P L U 



POL 



■oblong, inserted into a larger ovate membrane at 

 the base, imbricate. 



The species are : 1. P. n/lm, Red Plumeria, 

 orJasminc; 2. P. alba, White Plumeria; 3. 

 P.ohliisa, I)!unt-leaved Plumeria; 4. P.pudica, 

 Close-flowered Plumeria. 



'J"he first rises to the height of eighteen or 

 twenty feet : the stalks are covered with a dark 

 green hark, having marks where the leaves are 

 Fallen off; they are succulent, abound with a 

 milky juice, and within are somewhat woody: 

 towards the top they put out a few thick succulent 

 branches, with leaves at their ends of a light- 

 green colour, full of milky juice, having a laroe 

 midrib and many transverse veins : at the ends 

 of jtlie branches also come out the flowers in 

 clusters; shaped like those of the Oleander or 

 Rose bay, of a pale-red colour, and having an 

 agreeable odour. They are produced in this 

 climate in July and August. 



The second species has the habit-of the first, 

 but is not much branched, and rarely exceeds 

 fifteen feet in height; it abounds, like that, in a 

 milky juice : the flowers are in spikes, white 

 with a yellowish eye, and diffuse a very sweet 

 odour to a considerable distance. It is a native 

 of Campcachy. 



The third produces small white flowers re- 

 sembling those of the second: the leaves are 

 oval -lanceolate, and the peduncles branched. 

 Some describe it as a thick tree, exceeding the 

 middle size, with an ash-coloured, smooth, 

 milky bark, a juicy brittle wood, and spreading, 

 thick, twisted branches : the leaves quite entire, 

 large, flat, smooth, scattered, with many trans- 

 verse ribs : the flowers terminating, in com- 

 pound spreading upright racemes. It is a na- 

 tive of the West Indies. 



The fourth species is an uprigdt milky shrub, 

 five feet in height, of the same habit with the 

 others : the leaves oblong, flat, veined : the 

 flowers numerous, yellowish, the border con- 

 tinuing erect and shut, even after they drop; 

 being rolled up like the flowers of Hibiscus: 

 they succeed each other continuallv for two 

 months together; and have an odour much 

 more agreeable than that of the preceding spe- 

 cies, or even of any other known flower. It is 

 a native of South America. 



Culture. — These plants are capable of being 

 increased by seeds and cuttings of the young 

 branches. 



The seeds should be procured from the na- 

 tive situation of the plants, and be sown in 

 pots, filled with a light saudv compost, plung- 

 ing them in a hot-bed, covered by glasses, or 

 the bark-bed in the stove, when they readily ve- 

 getate; and when the plants have attaiucd a few 



inches in growth, they should be removed into 

 separate pots, of a small size, which must \>e 

 plunged in beds of the same kind as the above. 



The cuttings should be made from the youno- 

 branches, and after being laid in the stove or 

 some other dry situation, to dispel their succu- 

 lence, and heal over the wounds, be planted 

 out during the summer months, in pots, filled 

 with light dry mould, plunging them in the 

 bark-bed of the stove, giving occasional shade 

 and very slight waterings, tid they have stricken 

 fresh root, and when they have become well 

 rooted, they may be removed into separate pots, 

 being managed as otiier stove exotics. 



They afford much ornament and varietv 

 among collections of stove plants ; especi'- 

 ally the red sort; and when set out with other 

 potted plants in the summer, have a delightful 

 fragrance. 



POISON- ASH. See Rhus. 

 POISON-NUT. See Strvchnos. 

 POISON-OAK. See Rhus. 

 POLEiMONIUM, a genus containing plants 

 of the fibrous-rooted, herbaceous flowering pe- 

 rennial kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Peiitandria 

 Monogyma, and ranks in the natural order of 

 Campanacece. 



The characters are : that the calyx is a one- 

 leafed perianth, half-five-cleft, inferior, goblet- 

 shaped, acute, permanent: the corolla one- 

 petalled, wheel-shaped: tube shorter than the 

 calyx, closed by five valves placed at the top : 

 border five-parted, wide, flat : segments round- 

 ish, blunt : the stamina have five filaments, in- 

 serted into the valves of the tube, filiform, 

 shorter than the corolla, inclining : anthers 

 roundish, incumbent : the pistillum is an ovate, 

 acute, superior germ : style filiform, the length 

 of the corolla : stigma trifid, revolute : the peri- 

 carpium is a three-cornered capsule, ovate, three- 

 celled, ihree-valved, opening three ways at top, 

 covered : partitions contrary to the valves : the 

 seeds very many, irregular,' sharpish. 



The species are: 1. P. cocruleum. Common 

 Polemonium ; e. P. reptans, Creeping Polemo- 

 nium, or Greek Valerian. 



The first has a perennial, fibrous root : the 

 herb smooth : the stems upright, rising to the 

 height of eighteen or twenty inches, seldom 

 more, leafy, panicled : the leaves alternate, un- 

 equally pinnate, many-paired ; leaflets elliptic- 

 lanceolate, quite entire: the corolla between 

 bell-shaped and wheel-shaped, blue: the calyx 

 bell-shaped, half-five -cleft : the filaments di- 

 lated at the base and membranaceous : capsule 

 clothed with the calyx, ovate-globular, obso- 

 letelj three-grooved, thin, subpellucid : seeds 



