182 



• 



gent and febrifugal as to have been substituted for quinquina. The Cow 

 Tree of Humbcrtdt has been sometimes su'pposed to be referable to this order ; 

 but there seems no reason now to doubt its belonging to Artocarpece.* The 

 Tingi da Praya of Brazil, with which the Indians destroy fish, is the Jac- 

 quinia obovala. The branches are bruised and thrown into the water. It 

 must not be confounded with another fish poiSon, called Tingi only, which is 

 a species of PauUinia. Pr. Max. Trav.l66. ^. 



Examples. Achras, Mimusops. 



CLXX. ERICEtE. The Heath Tribe. • 



Ehic.k, Juss. G^». 159. (1789) Erice^, R. Brown Prodr. 557. (1810) ; Lindl. Synopg. 



172. (1829) — Rhododendra, Juss. Ge«.158. (1789) — Ericine.e, Desv. Joum. 

 Bat. 28. (1813). — Rhodorace^e and Ericace^^e, Dec. Fl. Fr. 3. 671. (uul 675. 

 (18)5.) 



Diagnosis. Monopetalous shrubby dicotyledons, with regular flowers, 

 a superior many-seeded ovarium, a single style, 2-celled dry anthers with 

 appendages, apterous seeds, and embryo in the axis of albumen. 



Anomalies. Azalea, Rhododendron, &c., have an irregular corolla, 

 but their stamens are symmetrical. The petals of Ledum scarcely cohere. 

 In Arctostaphylos the seeds are definite. There is a species of Erica with 

 broad winged seeds, according to Mr. Brown. 



Essential Character Calyx 4- or 5-cleft, nearly equal, inferior, persistent. 



Corolla hypogynous, monopetalous, 4- or 5-cleft, occasionally separable into 4 or 5 pieces, 

 regiilar or irregular, often withering, with an imbricated sestivation. Stamens definite, 

 equal in number to the segments of the corolla, or twice as many, hypogynous, or inserted 

 into the base of the corolla ; anthers 2-celled, the cells hard and dry, separate either at the 

 apex or base, where they are furnished with some kind of appendage, and dehiscing by a 

 pore or cleft. Ovarium surrounded at the base by a disk, or secreting scales, many-celled, 

 many-seeded; si^/e 1, straight ; sij^wa 1, undivided or toothed. Fruit capsular, many- 

 colled, with central placenta;; dehiscence various. Seeds indefinite, minute; testa firmly 

 adhering to the nucleus ; embryo cylindrical, in the axis of fleshy albumen ; radicle 0])posite 

 the hiluni Shrubs or nnder-shrubs. Leaves evergreen, rigid, entire, whorled, or oppo- 

 site, without stipulae. Inflorescence variable, the pedicels generally bracteate. 



Affinities. Formerly separated into two by Jussieu, who distinguished 

 Ericese and Rhodoraceae by the dehiscence of their capsule ; a character 

 which is not now esteemed of ordinal importance, and which is consequently 

 abandoned. They differ from Vaccinieae and Campanulaceac in their superior 

 ovarium, from Epacridese in the structure of their anthers, from Pyrolacea; in 

 the structure of their seeds and in habit, and from all the orders of which 

 Scrophularinepp and Gentianeaj may be considered the representatives, in the 

 number of cells of the ovarium agreeing with the lobes of the calyx, and 

 corolla. 



Geography. Most abundant at the Cape of Good Hope, where im- 

 iflense tracts are covered with them ; common in Europe and Nortii and 

 South America," both within and without the tropics; less common in 

 northern Asia and India, and almost unknown in Australasia, where their , 

 place is supplied by Epacridean. 



Properties. Their general qualities are, to be astringent and diuretic ; 

 Azalea procumbens. Rhododendron ferrugineum and chrysanthemum, and 

 Ledum palustre, being examples of the former, and Arctostaphylos Uva Ursi 

 of the latter. This, Decandolle observes, has been confounded with Vacci- 

 nium Vitis Idea by some practitioners, but most improperly, the chemical 

 composition of the two plants being extremely different. See Essai Med. 

 194. An infusion of the leaves of Uva Ursi has been employed with 

 success in cases of gonorrhoea of long standing. Ihid. The berries of the 



