H EL 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



H EL 



675 



horizontal, on horizontal pedicels ; petals spreading as the 

 calix does, but nearly three times as large, pale, streaked ; 

 siiiques awl-shaped, stiff, very smooth and even. It is annual, 

 and flowers in July and August. Native of the Cape. 



6. Heliophila Pusilla ; Dwarf Heliophila. Leaves linear ; 

 siliqnes necklace-shaped, upright. Annual. A span high, 

 upright, branched. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



7. Heliophila Flava. Leaves linear; stems shrubby, rushy. 

 It has the appearance of Broom, upright, sparingly branched, 

 stiff; racemes terminating, long, simple ; the flowers distant; 

 petals obovate, the same size as the cabbage, yellow, veiny; 

 the claws longer than the calix; germen ovate; it varies with 

 red corollas. It is doubtful whether this be a natural species 

 of this genus. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



8. Heliophila Circseoides. Leaves cordate ; stem brittle, 

 branched, herbaceous : the whole plant is succulent, weak, 

 smooth ; root fibrous, annual ; petioles semicolumnar, chan- 

 nelled above, shorter than the leaf, spreading; flowers alter- 

 nate, very remote, but towards the end nearer, peduncled ; 

 the flowering peduncles erect, a line in length, bearing one 

 flower ; fruit peduncles reflected ; seeds three or four, round- 

 ish. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



, 9. Heliophila Digitata. Leaves palmate-pinnatifid, villose; 

 pinnas linear. The stem thickens very much upwards, which 

 gives this plant a very singular appearance. Native of the 

 Cape of Good Hope. 



10. Heliophila Pinnata. Leaves trifid and pinnate; leaflets 

 linear ; siiiques necklace-shaped, upright. This resembles 

 the sixth species very much, but it has branched or pinnate 

 leaves. Native of the Cape of Good Hope. 



Heliotrope. See Heliotropium. 



Heliotropium; a genus of the class Pentandria, order 

 Monogynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one- 

 leafed, tubular, five-toothed, permanent. Corolla: monope- 

 talous, salver-shaped ; tube the length of the calix ; border 

 flat, half five-cleft, obtuse; clefts smaller, alternate, more 

 acute, between the larger ones; throat naked. Stamina: 

 filamenta five, very short, in the throat; antheree small, 

 covered. Pistil: germen four; style filiform, length of the 

 stamina ; stigma emarginate. Pericarp : none ; calix erect, 

 unchanged, cherishing the seeds in its bosom. Seeds : four, 

 ovate, acuminate : according to Gsertner, nuts four, naked or 

 corticate, not perforate. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Corolla: 

 salver-shaped, five-cleft, with teeth interposed; the throat 

 closed with arches. The species are, 



1. Heliotropium Peruvianum; Peruvian Turnsole or Helio- 

 trope. Leaves lanceolate-ovate ; stem shrubby; spikes nu- 

 merous, aggregate-corymbed. This rises with a shrubby 

 stalk from two to three feet high, dividing into many small 

 branches; leaves three inches long, and an inch and a half 

 broad in the middle, hairy, greatly veined, and ash-coloured 

 on their under side, on short footstalks ; the flowers are pro- 

 duced at the ends of the branches in short reflex spikes, 

 growing in clusters; the peduncles divide into two or three, 

 and these again into smaller ones, each sustaining a spikelet 

 of pale blue flowers, which have a strong sweet odour, of a 

 very particular nature, somewhat resembling that of bitter 

 almonds. It is a native of Peru. This is well known, and 

 generally cultivated for the delightful scent of its flowers, 

 which are of a blueish white, and produced in a stove, or 

 warm green-house, at almost all seasons. It may be propagated 

 either by seeds or cuttings. The seeds may be sown upon a 

 moderate hot-bed in the spring ; when the plants are fit to 

 remove, transplant them into small pots filled with light earth, 

 plunge them into a hot-bed, and shade them till they have 

 taken new root; then inure them by degrees to the air, into 



which remove them in summer, placing them in a sheltered 

 situation : in autumn, house them in a good green-house, 

 where they will flower during great part of the winter, if the 

 cuttings be put into pots filled with light earth, during any of 

 the summer months, and plunged into a moderate hot-bed, 

 they will take root freely; but these do not make so good 

 plants as those taken from seed. Mr. Curtis remarks, that a 

 stove is most congenial to this plant in winter, when it must 

 be carefully defended from the frost, so fatal to most of the 

 natives of Peru. In hot weather it must be well watered. 



