ELA 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



ELE 



4H9 



a clear austere liquor flows when they are cut or wounded. 

 The poorer sort of people chew the nut in th same manner 

 with the Areca nut, with the leaf of the Betel and quick-lime. 

 The elephant is very fond of the fruit-branches, which are 

 very sweet; the leaves, fruit, &c. are very astringent, and 

 are looked upon as powerful in stopping fluxes. Native of 

 the East Indies. For its propagation and culture, see Coc- 

 cus and Paenix. 



Elaterium; a genus of the class Monoecia, order Monan- 

 dria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Male Flowers. Calix:none. 

 Corolla: one-petalled, salver-shaped; tube cylindric; border 

 five-cleft; divisions lanceolate, channelled on the back, the 

 incisures furnished with a toothlet. Stamina: filamentum 

 single, columnar; antherae linear. Female Flowers. Calix 

 and Corolla: as in the male. Pistil: germen inferior, echi- 

 nate; style columnar, thickening; stigma capitate. Pericarp: 

 capsule inferior, echinate, leathery, filled with pulp, uniform, 

 one-celled, two-valved, elastic. Seeds: several. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Male. Calix: none. Corolla: salver-shaped. 

 Female. Calix: none. Corolla : salver-shaped. Capsule: in- 

 ferior, one-celled, two-valved. The species are, 



1. Elaterium Carthaginense. Leaves cordate, angular; 

 stems round, smooth, herbaceous, diffused, scandent, with 

 tendrils bifid and lateral. Leaves very finely serrate, smooth 

 underneath, somewhat rugged above, petioled, alternate, 

 numerous; peduncles of the male flowers axillary, solitary, 

 many-flowered, spreading, almost the length of the leaves, 

 racemed or subumbelled ; female peduncle from the same axil, 

 solitary, one-flowered, short; corolla white, without scent in 

 the day, but smelling sweet at night; fruit green, an inch and 

 a half long, having but little watery pulp, smelling like Cu- 

 cumber; when ripe it opens elastically with a very gentle 

 touch, and disperses its seeds ; or when approaching to matu-- 

 rity, if it be held some time in the hand closed, it will do the 

 same. Native of Carthagena in New Spain, covering entire 

 shrubs with its stalks, and flowering in October and November. 



2. Elaterium Trifoliatum. Leaves ternate, gashed ; capsule 

 kidney-shaped, rough with hairs, two-valved, opening with a 

 spring, and therefore of this genus. Native of Virginia. 



Elatine ; a genus of the class Octandria, order Tetragynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix : perianth four-leaved ; 

 leaflets roundish, flat, size of the corolla, permanent. Co- 

 rolla : petals four, ovate, obtuse, sessile, spreading. Stamina : 

 filamenta eight, length of the corolla; antheree simple. Pis- 

 til: germen orbicular, globose-depressed, large; styles four, 

 upright, paralli-1, length of the stamina; stigmas simple. 

 Pericarp: capsule orbicular, globose-depressed, large, four- 

 celled, four-valved, flatted. Seeds: several, mooned, upright, 



surrounding the receptacle in the manner of a wheel. 



The species are, 



1. Elatine Hydropiper; Opposite-leaved Waterwort. Leaves 

 opposite. This is a very small annual aquatic plant, being 

 hardly a span in length; stem very tender, creeping; the 

 shoots erect and leafy; leaves ovate-lanceolate, quite entire, 

 sessile at the joints ; flowers solitary, much smaller than in 

 the second species, alternate, on very short peduncles, at the 

 axils of the leaves on the branches, and close to them on the 

 stem; petals white, purplish, or rose-coloured ; styles none ; 

 stigmas very small ; antherse globular; capsules smaller than 

 in the second. Native of Denmark. Sweden, Switzerland, 

 Silesia, and France, where it is found in ditches and other 

 wet places, flowering in summer. 



