MTater- HORTUS JAMAICENSI9. 373 



powder of the seed, piven in conserve of hips, does the same, and is good against in- 

 ward heats. Sloane says it makes people frigid, and extinguishes venery very much. 

 Barham, p. 206. 



WATER-MELON. CUCURBITA. 



Cl. 21, or. 1. Monwcia syngenesia. Nat. or. Cucurbitactct. 

 Gen. CHaR. See Gourd, p. 332. 



CITRUXLUS. 

 Angaria prima, eitrullus dicta. Sloane, v. 1, p. 226. 

 Leaves many-parted. 

 Stem round, striated, long, branched, hairy, procumbent, diffused, with lateral bifid ten- 

 drils :* flowers yellow, on short, solitary, lateral, peduncles; fruitlarge, smooth, round 

 or oblong, a foot or more in length, pulp watery, sweet pale, or reddish ; seeds black 

 or rufous. The fruit varies much m form and colour, and is much cultivated in Jamai- 

 ca on account of its cooling and agreeable nature. The seeds, like those of the musk- 

 aielon, are used in cooling and nutritive emulsions. 



See Gou-D Pumkin fcQiMSH. 



WATER-PLANTAIN. PONTEDERIA. 



Cl. 6, or. I. Hetandria vwtingyn'a. Nat. or. Ensatce. 

 So named in memory of Julius Pontedera, professor of botany at Padua. 

 Gen. char. Calyx a spathe ; corolla one-peUiled, six-cleft, two lipped ; stamens 



three inserted at the top, three into the tube ot the corolla ; anthers erect, oblong; 



the pistil has an oblong germ, a simple style, and thickish stigma ; the pericarp a 



fleshy capsule, three-celled ; seeds roundisn, very many. Two species are natives 



of Jamaica. 



1. AZUREA. bi ue. 



Aquatica caulescens, foliis major '.bus orbiculatis nitidis, Jioribus spi~ 

 talis ad alas Brown, p. 1 5 



Leaves roundish-elliptic, thickened at the base, and petioles, flowers in spikes. 



This is a stemless aquatic plant. Root jointed, with long capillary whitish fibres at 



the ioints. Leaves petioled, radical, half a foot long, roundish with the base dr; wn out 



into a thickened petiole, and an acuminate tup, entire, ttie margin waved, striated, 



reinless, nerveless, smooth: Petioles tui kened, suberous, longer than the leaves, 



Vol ii. M in rouiu, 



In a paper lately read before the Royal Society, by rrr. S. A. Knight, it is stated that creeping plants, 

 and tendiils of \'meb, ii variably recede from the stronger light, aii attach themselves to objects in the 

 ahade ; or, if no other ohjeel present itself, 10 the dark >iiK ol their parent stems Heme the writer con- 

 cludes that the action ol light or. the tendrils contracts tiie vessels on the sides exposed i it, anij occasions 

 not only the spiral convolutions, but also that tei.di icy 10 fi> 01. obscured or shaded objects. On * U i - _nu. 

 -rjiLe the curious instinct-like motions of young tendrils are all accounted for. 



