Cyclopedia of American Horticulture 



EATONIA (Amos Eaton, American botanist, 1776- 

 1842; author of popular Manual of Botany of the United 

 States, which was for a long time the only general work 

 available for American students). Oramlnem. A 

 North American genus of 4 or 5 species of tufted per- 

 ennial grasses. Three kinds have been catalogued by 

 Wilfred Brotherton, Rochester, Mich. 



A. Panicle dense, spike-like, strict. 



obtUBita, Gray. Spikelets crowded on the short, 

 erect panicle-branches ; upper empty glume rounded- 

 obovate, very obtuse. Dry soil. 



AA. Panicle more loose and slender. 



PennsylvAnica, Gray. Lvs. 3-6 in. long : panicle- 

 branches lax, nodding. Moist woods and meadows. 



Diidleyi, Vasey. Lvs. 1-2 in. long : panicle-branches 

 spreading in flowering time, afterwards erect. 



A. S. Hitchcock. 



EBONY, Diospyros Ebemis. 



ECBALLITIM (Greek, to throw out). CucurhitcLceoe. 

 Squirting Cucumber. The Squirting Cucumber is one 

 of the most amusing and disconcerting of all plants. 

 Few if any cultivated plants fire their seeds at one with 

 such startling suddenness and force. It is a hardy an- 

 nual trailing vine, easily grown in any garden. When 

 ripe, the oblong, prickly fruit squirts its seeds at the 

 slightest touch, or sometimes at the mere vibration of 

 the ground made by a person walking by. The boy or 

 girl who did not like this plant never lived. Some of 

 the old herbalists called this plant Cucumis asininus. 

 Another curious fact about the plant is that a power- 

 ful cathartic is made from the juice of the fruit, which 

 has been known for many centuries. A preparation of 

 it is still sold in the drug stores as Trifuratio Elaterini. 

 Ecballium has only one species, and is closely related 

 to the important genera Cucumis and Citrullus. With 

 them it differs from Momordica in lacking the 2 or 3 

 scales which close the bottom of the calyx. Other ge- 

 neric characters are : prostrate herb, fleshy, rough 

 hairy: lvs. heart-shaped, more or less 3-lobed: tendrils 

 wanting: fls. yellow, the staminate in racemes, pistillate 

 usually from the same axils with the staminate fls.; 

 calyx 5-cut. It is a native of the middle and eastern 

 Mediterranean regions, especially rich, moist forests. 

 Sims, in the Botanical Magazine, says the plant "is gen- 

 erally considered as an annual, but if the soil is dry and 

 the situation sheltered, the root will survive two or 

 three winters, and the plants will flower earlier and 

 spread farther than those of the same year." 



Elat^rium, A. Rich. (Momdrdica Elaterium. Linn.). 

 Squirting Cuciimber. Pig. 744. Described above. 

 B.M. 1914. ^ jj 



ECCREMOCARPUS (Greek, pendent fruits). Big- 

 nouiiicefp. Three to five species of tall, somewhat woody 

 plants from Peru and Chile, climbing by branched ten- 

 drils at the end of the twice pinnate leaves, and having 

 very distinct flowers of somewhat tubular shape, which 

 are colored yellow, orange or scarlet. The species men- 

 tioned below is doubtless perennial in southern Califor- 

 nia, where it is said to show best when climbing over 

 shrubbery, but in the East it is treated as a tender an- 

 nual and is perhaps usually trained to a trellis or south 

 wall. It bears flowers and fi-uits at the same time, and 

 the orange flowers make an effective contrast with the 

 pale green foliage. The genus belongs to an order fa- 

 mous for its superb tropical climbers, but in its own 



tribe only tw 

 that small. 

 2-celled ovru- 

 Eccremocarp 

 corollas nn- • 

 to which E. .' 

 short distanc 



horticultural fame, and 



iHn aiui Colea, having a, 



' I MH-rirpus is 1-celled. 



.■ of which the 



' rtion Calampelis, 



i"lla has a joint at a 



;, then swells out on the 



under side, and suddenly constricts into a neck before 

 it reaches the small, circular mouth, surrounded by 5 

 short, rounded lobes. 



SCiber, Ruiz & Pav. {Calampelis scMer, D. Don). 

 Although the specific name means rough, the wild plant 

 is only sparingly puberulous, and in cultivation entirely 

 glabrous. About 10 ft. high: lvs. bipinnate; Ifts. ob- 

 liquely cordate, entire or saw-toothed : fls. 1 in. long, 

 orange, in racemes. July, Aug. Chile. B.R. 11:939. 

 Peter Henderson & Co. 



ECHEVfiEIA. All referred to Cotyledon. 



ECHINACEA (Greek, echinos, hedgehog ; alluding to 

 the sharp-pointed bracts of the receptacle). Comp6sit(f. 

 Purple Cone-flower. Four species of North American 

 perennial herbs, two of them from Mexico, the others 

 native to the United States, and cultivated in our hardy 

 borders. They are closely related to Rudbeckia, but 

 their rays range from flesh color, through rose, to pur- 

 ple and crimson, while those of Rudbeckia are yellow or 

 partly (rarely wholly) brown-purple. The high disk 

 and the downward angle at which the rays are pointed 

 are charming features of Echinaceas. The disk is only 

 convex at first, but becomes egg-shaped, and the recep- 

 tacle conical, while Rudbeckia has a greater range, the 

 disk from globose to columnar, and the receptacle from 



744. Ecballium Elaterium (X ii 



3onical to cylindrical. Echinaceas and Rudbeckias are 

 stout, and perhaps a little coarse in appearance, but 

 their flowers, sometimes 6 in. across, are very attractive, 

 and borne in succession for two months or more of late 

 summer. With the growing appreciation o hardy bor- 

 ders and of native plants, it should be possible to 

 procure 4 or 5 distinct colors in the flower, associated 

 with low, medium and tall-growing habits. They do well 



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