ARO t HOUTUS JAMAICENSIS. SGS 



3. AXILLARIS. AXILLARY, 



Su1)-herbaceous, racemes axillary; flowers mostly directeil one way, sessile; 

 leaves ovate-lanceolate. 



This shrub grows about four feet high; the branches, middle ribs, veins of the 

 ieaves, peduncles, and i'ruit, are of a })urple colour ; the flowers snsall and yellow, the 

 anthers on tlie inside of-the stumens, and the-gtamens fixed to ihfc base of the tube; 

 the cups longer than those of t-lie two foregoing species. .The fruit is o\Tite, five-celled, 

 each containing many'small, depressed, angular seeds, adhering to a carnous receptacle. 

 The leaves have a bitter disagreeable taste, and are much broader, and terminate in a 

 narrower point, thanlhe other species. The pednncles are patent and dichotomous 

 for the most part, and the flowers stand in a long erect range, and are sessile. Tliere 

 is an acute stipule between eackleaf. 



IIKKD GRASS. SCLERIA. 



Cl. 21, ou. 3. Moncecia trkndria, Nat. or. Calamarite. 



i?EN. CHAR. Male cah'x a glume from two to six-valved, many-flowered, awnless j 

 glumes of the corolla awnless ; filaments one to three. Female calyx from two to 

 six-valved, one-flowered, awnless; stigmas two to three ; tlie seed a sub-globular 

 jsut, somewhat bony, coloured. Five species are natives of Jamaica. 



1. FJ AGELLUM. WHIP. 



Gramen njperoides sylvaticum maximum gemculatimi asperhts, semi?ie 

 milii soil's. Sloane, v. 1, p. 118, t. 77, f. I. 



'Culm three-sided, scant'ent, very rugged; leaves prickly backwards, thi-ce 

 ways; flowers panicled ; rachis villose. 



Culm climbing very high, flaccid, sub-divided, striated, hisped with very minute 

 T)ristles, aed the angles rugged with very short re-curved prickles ; leaves sheathed, 

 a foot long, linear, acute, striated, keeled, smooth above, with a longitudinalhispid 

 line, hispid beneath, with the keel and edges prickly backwards ; sheaths strict, short, 

 with a truncate hairy ligule ; panicles axiiUiry, on compressed prickly peduncles from 

 the sheaths of the leaves ; ovate with single spreading sub-villose branches. Floral 

 ' leaflets bristle-shaped, short, at the base of the branches and pedicels of the panicle ; 

 pedicels alterraate, surrounded at the base by a little sheath. Males mixed with the 

 females In the males the calycine glume is six-valved, with the upper valves larger, 

 all compressed at the top ; glumes of the corolla membranaceous, lanceolate; filaments 

 three, or fewer, setaceous, length of the coroUine glumes. In the female, glumes 

 from four to six-valved ; the inner valves shorter ; germ oblong, bluntly three-cor- 

 nered ; stigma simple, acute. Nut placed on the base of the permanent calyx, glo- 

 bular, brown and white variegated, with a tubercled whitish top. Sw. 



Sloane says it runs fifteen feet high among the bwshes, supported by, but not turning 

 round, them. Tlie stalk is triangular, having three sharp rough edges, with hollowa 

 l)etween them, as in a three-cornered sword blade ; that the culm and leaves are of a 

 very dark green ; and that the seed, whicl\ comes out between two black glumes, is 

 oundisb, Urge, whitish like that of grom^feU or pearl parley. 



S. MITiSj 



