ior 



NEMACANTHL'S. 



NEPENTHACEJK. 



UNO 



Hgypii 



It u spoken of M baring been oaed u food by the 

 Both rooU and seeds are esculent, and r accounted 



cooling and strengthening, and to be of service in extreme thirst, 

 diarrhoea, vomiting, Ice. In China it U called Lieuwha, and the seeds 

 and dice* of the hairy root, with the kernels of apricots and walnut*, 

 and alternate layers of ice, were frequently presented to the British 

 ambassador and his suite, at breakfaste given by the principal 

 mandarins. The roots are laid up by the Chinese in salt and vinegar 

 for winter use. Thimberg says this plant is held sacred in Japan, 

 and is considered pleasing to the deities, the images of which are 

 frequently made sitting on iU large leaves. The seeds are somewhat 

 of the size and form of an acorn, and of a taste more delicate than 

 that of almond*. 



1, the ripe receptacle of \.lnmliiiim iptciotum ; 2, a seed ; 3, the uninc, with 

 the two cotyledons so wparatrd as to show the large plumule which they 



ff. luttum has a polypetalous corolla, and greatly resembles 

 ff. tptciotun in structure. It is a native of North America, In lakes 

 and ponds: it has been naturalised as far as Philadelphia. The 

 flowers are yellow, and resemble a double tulip. The seeds are very 

 agreeable to eat, and are much relished by the Indians and children. 



(Don. DicUamydrotu Plant! ; Burnett, Oullino of Botany.) 



NBMACA'NTHUS, a genus of Fossil Fishes from the Oolite and 

 Liasnic Strata. (Agassiz). 



NEMALITE, a Mineral occurring in slender fibres, which arc 



elastic, sometimes curved, and easily separated. The colour is white, 



with a shade of yellow. Streak white. Lustre highly silky. Opnque. 



Some decomposed varieties have an earthy appearance. Hardness 2-0. 



Specific gravity 2-358. It U found in vein* at Hoboken, New Jersey, 



and other places in the United State*. The following is iU analysis 



by Dr. Thomson : 



Silica 



Magnesia 



Peroxide of Iron 



12-B88 

 51'7:M 

 5-874 

 29-666 

 - 99-829 



NEMATODES. [Ei.ATF.Rin*.] 



M'.MATOIDKA. [KsiozoA.] 



NKMERTI'TES, a genus of Fossil Annelida, from the Lower 

 Silurian Strata of Larapeter, in South Wales. (Murchison.) 



NEMO'CERA, the first family of Dipterous Insects in the arrange- 

 ment of Latreillo, includes such species as have antenna) composed of 

 many joint*, an exserted head, a sheathed sucker, and either simple 



or toothed tarsal hooka. It includes the speiies of Cultx and Tipitla, 

 the names given by naturalists to the Mosquitoes and Cranefliea. 

 These Linnamn genera arc now greatly subdivided. 



[( , i:, 



NKMUKH/EDU8, Colonel Hamilton Smith's name for the Goral 

 Antelopes. [ANTH.oi-K.fi.] 



NEMO'S! A, a genus of Birds established by Vieillot, and placed 

 by Mr. Swainson in the sub-family Tar.agriim in his family Friny\Ili<itr. 

 [TANAORIX.B.] 



NKn.MKIUS. [CKTACBA.] 



NEO'M KHLS (Lamouroux), a group of articulated Coralline*. 



NEOMORPHA, n genus of Binls established by Mr. Gould on two 

 species from New Zealand, but the specimens wanted the feet and the 



Cter part of the wings. It has the following characters : Bill 

 M er than the bead, compressed at the sides, arched, homy, solid, 

 sharp at the apex, with a denticle. Nostrils open, placed in the basal 

 furrow ; carina raandibulsc superioris in pontem tendente, Tongue 

 hard, slender, bristly at the apex ; angles of the mouth with pendent 

 fleshy caruncles. Total length of the largest species, 174 inches. 



NEOPHRON. [VULTOWD*.] 



