AN ENCYCLOPADIA 
~ 
OF HORTICULTURE. 301 
BRhus—continued. 
America, 1640. Shrub climbing by rootlets over rocks, &c., or 
ascending trees, poisonous to the touch. (A. F. B. ii. 556; 
T. S. M. 577.) 
R. T. radicans (rooting). l. mostly entire or nearly so. Stems 
rooting, but not climbing. (B. M. 1806, under name of R. T. 
vulgare.) 
R. typhina (fever).* Stag’s-horn Sumach; Vinegar-tree. fl. 
greenish-yellow, in a terminal, thyrsoid panicle. J — ty —2 
eleven to thirty-one, pale beneath, oblong-lanceolate, pointed, 
serrate, rarely laciniate. Branches and stalks densely-velvety 
hairy. h. 10ft. to 30ft. North America, 1629. Shrub or tree. 
(T. S. M. 571.) R. viridiflora (green-flowered) is a male-fiowered 
form of this species. 
R. t. arborescens (arborescent). J. slightly downy beneath. 
h. 10ft. to 25ft. Tree. 
R. t. frutescens (shrubby). 
h. 2ft. to 10ft. Shrub. 
R. venenata (poisonous). Poison Elder, Sumach, or Dogwood. 
ji. green, in loose and slender axillary panicles. July. l. rather 
glabrous than pubescent; leaflets seven to thirteen, obovate- 
oblong, entire. h. 6ft. to 18ft. North America, 1713. The most 
poisonous species of the genus. (T. S. M. 575; W. D. B. 19.) 
SYN. R. verniz. 
R. vernicifera (varnish-bearing). Japan Lacquer or Varnish- 
tree. f. greenish-yellow. June. l. long, resembling those of 
a Walnut ; leaflets eleven or thirteen, elliptic, acute, quite entire, 
smoothish above, but velvety beneath from pubescence. Branch- 
_ and stalks clothed with soft down. 0ft. Japan, 1823. 
ree, 
= vernix (varnish). A synonym of R. venenata. 
villosa (villous). fl. greenish-yellow; racemes axillary, much 
shorter than the leayes, the terminal ones paii some- 
what longer. J uly. Z. petiolate ; leaflets sessile, obovate, obtuse, 
mucronulate, entire, lin. to lin. long, fin. to lin. wide, with 
revolute margins, hairy or villous on both surfaces, as well as the 
petioles and branchlets. Cape of Good Hope, 1714. Greenhouse 
evergreen shrub or tree. SYN. R. atomaria. 
RHYNCHADENIA. A synonym of Macradenia 
(which see). 
RHYNCHANTHERA (from rhynchos, a beak, and 
anthera, an anther; the anthers are beaked). ORD. 
Melastomaceew. A genus of about two dozen species 
of glandular or pilose, often bristly, stove, annual 
or perennial herbs or shrubs, natives of Brazil, Guiana, 
New Grenada, and Peru. Flowers purple, panicled, 
often large, showy; calyx tube ovoid or campanu- 
late; lobes five, subulate, lanceolate, or bristly, often 
persistent; petals obovate; stamens ten, very unequal. 
Leaves ovate, cordate, or oblong. The only species in- 
troduced—R. grandiflora—is a handsome, stove, evergreen 
shrub. It requires a compost of rich, sandy peat and 
fibry loam. Ample drainage is essential. Propagation 
may be effected by cuttings, inserted in sandy loam, in 
heat, and covered with a bell glass, which should be 
slightly raised, in order to permit free circulation, and, 
at the same time, to prevent damping off. 
R. grandiflora (large-fiowered). fi. numerous, terminal, shortly 
pedicellate ; calyx tube purple, shorter than the narrow teeth, 
panicle dichotomously branched, corymbiform. Autumn. l. 
rather e and long-stalked, cordate-ovate, shortly acuminate, 
terete, hairy or sometnnes algntly Mapsi. A GF. North Brazil, 
18. (BML) S T se 
RHYNCHITES. A genus of Weevils, noteworthy 
for the harm done by several of the species to trees. 
Some of them have the habit of rolling part of a leaf, 
or one or more leaves, into a cone, to supply protection 
and food to the larvæ. The cones hang in a withered 
state by the half-cut stalks or midribs of the leaves. 
