PHY 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



PIC 



317 





Phytolacca; a genus of the class Decandria, order Deca- 

 gynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: none, unless the 

 corolla be called a coloured calix. Corolla: petals five, 

 roundish, concave, spreading, bent in at top, permanent. 

 Stamina: filamenta ten, or eight, or twenty, awl-shaped, 

 the length of the corolla; anthers: roundish, lateral. Pistil: 

 gerrnen orbiculate, depressed, divided externally by swellings, 

 ending in eight or ten very short spreading reflex styles; 

 stigmas simple, permanent. Pericarp: berry orbiculate, de- 

 pressed, marked with ten longitudinal grooves, umbilicated 

 with the pistils, and having as many cells. Seeds: solitary, 

 kidney-form, smooth. Observe. The sixth species has the 

 sexes distinct. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: none. 

 Petals: five, calicine. Berry: superior, five or ten celled, 

 and as many seeds. The species are, 



1. Phytolacca Heptandra. Flowers seven-stamined, six- 

 styled; leaves lanceolate. Root perennial; stem two feet 

 high, branched, upright, striated, smooth, hollow. It is 

 much smaller and tenderer than the other sorts; corolla 

 white, green underneath, spreading. Native of America. 



2. Phytolacca Octandra ; White-flowered Phytolacca. 

 Flowers eight-stamined, eight-styled. This has the stature 

 of the next species, but the leaves are whiter. Root perennial, 

 long, and fleshy. The common peduncle is very short, and 

 there are scarcely any pedicels; calix and corolla white, 

 quite flat, and not concave; berries black, the size of a large 

 pea. The whole plant has a rank habit, and smells un- 

 pleasantly when bruised. It flowers from July to November. 

 Native of Mexico. 



3. Phytolacca Decandra; Branching Phytolacca, or Vir- 

 ginian Poke. Flowers ten-stamined, ten-styled. Root very 

 thick and fleshy, as large as a man's leg, divided into several 

 thick fleshy branches, which run deep in the ground; stems 

 three or four, herbaceous, as large as a good walking-stick, 

 of a purple colour, six or seven feet high, dividing into many 

 branches at the top. The peduncles come out from the 

 joints and divisions of the branches, and are about five inches 

 long; the lower part is naked, but the upper half sustains a 

 number of greenish-white flowers, and dark purple berries, 

 ranged on each side like common currants. It flowers in 

 July and August, and in warm seasons the berries ripen in 

 autumn. Native of Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Barbary 

 near Algiers, Virginia, Georgia, New England, and Jamaica. 

 Parkinson says, that the inhabitants of North America use 

 the juice of the root as a familiar purge. An ounce of the 

 dried root, infused in a pint of wine, and given to the quantity 

 of two spoonfuls, operates kindly as an emetic, and is pre- 

 ferable to most others, as it hardly alters the taste of the wine. 

 The roots are applied to the hands and feet in ardent fevers. 

 Farriers give a decoction of them to drench cattle; and apply 

 them in the form of poultice for discussing tumors. Poultry 

 are fond of the berries; but if eaten in large quantities, they 

 give the flesh a disao;reable flavour. The juice stains paper 

 and linen of a beautiful purple colour, but it will not last long; 

 though, if a method of fixing the dye could be discovered, it 

 might be very useful. The vintners in Portugal for many 

 years used the juice of these berries to give a deep colour to 

 the Red Port Wines, to which it was thought to communi- 

 cate a disagreable taste when mixed in too great a quantity. 

 Complaint of this practice having been made to government, 

 orders were given that the stems of this plant should be cut 

 down and destroyed before they produced berries. In North 

 America and the West Indies the young shoots are boiled 

 and eaten like Spinach. Sow the seeds in the spring, upon 

 a bed of light earth ; and when the plants come up, transplant 

 them into the borders of the flower-garden, allowing them 



space to grow, for they will overbear other plants if they 

 are too near them, especially if the soil be good. Clear them 

 from weeds, and in the autumn they will produce flowers 

 and fruits. The first frost will destroy the stems; but the 

 roots will abide, and shoot in the spring. In very severe 

 winters the roots will be destroyed, especially in a wet soil, 

 unless the surface be covered with mulch. 



4. Phytolacca Icosandra; Red Phytolacca. Flowers 

 twenty-stamined, ten-styled. It rises with an herbaceous 

 stalk from two to three feet high, with several longitudinal 

 furrows, and changes at the end of summer to purple. The 

 flowers are large, white within, of an herbaceous colour on 

 the edges, and purplish on the outside, on short pedicels. 

 The berries are of a dark purple, very succulent, and their 

 juice stains paper and linen of a beautiful purple colour, 

 which would be very valuable if made permanent. Native 

 of the East Indies. This, and the second species, being less 

 hardy, the seeds should be sown upon a moderate hot-bed 

 in the spring. When the plants are fit to remove, transplant 

 them into another hot-bed, shading them till they have taken 

 new root. Then treat them as other tender exotic plants; 

 and at the beginning of July set them out upon a warm border, 

 or in pots filled with light rich earth, and shaded till they 

 have taken new root: water them duly in dry weather, and 

 keep them clean from weeds. They perfect their seeds 

 every autumn, and may therefore be easily preserved. 



5. Phytolacca Dodecandra; African Phytolacca. Flowers 

 fifteen-stamined, five to eight styled. This shrub is a fathom 

 in height; stem upright, rude, tubercled, ash-coloured; 

 flowers scattered, on short pedicels, herbaceous, three lines 

 wide; berry roundish, flattened, many-angled, but commonly 

 five-angled, five-celled, marked at top with lines from the 

 styles, then growing to the berry, fleshy, soft, red, with a 

 saffron-coloured juice, four lines in diameter. It is distin- 

 guished from the second and third species by its shrubby 

 stalks and decandrous flowers. It flowers in May and June. 

 Native of Abyssinia. 



6. Phytolacca Dioica; Tree Phytolacca. Flowers dioe- 

 cous, with many stamens. Stem upright, a little branched, 

 very thick, gray; leaves scattered, oblong-ovate, acuminate, 

 entire, smooth, flat, or ascending on the sides, five inches 

 long and two inches and a half wide; clusters drooping, 

 somewhat downy; flowers greenish-white, the female ones 

 smallest; berries large, crowded, pale, much depressed and 

 umbilicated. Native of South America. Plant cuttings, 

 during the summer months, in pots filled with light earth, 

 and plunged into a moderate* hot-bed, covering the pots with 

 hand-glasses, and shading them. In five or six weeks they 

 will put out roots; then plant each in a small pot, plunge 

 them into the bed again, shade them till they have taken 

 root, and then gradually inure them to the open air, where 

 they may remain till the end of September, when they must 

 be removed into a moderate stove for the winter season. 



Picramnia; a. genus of the class Dioecia, order Pentan- 

 dria; or, according to Swartz, of the class Triandria, order 

 Digynia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Male. Calix: peri- 

 anth one-leafed, three or five parted; segments lanceolate, 

 erect. Corolla: petals three or five, lanceolate, from erect 

 spreading, longer than the calix. Stamina: filamenta three 

 or five, awl-shaped, approximating at the base, erect, longer 

 than the corolla; antherce ovate, twin. Female, on a dif- 

 ferent plant. Calix: as in the male, permanent. Corolla: 

 as in the male. Pistil: germen oblong, somewhat com- 

 pressed; styles two, short, recurved, permanent; stigmas 

 simple, acute. Pericarp: berry ovate-roundish, two-celled. 

 Seeds: two in each cell, ovate-oblong. Observe. Swart* 



