PLEC] 



€f)e (toa£urg at 3S0tanp« 



904 



. instead of being highly polished as 

 in most genera, are rough and fringed at 

 the edges, and give the fruit a prickly ap- 

 pearance; they contain a single seed with 

 hard even albumen and basilar embryo. 



In Java the formidably armed tails of 

 the leaves of P. elongata are used for catch- 

 ing rogues and vagabonds and run-a-muck 

 Malays. For this purpose pieces of the 

 tails are attached to the inside of a forked 

 stick, which is thrust so as to include the 

 body of the man and take firm hold of his 

 clothes or flesh. [A. S.] 



PLECTRANTHUS. The generic name 

 of plants belonging to the order Labiatce, 

 having the long tube of the corolla with a 

 dilatation or short spur below ; the border 

 has the upper lip three to four-cleft, the 

 lower entire, concave. The species are 

 herbs and shrubs, natives of the warmer 

 parts of Africa, South America, and Asia. 

 The name is from the Greek words signify- 

 ing 'spur' and 'flower,' indicative of the 

 character of the corolla. [G. D.] 



PLEEA. A genus of Melanthacere, inha- 

 biting the warmer parts of North America. 

 The species have tufted rhizomes, throw- 

 ing up rush like stems ; the leaves are 

 chiefly radical, two-ranked, evergreen, very 

 narrow and acute ; and the racemes are 

 simple, with spathaceous bracts similar to 

 the uppermost leaves. Perianth coloured 

 (brownish), with six segments united at 

 the base, and spreading ; stamens nine to 

 twelve, the filaments subulate, and the an- 

 thers linear ; ovary three-lobed, with three 

 short styles ; capsule leathery, ovate, three- 

 lobed, three-celled. [J. T. S.] 



PLEIONE. A group of half a dozen spe- 



Pleione maculata. 



cies of OrchidacecB, which, instead of form- 

 ing a separate genus, are now considered 

 only as a section of Coelogyne, distinguish- 

 ed more by habit than by constant or well- 

 marked technical characters. They are 

 dwarf epiphytal plants, with handsome 

 large membranous and generally richly- 

 coloured flowers, which appear either be- 

 fore the leaves or after very quickly de- 

 ciduous leaves, so that the flowering plants 



are leafless. All are alpine, being found 

 growing at considerable elevations in the 

 mountains of Northern and North-eastern 

 India. [A. S.] 



PLEIOPHYLLOUS. A name given to 

 such nodes as have no manifest buds. 



PLEIOS. In Greek compounds = more 

 than one ; several. 



PLEISTOS. In Greek compounds=most ; 

 a great many. 



PLENUS. Double, as in double flowers. 



PLEOCNEMIA. A fern genus of the 

 aspidioid group, in which it is known by 

 its sori having reniform indusia affixed at 

 the sinus, by its fronds being monomor- 

 phous or conformable, and by its veins 

 being reticulated and arcuately anasto- 

 mosing so as to form elongated costal 

 areoles. It includes a few large much- 

 divided tropical eastern species, some of 

 which are 'said to have a subarboreous 

 caudex. P. Leuzeana is the type. [T. M.J 



PLEOPELTIS. A name originally pro- 

 posed for a few ferns of the polypodioid 

 type, in which the sori, not covered by any 

 proper indusium, were invested with a few 

 peltate stipitate scales, which grew up 

 among the spore-cases. This group has 

 not been maintained, and the name, as 

 being the oldest available, has been trans- 

 ferred to a large group in which these 

 scale-invested species are included, and 

 to which the names Phymatodes and Dry- 

 naria have also been given. Thus extend- 

 ed, it forms the largest genus amongst the 

 net-veined Polypodiew, distinguished by 

 compoundly reticulated venation, in which 

 the areoles contain divaricate free veinlets, 

 by the fronds being free from a clothing 

 of stellate hairs (present in Niphobolus), 

 by the sori being compital and polycar- 

 pous, and by the fronds being articulated 

 with the rhizome, and monomorphous 

 in character. P. percussa, lycopodioides, 

 irioides, crassifolia, Phymatodes, tridactyla, 

 and juglandifolia are types of so many 

 subdivisions. The species are mostly tro- 

 pical, a large number from India or the 

 Eastern Archipelago, others from South 

 America or the West Indies, extending to 

 Chili, and a few from South Africa or New 

 Zealand. [T. M.J 



PLEROMA. This genus of Melastomaeecs 

 is now generally made to contain all the 

 Lasiandras, and numerous species former- 

 ly referred to Clicetogastra, Bhexia, and 

 some other genera, so that it numbers 

 nearly one hundred species, natives of tro- 

 pical South America, especially of Brazil. 

 The principal part consists of shrubs or 

 undershrubs, with large thick entire five- 

 nerved leaves, and generally large terminal 

 panicles, but sometimes solitary large pur- 

 ple violet or white flowers, with their floral 

 envelopes in fives. They have a more or 

 less oblong urceolate or campanulate calyx- 

 tube and deciduous teeth or lobes ; obovate, 

 entire or retuse, often one-sided petals ; 

 ten unequal stamens, with smooth hairy 



