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WACHENDORFIA. 



WARBLERS. 



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w 



WACHENDO'RFIA, a genus pf Plants belonging to the natural 

 order Ucemodoracece, named after E. J. Wachendorf, professor of 

 botany at Utrecht. It has an inferior flower, with 6 permanent 

 withering irregular oblong parts; the 3 upper ones most erect, of 

 which the two lateral ones have each a spur at the base ; the 3 

 lower ones widely spreading. The stamens are 3, with thread-shaped, 

 divaricated declining filaments, shorter than the corolla ; the anthers 

 oblong, incumbent The ovary is superior, roundish, with 3 furrows ; 

 style thread-shaped, declining; the stigma simple, tubular. The 

 fruit is a 3-lobed triangular-obtuse compressed capsule, with 3 valves, 

 and 3 cells. The seeds are solitary, rough or hairy, and compressed. 



W. thynifolia, Tall-Flowering Wachendorfia, has perennial smooth 

 leaves, with a close oblong panicle. It is a native of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and thrives well in greenhouses in this country, and it 

 will grow in the open air in fine seasons in May and June. The flowers 

 are of a fine golden colour. The root is perennial, and of a saffron or 

 red colour. Many of the plants belonging to flcemodoracece yield a 

 matter used for dyeing, and De Candolle remarks that it is probable 

 the species of Wachendorfia might be used for the same purpose. 



WACKE, a barbarous name formerly much employed by German 

 geologists, and thence introduced into English geology. It is regarded 

 as a soft and earthy basalt, but has been used in other senses, and 

 rather indefinitely. (Ansted, Elementary Geology.) 



WAD. [MANGANESE.! 



WADING-BIRDS. [GBALMS; GKALLATOBES.] 



WAGEL. [LABID.E.] 



WAGNERITE, a Mineral, consisting of Fluophosphaie of Magnesia. 

 Ita primary form is an oblique rhombic prism. Fracture uneven. 

 Colour yellow, of different shades; often grayish. Streak white. 

 Hardness 5'0 to 5'5. Lustre vitreous. Translucent. Specific gravity 

 8*11. It is found in the valley of Holgraben in Salzburg. It con- 

 tains phosphoric acid, hydrofluoric acid, magnesia, oxide of iron, and 

 oxide of manganese. 



WAGTAILS. [MoTACiLLiN^;.] 



WAHLENBE'RGIA, a genus of Plants named after Wahlenberg, 

 author of the ' Flora Japonica * and other works. It belongs to the 

 natural order Campanulacece, and many of the species embraced in 

 it were formerly included under the genus Campanula. The species 

 consists chiefly of herbs, which are for the most part annual The 

 leave* are mostly alternate, sometimes opposite, and are generally 

 found in greatest abundance at the lower part of the plant. The 

 flowers are seated on long peduncles, drooping at first, but erect in 

 fruit. The calyx is 3-5 cleft ; the carolla 3-5 lobed at the apex, rarely 

 divided to the middle. The stamens 3-5 in number, free, the filaments 

 broadest at the base. The style inclosed, pilo.se, especially at the 

 upper part ; stigmas 2-5. The ovary combined with the tube of the 

 calyx. The capsule 2-5-celled, opening by as many valves as cells at 

 the apex, each bearing a dissepiment in the middle. The seeds very 

 numerous and minute. Above 50 species of plants belonging to this 

 genus have been described. They are most abundant in the southern 

 hemisphere, and are particularly numerous at the Cape of Good 

 Hope. The following is one of the most remarkable forms presented 

 by the genus : 



W. hederacea, Ivy-like Wahlenbergia, is a glabrous plant with slender 

 ascending stems ; the leaves are placed on long petioles, cordate, and 

 bluntly 5-7 angled ; the corolla 5-lobed at the apex, four times longer 

 than the lobes of the calyx ; the capsule hemispherical. This plant 

 is a native of the west of Europe and of North America : it is 

 abundant in Great Britain in Cornwall and Sussex, and is also found 

 in Epping Forest. It is also a native of Scotland and Ireland. This 

 plant was called Ailinia hederacea by Salisbury, in honour of John 

 Aikin, a British botanist. It is the Campanula hederacea of Linnaeus, 

 who was followed by Smith, Hooker, and others. 



WALAN, the name of a tree in Amboyna, which was first described 

 and figured by Rumphius, in his ' Herbarium Amboinense," and called 

 by him Ichthyoctonos monlana. It is a large tree, and much valued by 

 the natives of the island in which it grows. It is very rare, and the 

 description of Rumphius is too imperfect to allow at present of its 

 being assigned to any particular division of the vegetable kingdom. 



The inhabitants of the isle of Amboyna use the bark of the roots 

 for catching fish. Before it is used for this purpose it is powdered, 

 and thu process by the natives is always attended with a peculiar 

 ceremony. The bark of the root is the part of the tree employed, 

 and when it is collected for fishing, a large party attends. It is 

 powdered by a single individual with a large stone, and whilst this 

 proceM is going on, the rest lie round the stone in a circle ; when all 

 is over, a signal is given by one of them crowing like a cock; they 

 then arise and collect the powder into little baskets which is reserved 

 for UM. In catching the fish other ceremonies are employed. The 

 party goes in the morning early, and after throwing the powder upon 

 the water and mixing it till it foams, they cast a net over the river, 

 and then retire from the river, maintaining a death-like silence till the 



poison has acted on the fish. In the course of an hour the net is 

 generally found full of half-dead fish. The fish will recover from the 

 effect of the poison if thrown into fresh-water, and are quite whole- 

 some as food, although they will not keep so long as fish caught by 

 other means. Rumphius procured some of the bark, and, omitting 

 the ceremonies, found it a very successful mode of fishing. 



