470 



D R A 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL ; 



D R A 



a number of small flowers placed on the upper surface, like 

 the other species. Native of Vera Cruz, and Tobago. Mr. 

 Miller informs us, that the roots of all the three species are 

 brought over, indifferently to be used in medicine and in 

 dying ; and that it was not known what the plant was, the 

 roots of which were imported, and had been long used in 

 medicine, until Dr. Houston informed us. 



4. Dorstenia Caulescens. Peduncles on a stem. This is 

 a small plant, the leaves of which proceed irregularly from 

 the stem, which is short. The leaves are ovate-acute, and 

 pretty strongly dentated at the edges ; the male flowers are 

 collected into little Leads, and the females into a kind of 

 sharply lobed or irregular flatfish heads ; they stand upon 

 remarkably long footstalks. Native country unknown. 



5. Dorstenia Lucida. Caulescent : leaves obliquely ovate, 

 entire, even; peduncles in cymes, axillary. Native of the 

 Society Islands. 



6. Dorstenia Pubescens. Caulescent : leaves obliquely 

 ovate, serrate, pubescent ; peduncles axillary, bearing heads. 

 Native of the Society Islands. 



7. Dorstenia Cordifolia. Scapes rooting ; leaves cordate- 

 ovate, toothletted ; receptacles orbiculate ; disk a little con- 

 cave : male flowers in the disk, towards the ray ; calices 

 immersed in the receptacle, or four-toothed hole ; filament a 

 two, three, or four, short, with twin anthere ; flowers in the 

 middle of the disk, female ; germen ovate; style bifid; stig- 

 mas reflex. Native of Jamaica and St. Domingo. 



8. Dorstenia Chinensis. Peduncles cauline ; petioles three 

 or five leaved. Root fusiform, three inches long, white within 

 and without, fleshy, aromatic ; stem perennial, suberect, 

 round, simple, whitish; leaves ternate or quinate, lanceolate, 

 quite entire, smooth, on a long common petiole ; receptacle 

 of the flowers lateral, fleshy, subaval, with many florets put 

 forth at the top; the calix is funnel-form, and three-toothed. 

 The root is aromatic, and used in medicine. Native of 

 China, in the northern provinces; and called there, pechi and 

 tiach-chi. 



Douglastia ; a genus of the class Polyadelphia, order 

 Polyandria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth one- 

 leafed, turbinate, half six-cleft, permanent ; segments ovate, 

 acute, coloured. Corolla, .- none ; nectaries six, ovate on the 

 outside with two oblong pits, on the inside convex ; anthera- 

 beaiing, terminated by two glands, convex without, concave 

 within, ending at bottom in a capillary pedicel, shorter than 

 the calix, inserted at the base of the segments, with a villose 

 gland on each side at the insertion of it. Stamina : filamenta 

 none ; antheraj very many, minute, one-celled, with the valve 

 opening at the base. Pistil : germen ovate, superior ; style 

 filiform, the length of the stamina ; stigma six-cleft. Peri- 

 carp : berry ovate, acute, one-celled. Seed : single, with a 

 brittle shell. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calii : half .six- 

 cleft. Corolla : none. Nectaries : six. Ftiamenta : none. 

 Germen : superior. Stigma. : six-cleft. Berry : ovate, one- 

 celled. Seed : one, with a brittle shell. The only known 



species of this genus is, 



1. Douglassia Guianensis. With alternate lanceolate leaves. 

 This isa middling-sized shrub, growing in Guiana ; it is about 

 tive feet high, and branching at top, its diameter five or six 

 inches ; the wood white and compact ; the branches are sub- 

 divided into smaller ones ; and the flowers grow at their 

 extremities in a kind of straggling clusters, they are small 

 and yellowish. The berry is black, with viscid pulp ; the 

 Meeds oily and aromatic. It is called by the natives aioune. 



Draba; a genus of the class Tetradynamia, order Siliculosa. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calu: : perianth four-leaved ; 

 leaflets ovate, concave, from erect spreading, deciduous. 



