198 
THE DICTIONARY OF GARDENING, 
PONGAMIA (Pongam is the Malabar name of P. 
glabra). Syn. Galedupa. ORD. Leguminose. A mono- 
typic genus, the species being a stove, evergreen tree. For 
culture, see Dal 
— bra (smooth). Kurrung or Poonga Oil-plant. f. having a 
* corolla, and a red calyx, in loose, axillary racemes, din. to 
Bin, long. l smooth, alternate, pinnate; leaflets five or seven, 
— d or broadly elliptical. h. 5ft. to 10ft. East Indies, 
orth Australia, &c., 1699. From the seeds of this tree, an oil, 
called Kurunji, or Poonga Oil, is extracted in India, and greatly 
used for mixing with lamp oil, or, by the poorer classes, for burn- 
ing without any admixture. 
PONTEDERIA (named after J. Pontedera, 1688- 
1757, once Professor of Botany at Padua). Pickerel Weed. 
Syn. Unisema. ORD. Pontederiacee. A genus comprising 
seven or eight species of stove or hardy, aquatic plants, 
with stem-like or creeping rhizomes, all natives of North 
or South America. Flowers numerous, usually crowded at 
the sides of a rachis, scarcely pedicellate, the inflorescence 
terminal, compound, and densely cylindrical, rarely 
almost simple and racemiform; perianth funnel-shaped, 
with an incurved, slender or rarely abbreviated tube; 
stamens six. Radical leaves long-stalked, cauline ones 
short-stalked; all cordate, ovate, rotundate, or rarely 
lanceolate, with a long, loose sheath below the petiole. 
Stems (or branches) erect, simple, one-leaved. The best- 
known species is P. cordata; this is described as one of 
the handsomest hardy aquatic plants in cultivation. It 
is perfectly hardy, and should be planted in water from 
6in. to 12in. in depth. Propagated by division, at almost — 
any season. 
P. angustifolia (narrow-leaved). A variety of P. cordata. 
P. azurea (azure). A synonym of Eichhornia crassipes. 
Syn. P. taneolata Ce B, C: : 
7 — ra See Papaver somniferum. 
Pontederia— continued. 
P. dilatata (extended). A synonym of Monochoria hastata. 
— (lance-shaped). A synonym of P. cordata angusti- 
Old. 
PONTEDERIACEZ. A small natural order of 
erect or floating, aquatic herbs, mostly American, rare 
in tropical Asia and Africa, absent in Europe. Flowers 
hermaphrodite, scarcely irregular, or sometimes regular, 
fasciculate or scattered at the sides of a simple or 
branched rachis, racemose, spicate, or sub-paniculate, 
terminal, in a sessile or pedunculate sheath; perianth 
inferior, free of the ovary, the tube evolute or rarely 
absent; lobes (rarely segments) six, more or less dis- 
tinctly biseriate; stamens six or three; filaments free ; 
ovary three-celled. Perfect leaves on a rhizome or float- 
ing stem, long-stalked; blade floating or emersed; sub- 
mersed leaves sometimes reduced to linear petioles (with- 
out a blade). Pontederia vaginalis is used in various 
forms as medicine in Japan. The order comprises four | 
genera—LHichhornia, Heteranthera, Monochoria, and Ponte- 
deria—and scarcely thirty-five species. 
PONTHIEVA (named in honour of M. de Ponthieu, 
a French West Indian merchant, who sent a number of 
plants to Sir Joseph Banks). ORD. Orchideæ. About ten 
species have been referred to this genus. They are curious, 
stove, terrestrial, glabrous or pilose orchids, with tufted 
roots, dispersed over the warmer parts of America, from 
Brazil as far as the Southern United States, Flowers 
mediocre, shortly pedicellate, disposed in loose, often 
glandular-pubescent racemes; sepals free, spreading ; 
petals narrower, adnate to the column; lip posterior, 
adnate to the base of the column, the lamina abruptly 
dilated, spreading ; column beaked ; pollen masses bilobed ; 
scapes elongated, simple. Leaves sub-radical, ovate or 
lanceolate, more or less stalked, membranous. The 
species known in gardens are described below. They 
thrive in a compost of sandy loam and peat, and require 
to be kept dry when at rest. Ample drainage must be 
provided. 
P. glandulosa fl. b 
petals white; lateral sopets Fiat dorsa one Toosely ———— 
with the petals in a Poctnbold, tridentate lam 5 cuneate- 
oblong, narrowed into a 5 — Stem Abant lft. high. 
West Indies, &c., 1800. l 
— — 842, under name of Neottia 
a — oe - 
poe — vee » Taceme-like — 
to narrowly oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, 
lft, Columbia, &e. Whole plan x 
hairs. (B. M. 6637.) ee vit 
P. petiolata (petioled). ellowish. t d 
sepals with revolute —— k: dorsal —— wit 
an oblong, undivided lamina, l. ovate-oblong, shorter than the 
petioles, wi ar; Si t, 
Yeon. (B. Tiere ae 2 tem Utt. high. St. Vincen 
A generic name employed, in some works, 
tead ‘or 
ins of Pieris, for th 
C e White Butterflies. See Cabbage 
POPCORN. A variety of Zea Mays. 
POPE’S HEAD. A common name for Melocactus 
communis. 
POPLAR. See Populus. 
POPPY. See Papaver. The name is also applied 
to several members of other genera. 
.: POPPY, CALIFORNIAN. See Platystemon 
POPPY, CORN. See Papaver Rheas. ; i 
POPPY, HORNED. See Glaucium. — 
POPPY-MALLOW. See Callirhoe, 
; lateral 
e petals, 