WA'LCHIA, a genus of Fossil Plants. [COAL PLANTS.] 



WALKE'RA, a genus of Plants named after Richard Walker, D.D., 

 founder of the botanic garden at Cambridge. It belongs to the natural 

 order Ochnacece, and is known by possessing 5 petals, 5 stamens with 

 ovate anthers ; an obovately kidney-shaped fruit, which is a drupe ; an 

 inverted embryo with a hooked beak. There are two species of this 

 genus known. W. serrata has serrate crenate leaves, racemes of 

 flowers somewhat corymbose, and the lobes of the calyx lanceolate. 

 It is a native of Malabar and Ceylon, and has yellowish flowers and 

 reddish fruit. The roots and leaves are very bitter, and are used in 

 decoction by the inhabitants of Malabar as a tonic and anthelmiutic. 

 W. integrifolia is a native of French Guyana, and has entire leaves. 



WALL-CRESS, the common name of the Plants belonging to Arabii, 

 an extensive genus in the natural order Cruclferce. Nearly 70 species 

 of this genus have been described ; they are most of them small 

 plants, fond of growing in dry stony places and on walls, and hence 

 their English name Wall-Cress. Their fruit is a linear silique, with 

 flat 1-nerved valves. The seeds are oval or orbicular, compressed, in 

 one row in each cell ; the cotyledons are flat. The radical leaves are 

 usually stalked, whilst those of the stem are sessile, or embrace the 

 stem ; they are entire or toothed, rarely lobed. The whole plant is 

 frequently covered with hairs, of which those on the stem are simple, 

 whilst those on the leaves are bifid or trifid. The flowers are white 

 in most instances, rarely red. Several of the species are natives of 

 Great Britain, and many of them are cultivated in gardens on rock- 

 work and flower-borders, on account of their blooming early in 

 spring. 



A. turrita, Tower Wall-Cress, has leaves embracing the stem ; the 

 pods all on one side, recurved, flat, and linear ; the bracts foliaceous. 

 This plant is a native of Europe, in Spain, France, Switzerland, and 

 Italy. In Great Britain it appears to be almost an entirely academical 

 plaut, as the only localities mentioned are the walls of colleges at 

 Oxford and Cambridge. 



A. hirsuta. Hairy Wall-Cress, has hairy toothed leaves, numerous 

 straight pods, and the pedicels the length of the calyx. It is a native 

 of middle and northern Europe, and also of North America, from 

 Hudson's Bay to the Rocky Mountains. In Great Britain it ia found 

 in Sussex, Norfolk, and Suffolk, and also in Scotland. 



A. rosea, Rose-Flowered Wall-Cress, has oblong subcordate half- 

 stem-clasping leaves, covered with branched hairs ; the pedicels longer 

 than the calyx, and the stigma apiculate. It is a native of Calabria, 

 and has rose-purple flowers. 



A. albida, White-Leaved Wall-Cress, has toothed leaves, hoary or 

 downy, with branched hairs. It is a native of Taurida and the 

 Caucasus. It has large white flowers, and ia a tufted plant, often 

 cultivated in English gardens. 



WALL-FLOWER. [CHEIRANTHUS.] 



WALL-PELLITORY. [PABIETARIA.] 



WALL-RUE. [ASPLENICTM.] 



WALLI'CHIA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Byttnenacece, named in honour of the late Dr. Wallich, superintendaut 

 of the East India Company's Botanical Garden at Calcutta. 



WALNUT-TREE. [JCGLANS.] 



WALRUS. [PHOCID.E.] 



WALTHE'RIA, a genus of Plants belonging to the natural order 

 Sterculiacece, named after three botanists of the name of Walther and 

 Walter. The genus is known by possessing a 5-cleft calyx, furnished 

 with a lateral 1-3-leaved deciduous iuvolucel; 5 petals; a single style 

 with tuberculated or pencilled stigma ; a 1-celled, 2-valved, 1-seeded 

 capsule. The species are small shrubs, with small usually yellow- 

 coloured flowers, disposed in axillary or terminal stalked heads, rarely 

 in panicles, rising in clusters from the branches. 



W. Durandinha has a suffruticose ascending stem, with ovate or 

 ovato-orbicular leaves, obtuse, and cordate at the base ; the lower ones 

 pilose, the upper ones tomeutose and glaucous; the heads of the 

 flowers terminal and axillary ; the calyx pubescent ; the petals bearded 

 above the claw ; the tube of the stamens entire. This plant is a native 

 of Brazil, on the banks of the river Uruguay, where it is called Duran- 

 dinha, or Douradinha. This plant, like the whole of the order to 

 which it belongs, contains much mucilaginous matter, and is used in 

 decoction in the Brazils, as a remedy in diseases of the chest, and also 

 in some of the forms of venereal disease. It is also used as au external 

 application to wounds. 



WANDEROO. [MACAOUS.] 



WAPITI. [CERVID.K.] 



WARBLERS. 



