7SI 



CIjc Crtatftirj) nf 33 tang. 



[XELU 



almost free, and earn bears only one or 

 two ring-shaped anthers. There are two 

 species, one from Java, the other from the 

 Malayan peninsula : both very large trees, 

 with alternate leaves scaly-white under- 

 neath, and rather large reddish flowers 

 in short racemes or clusters along the 

 branches. The fruit is hard and woody, 

 covered with asperities, and much resem- 

 bling the durian in outer aspect, but with- 

 out its edible pulp. 



NEFLIER. (Fr) Mespilus. — COTON- 

 NIER. Cotoneaster vulgaris. — DU JA- 

 POX. Eriobotrya japonica. 



NEGRETTE. (Fr.) A kind of olive. 



NEGRO-CORN. A "West Indian name for 

 the Turkish Millet or Dhurra. 



NEGRO'S HEAD. Phytelephas macro- 

 carpa. 



NEGUXDO. A North American tree be- 

 longing to the Aceraccce, and distinguished 

 from the true maples by having pinnate 

 leaves. X. fraxini folium, the Box Elder 

 or Ash-leaved Maple, a tree of forty feet 

 1 high, growing on the banks of rivers from 

 Pennsylvania to Carolina, is sometimes 

 introduced into English shrubberies. The 

 i leaflets are opposite, deeply toothed, the 

 1 terminal one usually three-lobed. [C. A. J.] 



; NEILLIA A genus of Rosacea? of the 

 ; group SpirceidcB, and closely allied to Spircea 

 itself, from which, however, it is distin- 

 ! guished by its seeds having copious fleshy 

 albumen. Two species are known, both 

 natives of the Himalayas, and both shrubs 

 with simple doubly-serrated leaves, and 

 racemes of white flowers. [A. S.] 



NEIPPERGIA chrysantha is a species of 

 Acineta, erected into a genus by Morren. 

 The points relied upon for its separation 

 were the erect iusteadof pendulous flower- 

 racemes, and the presence of a long blunt 

 papillose horn arising from the lower part 

 of the lip; but the racemes are not always 

 erect, and other species of Acineta have 

 analogous horns of different forms. It is 

 a native of Mexico, and has long racemes 

 of large golden-yellow flowers, which have 

 an aromatic odour at night but are odour- 

 less during the day. [A. S.] 



NE5JA. A genus of Composite?, consist- 

 ing of half a dozen South Brazilian peren- 

 nials or low undershrubs, generally hispid 

 witii long spreading hairs, and bearing 

 scattered narrow linear finely pointed 

 leaves, and yellow flower-heads. In essen- 

 tial characters they only differ in their 

 rather narrower achenes from Chrysopsis, 

 with which they ought probably to be 

 united. The X. gracilis, occasionally met 

 with in our gardens, is a rather neat and 

 1 pretty greenhouse plant. 



XELSOXIA. A small genus of Acantha- 

 cece, widely distributed over tropical and 



, subtropical regions in both the OM and the 

 New Worlds. The species consist of diffuse 



! often tomentose herbs, growing in low 

 moist localities, furnished with smallish 



leaves, and small solitary flowers covered 

 by a single large bract, the lateral ones 

 being either deficient or very small. These 

 flowers are arranged in terminal or axillary 

 spikes like those of Origanum. The calyx 

 is unequally five-parted, and the corolla 

 two-lipped, with only two stamens, one 

 cell of the anther placed above the other. 

 The capsule has eight small seeds in each 

 cell. [W. C] 



NELUMBIACEiE, NELUMBIUM. A na- 

 tural order and genus of beautiful thala- 

 mifloral water-plants, belonging to Lind- 

 i ley's nymphal alliance of hypogynous Exo- 

 gens. They have an elongated horizontal 

 rootstock, from which are sent up long 

 cylindrical leafstalks, bearing the plate- 

 like leaves in a peltate manner on their 

 summit. These leaves are circular in out- 

 ; line, with radiating venation, and cover- 

 1 ed on the upper surface with a glaucous 

 bloom. The flowers are also borne on long 

 stalks, traversed like those of the leaves by 

 a number of air-canals, regularly disposed. 

 The calyx consists of four to five deciduous 

 sepals; the corolla of numerous deciduous 

 petals, arranged in several rows ; the sta- 

 mens are numerous, in several rows, at- 

 tached with the petals to the base of the 

 receptacle ; the stigma is sessile ; the re- 

 ! ceptacle or torus is in form like a funnel ; 

 ' and the ovaries, which are numerous, are 

 j placed in sockets on the upper surface ; the 

 ovule solitary, or sometimes two placed side 

 i by side. The seeds contain an embryo with- ( 

 out albumen, but with thick cotyledons, 

 and a much-developed plumule. 

 N. speciosum, the Sacred Lotus, is inter- 

 I esting for its associations, as well as for 

 I the beauty of its rose-coloured flowers. It 

 ! is found throughout India, China, Japan, 

 I Australia, the Malay and Philippine Is- 

 j lands, Persia, and even the Caspian Sea, 

 but is no longer to be met with in the Nile. 

 j Herodotus, however, describes the plant 

 with tolerable accuracy, comparing the re- 

 ! ceptacle of the, flower to a wasp's nest. 

 Strabo and Theophrastus, likewise, men- 

 tion the plant as a native of Egypt. Sculp- 

 ] tured representations of it abound among 

 , the ruins of Egyptian temples, and many 

 I other circumstances prove the veneration 

 I paid to this plant by the votaries of Isis. 

 J In a manuscript of Dioscorides supposed 

 , to be of the twelfth century, formerly 

 i in the Rinuccini library at Florence, there 

 is a figure of the NelumMwm, under the 

 name kuamos, while under the name lotos 

 a tolerably good representation of Celt-is 

 australis is given. But the worship of the 

 Lotus was by no means confined to the an- 

 cient Egyptians, for in India, Tibet, China, 

 and Japan, the plant was deemed sacred, 

 and indeed it is still employed in religious 

 ! invocations and ceremonies. The leaves 

 ; are covered with a fine microscopic down, 

 which, by retaining a film of air over the 

 upper surface, prevents it from being 

 wetted when water is poured on it, the 

 water rolling off in drops; this has a very 

 pretty appearance, the drops of water look- 

 ing like drops of molten silver. The Hin- 



