^BEEi HORTUS JAMAICENSIS. 3'.3 



GREEN WITHE. EPIDENDRUM. 



Cl. 20, OR. 1. G^/nandria diandria. Nat. ou. Oichidrte. 



This generic name is derived tVonfi two Greek words signifying growing upon trees. 



Gen. char. Calyx vagne spatlies ; spadix simple, no perianth ; the corolhi has 

 five petals, oHong, extremely long, very spreading, no spur ; the nectary is 

 turbinate, tubular at the base, top-shaped, ])laced downwards witli the petals, 

 with an oblique two-cleft mouth ; the superior lip very short, three-cleft ; the 

 inferior lengthened into a point ; the stamens are two filaments, very short, sitting 

 on the pistil 5 anthers covered by the upper Up of the nectary ; the pistil is a slen- 

 der germ, Jong, twisted, inferior ; style very short, fastened to the upper lip of 

 tlie nectary ; stigma obscure ; the pericarp is an extremely long silique, columnar, 

 tleshy ; seeds numerous, extremely small. There are a great many species of 

 this genus, fift3'-two of which have been discovered in Jamaica, most of them pa- 

 rasitic plants, growing on trees. The green withe is the 



I. CLAVlCULATUM. TENDRILLED. 



Cerio affinis scandcns planta aplnjlla caide rolimdo, articidatn, glabro 

 succulentB saturati viridi. Sloane, v. 2, p. 160, t. 224, f. 3, 4. 



Stsm climbing, round, branching ; leaves sessile, half-stem clasping, acute, 

 concave, recurved, rigid. 



This plant hangs down from the branches of trees, and creeps up others to the height 

 of fort^- feet, having many clavicles, jointed, or made up of leaves, going one out of 

 the other. The stalk is about three-fourths of an inch in diameter, very smooth with- 

 out, deep green, coloured, round, jomted or notched at every tive inches distance ; 

 from each jomt comes the clavicle, three or four inches long, catchnighold by its broad 

 viscid end of any thmg it comes near. Opposite to this comes another as long clavicle 

 or leaf, thin and membranaceous, from a broad beginning ending in a point. The 

 stem is solid, juicy, and sometimes branclied ; I never obsened leaves. The juice of 

 this plant, either alone, or mixed with proper ointments, rubbed on the part, relieves 

 from old pains and aches ; but occasions great pain and itching. i/oane. Barham says 

 that persons who have lost the use of their limbs, by the nervous cholic, take its root 

 and roast or boil it over the fire, bruismg it, and applying it, which gives ease and 

 strengthens the limbs ; and that if you put a piece of the root into any licjuor, it sets 

 it a fermenting inuiiediatel}'; which is also the case with the chaw-stick. This plant 

 has also been used as sarsaparilla ; and boded and given to hogs is a fattening food. Its 

 juice, to the quantity of a pint, is an excellent purge for a horse, and makes him 

 Uirive beyond any other purge. The following observations are from Ur. W. Wright : 

 " This plant is found on gravelly or rocky lands, it runs or creeps on the ground, 

 taking root here and there in its progress. The stem is as thick as a man's finger, 

 round, green, and succulent ; it is jointed at every twelve or fourteen inches, and is 

 several yards long, without leaves. The Howers are large and yellow ; the pot's two 

 inches long. On viewing the expressed juice with a glass, or the naked eye, we find 

 it full of long spiculae or hairs. Dr. Drummond, a learned and ingenious physician 

 end botanist in Westmorland, who first shewed me thii plant, assured me that he had 

 often given a table s|)oontul of the juice as a safe and eifectual vermifuge ; and that in 



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