PHYS 



Cf)c Crca^urj) af Matm$. 



884 



in the way before mentioned ; ovary on a 

 very short stalk bent downwards, and ri- 

 pening into a two-valved pod. The kidney- 

 shaped seeds are attached to a replum or 

 false partition, which remains behind after 

 the two valves of the fruit have fallen 

 away. [M. T. M.] 



PHYSOSTIGMA. The Ordeal-bean of 

 Old Calabar, the Esere of the natives, is 

 the type of a genus of Leguminosce of the 

 tribe Phaseolem, approaching Canavalia in 

 the character of its seeds, but with flowers 

 very like Phaseolus, except that its bearded 

 style is terminated by a great oblique hood 

 covering the blunt stigma. It is upon the 

 presence of this hood that the genus de- 

 pends for its character and name. This 

 plant, called P. venenosum, is a great 

 twining climber, with pinnately-trifoliate 

 leaves, and axillary pendulous racemes of 

 purplish bean-like flowers. Its seeds, in 

 which the popular interest in the plant 

 centres, are borne two or three together in 

 dark-brown pods about six inches in length, 

 and are of an oblong or somewhat hemi- 

 spherical form, about an inch long, rough- 

 ish but a little polished, blackish-brown 

 with a long dark sunken hilum surrounded 

 by a lighter-coloured elevated border. These 

 seeds are extremely poisonous, and are em- 

 ployed by the natives of Old Calabar as an 

 ordeal ; persons suspected of witchcraft or 

 other crime being compelled to eat them 

 until they vomit or die— the former being 

 regarded as a proof of innocence, and the 

 latter of guilt. Recent investigations in 

 this country have proved them to possess 

 valuable medicinal properties. [A. S.] 



PHYSURUS. The majority of the species 

 of this genus of orchids, of which there 

 are a considerable number, are natives of 

 the New World, the exceptions being a 

 few found in the islands of the Indian 

 Archipelago. It is the type of one of the 

 divisions (Plutsuridce) of the tribe Neottea>, 

 and consists of small terrestrial plants with 

 slender succulent roots, and slim stems 

 bearing loosely-sheathed stalked leaves, 

 often beautifully marked with veins, and 

 usually dense terminal spikes of incon- 

 spicuous flowers. They have nearly equal 

 sepals and petals, the lateral sepals placed 

 beneath the lip, and the dorsal agglutinated 

 to the petals. Their lip is parallel with the 

 column, concave, constricted below the 

 apex, and extended downwards into a fre- 

 quently swollen spur ; and their column is 

 free or adnate to the bottom of the lip, 

 straight and attenuated into an ultimately 

 bifid rostellum, having the anther at the 

 back, containing two sectile pollen-masses 

 attached to an oblong or subulate gland. 

 Some of the species are grown in this 

 country on account of the beauty of their 

 leaves. [A. S.] 



PHYTELEPHAS. The Ivory Plant of 

 South America, P. macrocarpa, producing 

 the nuts known as Marfll Vejetal or Vege- 

 table Ivory in commerce, is the representa- 

 tive of a curious genus closely allied to 

 palms, and having their habit ; but differ- 



ing from them in having an indefinite 

 number of stamens, and on that account 

 regarded by some botanists as the type of 

 a separate natural order, Phytelephantece. 

 The plant has a creeping rooting caudex 

 or trunk, terminal pinnatifid leaves, and 

 axillary flowers emitting a powerful per- 

 fume. The male and female flowers are 

 on separate trees, and the trunk of the 

 male plants is always more erect and taller 

 than that of the female. The inflorescence 

 of the male plant is a simple fleshy cylin- 

 drical spadix four feet long, with four or 

 five spathes, and crowded with flowers ; 

 while that of the female plant, which also 

 forms a simple but much shorter spadix, 

 bears from six to seven flowers, of a pure 

 white. The ovary is from six to nine-celled, 

 each cell containing a solitary ovule. The 

 style is elongated, and divided into six, 

 seven, eight, or even nine branches. The 

 fruit consists of a collection of six or seven 

 drupes, forming clusters which are as large 

 as a man's head, the drupes being covered 



Phytelephas macrocarpa. 

 outside with hard M 7 oody protuberances. 

 J Each drupe contains from six to nine seeds, 

 I the Vegetable Ivory of commerce, fashion- 

 ' ed by the American Indians, as well as by 

 I European turners, into knobs, reels of 

 spindles, toys, &c. The seed at first con- 

 j tains a clear insipid fluid, with which 

 travellers allay their thirst: afterwards 

 this same liquor becomes milky and sweet, 

 and it changes by degrees until it becomes 

 as hard as ivory. Bears, hogs, and turkeys 

 devour the young fruit with avidity. En- 

 closing the seeds is a yellow sweet oily 

 pulp, which is collected at the proper sea- 

 son, and sold, under the name of Pipa de 

 Jagua, for one real (6d.) a pound at Ocana, 

 New Granada. With the leaves the Indians 

 thatch their huts. In 1854 one thousand 

 nuts were sold in London for 7s. 6d., 

 but the price is very fluctuating. The 

 Ivory Plant has for some years been grown 

 in our hothouses. It is confined to the 

 northern parts of South America. [B. S.] 



PHYTEUMA. A genus of bellworts, 

 having the corolla wheel-shaped, its border 

 generally in five deep narrow pieces ; the 

 stigma two to three-cleft ; and the seed- 

 vessel with two to three cells, and opening 

 at the sides. The species are perennial 



