THE 



OR, BOTANICAL DICTIONARY. 



THE 



663 



mention of it was made in the statute book, and a duty of 

 fourpence a gallon laid on the liquor made and sold in all 

 coffee-houses : the price, six years afterwards, was sixty 

 shillings a pound. Propagation and Culture. In Japan, 

 this tree is cultivated round the borders of rice and corn 

 fields, without any regard to the soil ; the seeds contained 

 in the seed-vessels, from six to twelve or fifteen, are put into 

 one hole, four or five inches deep. The seeds contain a large 

 proportion of oil, which is liable soon to turn rancid ; hence 

 scarcely a fifth part of them germinate ; and this makes it 

 necessary to plant so many together. The seeds vegetate 

 without any further care : but the more industrious annually 

 remove the weeds, and manure the land. The leaves are not 

 fit to be plucked before the third year's growth ; and in seven 

 or ten years the tree is generally cut down, and abundance 

 of fresh shoots spring up. In China, wherever it is regularly 

 cultivated, it rises from the seed, sown in rows at the distance 

 of about four feet from each other, in land kept free from 

 weeds. It is seldom sown on flat marshy ground, which is 

 preserved for rice ; but vast tracts of hilly land are planted 

 with it, especially in the province of Fo-kien. Its perpendi- 

 cular growth is impeded, for the convenience of collecting 

 the leaves. Its long and tender branches spring up almost 

 from the root, without any intervening naked trunk. It is 

 cultivated in several other provinces, but seldom more than 

 thirty degrees north of the equator. It thrives best between 

 that parallel and the line that separates the temperate from 

 the torrid zone. The southern countries of Europe, and 

 some provinces of North America, would suit, particularly 

 the latter, the heat there in summer being such, that vege- 

 tables make quicker and more early shoots, and therefore 

 acquire more strength and firmness before the winter com- 

 mences. To propagate the Tea-tree in Europe, it is necessary 

 to procure seeds from China. Care must be taken that they 

 be fresh, sound, ripe, white, plump, and internally moist. 

 After being well dried in the sun, they may be enclosed in 

 bees-wax, or left in their capsules ; and may be put into 

 yery close tin canisters. Thouin, in his directions to the 

 unfortunate Perouse, recommends these and other seeds to 

 be placed in alternate layers of earth or sand, in tin boxes 

 closed up exactly, and placed in solid cases, covered with 

 wax-cloth ; the boxes to be placed in a part of the ship least 

 accessible to moisture, and the most sheltered from extreme 

 heat or cold. American seeds are often brought over, by 

 putting them into a box, not made too close, upon alternate 

 layers of Moss, in such a manner as to admit the seeds to 

 regelate. This might be tried with the seeds of the Tea- 

 tree ; and, to succeed more certainly, some of the seeds 

 might be sown in pots or boxes, when the vessel arrives at 

 St. Helena, and after passing the tropic of cancer, near the 

 latitude of thirty degrees north. But the best method seems 

 to be, to sow ripe seeds in good light earth, in boxes, upon 

 leaving Canton, covering them with wire, to prevent rats 

 and other vermin coming to them ; and taking care, during 

 the passage,- that they are not too freely exposed to the air, 

 nor to the spray of the sea. A little fresh or rain-water 

 should now and then be sprinkled over them ; and when the 

 seed-plants appear, they should be kept moist, and out of the 

 burning sun. If young plants can be procured in China, 

 they may be sent over in a growing state in boxes, forty 

 inches long by twenty broad, and as much in depth, having 

 a few holes bored through the bottom. When the trees 

 arrive in England, they must be kept in a green-house during 

 the winter, and in the open air during the summer. If they 

 come in bad condition, it may be as well to plunge the pots 

 into which they are transplanted in a gentle hot-bed, or to 

 VOL. ii. 121. 



set them in the tan-pit, to make them strike and shoot more 

 freely. Though it will not at present bear the rigour of our 

 winters in the open air, yet it is not impossible but it may 

 gradually become naturalized to our climate, like the Mag- 

 nolia, among several other trees and shrubs ; especially if it 

 were to be brought from the coldest provinces of China, 

 where it grows, or from the parts of Europe a little to the 

 southward of us, when it shall have been naturalized there. 

