CEBADILLA. 



inOMYIA. 



t.-nuinI pM-"-J>, or in axillary racemes. They are natives of North 

 America. 



I UMTKOMU, Rod Root, New Jersey Tea, hat ovate acuminate 

 crated leave*, pubescent beneath; flower* arranged in axillary 

 elongated thynea, with a pubescent rachia. An infusion of the twigs 

 of this plant is used in Canada for venereal diseases. During one of 

 the wan with America the leave* of this plant were used in New 

 Jersey as a substitute for tea. It dyes wool of a fine strong nankin- 

 cinnamon colour, and in a beautiful shrub when in flower. 



There are several other species of this genus, natives of North and 

 South America. They are small neat shrubs, with large red roots, 

 which give them the name of Red Root. They grow very well in thU 

 country, and may be planted in any common garden soil, and form 

 proper plants for the front of a shrubbery. They may be propagated 

 by layers or seeds. Those from Mexico and the greenhouse species 

 must be protected from frost during the winter. Cuttings will root 

 in sand under a hand-glass. 



(Ldndley, Flora Mtdua ; Don, Oardaur'i Dictionary.) 

 CEBADI'LLA, CEVADILLA, or SABADILLA, the Spanish-Mexi- 

 can name for a species of Veralrum, the seeds of which are an article 

 of considerable importance in consequence of their having been found 

 to contain a considerable quantity of Veratria. Much interest has been 

 excited about this drug, from the obscurity that is supposed to hang 

 about its origin. It has always been understood to come from Mexico. 

 Retains, who first referred the Cebadilla to Vtratrum, had no better 

 materials to describe it from than a bit of the inflorescence which he 

 found among a sample of the seeds. Smith, under Vtratrum (in 1819), 

 traced out itaaynonyms in Rees's ' Cyclopedia,' but without throwing 

 much light upon its history. Fee, in 1828, knew no more about it 

 than what Retzius had stated, adding that the meaning of the word 

 was Little Oat Cebadilla being a diminution of Cebada, the Spanish 

 for Oat. He considered it was fit for use as a horse-medicine, and to 

 destroy vermin. At a later period Descourtilz referred, in his ' Flore 

 des Antilles,' the Veratrum Sabadilia of Retzius to a West Indian 

 plant; and shortly after it' was ascertained that there was also a 

 Mexican Cebadilla, which corresponded entirely with the seeds of the 

 shops. Thus again Mexico was fixed as the undoubted origin of that 

 valuable production in which the principle Veratria is found more 

 concentrated than in any known plant. Dr. Schiede discovered it in 

 grassy places near the Hacienda de la Laguna in Barranca de Tioselo, 

 on the eastern declivity of the Mexican table-laud ; and it has been 

 since described by Schlechtendahl and Chamisso under the name ol 

 Veratrum ofdnale. Lindley has constituted a new genus for this 

 plant, and calls it Aiagnra officinalit. It has the following charac- 

 ters : Root bulbous ; plant usually growing in tufts ; leaves linear, 

 tapering to the point, even, quite smooth, entire, channeled on the 

 upper side, keeled at the back, four feet long, rather weak ; scape 

 naked, as high as a man, quite simple, terminated by a raceme a foot 

 and a half long ; perianth deeply 6-parted, spreading, yellowish, small, 

 persistent, with thick blunt linear segments, of which three are rather 

 broader than the others ; filaments six, somewhat club-shaped, yel 

 lowish, inserted into the base of the perianth, the three that are oppo 

 site to the broader segments rather longer than the others, and al 

 longer than the perianui ; anthers rather large, yellow, cordate at the 

 base, obtuse ; pollen yellow ; ovary superior, consisting of three car- 

 pels united by their sutures ; styles very short ; fruit tricapxular, the 

 capsules adhering by their suture, but readily separated ; lower flowers 

 hermaphrodite and fertile, upper male, and sterile on account of th 

 abortion of the ovary ; flowers have the smell of the Common Bar 

 berry. This plant produces the tnie Mexican Cebadilla or Sabadilia, 

 which is now extensively employed in making the alkaloid Veratria 

 But in the shops there appear to be seeds of two distinct specie*, one 

 of which is the V. Sabadilia, the other the plant now described, which 

 diners in having linear keeled channeled, and not ribgnuw-like leaves, 

 yellow and not purple flowers, segments of the perianth linear an< 

 shorter than the filaments, and not ovate or lanceolate, and longer 

 than the filaments. Nearly related to this is a V. frigidum, found in 

 the alpine regions of Orizaba, where it flowers in September : thi 

 ha* blackish-brown flowers, and is reckoned a poisonous plant by the 

 Mififr^?", who call it Sevoeja. It is referred by Lindley to the genii 

 lldtmvu. [VERATKI-II ; HKIX)MAB.] 



BBIOKTTES (Utreillo), a family of Coleopterous Insects 

 belonging to the section Malacoderma. It has the following cha- 

 racters : Body generally somewhat oval and convex ; wing-cane 

 rather soft and flexible ; thorax broader than long, widest at th 

 base, and with th* hinder angles acute, or produced int.. n spim 

 Antenna generally longer than the head and thorax; mandibles 

 terminating in a simple point ; joints of the palpi of nearly equa 

 thickness ; legs moderate, not contractile. 



The species of this family are frequently found upon plants in 

 marshy situations, but very little is known of their htliits; thci 

 larva are supposed to live in the ground, and very probably subsis 

 on the roots of plant*. 



