P R A 



THE UNIVERSAL HERBAL; 



PRE 



5. Pothos Violacea ; Violet-fruited Pathos. Leaves ovate- 

 lanceolate, entire-nerved, dotted. This is a subparasitical 

 plant, with thick, long, simple, smooth, whitish roots. 

 Browne observed it in the island of Jamaica, of which it is a 

 native, in the woods above St. Ann's Bay ; and says that 

 it sticks pretty close to the trunk of whatever tree it grows 

 upon, but seldom runs above two or three feet in length. 

 Aublet found it in Guiana. 



6. Pothos Crassinervia ; Thick-nerved Pothos. Leaves 

 oblong, acuminate, quite entire, veined, with the midrib of 

 the leaf three-keeled. The whole plant is smooth ; the roots 

 are numerous. This is a parasitic species, growing on trees 

 in hilly woods in South America. 



7. Pothos Cordata ; Heart-leaved Pothos. Leaves cordate ; 

 lobes imbricate ; spadix nearly equal to the spathe. Native 

 of South America. 



8. Pothos Macrophylla; Large-leaved Pothos. Leaves 

 cordate; lobes divaricate; spadix much longer than the 

 spathe. This is a subparasitical stemless plant : the leaves 

 are about two feet long, ribbed, and veiny ; the spadix above 

 a foot long, covered with brown flowers. Native of the West 

 Indies and Guiana. 



9. Pothos Pinnata; Pinnate-leaved Pothos. Leaves pin- 

 natifid ; plant six feet high, and stemless. Native of the 

 East Indies and Cochin-china. 



10. Pothos Palmata ; Palmate-leaved Pothos. Leaves pal- 

 mate ; lobes nine, lanceolate, blunt. It is a parasitic on the 

 barks of trees in South America. 



11. Pothos Digitata; Digitate-leaved Pothos. Leaves 

 digitate, of about nine, oblong, sharpish leaflets. This is a 

 smooth plant, with a thick climbing stem, throwing out long 

 thick radicals. The spathe is finger-shaped, upright, and 

 about two inches long, and very thickly covered with flowers; 

 the petals are white with green tips. Native of the hotter 

 parts of South America, where it is parasitical on trees. 



12. Pothos Pentaphylla ; Five-leaved Pothos. Leaves 

 digitate, quinate, ovate, acuminate. Native of woods in 

 Cayenne. 



13. Pothos Foetida; Stinking Pothos, or Scunk Weed. 

 Leaves cordate ; spadix subglobular. This is a hardy per- 

 ennial, flowering in March and April, before the flowers 

 appear. The flowers exhale a very fetid odour, and are ses- 

 sile, close to the ground. Native of North America. 



14. Pothos Cannaefolia; Sweet-scented Pothos. Leaves 

 elliptical, with simple parallel veins. Leaves radical, pointed ; 

 flowers whitish, and sweet-scented. Native of the West 

 Indies. 



Prasium ; a genus of the class Didynamia, order Gym- 

 nospermia. GENERIC CHAR'ACTER. Calix : perianth one- 

 leafed, campanulate, turbinate, erect, bilabiate ; upper lip 

 wider, semitrifid, acute; lower lip a little smaller, two-parted. 

 Corolla: one-petalled, ringent; upper lip erect, ovate, obso- 

 letely emarginate, concave; lower lip wider, trifid, reflex; 

 the middle segment larger. Stamina: filamenta four, awl- 

 shaped, pressed to the upper lip, spreading, shorter than the 

 upper lip, two shorter than the two others ; antherse oblong, 

 lateral. Pistil: germen quadrifid ; style filiform, the length 

 and situation of the stamina ; stigma bifid, acute, with one 

 segment shorter. Pericarp : berries four, at the bottom of 

 the calix, roundish, one-celled. Seeds: solitary, roundish. 

