630 CLXXVIII. PHYTOLACCE^E. 



TRIBE I. PETIVERIE&. 



Carpel solitary, becoming a samara or achene. Embryo curved (Seguieria) or 

 straight (Petiveria), cotyledons convolute. Leaves stipulate. 



PKINCIPAL GENERA. 

 Seguieria. Petiveria. Rivina, Mohlana. 



TEIBE II. PHYTOLACCEA. 



Fruit usually composed of 2 or more carpels, distinct or coherent, but without a 

 column. Leaves exstipulate. 



PKIXCIPAL GENERA. 



Microtea. Limeum. Gieseckia. Phytolacca. Semonvillea. 



Anieomeria. Pircunia. Ercilla. * Rivina. Achatocarpus. 



TRIBE HI. GYROSTEMONE^l. 



Fruit compound, with a central column, resembling a 1 -celled or 2-several- 

 celled capsule. Cotyledons not rolled. Leaves exstipulate. 



GENERA. 

 Didymotheca. Gyrostemon. Codonocarpus. Tersonia. 



, long confounded with Chenopodira, are connected with them by their alternate leaves, 

 inflorescence, 1-ovuled carpels, farinaceous albumen and usually peripheric embryo ; they are sufficiently 

 distinguished by their frequently having petals, by the number and position of their stamens, their lateral 

 style, plurality of carpels, and berried or coccus-like pericarp. They approach Dasellea: and Ainarantacca 

 in the coloured calyx and the structure of the seed ; Portulacca in the alternate leaves, the stamens alter- 

 nating with the sepals when they are the same in number, and the structure of the flower and seed. 

 Seyuieria, the cotyledons of which are coiled, and the albumen or nearly so, and Gyrostemon, the carpels 

 of which are whorled around a central column, establish a certain affinity between Phytolaccea; and 

 Mahaccai. Phytolaccea; inhabit the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the Old, and especially of the New 

 "World ; they are much rarer in Asia than in Africa. Petiveriea; are all tropical American. Phytolaccea, 

 properly so called, mostly belong to the Old World. Gyrostcmoncee are all Australian. 



Phytolaccete owe their properties to acrid, vesicant, and drastic substances. Phytolacca decandra 

 (Pokeweed or American Currant), a native of North America, has been naturalized in the Landes ; its 

 acrid leaves, its root and unripe berries are a strong purgative. Its ripe berries contain a purple juice 

 which is by no means innocuous, and which is imprudently used to colour confectionery and wine, for 

 which reason the Portuguese Government has forbidden its culture. Nevertheless the young leaves of 

 this species and of its congeners (P. cscuknta, &c.), are edible when cooked. P. drastica grows among 

 rocks in Chili, and the natives chew its root as a purgative. Some Phytolaccea blacken in drying (Bosia, 

 Achatocarpus). Petiveriea, remarkable for their alliaceous smell, are used in domestic medicine by 

 Americans, as antifebrile, diaphoretic, diuretic, and vermifuge. 



[The berries of Phytolacca octandra are used as soap in the West Indies. Pircunia dioica, a tree of 

 La Plata, is now extensively cultivated in the south of Spain as Bella-sombra, and is a conspicuous feature 

 iu the gardens at Gibraltar, where its trunks, enormously swollen at the base, attract universal attention ; 

 the tree is of most rapid growth, but the wood is very spongy. The young shoots and leaves of Phytolacca 

 dioica are recommended for cultivation as a potherb, being eaten, cooked like asparagus, in the United 

 States, as are those of P. acinosa in the Himalayas. The turnip-shaped root of P. drastica is a violent 

 drastic purge. ED.] 



