503 



PHYTOLACCACEiE. 



[Hypogynous Exocf.ns. 



Order CXCIII. PHYTOLACCACEjE.-Phytolaccads. 



Phytolacca R. Brown in Congo, 454. (1818) ; Bartl. Ord. Nat. p. 299. (1830) ; Meisner Gen. 322 - 



^IWaccace^Td. Pr. clvii. ; Endl. Gen. ccviii.-Rivinace*. Agh. Marltus Conspectus, No. 91. 



(1S35). 



Diagnosis.— Chenopodal Exogens, with separate fiat sepals, stamens either 00 or alternate 



with the sepals, and one or several carpels. 



Under-shrubs or herbaceous plants. Leaves alternate, entire, without stipules, 

 often with pellucid dots. Flowers racemose, perfect, regular, or somewhat irregular, 

 very variously arranged. Calyx of 4, or 5, imbricated leaves, 

 which sometimes assume altogether the appearance of dis- 

 tinct petals. Stamens hypogynous or nearly so, either inde- 

 finite, or if equal to the number of the divisions of the calyx 

 alternate with them; anthers 2-celled, opening lengthwise. 

 Carpels solitary, or several, distinct or but partially combined, 

 each containing 1 ascending ovule, which is either amphitropal 

 or campylotropal ; styles and stigmas equal in number to the 

 carpels. Fruit baccate or dry, indehiscent. Seeds ascendmg, 

 solitary, with a cylindrical embryo curved round mealy albu- 

 men, the radicle being next the hilum. 



The small cluster of genera called Phytolaccads, forms an Order 

 nearly related to Chenopods and Buckwheats, from the first of 

 which it is distinguished by the numerous carpels and the stamens 

 exceeding the number of divisions of the calyx, or being alter- 

 nate with them ; or if the carpel is solitary, by the calyx being 

 petaloid, a circumstance which never occurs in Chenopods. 

 From Buckwheats it is known by the radicle being turned to- 

 wards the hilum, the want of stipules, and the perfect simplicity 

 of the ovaries. Rivina, which has the albumen very much re- 

 duced in quantity, brings into the same neighbourhood Fhyto- 

 laccads and Petiveriads. Brown remarks that these two Orders, 

 widely as they differ in the structure of the pistil, are connected 

 by a species of Phytolacca related to P. abyssinica, in which the 

 5 cells are so deeply divided that they merely cohere by their 

 inner angles ; and also by Gisekia, which has 5 distinct ovaries. 

 Endlicher unites to this Order both Petiveriads and Gyro- 

 stemons, both of which will be found elsewhere in this work. 

 The numerous free carpels seem to point out some kind of rela- 

 tion to the Ranal, and their verticillate arrangement to the 

 Mahal Alliances. 



Many are natives of either America, within or without the 

 tropics"; others of Africa and India. Phytolacca decandra is 

 naturalised in some of the southern parts of Europe. 



The species are generally acrid, but that property is inconsi- 

 derable in some, and is dispersed by heat in others. A tincture 

 of the ripe berries of Phytolacca decandra, or Pocan, seems to 

 have acquired a well-founded reputation as a remedy for chronic 

 and syphilitic rheumatism, and for allaying syphiloid pains. By some it is said to be 

 more valuable than Guaiacum. It has had no inconsiderable celebrity as a remedy for 

 cancer but is no longer esteemed, and it is probable that it was only found serviceable 

 in ill-conditioned sluggish ulcers, whirl, are too frequently mistaken for real cancer. 

 Its pulverised root is an emetic. A spirit distilled from the berries is stated to have 

 killed a do- in a few minutes. According to De Candolle, the plant is also a purgative , 

 but it acts*so violently, and is accompanied by such ambiguous narcotic symptoms, a* 

 not to be at all calculated for internal use Bigelow says that externally applied it 

 causes heat and smarting ; he found it useful in psora and tenia capitis The leaves 

 are extremely acrid, but the young shoots, which lose this quah y by boilin >m • » ater 

 are eaten in the Unite d States as Asparagus, and Dr. Royle tells us that Phytol ac 



"Fig. CCCXLVII.- Phytolacca decandra. 1. its flower ; 2. its stamens and pistil ; 3. a section of a 



Fig. CCCXLVII. 



