ERY 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



ERY 



623 



cemes, yellow, smelling faintly ; calix greenish yellow, brown 

 at the end; petals almost linear, truncate; a small ^;land at 

 the shorter stamina. Native of Sweden, Denmark, France, 

 Germany, Austria, and Italy. 



7. Erysimum Perfoliatum. Leaves cordate, stem-clasping, 

 smooth. Native of Germany, and of the Levant. Linneus 

 has not this plant, which he seems to have confounded with 

 Brassica Campestris, from which it differs, in having a more 

 diffused habit, a white flower, a longer silique, entirely qua- 

 drangular; whereas that has the silique cylindric, loose, dry, 

 wrinkled, arid veined, ending in a soft fistular horn. Annual : 

 See Brassica Orientalis. 



8. Erysimum Bicorne ; Horned Hedge Mustard. Leaves 

 lanceolate, hairy ; siliques two-horned at the tip. Annual. 

 Flowers small and yellow, appearing in August and Septem- 

 ber. Native of the Canary Islands. It requires the protec- 

 tion of a green-house. 



Erythrina; a genus of the class Diadelphia, order Decan- 

 dria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix; perianth one-leafed, 

 entire, tubular; mouth emarginate above, beneath funiished 

 with a melliferous pore. Calix: papilionaceous, five-petal- 

 led ; standard lanceolate, with sides bent back, ascending, 

 very long; wings somewhat ovate, scarce longer than the ca- 

 lix, scarcely projecting beyond the tube of the standard, very 

 small; keel straight, length of the wings, two-petalled, emar- 

 ginate. Stamina: filarnenta ten, conjoined at the lower part, 

 but little bent in, the length of half the standard, unequal. 

 Antherse ten, sagittate. Pistil: germen pedicelled, subulate, 

 attenuated into a subulate style, the length of the stamina ; 

 stigma terminal, simple. Pericarp .: legume extremely long, 

 protuberating at the seeds, terminated by a point, one-celled. 

 Seeds: kidney-form. ESSEN. CHAR. Calix : two-lobed. Co- 

 rolla . standard very long, lanceolate. This genus of plants 

 is best propagated by seeds procured from the countries where 

 they naturally grow, for they do not produce any here: sow 

 them in small pots, and plunge them into a moderate hot-bed, 

 where, if the seeds be good, the plants will come up in a 

 month or five weeks. When they are two inches high, shake 

 them carefully out of the pots, and replant each in a separate 

 small pot, filled with light earth, plunging them into a mode- 

 rate hot-bed of tanners' bark, shading them from the sun until 

 they have taken new root, and admitting a large share of air 

 to them when the weather is warm, to prevent their being 

 drawn up weak, giving them a larger portion of air as they 

 increase in strength ; water them moderately, for too much 

 moisture will rot the fibres of their roots. Remove them into 

 the stove in autumn, where for the two or three first winters 

 they will need a greater degree of heat than will be necessary 

 when they are grown stronger. They should be watered 

 twice or thrice a week when the leaves are in vigour; but 

 when the leaves are fallen, moisture is very injurious. They 

 may also be increased by cuttings, planted in pots during the 

 summer mouths, and plunged into a hot-bed ; but seedling 

 plants are best. The species are, 



1. Erythrina Herbacea; Herbaceous Coral Tree. Leaves 

 ternate ; stems entirely simple, shrubby : annual. It has a 

 large woody root, producing fresh shoots every spring, and 

 growing to the height of about two feet; they seldom throw 

 out branches, and are sometimes perennial. The petioles are 

 usually prickly underneath ; there is sometimes a prickle or 

 two scattered about the stem ; leaflets hastate, deep green. 

 The upper part of the stalks arc terminated by a long bunch 

 or spike of scarlet flowers. This species flowers in Septem- 

 ber, but never produces seeds in England. It is a native of 

 South Carolina. It may survive the winter when placed in a 

 warm green-house, but rarely flowers in that situation. 



