! 919 



GTrjc Crca^uru at 33otan«. 



[poor 



included -within the corolla, with beardless 

 anthers, peltate beneath the middle; and 

 a five-celled capsule. A dense shrub, with 

 solitary erect flowers, the leaves cucullate 

 at the base and sharp-pointed. It is a na- 

 tive of New South "Wales. [R. H.] 



PONCIRADE. (Fr.) Melissa. 



PONCIRE. (Fr.) A large variety of 

 Lemon. 



POXDEUSE. (Fr.) Solarium ovigerum. 



POXDWEED. Potamogeton; also Lemna. 

 —.HORNED. Zannichellia. -.TASSEL. 

 Euppia. 



PONERA. From the Greek poneros, 

 •unhappy,' in allusion to the thin appear- 

 ance of the plants of this genus of orchids. 

 All the species have simple slender lanky 

 stems, very narrow grass-like leaves, and 

 small axillary flowers in tufts upon the 

 young leafy or the old leafless stems. They 

 have erect fleshy sepa*$, the lateral ones 

 largest and connate with the elongated 

 foot of the column ; free petals ; a naked 

 two-lobed wedge-shaped lip articulate with 

 the foot of the column, which is short and 

 terete ; and a membranous four-celled an- 

 I ther, containing four pollen-masses adher- 

 ing in pairs by means of two powdery cau- 

 dicles. The species are natives of Central 

 America and the West Indies. [A. SJ 



PONG AMI A. Several species have from 

 time to time been included in this genus 

 of leguminous plants, but they are now 

 referred to Derris and other genera, and 

 only the original species {P. glabra) upon 

 which it was established, remains. As a 

 genus, however, it is scarcely distinguish- 

 able from the tropical American and Afri- 

 can Lonchocarpus, its flowers agreeing per- 

 fectly with those of that genus, and of 

 Derris, Piscidia, and Midlera ; but its pods 

 are somewhat different, beinpr of an oblong 

 form, from an inch and a half to two inches 

 long, and an inch broad, flattened but 

 thick and hard, and with rounded not wing- 

 ed edges ; and they contain only one seed, 

 which is thick and kidney-shaped. 



P. glabra is a tree extensively diffused 

 throughout Southern India, Pegu, Malacca, 

 and the Indian Archipelago, and alsofound 

 in Southern China, North Australia, and 

 the Feejee Islands. It has smooth pinnate 

 leaves, composed of five or seven egg- 

 shaped or broadly elliptical leaflets, ar- 

 ranged in pairs with a terminal odd one ; 

 and loose axillary racemes of flowers. In 

 India an oil, called Kurunj, or Poonga oil, 

 is expressed from the seeds, and greatly 

 used for mixing with lamp-oil, or by the 

 poorer classes for burning without any ad- 

 mixture. It is of a deep-yellow colour 

 inclining to reddish-brown, and is fluid at 

 temperatures above 60° F.ahr., but below 

 that it becomes solid. The tree has been 

 recommended as suitable for forming ave- 

 nues in the south of France. [A. S.] 



PONOPILINO. Pedilanthus tithymaloides 

 and P. padifolius. 



PONTEDERACE.E. (Pontederads.) A 



natural order of monocotyledons belong- 

 ing to Lindley's lilial alliance of Endogens. 

 They are aquatic or marsh plants, with 

 sheathing parallel-veined leaves, which 

 are sometimes cordate or sagittate, and 

 have inflated petioles, and spathaceous 

 flowers. Perianth tubular, coloured, six- 

 parted, circinate in aestivation ; stamens 

 three to six, the anthers introrse ; ovary 

 free, or slightly adherent, three-celled; 

 style one ; stigma simple. Fruit a three- 

 celled three-valved capsule, with loculici- 

 dal dehiscence ; seeds indefinite, attached 

 to a central axis. They are natives of North 

 and South America, the East Indies, and 

 Africa, and are unimportant in regard to 

 properties. There are six genera, inclu- 

 ding Pontederia and Leptanthus, and about 

 , thirty species. [J. H. B.] 



PONTEDERIA. A genus of Pontede- 

 1 raceee, now restricted to those species 

 which have two of the cells of the ovary 

 barren, and a one-celled utricular fruit 

 with a single seed. They are stout Ameri- 

 can herbs, growing in shallow water, with 

 creeping rhizomes, long-stalked leaves 

 (generally heart-shaped at the base), and a 

 one-leaved stem, terminated by a raceme 

 of purplish-blue flowers which are two- 

 lipped, the upper three segments united to 

 form the three-lobed upper lip, and the 

 three lower spreading ; stamens six, the 

 three upper shorter and often sterile. 

 P. cordata, the Pickerel-weed, is a common 

 North American aquatic, with the leaves 

 somewhat arrow-shaped, and a dense spike 

 of blue flowers. [J. T. S.] 



| PONTHIEVA. Of the two species of this 

 genus of the Neottene tribe of orchids, one 

 is exclusively "West Indian, and the other 

 "West Indian and American, from Carolina 

 to Ecuador. They are both terrestrial 

 plants with tufted roots, broad veiny radi- 

 cal leaves, and many-flowered terminal 

 scapes clothed with glandular pubescence. 

 Their flowers have the lip posterior and 

 adnate to the column together with the 

 petals, a beaked column, and a dorsal ob- 

 long linear stalked anther, containing two 

 bilobed pollen-masses. [A. S.] 



I PONT. Tecoma serratifolia. 



| POOAH, or PUYA. An Indian name for 

 ! Bohmeria Puya, from which a valuable 

 fibre is obtained. 



; POODINA. An Indian name for Mentha 

 : sativa. 



POOL-REED. Phragmitis communis. 

 POOL-RUSH. Tijpha. 

 POON-WOOD. An Indian wood, the 

 produce of one or two species of Calophyl- 

 lum. 



POOR-MANS PARMACETTT. Capsella 

 Bursa Pastoris. 



POOR-MAN'S TREACLE. Allium. 



POOR-MAN'S "WEATHERGLASS. Ana- 

 gallis arvensis. 



