3416 



URCEOLINA 



URGINEA 



URCEOLINA (Latin, small pitcher, alluding to the 



Eitcher- or urn-shaped flowers). Amaryllidaceas. Bul- 

 ous herbs, used both in the greenhouse and for summer 

 and autumn blooming out-of-doors. 



Scape solid: Ivs. flat, ovate, oblong or narrow, con- 

 tracted to the petiole: fls. in an umbel, numerous, 

 rather long-pedicelled; involucral bracts 2, scarious; 

 perianth erect, finally recurved or pendulous, tube con- 

 tracted above the ovary, then suddenly dilated, lobes 

 subequal, spreading; ovary 3-celled: caps, ovoid-globose 

 or subpyramidal, 3-angled or nearly 3-lobed. About 3 

 species, S. Amer. 



The species of urceolina are attractive plants and easily 

 grown, flowering every year, but for some reason they 

 are rather scarce. The bulbs are about 3 inches across 

 and during the growing season have one or two leaves. 

 The plants flower in December. After flowering the 

 bulbs may be removed from the warmhouse to the 

 intermediate house and placed in a spot where they will 

 be kept dry. Just before growth begins in the spring, the 

 bulbs should be taken out of the pots and the exhausted 

 soil removed. The bulbs may then be replaced, one 

 bulb in a 5-inch pot, using clean pots, plenty of drain- 

 age material and a rich light porous soil. Place the 

 top of the bulb level with the soil. Remove the pots to 

 the stove, and as soon as growth begins water freely. 

 In the fall when the leaves turn yellow, water sparingly 

 and finally withhold water altogether. The flower- 

 scapes appear a few weeks after the leaves disappear. 

 (Robert Cameron.) 



A. Fls. red. 



miniata, Benth. & Hook. (Pentldndia miniata, Herb.). 

 Bulb about 1 J^ in. through: Ivs. produced after the fls., 

 short-petioled, about 1 ft. long, 1J^ in. wide, narrowed 

 at both ends: scape over 1 ft. long: fls. 2-6, bright 

 scarlet. Andes of Peru and Bolivia. B.R. 25:68. R.B. 

 23:49. Offered by Dutch bulb-growers. 



AA. Fls. yellow. 



pendula, Herb. (U. aurea, Lindl.). Bulb about 1 J^ in. 

 through: Ivs. 1-2 to a st.. produced after the fls., oblong, 

 acute, 1 ft. long by 4-5 in. broad: scape about 1 ft. long: 

 fls. 4-6, bright yellow tipped with green. Andes of 

 Peru. B.M.5464. G.C. III. 12:211. G. 32:241. J.H. 

 III. 48 : 445. F. W. BARCLAY. 



F. TRACY HUBBARD. f 



URECHITES (tailed Echites, alluding to the append- 

 ages of the corolla). Apocyndcese. Prostrate plants or 

 twining vines, allied to Dipladenia and having similar 

 cultural requirements. Sts. woody or nearly so: Ivs. 

 opposite, the blades entire: fls. often showy, in axillary 

 or terminal cymes or racemes, or sometimes only 2 

 together; calyx-lobes 5, long and narrow; corolla fun- 

 nel-shaped, rather large, abruptly widened into a 

 throat, 5-lobed, the lobes sometimes elongated and 

 twisted; stamens inserted at top of the corolla-tube 

 and included in the throat, the anthers sagittate; disk 

 cup-shaped, 5-lobed or nearly entire: fr. comprised of 

 2 long spreading follicles. Species about 10, in Trop. 

 Amer. and extending into Fla. U. suberecta, Muell. 

 Arg., of Colombia, is sometimes grown in the warm- 

 house: somewhat woody and partially erect: Ivs. ovate 

 to elliptic: fls. large, yellow, in a terminal peduncled 

 cyme. B.M. 1064 (as Echites suberecta), and 4702 (as 

 Dipladenia flava) . 



URENA (from Uren, the Malabar name). Malvaceae. 

