ECH 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



ECH 



481 



a drop of watery glutinous liquor, such as the whole plant 

 abounds with, flows out at the two points by which they had 

 cohered. It flowers in December, and is found on the 

 mountains, near Cape Francois in St. Domingo. 



5. Echites Torulosa; Climbing Echites. Peduncles sub- 

 racemed ; leaves lanceolate, acuminate, two inches long. This 

 plant is so weakly, that it commonly sustains itself by the 

 help of the neighbouring bushes, and frequently rises to a 

 considerable height among them. The common peduncles 

 support about six small yellow flowers, and the whole plant 

 abounds in a milky gluten. It flowers in March, and is often 

 found at the foot of the mountains of Liguanea in the island 

 of Jamaica. 



6. Echites Umbellata ; Umbelled Echites. Peduncles urn- 

 belled ; leaves ovate, obtuse, mucronate ; stem twining. It 

 climbs to the height of fifteen feet, by means of its shrubby, 

 twining, pliant stems, which are woody and tuberous at the 

 bottom, but round, green, and glossy above. The whole 

 abounds in a clear glutinous juice. Leaves roundish, ovate, 

 subcordate at the base, three or four inches long. The com- 

 mon peduncle has from four to seven flowers at the end, in a 

 kind of umbel, with some stipules serving the purpose of a.n 

 involucre. The flowers are large and handsome ; the border 

 white, and the tube green on the outside. Browne describes 

 them to be of a pale yellow, with a longish slender tube. He 

 remarks, that, like other plants of the same natural class, it is 

 rather deleterious ; and that there is a variety of it found in 

 the drier savannas, which has pointed leaves, and very slen- 

 der stalks. It flowers from October to February, and is a 

 native of Jamaica, Cuba, and St. Domingo. 



7. Echites Trifida. Peduncles trifid, many-flowered ; 

 leaves ovate-oblong, acuminate; stems twining, shrubby; 

 leaves three inches in length; common peduncles short, with 

 diflbrm pedicels; flowers large, pretty, the tube purple, and 

 the border green. It climbs trees to the height of twelve 

 feet, and the whole plant is milky. It flowers in October, 

 and is a native of South America, near Carthagena. 



8. Echites Repens. Peduncles many-flowered, divided; 

 leaves lanceolate, oblong. This is an elegant shrubby plant, 

 not milky, with round, smooth, sarmentose steins ; the older 

 ones procumbent, and putting out roots; the younger sub- 

 erect, and thickened at the joints into discoid knots. The 

 common peduncles are usually bifid, bearing elegant, tender, 

 red flowers, which appear from October till December. 

 Native of St. Domingo. 



9. Echites Corymbosa. Racemes corymbed ; stamina 

 standing out ; leaves lanceolate-ovate, smooth, shining above, 

 pale underneath, two inches long. This climbs up trees 

 with its twining shrubby stems, twenty feet in height, and the 

 whole abounds with a white glutinous milk; racemes termi- 

 nating, branched, spreading, red ; flowers numerous, small, 

 red or purple; teeth of the calix very minute, coloured; 

 corolla cyliudric, very short; border reflex, with sharp seg- 

 ments ; nectareous glands connate ; filamenta from the bottom 

 of the tube, longer than the corolla ; germen twin, pubescent ; 

 Style with a very slight longitudinal groove on each side, by 

 which it may be easily split in two; stigma within the cone 

 of the antherae ; follicles horizontal, reflex, roundish, obtuse, 

 two-valved; seeds oblong, with a bristly down. Native of 

 the island of St. Domingo, where it flowers in November ; and 

 of the mountainous woods of Hispaniola, where it flowers in 

 the spring. The French call it gras de galle. 



10. Echites Spicatum. Spikes axillary, short; stamina 

 standing out; leaves subovate. This plant abounds in a 

 while milk, and climbs the trees to the height of sixty feet. 