The genus CVtrio is distinguished from other genera of this fnmil 

 by having all the joint* of the torsi entire, and without any velvoi 

 like pellet* beneath, and the posterior thighs of the same size as th 

 anterior. About ton species of this genus have been di*cov*rec 

 most of which are peculiar to Europe. Cebno gigai, a species not 



ucommon in France, is about three-quarters of an inch in length, 



and of a pale brownish-yellow colour. In the male the head and 



borax and the legs (excepting the thighs) are black ; the head and 



thorax are thickly punctured, and together with the elytra, which 



are striated, are covered with small yellowish hairs; the antenna 



are long, and if extended backwards would reach about half way 



own the elytra. In the female there is so striking a difference in 



tiis organ, as to caure that sex to be mistaken for a distinct species : 



lore the antenna are very short, and if extended backwards would 



ot reach farther than the base of the thorax ; the basal joint in nm.li 



onger than the other; the fourth and following joint* are short, 



luck, and joined cloaely together. The legs of the female are also 



borter and thicker in proportion than in the other sex. 



It is said that the European species of this genus appear in great 

 numbers after heavy rains. 



During Mr. Kirby's observations he discovered no leas than three 

 Mkrasites, belonging to the Ichntumonidtr, on the larva of the insect 

 n question, which accounts for the great difference between the 

 number of larva and that of the pupae. 



CKCIUOMY'IA, a genus of Two- Winged Flies, belonging to the 

 irder Diptera and the family Tipulida. It is known by the following 

 characters : Wings resting horizontally, and having 3 longitudinal 

 nervures ; head hemispherical : antenna as long as the body, and 

 generally 24 -join ted, the joints hairy (in the females 14-jointod) ; 

 the 2 basal joints short; legs long, basal joint of the tarsi very 

 short, second long. 



Mr. Stephens, in his ' Catalogue of British Insects,' enumerates 26 

 species of this genus. They are always of small size, and many of 

 them deposit their eggs on the young buds of various kinds of plants, 

 where the larva is hatched, and transforms them into galls, in which 

 t subsists and undergoes its metamorphosis. 



C. laltcina is common in France on willows in the month of May ; 

 t is of a blackish colour, covered with fine velvet-like hairs ; the 

 antennae have 20 joints ; the wings are slightly obscure and downy ; 

 .ength one-sixth of an inch. 



This little fly fixes each of it* eggs on a bud of the willow in the 

 month of June. The bud at the time of its evolution, near the end 

 of the month, instead of putting forth its branch, becomes enlarged 

 at the base, and ultimately forms a gall in which the larva is 

 lodged, nourished, and undergoes its metamorphosis : the larva is of 

 a reddish-yellow colour, and assumes the pupa state in the winter, 

 when the gall is become of a large size. 



Other species of Ctcidomyia produce similar deformities upon 

 various part* of many species of plants, and resemble in this part of 

 their habits the Cynipidn among the llymtnopttra. 



C. Tritici (Ttpula Tritici, Kirby), an insect commonly known by 

 the name of the Wheat-Fly, has occupied much of the attention of 

 entomologists. Kirby published two account* of its habits in the 

 'Linnsean Transactions' (vol. iv.). 



This little fly is about one-twelfth of an inch in length, and of a 

 reddish-yellow colour; the wings are milk-white, and exhibit the 

 prismatic colours in certain lights : the eyes are black. The Wheat- 

 Fly may be observed sometimes in the greatest abundance flying 

 about wheat-fields in the month of June. It generally makes its 

 appearance about seven or eight o'clock in the evening. " Although," 

 says Mr. Kirby, " these insects are so numerous in the evening, yet 

 in the morning not a single one is to be seen upon the wing ; they do 

 not however then quit the field which is the scene of their employ- 

 ment, for upon snaking the stalks of the wheat or otherwise disturb- 

 ing them they will fly about near the ground in great numbers. I 

 found their station of repose to be upon the lower part of the culm 

 with their heads upwards." The fly totally disappears by the wi.i ( 

 June. According to Kirby, it is about eight o'clock in the evening 

 that they deposit their eggs. He has seen as many as twelve speci- 

 mens thus occupied at the same time on a single ear, and observes 

 that these flies are sometimes so numerous that, were all to lay their 

 eggs and these to hutch, one-half of the grain would be destroyed. 



The eggs are deposited by means of a long pointed and contractile 

 tube, or ovipositor, generally upon the interior valvule of the corolla, 

 just above the stigmata ; and it occasionally happens that the fly is 

 unable to retract it* ovipositor, and being thus held prisoner it dies. 



About the middle of June the larva; are hatched, and may be seen 

 adhering to the lower end of one of the anthers, and sometimes 

 immersed in the woolly summit of the germen, or in the interior of 

 the valvula of the corolla. These larva are simple minute grubs, 

 without legs or any visible head, and of a yellowish colour ; and their 

 food consist* of the pollen of the anthers, which it appears in the 

 plant* thus attacked is unfit for impregii. 



The pupa are of a reddish colour, and in number bear no proportion 

 to that of the larva. " I have seen," ays Mr. Kirby, " more than 

 once, seven or eight florets in an ear inhabited by the latter, and 

 sometimes so many as thirty in a single floret, seldom less than eight 

 or nine, and yet I have scarcely ever found more than one pupa in an 



ear, and had to examine several to meet with that The 



pupre that I have observed have generally been somewhat attached 

 to the grain, and, what is worthy of notice, I never observed them 

 within those floret* where the larvffi had taken up their residence ; 

 they seem invariably to choose for their habitation, in their immediate 