 Herbs or subshrubs of little horticultural interest: 

 plants more or less covered with rigid stellate hairs : Ivs. 

 angled or lobed: fls. clustered; calyx 5-cleft; petals 

 5, often tomentose at the back, free above, connate 

 below; staminal tube truncate or minutely toothed, 

 anthers nearly sessile; ovary 5-celled, cells 1-ovuled: 

 ripe carpels covered with hooked bristles or smooth, 

 indehiscent. About 8 or 9 species, natives of the 



tropics and subtropics. U. lobdta, Linn. Herbaceous, 

 more or less hairy: Ivs. rounded, angled, not divided 

 beyond the middle, cordate, 5-7-lobed, lobes acute or 

 obtuse, about 1-2x2-3 in.: fls. pink: carpels densely 

 pubescent, spiny. Tropics of both hemispheres. Very 

 variable. U. stellipila, Lem. Shrubby with a few elon- 

 gated, fulvous-pilose branches: Ivs. distant, rather short- 

 petioled, cuneately ovate-lanceolate, base somewhat 

 cordate, stellate, hairy, coarsely crenulate-dentate : fls. 

 rather large, 1V in. across, white, in axillary clusters; 

 calyx-segms. lanceolate, acute; petals spatula te. Brazil. 

 J.F. 3:281. 



URERA (derivation not obvious, possibly from uro, to 

 burn, alluding to the stinging hairs). Urticacese. Trees 

 or shrubs, rarely subshrubs, with stinging hairs usually 

 scattered, one of which has been rarely cult, as an 

 ornamental greenhouse shrub. Lvs. alternate, entire, 

 dentate or lobed, feather-veined or 3-5-nerved; stipules 

 free or more or less connate in one: panicles dichbto- 

 mous, cymose or irregularly racemose, unisexual: fls. 

 dioecious or rarely monoecious; perianth of male fls. 

 4-5-parted, segms. ovate, stamens 4-5, ovary rudi- 

 mentary; perianth-lobes or segms of female fls. 4, sub- 

 equal or outer smaller, ovary straight or oblique: 

 achenium straight or oblique, compressed or ventricose. 

 About 40 species, Trop. Amer., Afr., also Mascarene 

 Isls. and Pacific islands. 



alceaefolia, Gaud. (Urtwa caracasana, Jacq.). Tree 

 .or shrub: Ivs. broadly ovate, acuminate, basal sinus 

 wide and open, crenate-dentate : fls. dioecious, in regu- 

 larly dichotomous cymes ; male cymes 4-6 times dichoto- 

 mous, stinging or not, rose-colored; female fls. many 

 times dichotomous, the fls. solitary or in 3's. Trop. 

 A 0161 "- F. TRACY HUBBARD. f 



URGINEA (from the name of an Arabian tribe in 

 Algeria). Lilidcese. Bulbous herbs used both in the 

 greenhouse and out-of-doors. 



Leaves radical, sometimes very narrowly linear, 

 sometimes broadly strap-shaped or almost oblong : scape 

 simple, leafless: fls. in a terminal raceme, usually 

 numerous, rather small or medium-sized, whitish, or 

 rarely pale yellowish or rose, color more intense in the 

 center of the segms.; bracts small, scarious; perianth 

 finally deciduous, segms. 6, distinct, campanulate- 

 connivent or spreading after an thesis; stamens 6; 

 ovary sessile, 3-celled, usually 3-cornered: caps. 

 3-cornered, grooved, or intruded between the angles, 

 loculicidally dehiscent. About 75 species, Eu., Medit. 

 region, India and Trop. and S. Afr. The sea-onion 

 is closely related to the genus Scilla, but seems to be 

 much closer to Ornithogalum, especially in habit, infl. 

 and color of fls. The seeds of Urginea are numerous in 

 each locule (in the sea-onion 10-12), strongly com- 

 pressed and winged; in Ornithogalum and Scilla they 

 are not compressed or winged and in Scilla they are 

 solitary or few in each locule. 



The sea-onion, known to apothecaries by the name of 

 squill, and to gardens as Urginea maritima, is a bulbous 

 plant native to the Mediterranean region. It has the 

 same style of beauty as Ornithogalum pyramidale but 

 unfortunately it is only half-hardy. As an ornamental 

 plant it is little known in America. The name seems 

 not to appear in American catalogues, but the Dutch 

 bulb-growers offer the bulbs in different sizes. A plant 

 erroneously called sea-onion is Ornithogalum caudatum. 

 There is considerable difference of opinion as to when 

 the sea-onion blooms, but the plant is generally con- 

 sidered an autumn bloomer, and it is clear that the 

 leaves appear after the flowers. In England the plant is 

 said to have flowered as early as July and August. 

 Baker writes that the leaves appear in winter. Some 

 English cultivators say the leaves appear as early as 

 October and November; others say not until spring. 



