818 



X A N 



THE 'UNIVERSAL HERBAL: 



X A N 



two-lobed, furrowed. Female. Calix: like the male, infe- 

 rior, permanent. Corolla: like the male, deciduous. Pistil: 

 germina from two to five, roundish, each terminating in an awl- 

 shaped style, longer than the petal ; stigma obtuse. Pericarp : 

 capsules from one to five, stalked, each of one cell, and 

 two coriaceous valves, bursting at the inner margin. Seeds: 

 solitary, roundish, polished, pendulous, from an upright bris- 

 tle-shaped stalk. ESSENTIAL CHARACTER. Male. Calix : m 

 three or five small deep segments. Petals: three or five. 

 Female. Calix: like the male, inferior, permanent. Petals: 

 three or five. Capsules : from one to five, of two valves, and one 

 cell. Seeds : solitaty, pendulous. The whole of this genus is 

 shrubby or arboreous : the stem in most instances is armed 

 with prickles : the wood is hard, and serviceable for many pur- 

 poses. They are generally propagated by seeds, but, as they 

 never ripen in this country, they must be procured from those 

 places where they naturally grow; or the plants must be pro- 

 pagated by layers. When the seeds arrive in England, they 

 should be sown in pots filled with light earth as soon as pos- 

 sible, for they do not grow the first year, and, when kept out 

 of the ground till spring, frequently lie two years before they 

 appear. The pots should be plunged in the ground up to their 

 rims in an eastern-aspected border, where they may remain 

 during the summer. The only care requisite for the seeds is 

 to refresh them now and then with water in dry weather. In 

 autumn the pots should be placed under a common hot-bed 

 frame, where they may be screened from frost, or else plunged 

 into the ground in a warm border, and covered with tan, to 

 keep out the frost, and then plunged into the hot-bed in the 

 succeeding spring. When they appear, water them often, 

 but sparingly, and take out all the weeds. As the summer 

 advances, gradually inure them to the open air; into which 

 they should be removed in June, placing them in a sheltered 

 situation, where they may remain till autumn, when they 

 must return to the hot-bed frame, and remain there for the 

 winter. In the spring following, before the plants begin to 

 shoot, they should be carefully taken up, and each planted 

 into a separate small pot, which may be plunged into a gentle 

 hot-bed to forward them in putting out their roots. The 

 after-care must be to shelter them for a year or two in winter, 

 until they acquire strength: then in the spring, after the 

 danger of frost is over, some of them may be turned out of 

 the pots, and planted in the full ground in a warm sheltered 

 situation. They may be increased by cutting off some of 

 their strong roots, taking care to preserve their fibres; plant- 

 ing them in pots filled with light earth, and plunging the 

 pots into a moderate hot-bed : but those raised from seeds 



grow largest, and are much healthier. The species are, 



* Stem without Prickles. 



1. Xanthoxylum Ternatum; Three-leaved Yellow Wood. 

 Prickles none ; leaves ternate, obovate, slightly emarginate, 

 shining, dotted beneath, on smooth, spreading, channelled 

 footstalks; leaflets on small partial stalks, entire, rigid, veiny, 

 contracted at the base, paler beneath, and minutely dotted 

 with black; clusters axillary, compound; flowers small, 

 whitish ; germina three, contiguous, like one three-lobed 

 germen ; stigmas three, sessile ; capsules three, each of two 

 hemispherical valves, with two internal membranous whitish 

 valves; seeds solitary, roundish, polished. This shrub is 

 six feet high, with roundish subdivided branches, angular 

 whon young. Native of the island of Dominica. 



2. Xanthoxylum Emarginatum ; Emarginate Yellow Wood. 

 Prickles none ; leaves pinnate, ovate, emarginate, veiny ; 

 leaflets about three pairs, rarely with an odd one, above an 

 inch long, veiny, rather coriaceous, and shining; clusters 

 terminal, somewhat compound, erect; flowers triandrous, 



minute, whitish ; calix in five deep, ovate, acute, permanent 

 segments; petals only three, ovate, concave, spreading, twice 

 the size of the calix; stamina three, very short; germen 

 three-lobed, with three sessile stigmas ; capsule seldom more 

 than one perfected, with two internal valves, and one orbi- 

 cular, black, shining seed. Native of the mountainous inte- 

 rior of Jamaica, where it is vulgarly called Lignum Rorum, a 

 corruption of Lignum Rhodium ; the smell of which every part 

 of the shrub resembles, when rubbed or held near the Kre. 



