NER 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



NEU 



169 



or scandent, ferruginous; branches alternate, divaricating, 

 villose. The wood of this and the above species is proper 

 for the turner, and to make cabinets and other elegant fur- 

 niture. It is very white, and of a fine grain, like ivory, only 

 much lighter. It mixes admirably with ebony; and is reputed 

 to be a specific in the dysentery. Native of the East Indies, 

 Japan, and Cochin-china. 



. 7. Nerium Antidysentericum ; Oval - leaved Rose-bay. 

 Leaves oblong, ovate; panicles terminating. This is a mid- 

 dle-sized tree, with brachiate leaves ; flowers herbaceous, 

 or greenish white, in short subterminating racemes; segments 

 of the crown oblong, alternately trifid and linear. The trunk 

 is very irregularly shaped ; when very old it is from one and a 

 half to two feet in diameter; but when of that size it is full 

 of large rotten cavities ; its height to the branches, when 

 large, is from ten to fifteen feet; the bark of the old wood is 

 scabrous, of the young pretty smooth, and ash-coloured. 



The Nerium Tinctorium tree, is a native of the lower 

 regions of the mountains directly north from Coringa, in the 

 Rajahmundry Circar; it contains a mild milky juice, chiefly 

 in the tender branches and young leaves, from which it flows 

 on their being wounded. The natives make scarcely any 

 use of this tree, except for fire- wood ; and the more it is cut 

 down, the more it increases, many shoots issuing from the 

 old stumps. These in one year acquire the height of eight 

 or ten feet, and are thick in proportion ; it casts its leaves 

 during the cold season, but would probably retain them if 

 in a state of cultivation. About the beginning of the hot 

 season, iu March and April, the young leaves begin to make 

 their appearance together with the flowers; by the end of 

 May, those that first begun to be unfolded will have attained 

 to their full size; about this time also it ceases flowering, 

 and the seed-vessels are fully formed, but the seeds are not 

 ripe till January or February. The quick and luxuriant 

 growth of this tree, in its native soil, will be a great induce- 

 ment to those who wish to cultivate it; which can require 

 little or no trouble : and the soil that it is always found wild 

 in, is the barren, dry, rocky hills, and lower region of moun- 

 tains, which is totally unfit for every sort of agriculture. 

 The lower parts of the steep rocky mountains of Saint Helena 

 seem to be the very soil and situation it delights in; its size 

 and quick growth will render it valuable there, if it be only 

 for fire-wood; with that view Dr. Roxburgh sent a pretty 

 large quantity of seeds to the Planter's Society on that island. 

 The colour the leaves sometimes acquired in drying for the 

 Hortus Siccus, first induced Dr. Roxburgh to think they 

 were possessed of colouring matter; and the result of some 

 experiments fully answered his expectations, although he 

 had often been deceived in the leaves of other plants. The 

 method he took to extract the colour, was by collecting pro- 

 miscuously the large and small leaves, while fresh; putting 

 them on the fire in common unglazed earthen pots, with soft 

 well-water, and when scalding hot straining off the liquor, 

 which had acquired a deep green colour, with something of 

 the violet-coloured scum that is observed on the common 

 Indigo, not towards the end of the fermentation : with little 

 agitation this liquor began to granulate ; and to promote the 

 granulation as well as the precipitation, he tried various 

 liquors, as cold infusion of Jamblong bark, which is what the 

 Hindoos universally use to precipitate their indigo, lime- 

 water, a lixivium of wood-ashes, a mixture of lime-water 

 and lixivium of wood-ashes, and also a ley made of equal 

 parts of caustic vegetable alkali and quick-lime; these five 

 he repeatedly tried, and as often found that lime-water and 

 a lixivium of wood-ashes, mixed together, answered best; the 

 ftecula was washed, filtrated, and dried in the\isual manner. 



It may be said, that we are already in possession of a suffi- 

 cient number of good blues, consequently that it is unneces- 

 sary to attend to this new Indigo : to obviate this objection, 

 it may be observed, that the common Indigo plant is only to 

 be brought to perfection by nice, expensive, and laborious 

 culture; is liable to many accidents from changes of weather, 

 and other causes that no human foresight can prevent ; these 

 are well-known facts to any one that cultivates Indigo to 

 any extent, while this tree is not subject to these inconve- 

 niences, and does not require the smallest care, being found 

 in the greatest abundance, growing wild in the most barren 

 tracts that can possibly be imagined, and requires only to 

 be cut down once a year, to make it produce a large supply 

 of young shoots with very luxuriant leaves the following sea- 

 son; besides, the colour that this Indigo may give to cloth, 

 &c. may be different to any other hitherto known,- and may 

 therefore prove of great value to a commercial nation like 

 Great Britain. 



8. Nerium Coronarium; Broad-leaved Rose-bay. Leaves 

 elliptic; peduncles in pairs from the forks of the branches, 

 two-flowered. This is an elegant branched shrub, four feet 

 high, milky, with an ash-coloured bark. The younger 

 branches are shining green, compressed a little, opposite at 

 the end. Native of the East Indies. 



9. Nerium Scandens; Climbing Rose-bay. Stem climbing; 

 peduncles terminating, many-flowered ; segments of the corolla 

 very long. This is a large shrub, with scandent branches; 

 leaves ovate-oblong, quite entire, subacuminate, smooth, oppo- 

 site ; flowers large, with a white tube and a very red border. 

 Native of Cochin-china. 



Nerteria; a genus of the class Tetrandria, order Monogynia. 

 GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: a superior, very small, 

 undivided rim. Coro/Za:one-petalled, funnel-form, superior; 

 tube short, gradually enlarging; border four-cleft, with sharp 

 segments bent back, and shorter than the tube. Stamina: 

 filamenta four, equal, inserted into the base of the corolla, 

 filiform; antherse oblong, two-lobed, erect. Pistil: germen 

 inferior, oval, somewhat compressed, even ; styles two, fili- 

 form, slightly connate at the base, smooth; stigmas acute, 

 reflex, divaricating. Pericarp: berry globular, umbilicate 

 at top, with a very small round scar, two-celled. Seeds: 

 solitary, roundish, acuminate at the base, flat on one side, 

 convex on the other. Observe. This genus is allied to 

 Mancttia. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Corolla.: funnel- 

 form, four-cleft, superior. Berry: two-celled, Seeds: soli- 

 tary. The only known species is, 



1. Nerteria Depressa. Root fibrous, annual; stems her- 

 baceous, procumbent, rooting at the joints, branched, 

 leafy, filiform, somewhat angular, smooth ; branches axillary, 

 opposite, erectr single flowered, short ; flowers solitary 

 at the top of the branches, sessile, pale-coloured ; bractes 

 two, opposite, acute, very small. Native of the wet marshy 

 parts of New Grenada, and of New Zealand. 



Nettle. See Urtica. 



Nettle, Dead. See Lamium. 



Nettle, Hemp. See Galeopsis. 



Nettle Tree. See Celtis. 



Neurada; a genus of the class Decandria, order Decagy- 

 nia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth five-parted, 

 superior, very small. Corolla: petals five, equal, larger than 

 the calix. Stamina: filamenta ten, the length of the calix; 

 antheree simple. Pistil: germen gibbous, inferior; styles 

 ten, the length of the stamina; stigma simple. Pericarps 

 capsule orbiculate, depressed, convex underneath, defended 

 all over with ascending prickles, ten-celled. Seeds: solitary. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix : five-parted. Petals: 



