^a- weeds- HORT.US JAMAICENSIS: 15?. 



SEA-SIDE PURSLANE. SESUVIUM. 



Cl. 12, OR. 3. Icosandria trigynia. Nat. or. Succulents. 



Gen. CHAR. Calyx a one-leafed bell-shaped five-parted perianth ; segments ovate, 

 acute, coloured within, shrivelling; no corolla; stamens very many filaments, 

 awl-shaped, inserted into the caljx below the segments, and shorter than the 

 calyx, with roundish anthers ; the pistil has an oblong germ, in the bottom of the 

 calyx, three-cornered above ; styles often three capillar}-, erect, length of the 

 stamens ; stigmas simple ; the pericarp an ovate three-celled capsule, cut round; 

 seeds roundish, flattish, having a beak at the margin. There is only one species 

 a native -of Jamaica.. 



rORTUl-ACASTRU.Nf. 



Portulacco aizoidesmaritima procitmbens, flore purpurea, filoane, v. 

 1, p. 20$.-~Repens, foliis oblong is turgidis, Jionbus scssihbus si;i- 

 gularibus ad alas. Browne, p. 241. 



Root perennial ; stem herbaceous, four or five inches long, decumbent, subdivided, 

 round, succulent. Leaves wedge shaped v . on very short petioles, opposite, obtuse, 

 fleshy, thick, smooth, bright green ; petioles sheathing, embracing, witli.iuembran- 

 aceous-edges. Peduncles solitary, axillary, shorter than the leaves ; flowers green on 

 the outside, white and blood-red within; calyx corolline ; anthers small, blood-red ; 

 germ accuminate; styles three, sometimes, but seldom, four ; seeds black. Swurtz. 

 This plant is very common in all the lowlands about the Ferry, (in marshy grounds near 

 Passage-Fort, Old-Harbour, and on the keys outside of Port-Royal), and frowns in 

 thick beds on every spot of ground that rises above the level of the water. It is very- 

 succulent, and full of a neutro-alkalescent salt, which maybe easily extracted, and- 

 would probably answer all the purposes for which the salts of kali are now used. Browne, 

 S-loane,says it is pickled and eat as English samphire ; and in Dancer's Medical Assistant 

 decoction is recommeuued as a gargle or mouth water. 



SEA-WEEDS. ALGJE. 



Cl. 24, OR. 4. Crvptogamia algt?, 



Of sea-weeds there are a great many to be found on the coasts of Jamaica, and their 

 general uses are for manuring lan<i, or for burning into kelp. Many of them are very 

 beautiful, and some of the species are eatable. Besides those already noticed under 

 the English name liverwort; the following are considered as indigenous to Jamaica. 



1. FUCUS. 



Gen. CHAR. Male vesicles smooth, hollow, with villose hairs within, interwoven : 

 Female vesicles smooth, filled with jelly, sprinkled with immersed grains, promi- 

 nent at the tip ; seeds solitary. Of this the following five species have been found 

 in Jamaica. 



1. TURBINATIS. TURBINATED. 



Fucus marinus vesicidas habens membranis extaritibus alatas. Sloane, 

 7, 1,- p. 53, t. 20, f. , 



Filiform, 



