TEE ART ALBUM OF NEW ZEALAND FLORA. 



79 



plant on the health. The common Rue, H. gmveolens, is a native of Southern Europe, 

 and is commonly cultivated in Britain. It is a somewhat shruhby plant, two to three 

 feet high, Avith pinnately-divided bluish-green leaves, and yellowish flowers disj)oscd in 

 corymbs. The powerful fetid odour and acrid taste of this plant depends on the presence 

 of a volatile oil. Rue is used medicinally as a stimulant and narcotic in flatulent colic, 

 hysteria, &c. Its active properties are such as to admit of its much more general use, 

 but practitioners have been perhaps deterred from emjiloying it by the symjitoms of 

 acrido-narcotic poisoning induced by an overdose. Locally applied. Rue is a powerful 

 irritant. One species, indeed, R. montcma, is said to be so powerful that it is dangerous 

 to handle the plant, even when the hands are protected by gloves. Rue was employed 

 medicinally by the ancients : for ages it was considered potent to ward off contagion, and 

 is still employed to keep off noxious insects. Rue enters into the comj)osition of the 

 French perfume called " Vinegar of the Four Thieves." The Italians are stated to eat 

 the leaves in salads. Shakespeare speaks of it as " Herb of Grace," because holy water 

 was sprinkled with it. In " Hamlet " Ophelia is made to say, " There's fennel for you, 

 and columbine ; there's rue for you, and here's some for me ; we may call it Herb grace 

 o' Sundays." Rue is easily propagated by seeds, cuttings, or slips of the young plants 

 taken in Spring, and planted in a shady border. It delights in a poor, calcareous soil, in 

 which it will thrive for many years. The order in New Zealand consists of two 

 genera, viz. : (1). Phebalium, a shrub with pentamerous flowers and simple leaves; 

 (2). Melicope, shrubs with tetramerous flowers and compound leaves. 



GENUS I. 

 PHEBALIUM (Ventenat.) The Phebalium. 



Genekic Chaeaotee. — Shrubs. Leaves alternate in 

 axillary, or terminal corymbs, white. Calyx, small, 4 or 5- 

 lobed or parted. Petals, 4 or 5, imbricate or valvate. Stamens, 

 8 or 10 ; filaments, filiform, glabrous. Oyary, 2-5, parted 



almost to the base ; style, simple, rising from between the 

 lobes ; stigma, capitate ; cells, 2-ovuled. Cocci, 2-5, truncate 

 or rostrate ; endooarp, separating. Testa, smooth, black, 

 shining. — Sandbook of the New Zealand Flora, p. 39. 



Description, etc. — A very large genus confined exclusively to Australia and New 

 Zealand. In the former country it consists of small trees as well as shrubs. In New 

 Zealand it is represented chiefly by a shrubliy character. The name of the genus is said 

 to be derived from the Greek word 'phibalee, a myrtle, in allusion to the appearance of 

 some of the species. 