2. Elatine Alsinastrum ; Whorl-leaved Waterwort. Leaves 

 in whorls ; stem decumbent, creeping at bottom, then erect, 

 pellucid, brittle, six or seven inches in length, branched, 

 round, the thickness of a quill, at the lower joints thick set 



VOL. i. 41. 



with roots hanging in the water, having at the rest whorled, 

 sessile, entire leaves, four to six in a whorl, at top only three, 

 the emersed leaves ovate-lanceolate, the immersed ones linear, 

 or even capillaceous, bright green, reflex ; flowers axillary, 

 two or three, sessile ; calix very small, greenish ; petals three 

 or four, white, a little larger than the calix ; stamina seven 

 or eight, very short ; capsule a little flatted, the partitions 

 growing to the axils, and opposite to the sutures of the valves ; 

 seeds numerous, very small, somewhat cylindric, marked with 

 longitudinal streaks, and transverse ones much finer, in a 

 beautiful kind of net-work, bent a little, and ash-coloured. 

 It flowers in June and July. Native of Abo, Leipsic, Silesia, 

 Switzerland, near Paris, and Montpellier; in England, in 

 ditches, and also on the bogs of the common by the road 

 from Eltham to Chisselhurst. See Antirrhinum. 



Elder. See Sambucus. 



Elder, Marsh, or Water. See Viburnum. 



Elecampane. See Invla. 



Elegia ; a genus of the class Dicecia, order Triandria. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Male. Calix : spathes within spathes, 

 remote, one-valved, coriaceous, lanceolate, deciduous ; spa- 

 dix filiform, jointed, with an ament at each joint; ament 

 loose, with pedicelled florets, distinguished by a bracte ; 

 bracte bristle-shaped, membranuceous, flat, longer than the 

 florets ; periarnh proper, of six bristle-shaped, chaffy, loose 

 leaflets. Corolla : none. Stamina : filamenta three, very 

 short; antherae incumbent, oval, larger than the perianth. 

 Female, on a distinct individual. Calix: spathe as in the 

 male, but shorter. Spadix : as in the male ; ament with a 

 compouttd raceme; perianth proper six-leaved ; valves, the 

 three outer lanceolate, channelled, petaloid, equal. Corolla: 

 none. Pistil: germen somewhat oblong; styles three, fili- 

 form, the length of the perianth ; stigmas simple. Pericarp : 

 (according to Thunberg) a capsule of three cells. Seed: 

 several, oblong. The only known species is, 



1. Elegia Juncea. This plant is a native of the Cape of 

 Good Hope, and has the habit of a rush ; the stems are 

 several, about a foot high, round, smooth, filled as if it were 

 a rush ; hard, strong, very simple, scarcely so thick as a quill, 

 with a simple joint ; there are scarcely any leaves, but two or 

 three leafy sheaths towards the root, imbricated over each 

 other, and of a brown colour; there is also a rudiment of a 

 similar sheath towards the middle of the stem ; the spathe is 

 terminal, and divided into other interior ones, which are also 

 compound ; the parts of fructification are not very easily 

 made out, but are most clear in the female flowers. 



Elephantopus ; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order 

 Polygamia Segregata. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: in- 

 volucre of three broad sharp leaflets, many-flowered, large, 

 permanent, without an umbel ; perianth partial, four-flowered, 

 oblong, imbricate ; scales lance-subulate, mucronate, upright, 

 of which the four longer are equal. Corolla: compound, 

 tubular ; corollets hermaphrodite, five or four, equal, disposed 

 in a single circle; proper one-petalled, tubular; border nar- 

 row, five-parted, nearly equal. Stamina: filamenta five, 

 capillary, very short; antherue cylindric, tubular. Pistil: 

 germen ovate, crowned ; style filiform, length of the stamina ; 

 stigmas two, slender, spreading. Pericarp : none. Calix : 

 unchanged. Seeds: solitary, compressed ; down bristle-form. 

 Receptacle: naked. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: four- 

 flowered. Corolla: tubular, hermaphrodite. Receptacle: 

 naked. Down: bristle-form. These plants are propagated by 

 seeds, which should be sown on a hot-bed in the spring; and 

 when the plants are come up, they must be transplanted into 

 pots filled with fresh light earth, and plunged into a hot-bed 

 of tanners' bark, observing to water and shade them until they 

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