SS5 



€f)c €r*a3urji ai 3S0taug. 



herbs, natives of the temperate parts of 

 Europe and Asia ; they are generally hand- 

 some, and some are well known in cultiva- 

 tion. [G. D.] 



PHTTOCHLORE. Green colouring mat- 

 ter ; chlorophyll. 



PHYTOCRENACELE. A natural group 

 of thalamifloral dicotyledons belonging to 

 Lindley's urtical alliance of diclinous Exo- 

 gens. They are climbing shrubs.with en- 

 tire or palmate leaves, and small unisexual 

 flowers in panicles or clusters. The males 

 have four to five sepals, four to flvevalvate 

 petals alternate with the sepals, and four 

 to five introrse stamens, the filaments aris- 

 ing from an androphore. The females have 

 four to five sepals and petals, abortive 

 stamens, a one-celled ovary on a gynophore, 

 with two ovules, a thick style, and a large 

 stiguia. Fruit a series of drupes collected 

 into a large globular mass ; seed albumin- 

 ous ; cotyledons large and leafy. They are 

 all natives of warm climates. The group is, 

 however, by some botanists reerarded as a 

 tribe of Olacacece. [J. H. BJ 



PHYTOCRENE. A genus of climbing 

 shrubs, with stalked heart-shaped or pal- 

 mate alternate leaves ; and small flowers, 

 in small pea-shaped. heads, on racemes that 

 emerge from near^the base of the trunk. 

 The flowers are dioecious, arranged on glo- 

 bular fleshy receptacles. The males have 

 a four-parted calyx and corolla, with four 

 stamens united below, and attached to a 

 short stalk supporting the rudimentary 

 pistil. In the females the pistil is stalked, 

 with a large and thick style terminated by 

 a cushion-shaped stigma. The fruit is 

 fleshy, one-celled, one or two-seeded. The 

 wood of these shrubs is soft and porous, 

 and of peculiar structure. When living it 

 is full of a limpid watery sap, which is 

 drunk by the natives of ITartaban. The 

 name of the genus, signifying 'plant-foun- 

 tain,' denotes this quality. [M. T. M.] 



PHTTOEROSIA. That part of Botany 

 which relates to the diseases of plants. 



PHYTOGELIN. The gelatinous matter 

 of algals. 



PHTTOGRAPHT. That part of Botany 

 which teaches the art of describing plants. 



PHYTOLACCACE-E. (Bivinacece, Phyto- 

 laccads.) A natural order of monocblamy- 

 deous dicotyledons belonging to Lindley's ' 

 chenopodal alliance of hypogynous Exo- j 

 gens. They are undershrubs or herbs, with | 

 alternate entire often dotted leaves ; and 

 are natives of warm countries in America, 

 Asia, and Africa. Perianth four to five- | 

 parted ; stamens indefinite, or alternate , 

 with the perianth segments ; ovary of one j 

 or several carpels, distinct or combined, j 

 each with one ovule. Fruit fleshy or dry, ; 

 indehiscent, sometimes samaroid ; seeds 

 solitary. There are twenty known genera, ; 

 including Phytolacca and Rivina, and com- 

 prising about eighty species. There is 

 frequently much acridity in the plants of 



this order, and some of them act as irri- 

 tant emetics and purgatives. [J. H. B.] 



PHYTOLACCA. The typical genus of 

 the Pliytolaccaceai, distinguished by its 

 flowers having a six-parted calyx with 

 coloured petal-like or thin green segments, 

 which have membranous edges and are at 

 length retlexed under the ripe fruit ; by 

 the stamens varying from five to twenty- 

 five in number, of which five are exterior 

 and alternate with the calyx-segments and 

 the rest opposite them ; and by the com- 

 pound ovary being composed of from five 

 to twelve carpels arranged in awhorl round 

 a concave torus, with their sides growing 

 together throughout their whole length so 

 as to form a solid ovary, which is crowned 

 by Ave to twelve separate short styles 

 curved outwards. It is distributed through- 

 out the tropical and subtropical regions of 

 both hemispheres, but is most abundant 

 in the western. About ten species are 

 known, which are mostly tall herbs or 

 rarely shimbs, with alternate entire fea- 

 ther-veined leaves, and simple spike-like 

 racemes of flowers opposite the leaves, 

 producing succulent berry-like many-cell- 

 ed fruits of a somewhat globular shape 

 but usually flattened at the top, each cell 

 containing a single brittle-shelled seed. 



P. decandra, the Pocan, or Virginian Poke 

 or Poke-weed, is a brandling herbaceous 

 plant, with a smooth green or sometimes 

 purplish stem, from six to twelve feet high, 

 with large green or purplish leaves, and 

 erect flower racemes longer than the leaves, 

 the flowers having ten stamens and ten 

 carpels. Its dark-purple, berries, called 

 Raisin d'Amerique by the French, contain 

 a purplish-red juice somewhat resembling 

 red ink, and hence it is sometimes called 

 the Red-ink Plant. A tincture of them has 

 acquired a reputation in the United States 

 as a remedy for some forms of chronic 

 rheumatism, and was once a celebrated 

 remedy for cancer. The root is an emetic 

 and cathartic ; and the young shoots, 

 though extremely acrid, are rendered harm- 

 less by boiling, and are eaten in the United 

 States in the same way as asparagus. It is 

 found not only in the United States, but 

 in the Azores, North Africa, and China. 



P. icosandra is a much smaller plant than 

 the last, seldom growing more than two 

 or three feet high. It has a shrubby stem, 

 and long smooth reddish-tinted herbaceous 

 branches, bearing elliptical sharp-pointed 

 leaves from three to six or more inches in 

 length, and long graceful drooping racemes 

 of flowers, which con tain from ten to twenty 

 stamens and as many carpels, and produce 

 dark-purple or almost jet-black berries 

 about the size of peas but flat at the top. 

 It is widely spread over the American con- 

 tinent, extending from Rio de Janeiro to 

 Mexico, and is also found in several of the 

 West Indian islands. 



In the island of Oahu the natives cook 

 and eat the leaves of a species of Phytolacca, 

 which they call Poporo-tumai, and is per- 

 haps P. brachystachys ; and in the West 

 Indies the berries of P. octandra, the Ver- 