2. Heliotropium Indicum ; Indian Turnsole or Heliotrope. 

 Leaves cordate-ovate, acute, somewhat scabrous ; spikes soli- 

 tary ; fruits bifid ; stem herbaceous, a foot and half or two 

 feet high, round, scabrous, hirsute, subdivided ; flowers ses- 

 sile, pointing one way, approximating in a double row, small, 

 blue ; tube very long, cylindric, not globular, as in the others ; 

 border scarcely half five-cleft; segments equal, blunt; throat 

 five-rayed, orange-coloured, closed ; germina in connate pairs. 

 It is annual or biennial, flowers in July and August, and ripens 

 seeds in September and October. Native of the West Indies 

 and Cochin-china. The variety, which MJ-. Miller makes a 

 distinct species, is a smaller plant, seldom above two feet 

 high ; the leaves are an inch and half long, and about half 

 an inch broad ; the spikes of flowers are very slender, and 

 not more than two inches long ; ihe flowers are small, and of 

 a light blue colour. This, together with the third and ninth 

 species, require their seed to be sown on a hot-bed in the 

 spring, and when the plants are fit to remove, transplant 

 them on another hot-bed, to bring them forward, treating 

 them in the same way as the Balsamine, and other tender 

 annual plants. They should be taken up in June with balls 

 of earth, and replanted in the borders of the flower-garden, 

 where they will flower, and in warm seasons produce ripe 

 seeds. 



3. Heliotropium Parviflorum ; Small-flowered Turnsole or 

 Heliotrope. Leaves ovate, wrinkled, scabrous, opposite and 

 alternate. This is nearly allied to the foregoing. Stem erect, 

 pubescent, a foot high ; most of the leaves opposite, except 

 those in the middle of the stem, which are alternate, petioled, 

 lucid, acute ; peduncles opposite to the leaves, or from the 

 divisions of the stem, longer than the leaves, erect, each hav- 

 ing two recurved imbricate spikes; corolla minute, pervious, 

 white with a yellow base. It is an annual plant, flowering 

 in July and August Native of the West Indies. For its 

 propagation and culture, see the preceding species. 



4. Heliotropium Inundatum. Leaves oblong, obtuse, hir- 

 sute ; spikes in fours, erect; stem shrubby. Native of the 

 Caribbee Islands. 



5. Heliotropium Europssum ; European Turnsole or He- 

 liotrope. Leaves ovate, quite entire, tomentose, wrinkled ; 

 spikes conjugate. This rises about seven or eight inches 

 high, dividing into two or three branches, at the ends of 

 which the flowers are produced in double spikes, joined at 

 the bottom, about an inch long, turning backward ; flowers 

 white, -appearing in June and July. There is a variety with 

 large sweet flowers. This, and the seventh species, are 

 annuals, which succeed better from the seeds scattered in 

 autumn, or are sown at that season, than in the spring, when 

 they seldom appear in the same season ; but if the seeds be 

 suffered to shed, these plants will maintain themselves with- 

 out any other culture, but keeping them clean from weeds, 

 and thinning them where too close. 



6. Heliotropium Malabaricum. Leaves ovate, plaited, stri- 

 gose, quite entire; spikes almost solitary. Native of Malabar. 



7. Heliotropium Supinum ; Trailing Turnsole or Helio- 

 trope. Leaves ovate, quite entire, tomentose, plaited ; spikes 