Others gnaw partly through young shoots, or young 
fruit, and lay one or more eggs in each, and the larve 
feed in the withered branch or fruit. By the time the 
larva is full-fed, the part of the plant containing it 
has usually fallen off, and the larva crawls into the earth, 
there becomes a pupa, and, finally, the beetle emerges, 
generally in the following spring. The beetles are harm- 
ful also by gnawing the young leaves and branches 
of most kinds of trees, including fruit-trees, for their 
Own food. They are all small, usually being from şin. 
to tin. long. The general outline is broadly pears, 
l. downy and whitish beneath. 
Rhynchites—continued. 
shaped, the wing-cases being rather square in front, and 
broader than the thorax. The head bears a rather long, 
decurved beak, on the middle of which are the straight, 
clubbed antennæ. The beetles are all shining dark blue, 
green, brown, or coppery-red in colour. Reference has 
already been made to these insects as injurious to Pear- 
trees, Plum-trees, &c. The following are the most 
hurtful species : 
R. Alliarie is much like R. conicus in size and colour, 
but the thorax is finely pitted, and has a smooth dorsal 
line, and the elytra are not decidedly wider behind the 
middle. The larve live in the stalks and midribs of the 
leaves of many fruit-trees, e.g., Apple, &c. 
R. Bacchus is jin. to lin. long, purple-red, with a © 
golden-coppery gleam on the wing-cases and on the back 
of the neck; beak, legs, and antennw are blue-black; ~ 
wing-cases deeply punctured, and transversely wrinkled. 
This species prefers Apple and Pear trees, but is not 
restricted to them. The larve live in the still unripe 
fruits, which are hindered and interfered with in their 
growth. — 
R. betuleti is about iin. long, or more, entirely blue 
or shining green, or a combination of these, and hair- 
less; wing-cases closely punctate, irregularly striate, not 
wrinkled. The beetles live on many kinds of trees, but 
prefer, among those of gardens, Pear-trees and Vines. 
The females make conical habitations for the larve out 
of one or several leaves rolled together, and caused to 
wither by their stalks being partly gnawed through, as — 
stated above. 
R. conicus is from }in. to lin. long; colour deep blue, 
sometimes with a greenish tinge; beak and limbs black; 
thorax coarsely pitted; wing-cases deeply. punctate- 
striate, broadest behind the middle. In May and June, 
the females lay eggs in the young shoots of Apples, 
Pears, Plums, Cherries, and other fruit-trees, and then 
gnaw the branches partly through below the situation 
of the eggs. ‘The branches fade and hang down, and. 
in this state form the proper food of the larve, which 
feed in the pith. 
R. cupreus is about tin. or fin. long, and is coppery 
or bronze-coloured, with a thin coat of greyish hairs; 
the beak and limbs are black; the thorax is closely 
punctured; the elytra are deeply punctate-striate, with 
the interspaces transversely wrinkled. The beetles live 
on all kinds of fruit-trees in early summer, and do con- 
siderable harm by gnawing the young shoots and buds; — 
but they prefer Cherries and Plums. The females seek = 
out the young fruits, and deposit an egg in a hole bored 
in each, after the stalk is gnawed half through, so that, 
after a time, the fruits fall to the earth. The larve 
feed in the fruits till ready to enter the soil, there to 
become pupe. : 
A beetle of this genus, R. bicolor, injures Roses in the 
United States. - 
Remedies. These consist of the capture of the beetles 
by shaking the trees over trays tarred inside, and the 
removal of the conspicuously injured leaves, young 
branches, or fruits, to be burned as soon as convenient. 
Fortunately, the evil can be checked, in most cases, 
without serious labour. 
RHYNCHOGLOSSUM (from rhynchos, a beak, and 
glossa, a tongue; the lower lip of the flower is in the 
form of a tongue-like beak). Syns. Antonia, Lozotis. 
ORD. Gesneracee. A genus of one or two species of 
closely - related, erect, slightly - branched stove herbs, 
broadly dispersed over the East Indies and the Malayan 
Archipelago. Flowers blue, rather large, shortly pedi- 
cellate, pendulous; calyx broadly tubular-campanulate, 
shortly five-fid; corolla tube cylindrical, loosely incurved; 
limb bilabiate, the dorsal lobe shortly bifid, the anterior 
one much larger and trifid, the lateral ones shorter ; 
