716 



H UR 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



H Y A 



The heads and tendrils are used to purify the blood in the 

 scurvy, and most cutaneous diseases; decoctions of the 

 flowers, and syrups thereof, are efficacious in pestilential 

 fevers ; juleps and apozems were formerly made with Hops for 

 hypochondriacal and hysterical affections, and to promote the 

 menses. A pillow stuffed with Hops, and laid under the head, 

 is said to promote sleep in fevers attended with a delirium. 

 Culpeper concurs in all that has been above advanced, con- 

 cerning the virtues of this plant; and adds, that they help to 

 cure the French disease, and that the decoction of the flowers 

 and tops do help to expel poison that any one hath drank. 

 Gerarde says, the juice of Hops openeth the belly, and 

 driveth forth yellow and coleric humours, and purgeth the 

 blood from all filthiness : the decoction openeth the stop- 

 pings of the liver, the spleen, and kidneys, and purgeth the 

 blood, by the urine. 



Hura ; a genus of the class Monoecia, order Monadelphia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Mala flowers. Calix : ament 

 from the divarication of the branches, oblong, drooping, 

 covered with sessile spreading florets ; scales oblong ; peri- 

 anth within each scale of the ament, cylindric, two-leaved, 

 truncate, very short. Corolla: none. Stamina: filamenta 

 cylindric, a little longer than the calix, peltate at the tip, rigid, 

 below the tip twice or thrice verticelled with tubercles ; an- 

 therse two, immersed in each tubercle, oval, bifid. Female 

 flowers, in the same plant. Calix : perianth one-leafed, 

 cylindric, furrowed, truncate, quite entire, closely surrounding 

 the germen. Corolla : none. Pistil: germen roundish, within 

 the calix; style cylindric, long; stigma large, funnel-shaped, 

 plano-convex, coloured, twelve-cleft, blunt, equal. Pericarp: 

 woody, orbiculate, or globular-flatted, torose, with twelve 

 furrows, twelve-celled ; cells dissilient, crescent-shaped, with 

 an elastic dagger-point at the end. Seeds : solitary, com- 

 pressed, suborbiculate, large. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. 

 Male. Ament imbricated; perianth truncated. Corolla: 

 none. Filament: cylindrical, peltate at the tip, surrounded 

 by very many antheree in pairs. Female. Calix and Corolla: 

 none. Style: funnel-form. Stigma: twelve-cleft. Capsule: 

 twelve-celled. Seed: one. The only known species is, 



1. Hura Crepitans ; Sand Box-tree. It rises with a soft 

 woody stem to the height of twenty-four feet, dividing into 

 many branches, which abound with a milky juice, and have 

 scars on their bark, where the leaves have fallen off. The 

 branches are garnished with heart-shaped leaves ; the biggest 

 eleven inches long, and nine broad in the middle ; indented 

 on their edges, having a prominent midrib with several trans- 

 verse veins from that to the sides, which are alternate : they 

 stand upon long slender footstalks. The male flowers come 

 out from between the leaves, upon peduncles which are three 

 inches long; they are formed into a close spike or catkin, form- 

 ing a column, lying over each other like the scales of a fish. 

