A R U 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



A R U 



129 



that they presently swell so that the person cannot speak : 

 from this quality, and its' being jointed, they call it Dumb- 

 i-iine in Jamaica, where it is said they sometimes cruelly rub 

 the mouths of their negroes with it by way of punishment. 

 The stalks are used for a better purpose, to bring sugar to a 

 good grain, when the juice is too viscid, and cannot be brought 

 to granulate rightly with the lime alone. A decoction of this 

 plant is recommended by way of fomentation in dropsies ; it 

 certainly must be a strong resolulive, which cannot fail to 

 strengthen and stimulate the relaxed fibres in such cases. 

 See the twenty-fifth species. 



27. Arum Hederaceum ; Ivy-leaved Arum. Radicanu 

 leaves cordate, oblong, acuminate ; petioles round. Native 

 of the West Indies. See the twenty-fifth species. 



28. Arum Lingulatum ; Tongue-leaved Arum. Creeping ; 

 leaves cordate, lanceolate ; petioles edged with membranes. 

 Native of the West Indies, where it climbs the trees with 

 great ease, and grows more succulent and luxuriant towards 

 the top. See the twenty-fifth species. 



29. Arum Auritum ; Ear-leaved Arum. Radicant : leaves 

 ternate, those on the side three-lobed. A climbing plant. 

 Native of the West Indies. See the twenty-fifth species. 



30. Arum Indicum; Indian Arum. Nearly upright ; leaves 

 ovate, bifid at the base, rounded ; spadices axillary : stem 

 thick, five feet high. Native of the East Indies, and culti- 

 vated in Cochin-china, where the stalk is boiled and eaten. 



31. Arum Cucullatum ; Cowled Arum. Upright: leaves 

 peltate, cordate, with the ears cowled ; spadix short, nearly 

 covered with florets . Native of the suburbs of Canton. 



32. Arum Spirale ; Spiral Arum. Stemless : leaves lan- 

 ceolate ; spathe spiral, sessile. Native of Tranquebar in the 

 East Indies. 



Aruncus. See Spiraa. 



Arundo; a genus of the class Triandria, order Digynia. 

 GKNEKIC CHARACTER. Calix : glume one or many-flowered, 

 two-valved, erect : valves oblong, acuminate, awnless, one 

 shorter. Corolla : two-valved ; valves the length of the 

 calix, oblong, acuminate ; from their base arises a lanugo 

 almost the length of the flower ; nectary two-leaved, very 

 .small. Stamina: filamenta three, capillary ; antherce forked 

 at both ends. Pistil : germen oblong ; styles two, capil- 

 lary, reflex, villose ; stigmas simple. Pericarp : none. Co- 

 rolla : adheres to the seed without gaping. Seed : single, 

 oblong, acuminate at both ends, furnished with a long down 

 (pappus) at the base. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix : two- 

 valved ; florets heaped, surrounded with wool. The 



species are, 



1. Arundo Bambos; Bambu or Bamboo Cane. Calices 

 many-flowered; spikes in threes, sessile. The highest and the 

 largest of all the Bamboos, covered very thick with spines. 

 The Bamboo Cane grows naturally almost everywhere within 

 the tropical regions, and there is perhaps scarcely any plant 

 which serves such a variety of domestic purposes. The houses 

 of the meaner people in the East Indies are almost entirely 

 composed of it, and it is said to be strong and perfect after 

 lasting a hundred years ; bridges also, masts for boats, boxes, 

 cups, baskets, mats, and a great variety of other utensils and 

 furniture, both domestic and rural. Paper is also made from 

 it by bruising it, and steeping it in water, and thus forming 

 it into a paste. It is the common fence for gardens and fields, 

 and is frequently used as pipes for conveying water. The 

 leaves are generally put round the chests of tea which are 

 seht to Europe from China, as package, fastened together so 

 as to form a kind of mat The tops of the tender shoots are 

 frequently pickled in the West Indies. In the cavities or 

 tubular parts of the Bamboo, is found, at certain seasons, a 



VOL. i. 11. 



