i23 HORTUS'- JAMAICENSI8. bottoj* 



Smooth, leaves lanceolate ; stamens included ; flowers whorled ; seeds rough^^ 

 haired. . '.' ' 



I :,,., T>Iai)t has hj. .: ^.. .. j.v _ .: . , .-:;.! is found according to Browne only in the 

 tvoods, where it grows, sometimes upright and sometimes as a cliaiber, and is^therefore 

 called climbing spermacoce. When erect it rises to the height of two or three feet, but 

 ciiinhrng to double Or triple that length. The root is jjerenniai, a foot in length, 

 shooting perpendicularij' into -the earth and lightlv mai"ked with transverse rugae, and 

 of' an acrid nauseous taste. It throws up divers jointed, slender, quadrigonai stems," 

 %vith marginated or foliated angles, climbing ox\ neighbouring plants or creeping on 

 the ground. It has a brown bark, and the branches come out by pairs. The leaves 

 are placed at the joints in opposition, from one to Uto or three inches in length, and 

 about a quarter of an inch broad ; tneir margins are furnished with minute spinous 

 denticles, beStc-r known by handling-th'an by the eye, they are furnished with eminent 

 arcuated side veins, and are of a stiif brittle substance, I'ugged and hardj. having no pe- 

 dicel, but embrace the stems with broad ciliated bases. Between the.se larger leaves 

 come three or four smaller ones, standing in whorls round the .stalks. The fiov.-ers 

 grow in slender whorls tovvar<!s the top of the stalks, round, white, and sessiile, having 

 a whorl of leaves close under them; succeeded by two oblong seeds, having small 

 horns, and ripening in the calyx. The flowers are placed singly, at the alas of the 

 leaves, when it ci'eeps along the sea beech. 



2. VERTICILI^ATUS-. VEUTICILLATE. 



Pulegium jruti'cosum crectum verticillin de^isissunis. Sloane, v. i^ 



p. 170. Frutiadosa atque ramosa, foliis linearibus, fioribus con-^ 



stipatis ad aids supremas: .SrowHe, p. 141. 



Smooth, leaves lanceolate ; whoids globidar. 



Stem shrubby, square, three or four feet high ; branches opposite, decussated, 



fastigiate, four-cornered. Leaves opposite, decussated, /anceolate-linear, Vrith a 



middle nerve, entire, even on both sides ; branchlets aivillary, length of the leaves, 



opposite ; stipules connate, membranaceous, with whitish bristles ; whork of flowers 



embracing, round the joints, small, white, clustered very close together in globular 



heads. Calyx superior, minute, with two teetii, or three or four ; tube of the corolla 



very shorf, four-cornered ; border four-cleft, erect, minute ; filaments standing out, 



fastened to the middle of the tube ; anthers incumbent, whitish; germ ovate, ancipi- 



tal ; style siidrt, en|arginate at top or sub-bifid ;. seeds naked, compressed, bipartite, 



crowned, smooth, black, having a small furrow on one side. . This plant grows very 



conmionly in all the low a.nd high lands oi' Jamaica, and in the driest soils. I,t bears all 



Its flowers at the upper joints of the branches. 



3. HIRTA. HOUGH-HAIRED. 



Erecta sub-hirsuta, foliis oblongis venis aixuafis refirrtis, superiorihus 

 ' onajoribus dppropinquatis, fioribus constipatis ad alas-. BrownCj, 

 p. 141. 

 Rugged branched; leaves ovate-lanceolate; flowers clustered, axillary j sta- 

 mens standing out. 

 Stem herbaceous, fit)m one to two feet high, four-cornered, stiff, striated ; branches 

 erect, four-cornered, with theangles rough-haired ; leaves sub-sessiie, entire, nerved,, 



roughw 