 Stems round, woody, pliant, twining, an inch in diameter, 



VOL. i. 41. 



with alternate branches a foot and a half long, at different dis- 

 tances, and leafy their whole length ; leaves oblong, veined, 

 smoothish, acuminate, distich, half a foot long; spikes oppo- 

 site, close, an inch and a half long, solitary, spreading, some- 

 times, but rarely divided in two; flowers numerous, white, 

 small, subsessile. Native of Carthagena in New Spain, where 

 it is found in thick lofty woods, flowering in July and August. 



11. Echites Caudata. Corollas funnel-form, with very 

 long linear tips. It is a tree, with lanceolate-elliptic, naked 

 leaves. The flowers are axillary, peduncled, erect, the size 

 of those of Nerium or Oleander, funnel-form; border erect, 

 terminating in linear tips longer than the whole corolla, a cir- 

 cumstance in which it differs from all other known plants. 

 Native of the East Indies. 



12. Echites Scholaris. Leaves subverticilled, oblong; 

 follicles filiform, very long; umbels compound. The branches 

 of this tree are leafy only at the joints, where there are five 

 or seven oval-lanceolate leaves, which are coriaceous, and 

 transversely streaked. A few peduncles are produced among 

 the leaves, of the same length with them. The flowers are 

 very small, and the follicles in pairs, a foot and a half long, 

 and therefore longer than any others that are known. Native 

 of the East Indies. 



13. Echites Annularis. Stem twining; corollas salver- 

 form, with an elevated ring on the tube; leaves a foot long; 

 racemes bifid, peduncled, axillary; calicine leaflets oblong, 

 erect, concave ; tube of the corolla cylindric, longer than the 

 calix ; segments of the border roundish, emarginate ; antherae 

 connate, within the threat; stigma obtuse, surrounded by a 

 sharp ring. The nectary covers the germen with five small 

 ovate scales. Native of Surinam. 



14. Echites Siphilitica. Leaves ovate, subpetioled, very 

 smooth, ribbed ; panicles dichotomous ; flowers in spikes. 

 This tree yields a milky juice. The leaves are on short 

 petioles, a long span and upwards in length, and sharp; 

 peduncles axillary, divided into two branches, ajid these again 

 into two shorter spikes, closely covered with flowers, and 

 erect; corolla large, white, with a large flat border; follicles 

 in divaricating pairs. Native of Surinam; where a decoction 

 of it is often used as a remedy in the venereal disease. 



15. Echites Succulenta. Prickles in pairs, extrafoliaceous ; 



leaves linear, tomentose underneath; corollas funnel-form. 



Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



16. Echites Bispinosa. Prickles in pairs, extrafoliaceous ; 

 leaves lanceolate, smooth ; corollas salver-form. This very 

 strongly resembles the preceding, and both are very singular 

 shrubs, succulent, milky, and two-spined. Native of the 

 Cape of Good Hope. 



17. Echites Costata. Peduncles in cymes; leaves elliptic- 

 lanceolate, acuminate. Native of the Society Isles. 



18. Echites Tomentosa. Leaves cordate-oblong, acumi- 

 nate, both they and the stem rough-haired ; flowers in ra- 

 cemes, hairy; stem twining, round, as are also the petioles; 

 the rib, nerves, and edges of the leaves, rough-haired ; leaves 

 three inches long, a little narrowed towards the base, broader 

 at top, cordate at the base, the sinus being closed by the in- 

 cumbent lobes; they are somewhat rugged, nerved, veined, 

 having hairs pressed close, and scattered over both surfaces, 

 but more copiously, and of a greater length, on the rib and 

 nerves, especially underneath ; peduncles axillary, shorter 

 than the leaf, rough-haired ; flowers approximating, alternate, 

 on short pedicels ; segments of the calix lanceolate, attenu- 

 ated, smooth ; corolla two inches in diameter, or a little more, 

 with ash-coloured hairs scattered over the outside, but very 

 thick in the tube, where the filamenta are inserted ; style fili- 

 form, the length of the tube. Found by Von Rohrin Cayenne. 



6 G 