 The fruit is very curious in its structure; and the tree, when 

 it grows well, is very spreading and shady. It sometimes 

 attains the height of thirty-five or forty feet, and casts a shade 

 of sixty feet diameter. But owing to the rapidity of its vege- 

 tation, its parts are of so loose a texture, that a loud clap of 

 thunder, or a sudden gust of wind, frequently causes the largest 

 boughs to snap asunder. Linneus says, the wood is fit for 

 joii U and spars ; which Long denies, declaring it fit only for 

 fuel. Linneus also remarks, that if the juice get into the eyes 

 it will bring on blindness after the eighth day ; but we do not 

 know whethe'r this be accurate or not. The roasted seeds, 

 according to Hernandez, will purge and vomit. Browne 

 tasted one of them, which at first appeared to be both mild 

 and pleasant; but it soon began to warm and scald both his 

 palate and throat, on which account he judged it to be an 



improper purgative. The fruit is large, often brought to 

 Europe, and used as a sand-box; but if suffered to hang too 

 long before gathering, in a dry warm room, it will explode 

 with great violence. Native of South America. Browne 

 makes this tree of the same genus with the Hipporaane, or 

 Manchineel. This tree is propagated by seeds, which should 

 be sown early in the spring, in pots filled with light rich 

 earth, and plunged into a hot-bed of tanners' bark. If the 

 seeds be fresh, the plants will appear in about five or six 

 weeks after they are sown. As the plants will advance very 

 fast where due care is taken of them, they should have a 

 large share of fresh air in warm weather, to prevent their 

 drawing up weak. When about two inches high, they should 

 be transplanted each into a separate small pot, filled with 

 light rich earth, and again plunged into the hot-bed of tanners' 

 bark, being careful to shade them from the heat of the sun, 

 until thev have taken new root; after which they must have 

 free air admitted to them by raising the glasses in proportion 

 to the warmth of the season, and gently watering them. 

 When the plants have filled these small pots with their roots, 

 they must be shaken out of them, and their roots trimmed, 

 and then placed in larger pots, filled with the same kind of 

 rich earth, and plunged again in the hot-bed, where they may 

 remain till Michaelmas, provided the plants have room with- 

 out touching the glasses. At Michaelmas, they require to be 

 removed into the bark-stove, and plunged into the warmest 

 part thereof: during the winter season they must be sparingly 

 watered, for as the plants have succulent stalks, much water 

 will rot them : and if not kept very warm, they will not live 

 in this country, the open air of which they cannot endure 

 even in the warmest part of the year. The ample leaves of 

 this plant, which are of a beautiful green colour, afford an 

 agreeable variety among other tender exotics in the stove. 

 It grows naturally in the Spanish West Indies, from whence 

 it has been introduced into the British colonies ; and is much 

 cultivated in Jamaica for its beauty, and the fine shade it 

 yields. In those climates it prefers a deep rich soil, and 

 thrives best near water. It is become pretty common in the 

 English gardens, where it has grown twelve or fourteen feet 

 high, producing flowers, but DO fruit that we have ever yet 

 heard of. 



Hyacinthus; a genus of the class Hexandria, order Mono- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: none. Corolla: 

 monopetalous, campanulate ; border six-cleft, reflex ; nec- 

 tary, three honied pores at the tip of the germen. Stamina: 

 filamenta six, awl-shaped, shorter; antherse converging. 

 Pistil: germen superior, round, three-cornered, three-fur- 

 rowed ; style simple, shorter than the corolla ; stigma obtuse. 

 Pericarp: capsule roundish, three-sided, three-celled, three- 

 valved. Seeds: in pairs, (generally,) roundish. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Corolla: bell-shaped, with three honied pores 

 by the germen. The species are, 



1. Hyacinthu-s lion scriptus; Common Hyacinth or Hare- 

 bells. Corollas tubular, bell-shaped, six-parted ; segments 

 rolled back ; bractes in pairs ; root a roundish bulb, the sire 

 of a nutmeg ; scape from six inches to a foot in height, up- 

 right, round, smooth, and solid, bowed down when it begins 

 to flower; leaves four, six, or sometimes more, only half the 

 length of the scape, and about half an inch broad, keeled, 

 hollow, smooth, shining, grass-green, flaccid, bending down- 

 wards, ending in an acute point; flowers in a long raceme or 

 spike, from eight to twelve, often more, all pointing one way, 

 pedicelled, pendulous, sweet-smellinj, of a blue or violet 

 colour, varying to white and tksh-colour, six-parted to 

 the very base ; bractes two to each flower, lanceolate, and 

 nearly upright. The honied pores which Linneus gives as 