 Observe. The seeds themselves, being clothed with a berried 

 epidermis, have the nature of a berry : hence we have a 

 tetragymnospermous bacciferous plant, by which mark it is 

 distinguished from all other plants of this order. ESSEN- 

 TIAL CHARACTER. Berries: four, one-seeded. The spe- 

 cies are, 



1. Prasium Majus; Great Spanish Hedge-Nettle. Leave* 

 ovate-oblong, serrate. This rises with a shrubby stalk two 

 feet high, covered with a whitish bark, and divides into many 

 branches. The flowers come out from the bosoms of the 

 leaves in whorls round the stalks ; they are white, and have 

 large permanent calices, cut into five points. It flowers here 

 from June to August. Native of Spain, Italy, Sicily, Tunis, 

 and Algiers, in hedges. This, and the next species, may be 

 propagated either by cuttings or from seeds ; if by cuttings, 

 they should be planted on a shady border towards the end 

 of April. The cuttings ought not to be taken from such 

 plants as have been drawn weak, but rather from those which 

 have been exposed to the open air, the shoots of which are 

 short and strong ; and if a joint of the former year's wood be 

 cut to each of them, they will more certainly succeed. These 

 cuttings may remain in the same border till they are well 

 rooted, and then transplanted into pots that they may be 

 sheltered in winter under a common frame, where they may 

 have as much free air as possible in dry weather, but only 

 require to be screened from hard frost. If they be propa- 

 gated by the seeds, which the plants produce in abundance 

 annually, the seeds should be sown on a bed of light earth 

 in April, and in May the plants will come up, when they 

 require no other care but that of keeping them clean from, 

 weeds ; and in the autumn following they may be transplanted 

 in the same manner as above directed for those raised from 

 cuttings, and may afterwards be less tenderly treated as they 

 acquire strength. A plant or two of each, may be allowed 

 to have a place where there are collections of the different 

 sorts of evergreen shrubs, for the sake of variety ; especially, 

 where the different sorts of Cistus Phlomis, Tree Wormwood, 

 and Medicago, are admitted, because these are equally 

 hardy ; and when a severe winter happens, which destroys 

 the one, the others are sure of the same fate ; but in mild 

 winters they will live abroad, especially if planted in a dry 

 rubbishy soil, and have a sheltered situation. 



2. Prasium Minus ; Small Sicilian Hedge-Nettle. Leaves 

 ovate, with a double notch on each side. This has a shrubby 

 stalk like the former, but rises a little higher; the bark is 

 whiter. The flowers are somewhat larger, and are frequently 

 marked with a few purple spots. -Native of Sicily. 



Premna; a genus of the class Didynamia, order Angio- 

 spermia. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth one- 

 leafed, campanulate, subbilobate, with the upper segment 

 emarginate, permanent. Corolla: one-petalled, irregular, 

 tubulous ; mouth quadrifid, blunt ; the two upper segments 

 erect, shorter, the others spreading. Stamina: filamenta 

 four, erect, middling, the two lower shorter; antheras round- 

 ish. Pistil: germen roundish; style cylindrical, shorter; 

 stigma bifid. Pericarp: berry globose, four-celled. Seeds: 

 solitary, bony, one side rounded, the other angular. ESSEN- 

 TIAL CHARACTER. Calix: two-lobed. Corolla: four-cleft. 



Berry : four-celled. Seeds : solitary. This is a tropical 



genus of shrubs, of which nine species have been described ; 

 six are natives of New Holland, the rest of the East Indies. 

 The two following are given as specimens. 



1. Premna Integrifolia. Leaves elliptical, quite entire. 

 This is a small tree, much resembling the next species, and 

 perhaps only a variety of it. Native of the East Indies. 



2. Premna Serratifolia. Leaves serrate ; branches round, 

 purplish, with truncated margined scars on them from the 

 fallen leaves. Native of the East Indies. 



Prenanthes ; a genus of the class Syngenesia, order Poly- 

 gamia ./Equalis. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: common 

 calicled, cylindrical, smooth; scales of the cylinder the num- 

 ber of the corollets ; scales of the base few, unequal, very. 



