists at the Cape of Good or Liquorice-bush, on account of its roots tasting like liquorice, for which they are a good substitute. A decoction of them is also used asa demulcent in eatarrh and disorders of the chest; while a similar preparation of the other species (V. perfo- liata) acts as a powerful diuretic, and is considered serviceable in various forms of dropsy. [A. S.J VASCULAR, VASCULOSE. Containing spiral vessels or their modifications. VASCULAR SYSTEM. All that part of the interior structure of a plantinto whose composition spiral vessels or their modi- fications enter. VASCULUM. A pitcher-shaped leaf. Also a case in which botanists place their freshly-gathered specimens, when on a journey. VASE-SHAPED. Formed like a flower- pot. VASIFORM TISSUE. Ducts, that is tubes having the appearance of spiral ves- sels and bothrenchyma. VATAIREA. The name ofa tree of the papilionaceous subdivision of the Legumi- nose, having the leaves unequally pinnate, and grey beneath; and the pod leathery roundish compressed, brown, grooved at the margins, indehiscent, and containing a | resin instead of incense. | abounding in resin. Hopecall V. amplexicaulis Zoethout-boschje [vAuC large flattened seed. The flower is not de- scribed. The seeds of V. guianensis are said to be pounded and mixed with lard, as an ointment in cases of ringworm and other skin-diseases. The tree is, as its name implies, a native of Guiana. (M. T. M.] VATERIA. One of the genera of the Dipterocarpacee, comprising certain Indian trees,whose flowers are ofa whitish colour, aud borne on terminal or axillary panicles. They haveafive-parted calyx (the segments of which occasionally enlarge as the fruit tipens), five petals, numerous stamens, and a three-valved somewhat spongy fruit containing a single seed, and par- tially invested by the reflexed calyx. V. indica yields a useful gum-resin, call- ed Indian Copal, Piney Varnish, White Dammer, or Guinanine. The resin is pro- cured by cutting a notch in the tree, so that the juice may flow out and become hardened by exposure to the air. It is employed in India as a varnish for car- riages, pictures, &c. On the Malabar Coast it is made use of in the manufacture of candles, which burn with a clear light and an agreeable fragrance, and do not require snufing. The Portuguese employ the Ornaments are fashioned from it under the name of amber. Medicinally it is employed in rheumatic and other affections. The seeds are used to obviate nausea; while the timber is in request for building purposes. [M. T. M.] VATICA. A genus nearly allied in bo- tanical structure and other points to Vateria. It consists of Indian trees, The flowers are yel- low, in terminal or axillary panicles. The | five segments of the calyx become ulti- | mately enlarged and leaf-like, and sur- mount the leathery or woody fruit, which contains a single seed, and opens partially by two valves. V. Tumbugaia yieldsa large | quantity of resin, and its timber, like that of some allied species, is valued for con- structive purposes. [M. T. M.] VAUBIER. (Fr.) Hakea. VAUCHERIA. A genus of green-spored Alge, named after the celebrated Genevan botanist Vaucher, belonging to the natural order Siphonee, characterised by simple or slightly and irregularly-branched threads producing short lateral curved antheridia, which yield a multitude of minute sper- matozoids (which move about by means of two long cilia), and cysts in whicha single zoospore variously ciliate is formed after impregnation. The species occur on mud or stones in salt or fresh water, forming generally dense spongy dark- green tufts, or upon the naked soil in fields and gardens, where they present a web of matted threads. One or two are very troublesome in greenhouses, by run- ning over the soil in pots which contain delicate seedlings. The changes in the spores produced by impregnation, and the consequent formation of a surrounding membrane, have been closely observed by Pringsheim, whose observatious should be VAUQ | he Treasury of Botany. compared with those of Thuret on the im- pregnation of the spores in Fucus. Little is known of exotic species, as it is scarcely possible to