X A N 



X A N 



5. X. parvtflora. Small-flowered Xanthe. Willd. n. 2. 

 (Quapoya Pana-panari ; Aubl. Guian. 900. t. 344.) — Leaves 

 elliptic-oblong. Flowers nearly feffile. Capfule elliptical. 



Native of the fame country'. Differs from the preceding 



in having thinner leaves ; fmaller Jlo'-juer:, with fhorter par- 

 tial ftalks ; and an oblong, thicker, yellowilh fruit. The 

 barl and leaves, if cut or broken, difcharge a yellow gluti- 

 nous juice, which, when dried, refembles Gamboge, and is, 

 like that fubftance, foluble in water. Auhlet. 



XANTHICA, 'S.'j.-Ami., in Antiquity, a Macedonian fefti- 

 val, fo called becaufe it was obferved in the month Xan- 

 thus, at which time the whole royal family with the army 

 was purified. See Lustratiok. 



XANTHIUM, in Botany, moft unqueftionably the 

 %%Am of Diofcorides, book 4. chap. 138, as appears by his 

 very apt defcription, owes its name to the ufe made of 

 unripe fruit by the Greeks, to dye the hair yellow. 

 Our common Englifh fpecies, X. Jlrumarium, is evidently 

 the identical plant of Diofcorides, and its fpecific name 

 alludes to a reputed virtue of curing tumours. — Linn. 

 Gen. 487. Schreb. 635. Willd. Sp. PI. v. 4. 373. Mart. 

 Mill. Dia. V. 4. Sm. Fl. Brit. 1017. Prodr. Fl. Gric. 

 Sibth. V. 2. 234. Ait. Hort. Kew. v. 5. 268. Purfh 581. 

 Juff. 191. Tourn. t. 252. Lamarck Illuftr. t. 765. Gasrtn. 



t. 164 Clafs and order, Monoecia Pentandr'ia. Nat. Ord. 



Compofit£ nucamentaces, Linn. Corymblfera anomalie, Juff. 



Gen. Ch. Male flowers compound. Common Calyx of 

 many imbricated, llender, equal fcales, as long as the nu- 

 merous florets. Cor. compound, uniform, equal, hemi- 

 fpherical, confiding of numerous, tubular, funnel-fliaped, 

 monopetalous, upright, five-cleft florets. Stam. Filaments 

 in each floret five, united into a cylinder ; anthers ereft, 

 parallel, diftinft. Common Receptacle fmall, with chaffy fcales 

 between the florets. 



Female flowers below the male, on the fame plant, 

 doubled. Cal. Involucrum two-flowered, of two oppoCte, 

 acutely three-lobed leaves, (their middle lobe longeft,) 

 befet with hooked prickles, and clofely enfolding, as well 

 as united to, the germen, except the lobes, which are 

 free. Cor. none. Pifl. Germen oval, hifpid ; ftyles two 

 pair, capillary ; ftigmas fimple. Peru. Drupa dry, ovate- 

 oblong, cloven at the point, clothed all over with hooked 

 prickles. Seed. Nut of two cells. 



Eflf. Ch. Male, Common Calyx imbricated. Florets of 

 one petal, funnel-fhaped, five-cleft. Receptacle chaffy. 



Female, Calyx two-leaved, two-flowered. Corolla none. 

 Drupa dry, muricated, cloven. Nut of two cells. 



Obf. Linnsus remarks, that the fruit of Xanlhium 

 could fcarcely have been well underftood, without a previous 

 knowledge of that of Amlrojia. Thefe genera in faft be- 

 long to that ambiguous tribe, whofe habit, qualities, and in 

 part the ftrufture of their male flowers, all affociate them 

 with the compound or fyngenefious order ; while the 

 difunion of their flowers, and the general nature of their 

 female flowers, and fruit, necefTarily refer them to the 

 Dicimes, or in the artificial fyftem of Linnaeus, the clafs 

 Monoecia. 



I. X. Strumarium. Common Burweed, or Small Bur- 

 dock. Linn. Sp. PI. 1400. Willd. n. i. Ait. n. i. 

 Fl. Brit. n. I. Engl. Bot. t. 2544. Fl. Dan. t. 970. 

 Bigelow Boft. 221. (Xanthium; Fuch's Hift. 579. Ga- 

 mer. Epit. 926, X. feu Lappa minor ; Mattb. Valgr. v. 2. 

