108 HORTUS J.AMAICENS1S;. wrslanb 



scattered ; corollas yellow, spreading ; petals sub-truncate at the tip, and emarginate ; 

 stamens ten;, capsule one-celled, opening horizontally ; seeds round, black, very 

 small. Loureiro. The stamens vary in number from sevea to frfieen. Tins plant was 

 formerly much in request as a salad, but now seldom used, It grows very commonly 

 j a Jamaica, and becomes frequently a troublesome weed; from its sub-acid nitrous- 

 taste it is considered as a wholesome vegetable eaten with salt meat. 



This plant, which is so much taken care of in .England to cultivate in their -gardens, 

 grows wild in most parts of South America.. It is a cooling and moistening herb, there- 

 fore good in burning fevers, I often prescribed, in America, the distilled water in 

 fevers, especially where a flux attended them. It U.kes away the strangury, as well as - 

 the heal and scalding of urine in ardent fevers. Eaten raw, it cures teeth that are set. 

 on edge, and fastens them. The juice of the herb is singularly good in inflammations - 

 and venereal ulcers. 



The herb,, bruised and applied to the forehead and temples, allays the excessive 

 heat and pains that occasion want of rest and sleep, and, applied to the eyes, takes 

 away redness and inflammations. The juice, mixed with vinegar, takes away the St. 

 Anthony's fire, and pimples in the face. The juice, with the oil of roses, takes out 

 the fire of burnings by gun-powder, lightning, or scalding, but if it were mixed with 

 goose-grease it would dobetter ; the juice also, made up into pills, with gum traga- 

 canth and arabic, cures those that evacuate or spit blood. The seed is more effectual, 

 than the herb, and is of singular use for all the purposes above-mentioned. Barham, , 

 p. 154. 



2. HALIMOIDES. HALIMUS-LIKE. 



Portulaca erectasedi nrnoris facie, capitulo tomentoso. Sloane, v. J, 

 p. 205, t. 129, f. 3. Halimus. Minimus, joliol is oblongis succu- 

 lenlis tumcntibus, sammis ramalis dcnsissimc sitis. Browne, 

 p. 206. 



Leaves oblong, fleshy ; stem corymbose ; flowers sessile. 



This little plant is frequent in the dry savannas about Spanish Town and Kingston ; 

 it grows in beds, and spreads a little upon the ground, but the stems seldom exceed 

 two or three inches in length ; the leaves are disposed pretty thick at the top of the 

 branches, and the flowers blow in the centre of them. There is a sort of cotton shoots 

 about the flowers as the weed grows old, whichin time spreads over most parts of it. 

 The calyx is bifid ; corolla monopetalous, bell-shaped, cut very deeply into five seg- 

 ments ; stamens eight to ten filaments, sometimes fewer, with roundish anthers ; stig- 

 mas three or five-parted; pericarp membranaceous, roundish, one-celled, openings 

 transversely ; seeds few, roundish. Browne, 



3. PILOSA. HAIRY. 



Anacampseros 2. Supina minor, foliis linearibus turgidis, ftoribus 



summis ramulis co?ifcrtis, stylo quinquefido. Browne, p. 234. 



Leaves awl-shaped, alternate; axils hairy ; flowers sessile, terminating. 



This is an annual herbaceous plant, with very succulent stalks, of a purple colour, 



?pd branching out greatly ; the lower branches lie near the ground, but those above 



are more erect ; leaves narrow, of a lucid green ; at the joints are tufts of white hairs, 



and 



