BREWERIA. 



red, burning readily when lighted. Taste bitter, balsamic. Yields by 

 distillation an essential oil of bitter balsamic flavour; little used, except, 

 according to Fee for adulterating oil of Roses. (Lignum rhodium Officin.) 

 N.B. This plant is said (Rom. and Sch. iv. 300.) to have a 1-celled 

 1-seeded capsule opening at the base. If so it is not more a Breweria 

 than a Convolvulus. But it is so extremely like a Breweria found in 

 Arabia by Fischer (No. 53.) that I cannot but suspect some mistake in 

 this point. 



HYDROLEACE^E. 



Nat. syst. ed. 2. p. 234-. 



HYDROLEA. 



Calyx 5-parted. Corolla somewhat campanulate. Anthers 5. 

 included, sagittate ; filaments dilated at the base. Styles 2 ; 

 stigmas truncate. Capsule 2-3-celled, many-seeded. 



822. H. zeylanica Vahl. symb. ii. 46. Wight and Am. in 

 Comp. Sot. Mag. ii. 193. t. 26. Nama zeylanica Linn, sp.pl. 

 Wl.fl. zeyl. 117. t. 2. Steris javana Linn. mant. 34. Steris 

 aquatica Burm. Ind. 73. t. 39. f. 3. Water, and marshy 

 ground in the East Indies. 



Herbaceous. Stems erect, towards the extremities variously bent, 

 decumbent, and sometimes rooting near the base, round, glabrous, some- 

 what flexuose. Leaves short, petioled, lanceolate, rather obtuse, smooth, 

 bright green above, below marked with numerous prominent parallel veins. 

 Racemes axillary, somewhat leafy, spreading, few-flowered ; every part 

 of them, raches, pedicels, and calyx, glanduloso-pubescent. Pedicels 

 1-flowered, usually opposite to a small bracteal leaf; but sometimes a 

 little either above or below the opposed leaf, rarely axillary. Flowers 

 deep blue, with a white spot in the centre. Calyx 5-parted ; divisions 

 lanceolate, acute, nearly as long as the corolla, thickly covered with 

 glandular hairs. Corolla wheel-shaped; tube short; limb 5-cleft; 

 divisions obtuse, spreading, or even somewhat reflexed when fully open. 

 Stamens 5, alternate with the segments of the corolla. Filaments the 

 length of the tube, attached to it by a dilated base. Anthers large, 

 sagittate. Ovary superior, 2-celled : styles 2, diverging, about the 

 length of the stamens, dark-blue, with paler capitate stigmas. Capsule 

 inclosed in the permanent calyx, 2-celled, many-seeded. Seeds 

 growing all round a large fleshy receptacle, which forms part of the 

 partition. Wight and Arnott. The leaves beaten into pulp and applied 

 as a poultice are in India considered efficacious in cleaning and healing 

 ill conditioned ulcers, particularly those in which maggots have begun 

 to breed. Wight. 



401 