 545. Bardana minor; Ger. Em. 809. ) — Stem without 

 thorns. Leaves heart-fhaped ; three-ribbed at the bafe. — 

 Native of dung-hilh, and rich moid ground, in various 

 couatries of Europe, as well as North America, flowering 



towards autumn. In this ifland it is of very rare occur- 

 rence, though occafioually met with about London, arid in 

 the wed. Dr. Sibthorp noticed the plant in many parts of 

 Greece, where the foil is rich and rather wet, and found it 

 called, by the modem Greeks, KoWnT^lSoi ; a name alluding 

 to its bur-like property, rather than to the quality on which 

 its ancient appellation is founded. The root is annual. 

 Iferi branched, rough, dark green, rather foetid, of a coarfe 

 rank habit, with furrowed, rather hairy, branches. Leaves 

 alternate, fl;alked, heart-fliaped, acutely lobed, and toothed 

 or ferrated ; their two lateral ribs marginal, for a fmall 

 fpace, at the bafe, as in the great Burdock, Ar&ium 

 Lappa, and a few other plants. Male Jloiuers globular, 

 green, few together, in axillary or terminal clujltrs, about 

 the upper part of the branches ; female in axillary feffile 

 tufts. Fruit elliptical, double-pointed, hard, near an inch 

 long, befet with firm, prominent, awl-(haped, hooked 

 prickles, which attach themfelves to the coats of animals, 

 and thus ferve to difperfe the feeds. 



2. X. orientale. Oriental Burweed. Linn. Sp. PI. 

 1400. Willd. n. 2. Ait. n. 2 ? Linn. Fil. Dec. 33. 

 t. 17. " Schkuhr Handb. v. 3. 239. t. 291." — Stem 

 without thorns. Leaves ovate, flighdy three-lobed, fome- 



what triple-ribbed ; wedge-fhaped at the bafe Native of 



Ceylon, Japan, and China, from which lad country it was 

 imported, according to the younger Linnseus, with other 

 feeds for the Upfal garden, in 1761. Sir Hans Sloane is 

 recorded by Ray as having introduced this Xanthium into 

 England in 1685; but their plant feems to have been a 

 flight variety of the fird, figured by Morifon, feft. 15. 

 t. 2. f. 2, found in America, and not anfwering to the dif- 

 tinftive characters of the prefent fpecies, though Morifon, 

 and others who fpeak of this variety, are cited by Linnjeus 

 and Willdenow. The true X. orientale is an annual herb, 

 of a more /lender habit than the Strumarium, and more 

 harfh, though lefs hairy. Their effential differences are in- 

 dicated in our fpecific charafters. The mod remarkable 

 feems to be the taper bafe of the leaves, in the prefent fpe- 

 cies, and the union of their three rib?, at a greater or lefs 

 didance, above the infertion of the footjlalt. The fruit is 

 twice as large as the foregoing, with pecuUarly drongly 

 hooked thorns. 



3. X. echinatum. Compound-thorned Burweed. " Mur- 

 ray in Comm. Goett. for 1784, with a figure." Willd. 



n. 3 " Stem without thorns. Fruit oval ; its prickles 



hooked, crowded, compound at the bafe." Annual. — Its 

 native country unknown. Willdeno<w. We have not feen 

 either a fpecimen or figure. 



4. X. fpinofum. Spinous Burweed. Linn. Sp. PI. 

 1400. Willd. n. 4. Ait. n. 3. (X. fpinofum, atriplicis 

 folio ; Morif. feft. 15. t. 2. f. 3. X. lufitanicum fpinofum ; 

 Herm. Parad. 246, with a figure. Volkam. Norib. 404, 

 with a figure. X. lufitanicum, laciniatum, vahdiffimis acu- 

 leis munitum ; Magnol. Hort. 208. t. 20.) — Stipulas 

 thorny, three-cleft. Leaves lanceolate, three-lobed ; hoary 

 beneath. — Native of the fouth of France, as well as of 

 Italy, Spain, and Portugal. It might be raifed here as a 

 tender annual, and planted out in a border, were there 

 fufBcient beauty in its copious, long, flame-coloured 

 thorns, to entitle it to a place in the flower-garden. The 

 leerues are not inelegant. Their upper furface is of a fine 

 green, nearly fmooth ; the lower downy and white. The 

 thorns are in faft flipulas, an inch long, very /harp, ftand- 

 ing in pairs at the bafe of each footflalh, feparating juft 

 above their origin into three fpreading needle-hke points. 

 Flowers fmall and inconfiderable. Fruit oval, covered with 



B 2 copious. 



