NYCTACGINACEÆ. 17 
odour and a sweetish taste, leaving a little acridity in the mouth. 
It is said to be pretty strongly purgative. The Boerhaavias' also 
often have purgative and emetic roots. In Guiana that of Boerhaavia 
diffusa Li bears the common name of Ipecacuanha. 2. tuberosa 
Lamx.,® bears in Peru that of Yerba de la purgacion. In Africa and 
Central America B. erecta Li. ;* in India B. procumbens Roxs.,° serve 
also as purgatives. 
The root of the B. decumbens Vaux, is employed as an emetic in 
Guiana. B. procumbens has been also prescribed as a febrifuge, 
B. scandens in hemorrhoids, and Z. hirsuta W. in jaundice. Some 
plants of this genus have edible roots and buds.’ It is also said that 
the roots of the Pésonias have evacuant properties: in India P. 
aculeata Li. ;3 in America P. novia Nerr.. This last is considered in 
Brazil as a powerful irritant, contact with which produces itching 
and even leprosy, it is asserted.” P. Capparosa Netv.," of Brazil is 
used to prepare an infused drink in the province of Minas-Geraes, 
and, above all, to dye cotton stuffs black.’ Some of the Pisonias of 
Polynesia and Java have a wood strong enough to serve for building." 
Several are cultivated in our hothouses for the beauty of their foliage.” 
Cephalotomandra fragrans” has, like several other Pisonias, numerous 
and fragrant flowers. Like J/iradilis, some of them are cultivated in 
our gardens for their flowers, which blow at night, especially 47. 
longiflora, which exhales a sweet and musty odour at evening. The 
Abronias have been introduced into our parterres as ornamental 
plants, especially 4. wmbellata The -Bougainvillee ornament our 
greenhouses, not by their flowers, which are inconspicuous, but by 
the brilliant colours of the three petaloid bracts protecting the 
inflorescence. 

! H. Bn., in Dict, Encycl. Se. Méd., x. 18. Tragularia horrida Kan.—Pallavia loran- 
2? Spec., 4.—Cuots., Prodr., 452, n. 9. thoides H. B. K. (Fingrigo of Jamaica). 
3 Til, i. 10.—Cuors., Prodr., 454, n. 16. 9 In Ann. Se. Nat., sér. 5, v. 80, t. 7. 
4 Spec., 4 (nec Forsr.).—Cuot1s., Prodr., 10 Hence the vulgar names of Pao lepra, Pao 
n. 1, Judea. It is still called Jodo molle. 
> Var., it is said, of B. diffusa. N Toe, cit., 82, t. 8 (vulg. Capparosa do 
5 Phyt., i, n. 3.—Cuots., Prodr., n. 5. campo). 
7 The young shoots of RB. erecta are eaten. "The leaves of P. noxia serve the same 
The tap-roots of B. mutabilis ere harvested as purpose. 
Salsify in the South Sea Islands, Olus album 
Rumen. (Herb. Amboin., i. 78), whose shoots 
are eaten with meat at Amboyna, has been 
named by SpanoGHE [in Linnea (1841), 342] 
Pisonia alba. 
8 Spec. 1511.—Cuots., Prodr., 440, n. 1.— 
VOL. IV. 
13 Especially P. sylvestris TEysM. et BInn. 
(ex ROSENTH., op. cit, 1111). 
4 In Peru the silversmiths use Chuleo, or 
Colignonia parviflora ENDL., to clean silver vases. 
15 See p. 9, note 1. 
16 Lamx. Iil., t, 5 —Cuots., Prodr., 435, n. 1. 
C 
