HORTUS JAMAICENSIS, 





i 



Acacia 0)' AcACEE, ^ee Cashaw. .^U"-^ / 



Acacia, FALSE, 5ct' Robin u. -ff^-," 



Acajou, see Cashew^. "^-'ii), : "' 



No English Name. ACALYPHA. 



Class 21, orders Monteciavwnodelphia. Natural order Tricoccar. 



THE generic name of this plant is derived from a Greek word, vvhicii , gn.' es 'nofe 

 jjleasant to handle.' 



Generic characters. Male calyx three or four leaved ; no corolla; staiiiina eight 

 to sixteen : Female calyx, throe leaved ; no corolla ; styles three; capsules three- 

 grained and three-celled ; seeds solitary. There are fourteen species, seven of 

 which are known to be natives of Jamaica, viz. 



1. reptans. 



Urtica viinor mers spicata folio suhrotunclo sotato fvuctu tricocco. 

 Sloane's Jam. v. 1, p. 125, t. 82. f. 3. 



Sjjikes terminating erect, flowers mixed, females lower ; involucres cordate- 

 serrate; males leafless ; leaves ovate-serrate ; stem creeping. 



This plant is described by Sloane as having a large brown root, sending out small 

 -stems along the surface of the earth ; the leaves small, mthout order, with short foot- 

 stalks, round, smootli, and serrated. The flowers come out in spikes terminal erect, 

 anil are purple intermixed with white ones, succeeded by capsules, which become red 

 and rough on the outside. In each of these are three roundish seeds, everj' one co- 

 vered with a membrane. 



2. VIRGINICA. 



Huviilior, foiiis cordato crenatis, spicis mi.vtis ; alaribus ct terminali- 

 hiis. Browne, p. 346, t. 36, f. 1. 

 Female involucres heart-shaped gashed; leaves ovate-lanceolate, longer than 

 the petiole. 



This is a suiail twiggy shrub, seldom exceeding four or five feet in ii ight, the 

 -leaves and flowers are much like tliose of pellitory of the wall. 



B 3. VIRC.iTA 



