RESCENCE axillary. P&DUNCLES many-flowered, pedicels supported 
by a lanceolate bract. Catyx deciduous, five-parted segments lanceo- 
late. Coroia yellow, tube cylindrical, equal in length to the 
segments of the calyx; throat campanulate, ventricose; limb of “five 
segments, round, unequal, or oblique. GLaNps oblong, concave, as 
long as the ovary. Stamens five, filaments short, inserted into the 
tube or at the origin of the throat; anthers sagittate, with long fila- 
mentous appendages. STYLE one; stigma five-cornered; ovary ovate, 
many-seeded. Fo.utic ies slender, round, obtuse, when ripe brownish. 
SEEDS oblong, acuminate at both ends, comose at the hilum. 
PoputaR aNd GeocrapnicaL Notice. This plant grows in 
Jamaica, even close to the town of Kingston; but much more abun- 
dantly in the vast savannahs; and also on dry heaths exposed to the 
sea, in St. Domingo. It must likewise grow in South America, if the 
statement of Sells be correct, that it forms the basis of the celebrated 
poison called Woorari or Wooraly. It appears, however, from the 
researches of Schomburgk that the Strychnos toxifera is the chief 
ingredient of that compound. KEchites suberecta may nevertheless 
be also used, for it possesses very formidable qualities. The whole 
plant abounds with a white milky juice, of which two drachms killed 
a dog in eight minutes—nay, even some of the flowers which had 
fallen into a water-trough imparted such noxious properties to it, that 
several mules which drank of it were destroyed. Great care should, 
therefore, be taken not to allow any of the juice to touch a scratch or 
wound, or to approach the eyes. 
InTROpUCTION; WHERE Grown; Cutture. Known in Britain 
since 1759, but not extensively cultivated, which may be owing to its 
poisonous properties. The estivation of the flowers is particularly 
worthy of inspection. It requires the stove, and grows freely in a 
mixture of loam and peat. Cuttings strike root readily under a hand- 
glass, in sand. Drawn in August, in the stove of the Messrs. Pope, of 
Handsworth, Staffordshire. 
DERIVATION OF THE NaMEs. 
Ecurrtes, from Eyic, Ecuts, a viper or snake, the smooth twining shoots resem- 
bling the coils of such an animal. Swuserecta, from the sats upright 
character of the plant. 
SyYNONYMEs. 
Ecuires superecta. Jacquin: American 32, t. 26, and small sition De 
: Observ. 104. Willdenow: Specie Plant. I, p. 1238. Bot. Mag. 1064 
Sprengel: Species Plantarum I, p. 633 