concrete white substance, called tabasher, or tabashir, an ar- 

 ticle which the Arabian physicians hold in great estimation : 

 it is commonly found in what are called the female or large 

 Bamboos, which, on shaking, are found to contain a fluid, 

 which after some time gradually lessens, and then they are 

 opened, in order to extract the tabasner. The nature of this 

 substance is very different from what might have been ex- 

 pected in the product of a vegetable. Its indestructibility 

 by fire, its total resistance to acids, its uniting by fusion with 

 alkalies, in certain proportions, into a white opaque mass, or 

 a transparent permanent glass ; and its being again separable 

 from these compounds, entirely unchanged by acids, &c. seem 

 ti> afford the strongest reasons for considering it as very nearly 

 identical with common silicious earth. As to the medicinal 

 virtues of this part of the plant, though in great esteem as a drug 

 among the Orientalists, it is not regarded in modern Europe. 

 Loureiro informs us, that the bark, buds, and root, are used. 

 The leaves, he says.are cooling,emollient,and resolvent ; their 

 decoction is good in fevers; coughs, pains of the throat, &c. 

 the thin bark is cooling and agglutinant, and a gentle astrin- 

 gent : it is good in feverish heats, haemorrhages, nauseas, and 

 vomitings : the roots and buds are attenuating, and promote 

 urine, and purify the blood, and are used for disorders of the 

 kidneys, bladder, and urethra, wandering pains,obstructions, 

 and in venereal cases : from the fresh roots, mixed with To- 

 bacco leaves and Betel, in equal portions, and infused and 

 macerated for some days in oil, is prepared an ointment of 

 great efficacy in discussing hard and schirrous swellings. In 

 England, it must be preserved in a warm stove ; and, as the 

 roots spread very wide, it should be planted in a large tub, 

 filled with rich earth : this must be plunged into a hot- bed in 

 the bark-stove, and be well supplied with water. It may be 

 propagated by slips from the roots, which should be taken off 

 in the spring, that they may be well established before win- 

 ter. There are many varieties of tins species, with one of 

 which the Turks make their writing pens. 



2. Arundo Donax; Cultivated or Evergreen Reed. Calices 

 five-flowered ; panicle diffused ; culm shrubby. Native 

 of the south of Europe, Siberia, Egypt, and Cochin-china. 

 It will bear the cold of our winters in the open ground, pro- 

 vided it be planted in a soil not too wet. and laying in severe 

 winters a little mulch to the roots. It is propagated by parting 

 the roots early in the spring, before they begin to shoot, and 

 will in a year or two, if the ground be good, make very large 

 stools, from each of which eight or ten canes are produced. 

 It never flowers in England. 



3. Arundo Phragmites; Common Reed. Calices five- 

 flowered ; panicle loose. It flowers from July till Septem- 

 ber, and ripens its seeds in October and November. It is 

 very common by the sides of rivers, in ditches, and large 

 standing waters. In autumn, when the leaves begin to fall, 

 and the stems are changed brown, it is cut for making screens 

 in kitchen-gardens, and for many other uses, as thatching', 

 for which it is more durable than straw ; for ceilings, and to 

 lay across the frame of wood-work, as the foundation for 

 plaister-floors. The panicles are used by the country people 

 in Sweden, to dye wool green, and the root has been recom- 

 mended as answering the same purposes as Dog's Grass, or 

 Triticum Caninum. According to Hill, the juice of the fresh 

 root excites the menstrual discharge powerfully, but not vio- 

 lently : it likewise increases the urinary evacuation, and is 

 serviceable in stranguaries and the gravel. 



4. Arundo Epigejos; Wood Reedgrass. Calices one- 

 flowered; panicle erect; leaves smooth underneath. Native 

 of many parts of Europe, in shaded ditches, flowering in July. 



5. Arundo Calamagrostis ; Small Reedgrass. Calices 

 2L 