recognise them from dried specimens, which lose all their distinctive characteristics. [M. J. B.] VAUQUELINIA. A genus of Rosacee, | comprising a Mexican tree, with entire saw-toothed leaves, and corymbs of white flowers. The tube of the calyx is hemi- spherical, its limb five-parted ; petals five ; stamens fifteen to twenty, inserted with the petals into the throat of the calyx ; ovary five-celled ; styles five, distinct; stig- mas capitate; fruit capsular five-valved, surrounded by the persistent calyx ; seeds ten, winged above. (M. T. M.j VAUTHIERA. A genus of cyperaceous plants belonging to the tribe Rhyncho- sporee. Inflorescence in crowded spikelets; scales imbricated spathe-like one-flowered, the exterior ones empty; stamens three; nut bluntly triquetrous. V. australis, a native of New Zealand, is the only species described. [D. M.] VAUVAN. Abelmoschus esculentus. VAV AIA. A genus of Veliacer, peculiar to the Tonga and Feejee Islands, and con- sisting of two species, both trees of middle size, having alternate and (unlike most Meliacee) simple leaves. . The flowers are paniculate and white; the calyx is four to seven-cleft ; the petals short free, aud four to seven in number; the fruit a round three to four-celled berry. [B. S.J VEGETABLE. Of the nature of a plant. Also applied in a special sense to any es- culent plant. VEGETABLE BRIMSTONE. lLycopo- dium powder. VEGETABLE GOLD. An acid extracted from the roots of Trixis Pipizahuac. ‘ VEGETABLE HAIR. Tillandsia usneoi- es. VEGETABLE IVORY. The albumen of the nut of Phytelephas macrocarpa. VEGETABLE KINGDOM. That division of organic nature which comprises plants VEGETABLE LEATHER. Euphorbia punicea. VEGETABLE MARROW. The Succade Gourd, a variety of Cucurbita Pepo; also Persea gratissima. VEGETABLE SHEEP. Raouwlia eximia. VEGETABLE SILK. A cotton-like ma- terial obtained from the seed-pods of Cho- risia speciosa. VEGETABLE TALLOW. A fatty sub- stance obtained from Sitillingia sebifera, Vateria indica, and other plants. VEGETABLE WAX. A ceraceous ex- cretion obtained from different parts of various plants, as the coating on the fruits of Myrica cerifera. VEGETATE. To grow, afterthe manner of a plant. . ; VEGETATION. Atermapplied to plants | in general. VEILED. The same as Velate. VEILLEUSE. (Fr.) Colchicum autum- nale. VEINED. Traversed by veins, as the parenchyma of a leaf. VEINING. The arrangement of veins. VEINLESS. Having no veins. VEINLETS. Veins of the smallest size. VEINS. The fibrovascular tissue of leaves, through which sap is earried into the parenchyma. Costal or primary veins are such as spring from the midrib; eaz- ternal veins are those next the edge. VEITCHIA. This name was originally proposed by Herbert for Barbacenia squa- mata. It has since been applied by Dr. Lindley to a curious Japanese conifer, of which imperfect specimens only were available for examination; but this has now been shown by Professor Oliver to be nothing but a monstrous condition of some Japanese conifer, thename of which has not been yet ascertained. (T. M.) VELAME DO CAMPO. Croton campes- tris. VELAR. (Fr.) Erysimum. VELARET. (Fr.) Sisymbriwm Irio. VELATE. Partially concealed from view ; veiled. VELEZIA. A small genus of Caryophyl- lace, from the Mediterranean region. It is nearly allied to Tunica, but has a more slender calyx, and almost always only five stamens. They are annuals, with squarrose- ly and dichotomously-branching stems, linear subulate opposite leaves, and soli- tary axillary red flowers on short rigid peduncles. iJ. 7.8.) VELLA. A genus of Orucifere, from the western part of the Mediterranean region, consisting of erect pilose shrubs, with obovate leaves, and erect subterminal racemes of yellow flowers. The pouch is two-valved ovate compressed, crowned by the persistent style; seeds one or two in each cell. [J.T S.J VELLANGA. An Indian name for the Wood Apple, Feronia elephantum. VELLEJA. A genus of Australian herbs, belonging to the Goodeniacece, and distin- guished by their three to four-leaved un- equal calyx, by the corolla-tube being split at the end with a two-lipped limb, by the distinct anthers and undivided stigma, and by the presence ofa