3. Xanthoxylum Actiminatum ; Point-leaved Yellow Wood. 

 Prickles none ; leaves pinnate, elliptical, pointed, coriaceous ; 

 leaflets three or four pairs, laurel-like, shining; cymes terminal, 

 subdivided i'n a forked manner; flowers triandrous, crowded, 

 small, white; calix of three minute oval leaves; petals three, 

 obtuse, concave, one line and a half long; stamina three, 

 shorter than the corolla ; fruit globose, the size of a pepper- 

 corn, only one capsule out of three coming to perfection. 

 A shrub, with round spreading branches. Native of the 

 mountainous parts of Jamaica. 



** Stem prickly. 



4. Xanthoxylum Punctatum; Dotted Yellow Wood. Stem 

 prickly; leaves ternate or pinnate, oblong, finely crenate, 

 dotted beneath. Native of the island of Santa Cruz. 



5. Xanthoxylnm Spinosum; Prickly Triandrous Yellow 

 Wood. Stem prickly ; leaves about a foot long, pinnate, with 

 many pairs of sessile, ovate, pointed leaflets, prickly beneath, 

 as well as the branches ; there are eight or ten pairs of leaflets 

 in all, ovate, with a short emarginate point, veiny, rigid, 

 smooth, and shining, very minutely cvenate at the edges, 

 their midrib occasionally prickly; spines scattered, prominent, 

 needle-like, as long as the finger nail, those of the main stem 

 stronger and thicker at the base ; cymes terminal, with minute 

 white crowded flowers; flowers triandrous; calix with three 

 ovate-acute segments ; petals three, ovate, larger than the 

 calix; filamenta scarcely any; antheree ovate, converging; 

 germen in three distinct lobes; stigmas three, sessile, obtuse. 

 This is a shrub, about six feet high, with a round branching 

 upright stem. Native of dry mountainous situations in Ja- 

 maica. 



6. Xanthoxylum Clava Herculis ; Great Prickly Yellow 

 Wood. Stem armed with broad angular prickles, rising to 

 the height of thirty or forty feet; leaflets ovate, pointed, cre- 

 nate, nearly equal at the base; leaves a foot long; footstalks 

 armed with straight prickles one-third of an inch long; leaf- 

 lets aboutseven pairs, on short partial stalks, unequally divided 

 by their smooth midrfb, an inch and half or two inches long 

 bordered with shallow unequal notches, smooth, and rather 

 shining; clusters terminal, compound; flowers terminal, pani- 

 cled, polygamous, there being some united ones, though not 

 perfecting seed, on one tree, and others entirely female, on 

 another; the former have a minute five-toothed calix ; petals 

 five, thrice as long, ovate, erect, or a little incurved ; filamenta 

 five, twice the length of the petals, and inserted between 

 them ; antherse oblong, cloven at the base ; germen roundish, 

 abortive, with five awl-shaped erect styles, and simple stig- 

 mas. Native of the woods in the West Indies and Carolina, 

 flowering in March and April. 



7. Xanthoxylum Aromaticum ; Aromatic Yellow Wood. 

 Stem with opposite prickles ; leaflets ovate-lanceolate, ser- 

 rated, unequal at the base, two, three, or four pairs, pointed, 

 one inch and a half long, marked with pellucid dots, rounded 

 near the base at the upper edge, contracted at the lower ; 

 common footstalk beset with strong nearly opposite prickles ; 

 panicles terminal. Native of Chusan. 



8. Xanthoxylum Rhoifolium ; Stomach-leaved Yellow Wood. 

 Stem prickly ; leaves a foot long ; leaflets lanceolate, finely 



