D R O 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



D R O 



475 





leave their winter quarters in the spring, are very fond 

 of it. 



4. Dracontium Camschatcense ; Kamtchatka Dragon. 

 Leaves lanceolate. The roots of this species resemble the 

 common Arum, and the leaves come out each on a separate 

 footstalk, immediately from the root, as in that plant. It has 

 never flowered in England. Native of Siberia} requiring a 

 shady situation, and being fully able to bear the greatest 

 cold in our climate. 



5. Dracontium Pertusum ; Perforate-leaved Dragon. 

 Leaves perforated ; stem climbing. This species has slender 

 jointed stalks, which put out roots at every joint, that fasten 

 to the trunks of trees, walls, or any support which is near 

 them, and thereby rise to the height of twenty-five or thirty 

 feet. The leaves are placed alternately, standing upon long 

 footstalks ; they are four or five inches long, and two and a 

 half broad, having several holes in each ; so that, on the first 

 view, they appear as if eaten by insects. The flowers are 

 produced at the top of the stalk, which always swell to a 

 larger size in that part than in any other ; these are. covered 

 with an oblong- spathe, or hood, of a whitish green colour, 

 which opens longitudinally on oneside, and shewsthe spadix 

 closely covered with flowers, of a pale yellow, inclining to 

 white. When this plant begins to flower, it seldom advances 

 farther in height, so that these seldom are more than seven 

 or eight feet high ; but the leaves are much larger on these, 

 than those of the plants which ramble much farther. Native 

 of the VVest Indies, and of the isle of Tanna in the South 



Seas. Thisplant is easily propagated by cuttings, which, if 



planted in pots filled with poor sandy earth, and plunged 

 into a hot-bed, will soon put out roots, if they had none be- 

 fore ; but there are few of the joints which have not roots. 

 The plants being tender, will not endure the open air in Eng- 

 land ; and the pots should, on that account, be placed near 

 the walls of the hot -house, against which the plants will 

 climb, and fasten their roots into the wall, and thereby sup- 

 port the stalks. They should have but little water in the 

 winter ; but in warm weather, it must be given them three 

 or four times a week ; and in the summer, free air should be 

 admitted to them in plenty. The plants have no particular 

 season of flowering ; for they sometimes flower in autumn, 

 and sometimes in the spring, but never ripen their seed in 

 our climate. The plants of this genus, are preserved in the 

 gardens of the curious, both in England and Holland, more 

 for variety than for beauty ; but this species is an exception, 

 and may be suffered to have a place against the wall of the 

 stove, over which it will spread, and cover the nakedness 

 of the wall; and the leaves, which are so remarkably per- 

 forated, remaining all the year, make a singular appearance. 



Dragon. See Arum and Dracontium. 



Dragons Head. See Dracocephalum. 



Dragon Tree. See Dracana. 



Draining. See Land, vol. ii. p. 10. 



Drilling. See Hoeing, p. 696. 



Dropwort. See Spir&a. 



Drojmort, Water. See CEnanthe. 



Drosera; a genus of the class Pentandria, order Penta- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth one-leafed, 

 five-cleft, sharp, upright, permanent. Corolla: funnel-form; 

 petals five, somewhat ovate, obtuse, rather larger than the 

 calix, and alternate with it. Stamina : filamenta five, subu- 

 late, length of the calix, and alternate with the petals ; an- 

 therae small, growing to the filamenta. Pistil : germen supe- 

 rior, roundish ; styles five, simple, length of the stamina ; 

 stigmas simple. Pericnrp : capsule surrounded with the 

 calix, somewhat ovate, one-celled, three, four, or five-valved 



at the tip. Seeds : very many, very small, somewhat ovate, 

 scabrous, fixed to a branching loose receptacle in the centre 

 at the bottom. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: five-cleft. 

 Petals: five. Capsule: one-celled, five, or three-valved at 

 the tip. Seeds : very many. These plants are not easily 

 preserved in gardens. They must be taken from their native 

 bogs, with a sufficient quantity of bog-earth and water-moss, 

 and planted in pots, set in pans, constantly supplied with 

 water. They will also succeed better if defended from the 

 sun, and well enveloped in moss kept constantly wet. The 

 leaves, in most of the species, only next the root, furnished 

 with glandulous hairs on the upper surface, and fringed with 

 them round the edge : these hairs have each a small globule 

 of a pellucid liquor like dew, continuing even in the hottest 

 part of the day, and in the fullest exposure to the sun ; from 

 which remarkable circumstance, their English name of Stin- 

 dew is derived. The species are, 



1. Drosera Acaulis ; Stemless Sundew. Flower radical, 

 without any scape, solitary ; leaves oblong. This plant is 

 singular for having a sessile flower in the bosom of the 

 root-leaves. This and the following are natives of the Cape. 



2. Drosera Cuneifolio ; Wedge-leaved Sundew. Scapes 

 radicate; leaves wedge-form, rounded. It resembles the 

 third species, but is larger, and has sessile leaves rounded 

 at the summit, but gently attenuated towards the base. 



3. Drosera Rotundifolia ; Round-leaved Sundew. Scapes 

 radicate; leaves orbiculate ; styles six. Root perennial, 

 black ; root-leaves many, forming a tuft, two or three lines 

 in length and breadth, set with red hairs about the edge 

 and on the upper surface, the under surface smooth ; the 

 petioles red, and half an inch or eight lines in length, ciliate 

 at the base; scape erect, round, slender, simple, three or 

 four inches in height; flowers in a kind of racemed spike, 

 bent in at the top before flowering-time, they point one way, 

 are alternate, erect, and from six to eleven in number ; the 

 peduncles are half a line or a line in length ; corolla white ; 

 calix smooth ; stigmas obtuse, white ; bractes none. The 

 flowers open from nine to twelve. The young leaves before 

 they expand are rolled inwards, and at the same time bent 

 in to the very peduncle. In England it flowers in July and 

 August; and is found on Hampstead Heath ; at Battle's well, 

 near Harefield, and Iver heath ; on Hinton and Teversham 

 moors, and Gamlingay bogs, in Cambridgeshire; on Mul- 

 vern chace ; Birmingham heath ; Selborne, in Hampshire; 

 Ludgvan Lee, on the Barton and Moors, and Senan, in 

 Torvorian commons, Cornwall; Halston, in Northampton- 

 shire ; near Mansfield and Oxton in Nottinghamshire; and 

 frequently in various parts of Scotland. The variety men- 

 tioned by Ray, was found by Mr. Willisel in Devonshire. 

 The whole of this plant is acrid, and sufficiently caustic to 

 corrode the skin ; some ladies, however, know how to mix 

 the juice with milk, so as to make it an innocent and safe 

 application to remove freckles and sun-burn. The unmixed 

 juice will destroy warts and cortis, if a little of it be fre- 

 quently put upon them. These effects, however, show its 

 internal use to be dangerous, although some authors very 

 gravely tell us, that a water distilled from this plant is highly 

 cordial and restorative! The leaves 'only, bruised and exter- 

 nally applied, will erode the skin, and bring on such inflam- 

 mations as are not easily removed. This plant has the same 

 effect upon milk as the Pinguifula Vidaris ; and, like that 

 too, is supposed to occasion the rot in sheep. Is not, says 

 Withering, the sour coagulated milk of the Syrians, called 

 labun, or leven, at first prepared with some plant of this 

 kind ? In Great Britain this plant is called generally, Sun- 

 dew, Youthwort ; in the north parts. Red-rot. 