gland between the two front stamens. They are nearly related to Euthales. (T. M.J VELLOMARDOO. Terminalia alata. An Indian wood, 1207 The Treasury of Botany. [ VENI | VELLOZIA. A genus of Hemodoracee, | chiefly Brazilian, having leafy dichoto- | mously-branched stems, bearing linear or | linear-lanceolate leaves, arranged either | spirally or in three rows, rarely in a di- | stichous manner. The flowers are large, | white blueor violet, and solitary. The peri- anth-tube isconnate with the ovary, its limb | six-parted and campanulate; the stamens are sometimes six in number free, some- | times indefinite and collected in clusters. | The ovary isinferior three-celled, the style triauetrous and tripartite, and the stigma Veilozia compacta, | Capitately trigonous. The capsule is sub- globose, with numerousseeds. There are two groups included in the genus: YXero- phyta, which are those with six free sta- mens; and Vellozia proper, in whieh the stamens are twelve, fifteen, eighteen, or twenty-four, in three or six phalanges, naked or coalescent with scales at the base. These plants are so abundant as to givea character to the dry mountain regions of | Brazil. V. compacta is a fair representa- tive of the family. [(T. M.j VELLUS. The stipe of certain fun- gals. ; VELONIA. The acorns of Quercus Agi- ops. VELOTE. (Fr.) Dillwynia. VELTHEIMIA. A genus of Liliacee from the Cape of Good Hope. It comprises _ bulbous herbs, with lanceolate undulated | leaves, and a scape bearing a raceme of _ nodding flowers, usually fawn-coloured and white or green. drical tubular, with a very short six- toothediimb. The capsule is three-winged, the seeds subsolitary in each cell, with a hard black seed-coat. V. viridifolia and VY. glauca are sometimes cultivated, and are tolerably hardy. (J.T. 8.) VELUM. The annulus of certain fungals. || VELUMEN. The velvety coating form- ed over some leaves, by short soft hairs. || VELUTINOUS. Velvety; havinga hairy The perianth is cylin- | surface, which in texture resembles velvet, as in Rochea coccinea. VELVET-BUR. Priva echinata. VELVET-FLOWER. Amaranthus cau- datus, VELVET-LEAF, Cissampelos Pareira; also Sida Abutilon aud Lavatera arborea. VELVET-SEED. Guettarda elliptica. VELVETY. The same as Velutinous. VELVOTE FAUSSE. (Fr.) Linaria spu- ria. —VRAIE. Linaria Elatine. VENZ. The Veins of plants. VENATICA, or VINATICO. One of the shipbuilding woods recognised at Lloyds ; a coarse kind of mahogany obtained in Madeira from Persea indica. VENATION. The arrangement of veins in a leaf or other organ. VENEFICIUM. Plants like animals are liable to be affected by poisonous sub- stances, whether in a liquid or gaseous form, and it often becomes a matter of considerable importance on civil trials to be able to give accurate information on the subject. Where poisons in a solid form are liable to rapid dissolution, where a strong solution is present, or the atmo- sphere highly impregnated with gaseous elements, rapid destruction will take place; but a more gradual decay may be produced by the constant presence of noxious mat- | ter, as evidenced by the condition of trees | in large towns, or in the neighbourhood | of extensive gas or other chemical works. | The taint may be communicated imme- diately, by admission of the noxious air, through the breathing pores of the leaves, or by absorption from the soil. In some cases, as in subjection to the fumes of fence brimstone, death is almost imme- | diate. Poisons sometimes affect the irritability of plants, asin the repression of the curious motions of the leaves of the sensitive plant. Fungi are in some cases unaffected by poisons which would destroy phenogams. They appear, for instance, in tan-pits, where no phzenogam could exist, and many moulds are developed in solutions of poi- sonous metallic salts, as of copper arsenic and mercury. The metal is sometimes de- posited on the threads in a solid form by a sort of electrotyping. Plants also are sometimes injured by substances which are essential to the existence of others. Rho- dodendrons, for instance, have an antipa- thy to lime, as is sometimes curiously evi- denced in Wales, in districts where geologi- cal formatious abounding in or destitute of lime happen to be contiguous. [M. J. B.] VENGAY. An Indian name for the as- tringent gum-resin of Pterocarpus Marsu- pium. VENIDIUM. A genus of Cape herbs, of the family Composite. The leaves are ge- nerally somewhat woolly ; the involucre is bell-shaped, and consists of numerous | a VENI | The Treasury of Botany. 