254- OCTANDRIA MONOGYNIA, | Pierardia, 
axillary, short, downy, many flowered. Flowers small, 
greenish-white, pedicelled. Calyx inferior, five-leaved; 
leaflets oval, downy, spreading. Petals five, very like the 
calyx. Nectary a large, fleshy green, ten-notched, ten- 
grooved ring, surrounding the lower half of the germ. Fila- 
ments ten, rather shorter than the petals, inserted between 
the nectary and petals. Anthers cordate. Germ superior, 
woolly, five-grooved, five-celled, with one ovu/a in each, 
attached to the upper end of the axis. Style erect, short. 
Stigma slightly five-lobed. Drupe size of a pullet’s egg, 
five-grooved, covered with a smooth, light grey, dry cor- 
tex: Pulp very like soft soap, exceedingly bitter, hay- 
ing an offensive greasy smell. Nut exceedingly hard, ones 
celled, one-seeded. 
The nut is employed in fire works. A small nodal 
drilled in it, at which the kernel is extracted, and being 
filled with powder, and fired, bursts with a very loud re~ 
port, so exceedingly hard is the nut; 1 know no es | 
use te which any part of this shrub is put, wre 
PIERARDIA. R. 
Calyx four-leaved.. Corul none. Germ superior, four- 
-eelled ; cells two-seeded, attachment superior. Style 
scarcely any. Stigma tetragonal. Berry with three ot — 
four arilled seeds. Embryo inverse, aud furnished with 4 
perisperm. gis tO 
P. sapida. R. ‘y 
_Lutco of the Hindoos, about Tippera, Ke. tothocast 
ward of Calcutta, where the tree is indigenous, a 
_ A few small trees are now in the Company’s ‘Botan 
aia at Calcutta ; they were originally from ‘Tippet 
Our Chinese gardeners say itis also a native of theif 
country, where it is called Lutqua, and is cultivated for 
_its agreeable fruit, our trees are as yet small, fromsis 
