200 



B R U 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL ; 



B R U 



annual, their seeds must be sown every year upon a hot-bed 

 in the spring : and the plants must be brought forward on 

 another, to perfect seeds in England. Some of them may 

 be transplanted, in June, 'into the borders of the flower- 

 garden ; where, if the season prove warm, they will flower, 

 and perfect seeds ; but lest these should fail, there should be 



two or three plants kept in the stove for that purpose. 



The species are, 



1. Browallia Demissa ; Spreading Browallia. Peduncles 

 one-flowered. This usually grows about two feet high, and 

 spreads out into lateral branches. Native of South America, 

 flowering from July till September. 



2. Browallia Elata ; Upright Browallia. Peduncles one- 

 flowered and many-flowered ; flowers of a dark blue colour. 

 This also rises about two feet in height. It is a native of 

 Peru, and flowers from July till September. 



Brownea; a genus of the class Monadelphia, order Decan- 

 dria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one-leafed, tur- 

 binate, unequally bifid, acute. Corolla : outer monopetal- 

 ous, funnel-form ; border five-cleft ; divisions oblong, con- 

 cave, obtuse, erect ; inner five-petalled. Petals obovate, flat, 

 obtuse, patulous, sitting on the tube of the outer corolla ; 

 claws long. Stamina : filamenta ten or eleven, subulate, 

 alternately shorter, fastened to the tubes of the outer corolla, 

 united into a cylinder, divided above ; antherae oblong, 

 incumbent. Pistil: germen oblong, acute, sitting on a pedi- 

 cle fastened to the wall of the outer corolla ; styles subulate, 

 erect, longer than the corolla ; stigma obtuse. Pericarp : 

 legume oblong, compressed, narrowed about the partition, 

 two-celled; partition membranaceous. Seed : solitary, ovate, 

 compressed, somewhat wrinkled, involved in fungose fibres. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: unequally bifid. Corolla: 

 double; outer five-cleft, inner five-petalled; legume two 

 celled. The species are, 



1. Brownea Coccinea. Flowers disjoined, umbelled. 

 This is a shrub, or small tree, growing to the height of about 

 eighteen feet. The wood is covered by an ash-coloured 

 bark : when in flower, it has a beautiful appearance. The 

 leaves are oval, entire, smooth, opposite, with short foot- 

 stalks ; they grow two or three pairs on a spray. The flowers 

 grow about ten together, and are pendulous. The calix is 

 ferruginous, the corollas scarlet, and the stamina yellowish. 

 Grows on hills and woody places in America. 



Z. Brownea Rosa. Flowers aggregate in heads, sessile; 

 stamina very long. This is also an American shrub, or small 

 tree, with an ash-coloured bark, and opposite leaves, which 

 are entire, and smooth on both sides. The flowers are borne 

 in a kind of aggregate manner, so as to form heads or 

 bunches of the size of one's fist ; they are red, and make a 

 very beautiful appearance. The stamina are extremely long. 

 It grows principally in hilly situations. 



Brucea ; so named in honour of the celebrated traveller 

 into Abyssinia, James Bruce, Esq. who first brought the seeds 

 into England,) a genus of the class Diojcia, order Tetrandria. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Male. Calix: perianth four-parted, 

 flat, villose ; parts lanceolate, acute, spreading. Corolla : 

 petals four, lanceolate, acute, ciliate, spreading, scarcely 

 larger than the calix ; nectary, a body placed on the recep- 

 tacle, flat, four-lobed ; lobes obscurely emarginate, oppo- 

 site to the petals. Stamina .- filamenta four, upright, short, 

 opposite to the calix, inserted into the receptacle between 

 the lobes of the nectary ; anthene, roundish. Female. Ca- 

 lix and Corolla as in the male. Nectary, the inner margin of 

 the receptacle thickened, four-lobed ) lobes emarginate. 