1208 leafy scales outside, the inner ones being membranous ; the receptacle is flat, usually destitute of scales; the corollas of the ray ligulate, female, those of the disk tubular, perfect. The achenes are smooth, each with three dorsal wings, the two side ones with infolded margins, and larger than - the central one, which is straight. Pappus none, or of four small scales. [M.T. M.] VENIVEL. Cosciniwm fenestratum. VENOSE. Having many branched veins, as in reticulated leaves. Indirectly venose is when lateral veins are combined within the margin, and emit other little veins. VENTENATIA. Theonly known species of this genus of Ternstrimiacee is a native of Benin, on the coast of Western Tropical Africa. It forms a small tree, and has egg- shaped taper-pointed stalked glaucous leaves, and large scarlet flowers, having a trilobed calyx, eleven or twelve spread- ing oblong petals blunt at the top and tapering to the base, numerous free sta- mens, a five-celled ovary containing nume- rous ascending ovules attached to the central angle, and a simple long style bear- ing a somewhat five-lobed stigma, [A. S.J VENTILAGO. A name, derived from the | Latin words ventilo ‘to blow’ and ago ‘to | drive away,’ given to a small genus of Rhamnacece, in consequence of its fruits terminating in an oblong flat thin wing, by means of which they are scattered by the wind. These fruits are one-seeded woody nuts, seated upon or surrounded by the per- named from water collecting in the con- nate bases of the opposite leaves. VENUS’ COMB. Scandix Pecten-veneris. VENUS’ FLYTRAP. Dioncea musci- | pula. VENUS’ HAIR. Adiantum Capillus- veneris. VENUS’ LOOKING-GLASS. Specularid Speculwm. VENUS’ NAVELWORT. Omphalodes linifolia. VEPRIS. A genus of Rutacece, compris- ing a small tree native of the Mauritius. The flowers are of a whitish colour, the males and females on the ends of different branches. The calyxis short, four-parted ; petals four, longer than the calyx, spread-. ing. In themales areeight stamens, those opposite to the petals being dwarfer than the rest, all inserted on a short stalk sup- porting the four rudimentary ovaries. In the females the ovaries are placed on a short gland-like eight-lobed stalk, or gyno- rhore svrrounded by eight minute scales. The fruit is fleshy dotted, four-furrowed and four-celled.. The generic name is deriy- ed from the Greek vepres, a ‘briar’ or ‘bramble,’ [M. T. M.) VERATRIA, or VERATRINE. An acrid | alkaline principle found in Veratrwm and sistent base of the calyx. The species all | belong to the tropics of the Eastern Hemi- sphere, and are tall climbing shrubs with stiff woody branches, and alternate short- stalked leathery feather-veined leaves, which are marked on the upper side with close transverse veinlets. The flowers grow in small axillary or terminal panicles, and have a spreading five-cleft calyx, five pe- tals, aS many stamens, and a two-celled ovary immersed in the flat fleshy disk, and | terminating upwards in two short conical styles or stigmas, V. maderaspatana, 2 common plant in Ceylon and the Indian Peninsula, and found also in Tenasserim, is employed by the na- tive dyers of Mysore for producing an orange-red dye. Another Indian species, V. calyculata, a native of the central and northern parts of India, has until recently been confounded with V. maderaspatana, and is prohably equally serviceable for dye- ing purposes. [A. S.] VENTRAL. Belonging to the anterior surface of anything, as a vertical section, | which is the line running down the front | of a carpel on the side next the axis. VENTRICOSE. Swelling unequally on one side, as the corolla of many labiate and personate plants. VENULZ PROPRIZ&. The veinlets which first leave the costal or primary veins. VENUS’ BATH. Dipsacus sylvestris: so | Asagred. VERATRUM.