POGONIA 



POISONOUS PLANTS 



1383 



mlnal; sepals 13^-2 in. long, linear, dark purple; petals 

 nearly 1 in. long, linear. May, June. Moist, rich, 

 shaded positions, Ont. to Wis. and Fla. B.B. 1:408. 

 Heinrich Hasselbring and F. W. Barclay. 



1863. Poinciana regia (X /4)- 



POGOSTEMON (Greek, bearded stamen). Labidtw. 

 This includes the plant which produces the well-known 

 perfumes called Patchouli, or in India Pucha-pat. Pat- 

 chouli has a peculiar, dry moldy smell and is one of 

 the commonest perfumes in India. In the forties its 

 presence was considered the sure test of a genuine In- 

 dian shawl, but the French manufacturers of imitation 

 Indian shawls imported the perfume in the fifties. 

 Patchouli is no longer fashionable. Fuller accounts 

 of it will be found in the "Cultural Industries of Queens- 

 land," V. 8:247 and Gn. 27, p. 447. The plant has no 

 ornamental value. Live plants were introduced into 

 America by Franceschi, of Santa Barbara, and were 

 offered in 1900 in the East. 



Pogostemon is a genus of about 30 species, 24 of which 

 are distinguished in Flora of British India 4:631. Herbs 

 or subshrubs: Ivs. opposite, rarely in 3's: fls. small, 

 in solitary or panicled spikes formed of many dense 

 whorls; calyx subequally 4-5-toothed; corolla-tube ex- 

 serted or included ; limb sub-2-lipped ; lobes 4, lower 

 usually longest; stamens 4, exserted, straight or decli- 

 nate; filaments usually bearded; anther cells confluent. 



Heyne^nus, Benth. (P. Patchohhj, Pellet). Pat- 

 chouli Plant. Herb, 2-3 ft. high: Ivs. long-stalked, 

 ovate, acute, acuminate or olituse, crenate, simply or 

 doubly toothed: spikes terminal and axillary, forming 

 a panicled inflorescence: whorls usually separate, form- 

 ing interrupted spikes : fls. whitish, tinged purple. 

 India. 



POINCIANA (M. de Poind, governor of the Antilles 

 in the seventeenth century). Legumindsce. Small, 

 mostly broad-topped unarmed trees, with large and 

 graceful bipinnate Ivs. with numerous small Ifts. and 

 with no stipels and inconspicuous stipules: fls. very 



very showy, orange or scarlet, in large, corymbose ra- 

 cemes, not papilionaceous, the 5 petals clawed and 

 eroded or even fimbriate on the margin, the stamens 10 

 and free and exserted: fr. long and flat. There are 2 or 

 3 species of Poinciana, all native to the oriental trop- 

 ics. The genus has been confounded with Cwsalpinia, 

 but the calyx-segments are valvate, whereas they are 

 strongly imbricate (or overlapping) in C»salpinia. 

 The P. pnlcherrima, known as Barl)adoes Pride and 

 Bird-of-Paradise Flower, is Ccesalpinia ptilcherrima. 

 P. Gilltesii is V. Gilliesii. P. elata, Linn., native to 

 India, Arabia and tropical Africa, is planted in the Old 

 World, but is not in the American trade. It reaches a 

 height of 20-30 ft., with the petals scarcely exserted 

 beyond the calyx. 



r6gia, Boj. Figs. 1862, 1863. Royal Poinciana. 

 Peacock Flower. Flomboyant. Rapid-growing tree, 

 reaching 20-40 ft., and making a wide-spreading pic- 

 turesque top: Ivs. 1-2 ft. long, with 10-20 pairs of pin- 

 nae, each pinna with numerous oval leaflets: fls. 3-4 in. 

 across, bright scarlet (upper petal striped with yellow 

 and more cuneate), the obovate petals very prominently 

 clawed (or narrow below) : pod 6 in. to 2 ft. long. Mada- 

 gascar. B.M. 2884. — Now a popular tree in frostless 

 countries, as in S. Fla., S. Calif., Bermuda, and the 

 West Indian Islands. It is deciduous. One of the most 

 striking of tropical trees. Sometimes seen under glass in 

 the North. Ca'salpinia pnlcherrima is often confounded 

 with it; but that plant is a shrub or at most only a 

 small tree, with strongly overlapping calyx-segments in 

 the bud, smaller fls., and very long-exserted stamens. 



L. H. B. 



POINSETTIA. Euphorbia pnlcherrima. Annual P. 

 is E. heterophylla. 



FOIREA is a catalogue error for Poivrea. 



POISON BERRY, Cestrnm. P. Dogwood, Bhus vene- 

 nata. P. Elder, Bhus venenata. P. Hemlock, Conivm, 

 maculatum. F. Ivy, Bhus Toxicodendron. P. Oak, JK. 

 Toxicodendron. P. Sumac, Bhus venenata. 



POISONOUS PLANTS. Very few plants are poisonous 

 to the touch. The only ones in the northeastern states 

 are Poison Ivy and Poison Sumac. The former is a root- 

 climbing vine (R. Toxicodendron) ^i^^^ ternate leaves 

 (Fig. 1864), and the latter is a tree-like bush (Bht(S 

 venenata) with pinnate leaves and entire leaflets (Fig. 

 1865). Poison Ivy is sometimes confounded with Vir- 



1364. Leaf of Poison Ivy (X %). 



ginia Creeper, but the latter usually has 5 leaflets, it is 

 a much taller vine and it climbs by means of tendrils 

 (Pig. 186C). Poison Ivy is much commoner than Poison 

 Sumac. The latter is confined to swamps. There are 