 This tree may also be freely increased from cuttings, in the 

 same manner with Gardenia ; and will also probably grow 

 from layers laid down in the autumn or spring. 



Tlielygomim ; a genus of the class Monoecia, order Poly- 

 andria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Male Flower. Calix : 

 perianth one-leafed, turbinate, semibifid ; segments revolute. 

 Corolla: none. Stamina: filamenta very many, twelve or 

 more, erect, length of the calix ; antherae simple. Female 

 Flower- on the same plant. Calix: perianth minute, of two 

 erect, lanceolate, acute, lateral leaves, permanent. Corolla : 

 none. Pistil: germen globular; style filiform, long; stigma 

 simple. Pericarp: capsule coriaceous, globular, one-celled. 

 Seed: one, globular, with a callous appendicle. ESSENTIAL 

 CHARACTER. Male. Calix: bifid. Corolla: none. Sta- 

 mina : commonly twelve. Female. Calix : lateral, two- 

 leaved. Corolla : none. Style : one. Capsule : coriaceous, 

 one-celled, one-seeded. The only known species is, 



1. Thelygonum Cynocrambe; Dog's Mercury. Leaves 

 ovate, bluntish, even, nerved, slightly marked with lines, 

 oleraceous, rugged at the edge ; the lower ones opposite, 

 the upper alternate, ending in the petioles, which are the 

 length of the leaves, and connected on each side by a 

 three-toothed, membranaceous, wide, short stipule ; root 

 annual, simple, cylindrical, with many fibres ; stems round, 

 diffused, flexuose, succulent; branches opposite, divaricate, 

 from the axils of the opposite leaves ; flowers small, whitish. 

 Native of the south of Europe, as well as Asia, in waste 

 ground and the fissures of rocks, especially in shady or moist 

 places. 



Theobroma; a genus of the class Polyadelphia, order 

 Decandria. GENERIC CHARACTER. Calix: perianth rive- 

 leaved ; leaflets lanceolate-acute, spreading, deciduous. Co- 

 rolla: petals five, longer than the calix ; claws wide, arched, 

 concave like a helmet, emarginate at the tip, scored internally 

 with a thick triple line, inserted into the nectary at the base; 

 borders roundish, acuminate, spreading, each narrowed at the 

 base into a small stalk, which is from upright recurved, and 

 fastened into the claw ; nectary a short little pitcher, putting 

 forth five little horns, which are awl-shaped, long, erect, 

 acuminate, bent in and converging, decurrent along the 

 pitcher. Stamina: filamenta five, filiform, erect, bent out- 

 wards at top, lying within the claws of the petals, growing 

 externally to the nectary, alternate with and shorter than the 

 horns; antherae on each filamentum two, one on each side at 

 the tip, vertical, two-lobed, one superior, the other inferior. 

 Pistil: germen ovate; style filiform, striated, a little longer 

 than the stamina ; stigma five-cleft. Pericarp : capsule ob- 

 long, coriaceous, unequal, five-cornered, five-celled, valve- 

 less, not opening. Seeds : very many, subovate, nestling in 

 a buttery pulp, fastened to a central columnar receptacle. 

 ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Calix: five-leaved. Petals: five, 

 arched. Nectary : five-horned. Filamfnta : five, within the 

 claws of the petals, growing externally to the nectary, having 

 two anthers; on each. The only known species is, 



1. Theobroma Cacao; Chocolate-nut Tree. Leaves lan- 

 ceolate-oblong, bright green, quite entire, alternate, from 

 nine to sixteen inches long, and three or four inches wide at 

 most, on a petiole an inch in length, and thickened at both 

 8F 



