1077 



NECTARINE. 



NELUMBIUM. 



1078 



shining above; the cup is large with a double edge; the bark aromatic, 

 bitter, and storrichic. Martius suspects that it is ont of the ingredients 

 in the famous Woorary poison of Guiana. 



2V. cinnamomoides has oblong leaves tapering into a fine point, acute 

 at the base, between papery and leathery ; naked, smooth, and shining 

 above ; finely downy beneath, with numerous distinct narrow costal 

 veins. The bark has the smell and flavour of cinnamon, as which it 

 is used in New Granada. 



2V. Puchury major has oblong or elliptical leaves tapering to a narrow 

 point, smooth, reticulated, and of the same colour on either side. The 

 cup of the fruit is very large and spongy. Martius assigned the 

 PichUrim Bean to this plant. In the early months of the year the 

 fruits drop from their cups to the ground, and are collected by the 

 natives, cleaned, and dried by a gentle heat. They are prescribed in 

 dysentery, diarrhoea, cardialgia, strangury, &c. The bark hag the 

 smell of fennel mixed with cloves. 



2V. Puchury minor, according to Nees, yields seeds similar in their 

 qualities to the above. Its bark is said to resemble sassafras when 

 fresh, but tastless and scentless when dry. According to Humboldt, 

 it yields the sassafras nuts sold in the London shops. It is a native 

 of the woods of Jabatinga, in the province of Rio Negro, in Brazil. 



(Lindley, Flora Medico.) 



'TARINE. [AMYGDALUS.] 



TARINIA. [ClNNTRIDJE.] 



N TARINID^E. [CIXXYRIDJE.] 



TARY, in Botany, a term used by Linnaeus to designate those 

 appendages of the corolla which secrete honey. The term has how- 

 ever, since the time of Linnseus, been used in a general sense to 

 express any organ existing in the flower between the corolla and pistil, 

 and which could not be rightly assigned to these or the stamens, 

 Such parts or appendages of the flower have had many other names 

 applied to them, and some much more commonly than Nectary. A 

 common form of appendage of the corolla is called Corona. This 

 organ is formed at the base of the limb of the corolla, and forms 

 sometimes an undivided cup, as in the Narcissus, when it is called by 

 Haller a Scyphus. When it is separated into several parts, as in Silene 

 and JJrodiaa, it forms the Lamella of some writers. In Slapelia this 

 organ forms a thick solid mass, covering the ovary and adhering to 

 the stamens. It is here called the Orbiculus. When this appendage 

 is accompanied with little projecting processes they are called Cornua, 

 or horns ; the upper end of these is the beak, or Rostrum, and their 

 back, if dilated and compressed, is called Ala, or Appendix. Occasion- 

 ally there is a second set of horns, which alternate with the first, and 

 are called Ligulae ; the circular space at the top of the orbiculus is the 

 Scutum. When the lamellae are small and scale-like, and overarch the 

 orifice of the tube, they are called a Fornix. 



Link proposes to call all appendages which are referrible to the 

 corolla, Paracorollae ; or, if they consist of several pieces, Parapetala ; 

 and all appendages referrible to the stamens, Parastemon. The peculiar 

 filiform appendages of Passijlora he calls Paraphyses, or Parastades. 



The real nature of these appendages is a point of some interest. 

 In some instances they appear to be simple expansions of the cellular 

 tissue and epidermis of the part on which they are seated, and in 

 others they are evidently abortive stamens or petals. Thus the little 

 bodies found in the claw of the petals of Ranunculus may be regarded 

 M an expansion of the tissue, whilst the filamentary appendages seen 

 in the genus Passiflora are evidently metamorphosed petals. The 

 various forms of corona may be assigned to one or other of the above 

 causes. This subject requires investigation, and it would be well if a 

 more simple and intelligible nomenclature could be applied to these 

 parts of the flower ; for, however unimportant at first sight such 

 organs may appear, they nevertheless constitute some of the most 

 valuable distinctive marks for species, genera, and even orders, which 

 the botanist possesses. 



The original name (Nectary) of these appendages was applied on 

 account of the honey which the tissues of these organs frequently 

 secrete. They were on this account called by Meyen Compound 

 Glands. It was supposed by Kurr that the function of these glands 

 was vicarious, and that they only secreted honey till the fruit began 

 to develop itself. But that the function of the nectary has no direct 

 relation with the object of the function of the fruit, that is, the 

 development of the seed, is proved in an experiment by Kurr himself, 

 in which he found that the seeds of plants became perfectly maturated, 

 although he had in the early stages of the growth of the flower 

 removed the nectaries. As to what may be the determining cause of 

 the secretion of sugar in these organs, any more than in other parts, 

 no examination of their structure has hitherto pointed out. They do 

 not however possess the power of secreting sugar and other secretions 

 in any greater degree than the petals and other 4 parts of the flower 

 and fruit. 



(Lindley, Introduction to Botany ; Schleiden, GnmdtUgt der Wisien- 

 schaftlichen Botanik ; Meyen, Pjtamen Phyzioloyie.) 



