cupped : faux hairy. Stamens five, concealed in the fwoln 

 part of the tube ; filaments very fhort ; anthers acute, erecl:, 

 yellow. Ovary marked with five lines, two-celled : Ovula 

 folitary. Style half the length of the tube. Stigma curioufly 

 urn-fhaped, or like an egg crowned with a fringed border and 

 having a fort of fringed curtain round the lower part. 



This is the defcription of the hermaphrodite flower, nor 

 could we find any male flowers in the feveral fpecimens we 

 examined. Fruit we have not feen. The whole plant abounds 

 with a milky juice. 



Rumphius remarks, that there is a variety with fcarlet 

 flowers, the root of which is lefs bitter. 



The Ophioxy lu m ferpentinum is fuppofed to produce the 

 Lignum Colubrinum, a medicine formerly of great cele- 

 brity in the Eaft for the cure of the bite of venomous ferpents 

 and of malignant difeafes. 



Our drawing was taken from a plant fent us by Mr. Lod- 

 Diges of Hackney. It is a native of the Eaft-Indies, requires 

 the heat of the bark ftove, but does not like fun. In a hot 

 fun in the open air it becomes flaccid and appears as if dead, 

 but is reftored to vigour by the cool of the evening. Rum- 

 phius has made the fame obfervation in its native foil. 