2. Erythrina Carnea; Flesh-coloured Coral Tree. Leaves 

 ternate, smooth ; stem arboreous, prickly ; calices campanulute, 

 truncate. The seeds are of a bright scarlet colour, only half 

 the size of the next species. The branches are very closely 

 armed with crooked greenish spines, as are also the ribs and 

 footstalks of the leaves. The flowers grow in very long close 

 spikes, and are of a beautiful scarlet colour. Native of the 

 Cape of Good Hope. It is frequently planted in the gardens 

 near Lisbon, where it flowers annually, and ripens seed; but 

 neither this, nor any other species of the genus, will often 

 flower in England, with any treatment we can give them. 



3. Erythrina Corallodendron ; Smooth-leaved Coral Tree, 

 Leaves ternate, unarmed; stem arboreous, prickly; calices 

 truncate, five-toothed. It has a thick woody stem, which 

 rises about ten or twelve feet high in this country, but grows 

 to twice that height where it is a native, sending out many 

 strong irregular branches, which are covered with a brown 

 bark. The flowers come out at the ends of the branches, in 

 short, thick, close spikes ; they are of a deep scarlet colour, 

 and make a fine appearance, being commonly in beauty in 

 May and June ; but are not succeeded by pods here. In 

 America, they produce thick, swelling, crooked pods, con- 

 taining large seeds of a reddish purple colour. The leaves 

 fall oft' in spring, and in autumn new leaves put forth, which 

 continue green all the winter. The flowers do not appear 

 till the leaves drop. Dr. Browne thinks it is not a native of 

 Jamaica, but that it was introduced by the .Spaniards, who 

 planted it among their Cacao trees, where the walks were most 

 exposed to the weather, in order to break the force of winds ; 

 whence it acquired the appellation of mader di cocco, among 

 them. In Jamaica it is called the Coral or Red Bean-tree. 

 There is some difference between the Western and Eastern 

 plant; the prickles in the latter are blackish; but the differ- 

 ence seems scarcely sufficient to constitute them distinct 

 species. The leaves sleep about noon, by conniving or clap- 

 ping together. It is a native of the Society Isles, and of the 

 southern part of China and Cochin-china. 



4. Erythrina Picta; Prickly-leaved Coral Tree. Leaves 

 ternate, prickly; stem arboreous, prickly. This plant has 

 shrubby branched stalks, seldom above eight or nine feet 

 high, armed in every part with strong, crooked, black spines. 

 The leaves are smaller than those of the preceding, and have 

 a nearer resemblance to the first ; the footstalks are armed 

 with the same sort of spines, and the midrib has also some 

 which are smaller, and not so black ; the flowers are of a 

 paler scarlet, and grow in looser spikes. The seeds are as 

 large as those of the third sort, but of a daik purple colour. 

 This tree is generally planted in the East Indies, for a 

 support to the pepper plants. 



5. Erythrina Crista Galli; Cock's- comb Coral Tree. Leaves 

 ternate; petioles somewhat prickly, glandular; stem arbore- 

 ous, unarmed. This is a very lofty tree, without any prickles 

 on the trunk. The branches are stiff; the leaflets ovate, ob- 

 long, and quite entire. The petioles elongated, having fre- 

 quently one or two recurved prickles underneath ; on this pe- 

 tiole, at the base of the pedicels on each side, is a gland, and 

 there are also two glands on the middle of the intermediate 

 pedicel : flowers two or three, axillary, purple, on separate 

 peduncles, resupinate; calix bell-shaped, two-lipped; the 

 lower lip dagger-pointed ; germen oblong, villose ; style 

 subulate; stigma with a minute dot. Native of Brazil. 



6. Erythrina Planisiliqua ; Flat Coral Tree. Leaves sim- 

 ple, oblong. Native of South America. 



7. Erythrina Fusca; Brown Coral Tree. Leaves ternate, 

 unarmed, lanceolate; banner of the corolla convolute; stem 

 arboreous, eight feet Ligh, with a brown bark like that of 



