PGECl] 



QH)t t&vtKiuty of JSotang. 



910 



calyx is persistent, and as the fruit ripens 

 it bursts irregularly in two or three places ; 

 its tube is leathery, coloured, deeply con- 

 tracted at the throat, and its limb divided 

 into five very short teeth : corolla thick, 

 bell-shaped with a short tube, the limb 

 plaited, five-lobed ; stamens five, within the 

 corolla, the anthers opening lengthwise; 

 ovary two-celled ; stigma club-shaped, two- 

 lobed on the end of the style, which equals 

 the stamens in length. The fruit is pea- 

 shaped, succulent, and of a red colour. The 

 generic name is derived from the Greek 

 words poikilos and chroma, signifying va- 

 ried or spotted colour; and alludes to the 

 corolla, which is described as handsome, 

 of an orange-colour with reddish spots. 

 So showy a plant is not likely long to be 

 absent from our greenhouses. [M. T. MJ 



PCECILOPTERIS. A genus of tropical 

 mostly Eastern ferns of the tribe Acro- 

 stichece. They havs pinnate often vivipa- 

 rous fronds, and the usual dimorphous 

 character of the group, in which they are 

 principally distinguished by their venules 

 being arcuato-angulariy united between 

 the pinnate primary veins, and furnished 

 with excurrent veinlets. It is the same 

 as Cyrtogonium and Heteroneuron, [T. M.] 



POEROU. The Tahitian name for Hibis- 

 cus tiliaceus. 



POGON A beard ; in Greek compounds 

 = any collection of long hairs. 



POGONETES. A South-west Australian 

 genus of Goodeniacece, founded upon the 

 Scccvola spinescens. The plant is shrubby, 

 spinescent, with quite entire oval or obo- 

 vate leaves, and solitary-flowered axillary 

 peduncles. [R. H.] 



POGONIA. Terrestrial orchids with 

 spherical tubers, and either having one or 

 a few sessile leaves upon an erect stem at 

 the period of flowering, or leafless till after 

 flowering, and then producing a solitary 

 stalked leaf from an underground stem. 

 Their flowers are solitary or loosely race- 

 mose, and have free conniving or some- 

 what ringent sepals and petals, either all 

 nearly equal or the petals smaller; a free 

 erect undivided or lobed lip, with its disk 

 crested papillose or bearded ; a long semi- 

 terete clavate column, eared or winged at 

 the top ; and a sessile or very shortly stalk- 

 ed two-celled anther, containing two fur- 

 rowed pollen-masses. The genus belongs 

 to the Arethusece tribe, and contains about 

 fifteen or twenty species, widely spread 

 throughout America and Asia. [A. S.J 



POGOSTEMON A rather numerous ge- 

 nus of LabmtcB, consisting of tall herbs 

 found in various parts of tropical Asia, but 

 principally in India and Ceylon. They have 

 opposite stalked leaves, and flowers col- 

 lected into dense clusters or whorls form- 

 ing terminal interrupted spikes or close 

 panicles. The flowers have an unequally 

 five-toothed calyx ; a somewhat two-lipped 

 corolla, with tbe upper lip three-lobed and 

 the lower entire and rather longer ; and 

 four nearly equal stamens longer than the 



corolla, and sometimes slightly bent down- 

 wards, the filaments usually covered with 

 long hairs, and the anthers one-celled. 



P. Patchouly affords the celebrated Pat- 

 chouli perfume or Pucha-pat of the Hin- 

 doos. It is a shrubby herb about two feet 

 high, a native of Sylhet, Penang, and Ma- 

 lacca ; and has broadly egg-shaped stalked 

 leaves between three and four inches in 

 length, with the margins slightly lobed 

 and round-toothed ; and both terminal and 

 axillary dense spikes of small whitish flow- 



Pogostemon Patchouly. 



ers tinged with purple. Although the 

 odour of Patchouli is certainly peculiar, 

 and even disagreeable to some people, it is 

 highly popular not only in Europe but in 

 India, where it is one of the commonest 

 perfumes found in the bazaars. The odo- 

 riferous part of the plant is the leaves and 

 young tops, and by distillation these yield 

 a volatile oil from which essence of Pat- 

 chouli is prepared ; .sachets of Patchouli, 

 however, are made of the coarsely-powder- 

 ed leaves. Genuine Indian shawls and In- 

 dian ink were formerly distinguished by 

 their odour of Patchouli, but since the 

 perfume has become common in Europe 

 the test does not hold good. Ill effects, 

 such as loss of appetite and sleep, nervous 

 attacks, &c, have been ascribed to the ex- 

 cessive employment of Patchouli as a per- 

 fume. [A. S.j 



POHUTU-KAWA. A useful New Zea- 

 land timber tree, Metrosideros tomentosa. 



POIL DE LOUP. (Fr.) Poarigida; also 

 Festuca ovina. 



POINCIANA. A genus of Leguminosce 

 of the suborder Ccesalpiniece, closely allied 

 to Cwsalpinia itself, and originally distin- 

 guished from it by the great length to 

 which the stamens project from the corolla. 

 It is now, however, more properly confined 

 to two trees— P. elata from India and 

 Arabia, and P. regia from Madagascar— in 

 which the calyx is valvate in the bud, 

 whilst in the true Ccesalpinias it is much 

 imbricated. Both the above trees are very 



