URGINEA 



The plant grows near the seashore and inland, in dry 

 sandy places from the Canaries to Syria. It is also 

 found in South Africa, which is unusual, as the North 

 and South African species of any genus are not usually 

 identical. 



The bulbs of Urginea are collected in large quan- 

 tities in the Mediterranean region for the drug trade. 

 They sometimes attain a maximum weight of fifteen 

 pounds. The bulbs contain about 22 per cent of sugar and 

 are used in Sicily in the manufacture of whiskey. 

 Squills have emetic and cathartic properties. Sirup of 

 squills is a popular croup medicine. The bulb, as it 

 appears in the wholesale drug market, has been deprived 

 of its outer scales and cut into thin slices, the central 

 portions being rejected. 



Scilla, Steinh. (U. maritima, Baker). SEA-ONION. 

 SQUILL. Height 1-3 ft,: bulb 4-6 in. thick: Ivs. appear- 

 ing after the fls., lanceolate, somewhat fleshy and glau- 

 cous, glabrous, \-l l /i ft. long, 2-4 in. wide above mid- 

 dle: racemes 1-1 % ft. long, 1-1 % in. wide, 50-100-fld.: 

 fls. Hin. across, whitish, with the oblong segms. keeled, 

 greenish purple. Autumn. Canaries to Syria, S. Afr. 

 B.M. 918 (as Ornithogalum Squilla). In Italy it is 

 said to be seen often blooming in many houses on top 

 of shelves or cupboards, the bulbs producing their long 

 spikes of fls.. which last in perfection for weeks, with- 

 out earth or water. WILHELM MILLER. 



F. TRACY HuBBARD.f 



UROSTIGMA: Ficus. The following species now in 

 cult, abroad was not included under Ficus in Vol. Ill, 

 p. 1229. Ficus subtriplinervia, Mart. (Urostigma sub- 

 triplinercium, Miq.). Large tree: Ivs. chartaceous, 

 ovate- or lanceolate-elliptic or oblong, 1-2 x J^in. : fls. in 

 axillary pairs, very short -peduncled, dioecious. Brazil. 



URSINIA (John Ursinus, of Regensburg, 1608-1666; 

 author of "Arboretum Biblicum"). Composite. Here 

 belongs the hardy annual known to the trade as Spheno- 

 gyne speciosa. 



Annuals, perennials, or subshrubs: Ivs. alternate, ser- 

 rate, pinnatifid or usually pinnatisect: rays the same 

 color on both sides or purplish brown beneath; involucre 

 hemispherical or broadly campanulate: achenes often 

 10-ribbed. A genus of about 60 species, all native to 

 S. Afr. One species, U. annua, is also found in Abys- 

 sinia. In Flora Capensis, vol. 3 (1864-65), Sphenpgyne 

 and Ursinia are treated as separate genera, the distinc- 

 tions being as follows: the achene is cylindrical in 

 Sphenogyne, but obovate or pear-shaped in Ursinia, dis- 

 tinctly tapering to the base: the pappus is uniseriate in 

 the former, biseriate in the latter, the inner series consist- 

 ing of 5 slender white bristles. In the course of time 

 these distinctions have been dropped and Sphenogyne 

 included in Ursinia. 



pulchra, X. E. Br. (Sphenogyne specibsa, Knowles 

 & \\estc.). Fig. 3887. Annual, 1-2 ft. high, with Ivs. 

 bipmnately dissected into linear lobes and yellow or 

 orange fl.-heads 2 in. across: rays about 22, 3-toothed, 

 spotted purple-brown at base: st. glabrous, branched: 

 Ivs. alternate: scapes nearly leafless, about 5 times as 

 long as Ivs. : involucre 4-rowed; scales increasing in size 

 from the base, outer rows with a brown scarious border, 

 inner with a white scarious border F C 2*77 P M 

 ?.&? ?w 4 nR Gn. 44, p. 217. R.H. 1843:445. 

 3o2. J.H. III. o4: 85. Both yellow and orange- 

 colored fls are sometimes found on the same plant. 

 \\nen well managed it blooms all summer. It is a 

 the Cape region of S. Afr. It has been in cult, 

 L836 but was not correctly described until 1887. 

 is much praised by connoisseurs, though it is not 

 known to the general public. It seems to have enjoyed 

 a longer continuous period of cult, than many other 

 showy composites, in which the Cape is wonderfully 



WILHELM MILLER. 



UTRICULARIA 



3417 



URTICA (classical name, alluding to the burning 

 hairs). Urticaceaz. NETTLE. About 30 annual and per- 

 ennial erect simple or branching slender herbs, widely 

 distributed, little if at all planted because of the sting- 

 ing hairs and sts. and Ivs.: fls. small, greenish and 

 inconspicuous, racemose, spicate or clustered in the 

 axils, monoecious or dioecious, sometimes hermaph- 

 rodite; sterile fls. with 4 sepals and 4 stamens; fertile 

 fls. with 2 pairs of sepals and a single erect ovary: Ivs. 

 simple, opposite, strongly nerved, dentate or crenate 

 or incised. Several species of nettle are native in N. 

 Amer. and a few are intro. weeds. The plants have 

 very little ornamental value. 



3887. Ursinia pulchra. (XK) 



URVILLEA (bears the name of Capt. Dumont D'Ur- 

 ville, French botanist and naval officer). Sapindocex. 

 About a dozen species of climbing shrubs of Trop. 

 Amer. Lvs. alternate, ternate, the Ifts. entire or coarsely 

 dentate and more or less pellucid-dotted: fls. whitish, 

 on jointed pedicels, in axillary racemes, the peduncles 

 ending in a pair of tendrils; sepals 5, the 2 outer ones 

 smaller; petals 4; disk of 4 glands; stamens 8: fr. a 

 3-winged samara. Probably no species is in cult., the 

 U. ferruginea, Lindl., of lists being Serjania cuspidata. 



UTRICULARIA (Latin, a little "bag or skin, referring 

 to the bladders). Lentibulariacess. BLADDERWORT. 

 As known to gardeners, the bladderworts are of two 

 rather distinct groups. the aquatic mostly native 

 lands sometimes used in pools and aquaria, and the 

 tropical terrestrial kinds sometimes prown in warm- 

 houses with orchids and other special plants. -The 

 whole group is of little importance horticulturally. 



As commonly understood, Utricularia is a genus of 

 some 200 aquatic and terrestrial herbs, of cosmopolitan 

 distribution. Recently, however, the genus has been 

 split into several genera, and the name Utricularia 

 retained for certain aquatic species; with this taxo- 

 nomic innovation, however, we are not concerned in this 

 brief account. Under the older and prevailing definition, 



