P s o 



P T E 



the loaves are of a deep green colour, composed 

 of three or four pans ot very narrow leaflets, 

 terminated by an odd one, standing upon short 

 footstalks, and coining out without order on < \ ery 

 side ot the branches : the flowers sit very close 

 to the branches, and are often in clusters : the 

 standard, which is erect and re flexed at the 

 top, is of a line blue; the wings are pair, and 

 the keel white. It flowers during a great part 

 of the summer, and the seeds ripen in autumn. 

 It grows naturally at the Cape. 



The second species is a shrub with angular 

 branches, and lateral solitary flowers without 

 bractes. It is a native of the Cape, flowering 

 in June and July. 



The third has a shrubby stem, determinately 

 branched, with round pubescent branches : the 

 leaves sessile : leaflets even, dotted, pointed at 

 the end with a patulous spine: stipules chaffy, 

 lanceolate, acuminate, eiliatc : the spikes termi- 

 nating, solitary, sub-villose, pedunclcd : the 

 flowers separated by ovate-acuminate ciliate 

 bractes, almost the length of the flowers ; the 

 corolla violet-coloured, with a white keel having 

 a violet spot in front. It is a native of the Cape, 

 flowering in June and July. 



The fourth species is a shrub, with rough- 

 haired rigid branches : the leaves petioled : leaf- 

 lets sub-pelioled, sub-pubescent : the flowers at 

 the ends of the brandies : calyces pubescent : 

 corollas violet-coloured. It is a native of the 

 Cape, continuing in flower most part of the 

 summer. 



The fifth has a perennial root, but the stalk not 

 of long duration, seldom lasting more than two 

 years : it rises about two feet high, sending out 

 two or three slender branches : the leaHcts about 

 two inches long, and one inch and a quarter 

 broad, on long foot-stalks: the leaves, if handled, 

 emit a strong scent of bitumen : the heads of 

 flowers are on axillary peduncles seven or eight 

 inches long, and blueish, smelling like black 

 currants. It is a native of Italy, Sicily ice., 

 flowering most part of the summer. 



The sixth species has diffused, herbaceous 

 stems, with glandular dots scattered over them: 

 the leaflets roundish, very blunt, obsoletcly 

 toothed or angular, sprinkled with glandular dots ; 

 the middle one lamer and petioled: the spikes 

 axillary, oblontr, on peduncles the length of the 

 leaves. It is a native of Madeira, flowering 

 late. 



The seventh is an annual plant : the stalks 

 rise two feet high, and have at each joint one 

 leaf about two inches long, and an inch and a 

 half broad, having one strong midrib, from 

 which conic out several veins, that run towards 

 the top of the leaf: the flowers are produced on 

 long slender axillary peduncles, collected into 



small round heads, and are of a pale Resh-colour. 

 It grows naturally in India, anu flowers in July 

 in this climate. 



The eighth species is also an annual plant, 

 with a very branching herbaceous stalk, rising 

 a foot and half high, spreading wide on every 

 side : the leaves are composed of live or six 

 pairs of narrow wedge-shaped leaflets^ termi- 

 nated by an odd one : the flowers are colli et< 4 

 in close oblong spikes at the ends of the branches, 

 arc small, and of a light blue colour. Jt is a 

 native of Vera Cruz. 



Culture. — These plant* are increased by sow- 

 ing the seeds in the early spring months, on a 

 moderate hot-bed, or in pots, plunging them in 

 it. When the plants have attained three or four 

 inches in growth, they should be planted out 

 into small pots separately, gradually hardening 

 them to the open air, so as to be placed out in it 

 in the beginning of the summer. They are 

 likewise capable of being increased by planting 

 cuttings of the young shoots in the summer 

 months, in pots filled with light earth, plunging 

 them in a moderate hot-bed and covering them 

 close with glasses, watering and shading them 

 well till they have stricken root. 



They afford variety among other potted green- 

 house plants. 



PSEUDO ACACIA. See Robinia. 



PSEUDO ACORUS. See Iris. 



PSEUDO ASPHODELUS. See Anthf.ri- 



CUM. 



PSEUDO CAPSICUM. See Solanum. 

 PSEUDO DIGITALIS. See Duacocepha- 



L M . 



PTELEA, a genus containing a plant of the 

 shrubby kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Tclraiulria 

 Monagynia, or Dioecia Tctrmidrla, and ranks 

 in the natural order of TerebintaoeCB. 



The characters are: that in the male, the 

 calyx is a four-parted perianthium, acute, small, 

 deciduous : the corolla has four petals, oblong, 

 concave, spreading, larger than the calyx, co- 

 riaceous : the stamina have four awl-shaped li- 

 laments, erect, curved in at the top, flattiah and 

 viltose at the base, almost the length of the co- 

 rolla : anthers roundish: the pistillum is an 

 ovate germ, small, abortive: style very short, 

 bifid at the top : stigmas obsolete : female; the 

 calyx and corolla as in the male : the stamina 

 filaments, as in the male, much shorter than 

 the corolla : anthers roundish, barren : the pis- 

 tillum is an ovate germ, compressed, biggish: 

 style short, compressed: stigmas two, bluntish, 

 diverging : the periearpium is a roundish drupe, 

 large, juiceless, compressed, membranaeeous- 

 winged, two-celled; the seeds solitary, oblong, 

 attenuated upwards. 



