250 HOUTUS JAMAirENSlS. amncn 



COWITCH, CREEPING. TRAGIA. 



Ci.. 2\, OR. 3. Monoecia triandria, Nat. or. Tricoccx. 



- This was so named in memory of Hieronymus Tragus, a German divine arid 

 pliysician. 



Gex. char. Tiie male calyx has a thrcc-paned pei-ianth ; segments ovate, spread- 

 ing ; no corolla ; stamens three. filaments, the length of the calyx ; anthers round- 

 ish. The females on the same plants calyx, a five or six parted perianth ; leaf- 

 lets ovate, concave, acute,. perniiment; bo corolla; the pistil hasa roundish germ, 

 three- grooved ; styie single, erect, longer than the calyx ; stigma irifid, spread- 

 ing ; the pericarp is a tricoccor.s capsule, roundish, three-celled, hispid ; each 

 coll marked on the outside at the base with two dots ; seeds solitary, globular. 

 Two species are natives of Jamaica. 



1. VOI.UB1L1S. TWINING. 



; Urtica racemosa scandens, ongustifolia, frucfu tricocco. Sloane, v. 

 l,.p. 123, t. 82, f. 1. Scandens, J'oliis haslatis sevratis hispidis. 

 Browne, p. 336. 



Leaves cordate-ovate, acuminate; stem twining. 



This plant rises six or seven feet high, with a woody, reddish, striated, stetK, suffru- 

 tescent, h)ose, roundish, stinging with its bristles : branches filiform, all directed one 

 iv;iy, simple ; leaves petioled, alternate, serrate, bent down, nerved, hispid with bris- 

 tles ; stipules lanceolate, opposite by the side of the petioles, which are long and his- 

 pid. Racemes peduncled, axillary, sttlitary, longer than the leaves, filiform, loose, 

 composed of numerous very small male flowers^ oii very short pedicels, with minute 

 awl-shaped bractes under the pedicels, and females at the base, pedicelled, solitary, 

 larger. Cal3;x of the mak; three-leaved, leaflets coloured of a dark purple, filaments 

 very short, contiguous : calyx of the female five-parted, germ lursute, style trifid, 

 stigsnas re volute. Sxv. 



Browne calls this the creeping cowitch, and says the footstalks of the flowers rise 

 from the alfc of the leaves, and divide soon after into two simple branches ; whereof 

 the one bears a number of male flowers, disposed gradually in the form of a spike, to- 

 wards the top ; while the other sustains only a single fenxale blossom, which is fixed at 

 the extremity of the branch. There is no more than two filaments in each of the male 

 f;Owers of this plant ; and what Linnaeus calls a cup or perianthium seems to be rather 

 p real flower. The plant is very common in Jamaica, and well known on account of 

 its sharp itching hairs. The root is looked upon as a good aperient and diuretic ; and 

 both the decoction and juice are frequently used among the negroes for those purposes. 

 ' Browne, p. 33(5. 



a.-MERCiURIAUS. MERCURY. 



Subfruticosa, foliis oblongis glabris, fructu hispido. Bi'owhe, p. 336. 



Leaves ovi.te. 



,This plaiU has bcivH considered only s a vantty ,of the chainalea, an East Indian; 



.s|jecie&i 