N ECTU'RUS, Rafinesque's name for a genus of Derotremata, placed 

 by Cuvier between the AxolotU [AxoLOTL] and the Proteii of Laurenti. 

 This form in the Menobranchus of Harlan and the Phanerobranclius of 

 Fitzinger. It has the following characters : Four toes on each foot, 

 A row of teeth on their intermaxillaries, and another parallel but 

 more extended on their maxillaries. 



2V. lateral (Triton lateralis of Say; Mcnobranchus lateraKs of 

 Harlan ; and Phanerobranchus of Fitzinger) is the species best known, 

 and will serve for an example of the genus. It is olive, with blackish 

 spots above, and a blackish stripe running from the muzzle just above 

 the eye and reaching to the branchiae, where it becomes continuous 

 with the blackish belly, which is variegated with olive spots. The 

 size is considerable ; some say as much as two or three feet in length. 



This creature is an inhabitant of the great North American lakes. 



Ncotunis lateralis. 



NEEDLE-ORE, a Mineral occurring crystallised in acicular 4- or 

 6-sided prisms, indistinctly terminated and longitudinally striated. 

 Cleavage parallel to the axis of the prism. Colour, when first broken, 

 steel-gray or blackish lead-gray, soon acquiring a yellowish tarnish. 

 Cross fracture small-grained and uneven, with a shining metallic lustre. 

 Hardness 2'0 to 2'5. Opaque. Specific gravity 6'125. It is found 

 near Ekaterinburg in Siberia. The following is an analysis by 

 Frick : 



Sulphur 11-58 



Bismuth 43-20 



Copper 12-10 



Nickel 1-58 



Tellurium 1'32 



69-78 



NEEDLE-STONE, a name for the Mineral Scolecite. [NATROLITB.] 



NEEDLE-WHIN. [GENISTA.] 



NEGUNDO, a genus of Plants separated from Acer because of its 

 pinnated leaves and dicocious apetalous flowers. Two species are 

 known, one of which is a handsome hardy tree, inhabiting the United 

 States of North America, and now common in the gardens of this 

 country ; the other is a native of Mexico, and at present but little 

 known : it may be a mere variety of the other. 



NELOCIRA. [ISOPODA.] 



NELUMBIA'CE^E, a natural order of Exogenous Plants, by some 

 writers associated with Nynifhceacew, or Water-Lilies, which they 

 resemble in appearancB and manner of life, inhabiting the fresh 

 waters of the temperate parts of the world, and producing large poly- 

 petalous flowers with numerous stamens. But these orders diifer in 

 such important circumstances that they can hardly be regarded as 

 plants of very close alliance, much less as members of the same order ; 

 for Nelumbiacea; have no albumen, and their system of female organs 

 is broken up into its original elements, while in Nymphceacea there 

 is an abundance of albumen, and the female system is completely 

 consolidated. 



Ndumbiacefe are readily known by their carpels being distinct, 

 1-seeded, and buried in the cavities of a large truncated fleshy 

 receptacle, which eventually forms a broad hard bed, filled with holes, 

 in each of which there is a single ripe nut. Notwithstanding their 

 large flowers, these plants must be regarded as among the lowest 

 forms of the exogenous type. The best known species is Ndumbium 

 speciosuin, a magnificent water-plant floating in the rivers and ditches 

 of all the warmer parts of Asia, and also found in the Nile : its nuts 

 are supposed to have been the sacred bean of Pythagoras ; its fleshy 

 stems are used as food by the poorer inhabitants of China. [NK- 

 HJMBIUM.] The nuts of all the species are eatable and wholesome. 

 Nelii'inoiuni is the only genus. 



NELUMBIUM, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Nymphasacea;, but sometimes regarded as the type of an order called 

 Nelumbiacece. It has many distinct carpels, half-immersed in the 

 profoundly honey-combed obconical elevated torus, each bearing a 

 style with a solitary seed in each carpel, which is exarillate, and 

 destitute of albumen. The flowers are large and showy, white, red, or 

 yellow. Both leaves and flowers rise from the surface of the water. 



2V. sjpeciosum, Pythagorean Bean, has a polypetalous corolla, and 

 anthers drawn out beyond the cells into a club-shaped appendage. 

 It is native in slow running streams and tranquil waters, in the 

 warmer parts of Asia. The flowers are very beautiful, smelling of 

 anise, and generally of a rose colour, seldom white. A variety of this 

 species, Tamara, has its outer stamens sterile, dilated at the top, 

 winged, obcordate, the appendage rising from a notch at the apex. 

 It is a native of Malabar. The fruit resembles an instrument onco 

 used in play by the French, called Lotos, aud is one of the plants 

 supposed to be the celebrated Lotos of antiquity, formerly found in 

 Egypt. It was known to the Greeks, aud is mentioned as growing in 

 Egypt by Herodotus (ii. 92), Theophrastus, and others. Although 

 not now to be met with in that country, there can be no doubt as to 

 its having actually existed there, either naturally or in a cultivated 

 state, for these authors speak of it in clear and decisive terms, and 

 their accounts are confirmed by the sculptures still preserved, which 

 testify that this species, as the proper Lotos, has obtained religious 