Corolla: four-petalled, cruciform ; petals oblong, somewhat 

 spreading, with very small claws. Stamina .- filamenta six, 

 length of the calix; of these the four opposite ones some what 

 longer, from erect spreading : aiitherae simple. Pistil: ger- 

 men ovate ; style scarcely any; stigma headed, flat. Peri- 

 carp : silicle elliptic-oblong, compressed, entire, destitute 

 of style, two-celled ; dissepiment parallel with the valves ; 

 valves plano-concave. Seeds ' several, small, roundish. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Silicle : entire, oval-oblong ; 

 valves flattish, parallel to the dissepiment. Style : none. 

 These plants are easily propagated by parting the heads in 

 autumn, for they shoot up to flower very early in the spring ; 

 they will thrive, and flower annually, ina moist soil and shady 

 situation, and require no other culture but to be kept clean 

 from weeds. Some of them are peculiarly adapted to adorn 



rock-work, and they all prosper best in that situation. 



The species are, 



1. Draba Aizoides ; Hairy-leaved Alpine Whitlow Grass. 

 Scape naked, simple; leaves ensiform, keeled, ciliate. Root 

 perennial ; stem three inches high ; petals entire ; silicle 

 hairy, rough, ovate, sharp at both ends, ending in a long- 

 style, four lines in length, the cells having six to eight seeds, 

 which are round and flatted ; flowers in a sort of corymb, 

 which becomes a raceme when the fruit is ripe ; petals yellow , 

 usually entire. It is well adapted to rock -work, and is a pretty 

 plant with a pleasant smell. Native of the mountains oY 

 France, Switzerland, Savoy, Austria, Carniola, and .Silesia. 



2. DrabaCiliaris. Stem almost naked; leaves linear, ciliatt 

 about the edge and along the keel ; petals entire ; root peren- 

 nial; root-leaves forming a close tuft, imbricate, crowded, 

 even, keeled, distinctly ciliate; petals obovate, white; style 

 longer than the stamina; peduncle naked, the length of the 

 stem, filiform, few-flowered ; flowers terminating, subsessile ; 

 leaflets of the calix erect, almost equal, lanceolate, obtuse, 

 green on the outside, yellowish on the inside; germen ovate, 

 longer than the stamina. Native of Provence, in dry rocky 

 places. 



3. Draba Alpina. Scape naked, simple; leaves lanceolate, 

 quite entire ; petals emarginate. Perennial : all the root-leaves 

 spreading, sprinkled with hairs on the upper surface, by no 

 means imbricate, linear, ciliate or smooth on the upper sur- 

 face ; stem leafless, with a few hairs scattered about it, not 

 one-leafed or smooth ; petals slightly emarginate, not entire. 

 Native of the European Alps. 



4. Draba Verna ; Common or Spring Whitlow Grass. 

 Scapes naked ; leaves somewhat serrate, often very entire ; 

 petals divided. Root annual ; stems about three inches 

 high, one to five or more from the same root, in a rich soil, 

 smooth after flowering, but hairy when young ; peduncles 

 alternate, bearing one floweronly; leaflets of the calix obtuse 

 and somewhat hairy ; petals white, twice the length of the 

 calix, two-parted ; filamenta bending forward, the four longer 

 ones the height of the pistil ; seeds ovate, brown, fixed to the 

 edge of the partition, from three to six in a cell, according 

 to Scopoli, but sometimes as many as twenty-four : by these 

 it propagates itself with such amazing rapidity, that it is ;i 

 weed which it is hardly possible to eradicate wherever it has 

 obtained admittance. Linneus observes, that it hangs down 

 the flowers in the night and in wet weather ; that in Snu>- 

 land they sow Rye when this plant is in blossom ; and that 

 in dry soils whole fields are covered with the flowers early in 

 the spring. In England it is common upon walls, dry banks, 

 fields, and pastures, flowering in March and April, or earlier 

 if the weather be mild. In some countries abundance of 

 this little plant is supposed to prognosticate dearness of corn, 

 which may have some foundation, as a wet season produces 



