219 
The SBR Lard Soe PPel RE A 
Ga 
Ne US 
xX. 
HOLLOWLEAEF. 
SARACENA. 
ETE flower confifts of five petals, which are of an oval figure, and bend inwards: the feed - 
veffel is roundifh, and divided into five cells: the flower has two cups; the lower cup is 
compofed of three fmall oval leaves; the upper one is compofed of five very large and coloured 
leaves, and both fall with the ower: the leaves are hollow, and have a kind of lip furrounding 
or rifing over the opening. 
The flower of this genus is not lefs fingular than the leaf. We owe the right explanation of its 
ftraéture to Linneus, for others have confounded the upper cup with the petals. ; 
That author places it among the polyandria monogynia 5 the threads in the flower being numerous, 
and rifing from the receptacle, and the ftyle from the rudiment of the fruit fingle. 
1. Short-leaved purple Saracena. 
Saracena foltis gibbis brevioribus. 
The root is compofed of numerous thick fibres. 
The leaves that rife from it are large, and of a 
very ftrange and fingular figure: they are ob- 
long, hollow, and {welled , narrow at the bafe, 
broader and gibbous upward, and toward the top 
they again grow fmaller by way of neck : from 
this part the edge is carried out into a great lip or 
ear furrounding the opening, which is very broad. 
The whole leaf is of a dufky green colour, of a 
very tough and firm fubftance, and marked with 
‘a number of thick, irregular veins. 
The ftalk rifes up in the midft of the tuft of 
leaves, and is flender, perfectly upright, and 
naked. 
It fupports on its top a fingle fower, which is 
very large and beautiful : its fhape refembles that 
of the globe- flower, and its colour is a faint purple. 
The feed-veffel is large, and the feeds are nu- 
merous, roundifh, but terminating in a point, 
and fmall. 
It is a native of America, and grows in wet 
places. It flowers in July. ' 
Authors have called it by a variety of names. 
‘The firft knowledge of the plant was from Clufius, 
but that was very imperfect. He never faw more 
than a fingle leaf of it, and the figure of a tuft of 
thefe with the rudiments of a ftalk, but without 
any thing relating to the flower. 
This he received from an apothecary of 
Paris, who had it from Lifbon, but knew no- 
thing more of it: probably it had been brought 
thither from the Brazils. 
This Clufius publithed ; and he gueffed the plant 
to be a fp<cies of imonium; or of fome genus al- 
lied to it. From Clufius, the figure, defcription, 
and name of limonio congener got to the common 
Englith writers, who called it alfo bollow-leaved 
fea-lavender, and the firange bollow-leaved plant. 
Since this time many of the curious have met 
with it, and the flower is become known, which we 
find is not at all lefs fingular than the leaves : but 
when the entire plant was feen, there was a great 
deal of perplexity where to put it, and by what 
name to call it.” 
Morifon calls it Coilophyllum Virginianum breviore 
folio et flore. Plukenet, Bucanephyllum Americanum 
Limonio congener diftum. C. Bauhine named it at 
random, Limonium peregrinum foliis forma floris 
Arifpolochia. 
2. Long-leaved yellow Saracena. 
Saracena foliis longioribus anguftis. 
The root is compofed of thick, long, and black 
fibres. 
The leaves rife in a tuft, and ftand tolerably 
erect: they are hollow in the mariner of the others, 
but they are very long, flender, and regularly 
fhaped : they are fmalleft at the bafe, and thence 
go up gradually encreafing to the top; fo that 
they perfectly reprefent a long, flender cone in- 
verted : at the top they are open, and there rifes 
there a roundifh, pointed lip, from a frnall neck: 
they are of a firm fubftance, and deep green, 
and they have large ribs Tunning lengthwife. 
The round part at the top has alfo fome large 
veins, which f{pread from a Principal one in the 
middle. 
The ftalk rifes in the centre of this clufter, and 
is naked, flender, upright, and of a purplifh co- 
Jour at the bottom, anda pale yellowith green to- 
ward the top. 
The flower is very large and yellow : one ftands 
at the top of the ftalk, and no more; its form is 
the fame with that of the preceding, 
The feed-veffel is round and large, and the 
feedls are very numerous, and of a dark brown. 
It is a native of America, and, like the former, 
lives in wet places. It flowers in July. 
C. Bauhine calls this Turis Limpidi folium, and 
it ftands under the fame name in Lobel and others. 
Plukenet calls it Bucanephyllum elatins Virginia- 
num, five Limonio congeneris altera J[pecies foliis triple 
lougioribus. Morifon, Crilophyllum Virginionum 
longiore folio ereéto, flore luteo. : 
The natives have an opinion of the leaves of 
thefe plants as a fovereign temedy againft veno- 
mous bites: they boil them in water, and, when 
they are tender, lay them upon the part; But 
this has no certain authority as to its fuccefs. 
When we became firft acquainted with that part 
of the world, there was an Opinion that the na- 
tives underftood the virtues of their plants ina 
particular manner, and great pains were taken to 
obtain the knowledge from them : but the farther 
enquiry was made, the lefs dependance it was 
found could be placed upon their accounts. They 
had among them people who had the art of im- 
pofing upon the reft, and this {kill in herbs was 
one of the great articles of their pretended know- 
ledge; but it was ufually very little. 
The END of the ELEVENTH Co LYASS"s: 
T oe 