NEO'TRAGUS. [ANTILOI-B;*.] " 



NE'OTTIA is a name given to a brown leafless scaly plant, found 

 in woods in this country, growing paraaitically on the roots of other 

 specie*. It belongs to the natural order Orcfiidacar, and flowers in 

 May and June. It bos a hooded perianth; a dcflexed '.Mobrd lip 

 saccate at the base; the stigma transverse; rostellum flat, broad, 

 prominent, entire, and without an appendage. 



The only species is the A". fCitliuAvu, or Bird's-Nest, so called from 

 the appearance of the entangled fleshy fibres of the root. The whole 

 plant is of a pale reddish-brown ; the root formed of many thick fleshy 

 fibres, from the extremities of which young plants are produced. The 

 stem is about a foot high, with sheathing brown scales. It has no 

 leaves. The spikes are dense, cylindrical, and many-flowered. It is 

 the original \eotlia of Linnicua, and is a native of Great Britain in 

 shady woods. 



Some modern botanists strangely enough apply the name of Neottia 

 (itself meaning literally a nest) to plants having no entanglement of 

 the roots that can justify the appellation, and more generally called 

 Spirantket : by those writers the true Bird's-Nest is called Littera 

 Nidus Avis a perversion of nomenclature for which there is no neces- 

 sity, and which no necessity could justify. This genus gives its name 

 to a division in the Orchidaceous order, called after it Ncottietr, com- 

 posed of terrestrial species, especially characterised by the anther being 

 placed at the back of the stigma, not vertically upon the end of the 

 column, and by the pollen being pulverulent. 



NEPA, a genus of Hemipterous Insects of the family IlydrocoriKf, 

 the species of which are popularly known as Water-Scorpions. Their 

 bodies terminate in two long setsc, by means of which they acquire a 

 supply of air for respiration when immersed in the water or mud. 



NEPEXTHA'CE^;, Nepentla, a natural order of Exogenous Plants 

 inhabiting the damper and warmer parts of Asia, and having, in the 

 place of leaves, large hollow bodies furnished with a lid, and coutainiug 

 water secreted from a peculiar glandular apparatus with which they 

 are lined. These bodies, or pitchers, as they are called, appear at 

 the end of a leafy tendril-like expansion of the bark, and are con- 

 sidered to be a hollow state of the apex of the petiole of a leaf, while 

 the lid that closes them is regarded as the blade. Their flowers are 

 dioecious, green or brown, apetalous, arranged in cylindrical racemes, 

 and are succeeded by a capsul.tr fruit filled with fine fusiform seeds, 

 which look like very small sawdust They are considered to be closely 

 akin to A rittolochiaccie, and also related to Sarraceniacea and A'upAor- 

 biacece. Adolph Brongniart has pointed out a resemblance between 

 Nepenthacae and Cytinacea ; but Lindley remarks that it is impossible 

 to agree in this conclusion : " To say nothing of the extreme dissimi- 

 larity in habit between these plants, the structure of their fruits appears 

 to be essentially different ; and the seeds of Uytinut being unknown, 

 the resemblance between it and Kcptntha is reduced to a similarity in 

 the arrangement of the anthers, which cannot in the present case be 

 considered of much importance, as it in some degree depends upon the 

 unisexuality of the flowers of both genera. A better approximation 

 of the order has been made by Brown, who points out a relation to 

 Birth worts (Anttolochiacca') ; as to which, the structure of the wood 

 in some respects confirms his views. Like many in that order it U 

 zoneless, although plainly exogenous; but it has thin in particular to 

 characterise it, that the system of spiral vessels is developed in a 

 degree unknown in any other plants. Endlicher adopts the same 

 view as doe* A. Brongniart, and I have formerly coincided with those 

 botanists; but the adherent ovary of Birthworts, their highly- 

 developed calyx, axile placentation, and hermaphrodite flowers, are 

 serious difficulties in the way of a close contact between them and 

 NVpfiitbs, unless the peculiar structure of the wood, the consideration 

 of which I for the present abandon, should lead to the final establish- 

 ment of the class of Homogens, in which case Nepenths and Birth- 

 worts will be brought into contact or at least a near neighbourhood. 

 For the present the true position of this order must be regarded a* an 

 undetermined point." Lindley places them in the Kuphorbial alliance, 

 observing that " its points of agreements are its unisexual flowers, 

 albuminous seeds, incomplete floral envelopes, and climbing habit. 