 Stamina : filamenta four, inserted in the receptacle on the 

 outside of the divisions of the nectary, filiform, but thicker 



towards the tip, sharpish, a little shorter than the petals ; 

 without any anthers. Pistil : germina four, superior, ovate, 

 compressed on the inner side; styles subulate, reflex, lying 

 on the germina; stigmas acute. Pericarps: four, one-seeded 

 Seeds: solitary. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: four-learVd. 

 Corolla : four-petalled. Female. Pericarps : four, one- 

 seeded. The only known species is, 



1. Brucea Ferruginea. Mr. Bruce thus imperfectly de- 

 scribes it: leaf pinnate; leaflets oblong, pointed, smooth, 

 and without collateral ribs that are visible ; the upper side of 

 a deep green, the reverse very little lighter, opposite, with n. 

 single one at the end. The flowers come chiefly from the 

 point of the stalk, on each side of a long branch. Accord- 

 ing to Mons. L'Heritier, who has described it more com- 

 pletely, it is a shrub of the middling size; stem upright, 

 the bark ash-coloured, becoming yellowish ; branches few, 

 alternate, patulous, round, thick, with broad scars from the 

 fallen leaves continuing long on them ; shoots angular, with 

 the petioles tomentose, rufous ; leaves alternate, spreading, 

 unequally pinnate, consisting of six pairs of opposite lobes, 

 one foot in length ; petiole round, thickened at the base, 

 tomentose, rufous ; leaflets on short petioles, oblong-ovate, 

 entire, acuminate, veined, villose, somewhat fetid when rub- 

 bed ; the two lower ones smaller, the upper one on a longer 

 petiolule, three inches long, and one inch broad ; the midrib 

 raised on both sides, especially beneath ; the veins concentri- 

 cally retuse towards the edges ; spikes of the male flowers 

 solitary, axillary, upright at first, then spreading, finally nod- 

 ding ; peduncled, almost simple, or scarcely compounded of 

 many-flowered very short spikelets, remote at bottom, but 

 gradually approximating towards the top, tomentose, rufous, 

 from six to eight inches in length; the flowers are crowded 

 together, either sessile or on very short pedicels, of an her- 

 baceous colour, tinged with red or russet. The male plant 

 began to flower in the stove of the Paris botanic garden, 

 when it was between two and three feet high, in May and 

 June, 1780 or 1781. The female plant has flowered in the 

 royal garden, at Kew, in April and May. Native of Abys- 

 sinia, where it is known by the name of Wooginoos. The 

 root is a specific in the dysentery. It is a plain simple bitter, 

 without an aromatic or resinous taste, leaving in the throat 

 and palate something of roughness resembling ipecacuanha. 



Brunella. See Prunella. 



Brunfelsia; a genus of the class Didynamia, order An- 

 giospermia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one- 

 leafed, bell-shaped, five-toothed, obtuse, very small, per- 

 manent. Corolla : one-petalled, funnel-form ; tube very 

 long, slightly curved inwards ; border flat, five-cleft, blunt. 

 Stamina : filamenta four, very short ; antherae oblong, up- 

 right ; two a little higher than the others, prominent from 

 the mouth of the tube. Pistil : germen roundish, small ; 

 style filiform, the length of the tube ; stigma thickish. Pe- 

 ricarp : capsule berried on the outside, globular, one-celled, 

 two valved. Seeds: very many, compressed, convex on one 

 side, angular on the other, rugged with dots. Receptacle : 

 fastened to the bottom of the capsule, chufty ; chaffs cond- 

 unate, subulate at the tip, separating the seeds. ESSEMTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Caiuc: five-toothed, narrow. Corolla: with a very 

 long tube. Capsule . one-celled, many-seeded, with a very 

 large fleshy conceptacle. The plants of this genus may be 

 propagated from seeds, which should be sown early in the 

 spring, in pots of light earth, and plunged into a hot-bed of 

 tanner's bark, observing to water the earth as often as you 

 find it necessary. When the plants are come up, they should 

 be transplanted each into a separate small pot, rilled with 

 fresh light earth, and plunged into the hot-bed again, observ- 



