PROCESSION-FLOWER. Poll/gala vul- 

 garis. 



PROCKIA (including KeUettia). A ge- 

 nus of tropical shrubs erroneously placed 

 amongst Flacourtiacece, but belonging 

 realiyto the Tiliacece. P. Cruris (KeUettia 

 odorata), a native of the West Indies and 

 the Isthmus of Panama, may be regarded 

 as the type of the genus ; and has sweet- 

 scented flowers.reminding one of the odour 

 of linden-blossoms. The plants have a 

 three to five-cleft calyx, no corolla, an in- 

 definite number of stamens, and a dry 

 berry enclosing from four to six nearly 

 round seeds. The leaves are alternate, quite 

 entire or toothed ; and the flowers appear 

 in small racemes, and are occasionally uni- 

 sexual. [B. SJ 



PROCRASSTTLA. A name applied to 

 some species of Crassula, e.g. G. rub ens, 

 but not generally adopted. [B. S.] 



PROCRIS. A genus of Urticacece, con- 

 sisting of undershrubs or shrubs remark- 

 able for their foliage. The leaves are 

 distichous, that is to say, arranged in 

 pairs on opposite sides of the branch and 

 in the same place, but not quite opposite, 

 those of each pair being very unequal in 

 size, the small one inserted a little higher 

 up than the large one. The flowers are 

 small green and axillary, the males in 

 small clusters or cymes, with a five-cleft 

 perianth and five stamens, the females 

 crowded on a globular or club-shaped 

 fleshy receptacle in a small head, which as 

 it ripens assumes somewhat the aspect of 

 a strawberry. There are about half a dozen 

 species known, natives of the East Indies, 

 and of the islands of the Indian and Pacific 

 Oceans. 



PROCUMBENT. Lying flat upon the 

 ground. 



PROEMBRYO. The reproductive part 

 of a spore; the youngest thallus of a 

 lichen. 



PROLIFERATIO. The production of 

 one organ by a very different one ; as that 

 of cup-like appendages by leaves, or of 

 branches by flowers. 



PROMEN^A. The five species of this 

 genus of orchids were formerly included 

 in Maxilloria ; but on the revision of that 

 genus some years ago, they were separated 

 under the above name, and characterised 

 as follows :— Sepals spreading ; lip three- 

 lobed, crested or much tuberculated at its 

 middle ; column short, semiterete ; pollen- 

 masses four, sessile in two pairs on an 

 ovate gland. Reichenbach considers it a 

 section of Zyg<ypetalum. They are small 

 plants with one or two-leaved pseudo- 

 bulbs, and radical one or rarely two- 

 flowered peduncles. [A S.] 



PRONAYA A West Australian genus 

 of Pittosyoracece, containing only one spe- 

 cies, P. elegans, which has a five-leaved 

 calyx with acuminate sepals ; flv£ obovate 

 petals, their apices slightly revorate ; five 

 erect stamens with arrow-headed anthers; 



and a short round style and acute stigma ; 

 the fruit being a cylindrical many-seeded 

 berry. They are climbing or erect shrubs, 

 with alternate oblong-linear leaves, and 

 blue flowers in racemes at the ends of the 

 branches. [R. H.] 



PROPAGTNES. Deciduous axillary bulbs 

 formed on the stem of some plants. 



PROPAGO. The branch that is bent 

 down in the operation of layering. 



PROPAGULA. The powder-like grains 

 which constitute the soredia of lichens. 



PROPAGULUM. A runner or slender 

 branch proceeding from the surface of the 

 ground, ending in an expanded leaf-bud, 

 and capable of propagation, as in the house- 

 leek. See Offset. 



PROPHET'S-PLOWER. The name given 

 by Indian Mussulmans to Arnebia echioides. 



PROPHYSES. The abortive pistillidia 

 of the muscal alliance. 



PROSARTES. A genus of Melanthacece, 

 consisting of downy herbs, inhabiting 

 North America, with the stems divergingly 

 branched above, and having sessile ovate 

 leaves, and drooping greenish-yellow flow- 

 ers on terminal peduncles, solitary or a few 

 in a simple umbel. The perianth is bell- 

 shaped, with six equal deciduous leaves ; 

 filaments long; style undivided, with three 

 short stigmas ; berry ovoid or oblong, red 

 with three to six seeds. [J. T. S.] 



PROSCOLLA. A viscid gland on the 

 upper side of the stigma of orchids, to 

 which the pollen-masses become attached. 



PROSENCHYMA. Short cellular tissue, 

 having acute extremities. 



PROSERPINACA. A small genus of pe- 

 rennial aquatic plants belonging to the 

 Haloragacece, inhabiting North America. 

 Stems creeping at the base, with alternate 

 serrate or pectinate leaves, and axillary 

 flowers, solitary or two or three together ; 

 tube of calyx three-sided, the limb three- 

 parted ; petals none ; stamens three ; stig- 

 mas three ; fruit bony, three-angled, three- 

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



PROSOPIS. A genus of Leguminosce, of 

 the suborder Mimosece, consisting of trees 

 or shrubs often armed with hooked prickles 

 or with stout axillary spines, or with both. 

 The small green or yellowish flowers are 

 closely sessile in little heads or spikes, and 

 have the valvular corolla and ten stamens 

 with glandular anthers of Entada ; but the 

 pod, more or less thickened, and either 

 straight or variously twisted, is indehis- 

 cent, with a thick endocarp, and filled in 

 between the seeds with a pulpy succulent 

 or sometimes mealy or pithy substance. 

 The leaves are twice-pinnate, generally 

 rigid and of a glaucous hue, with only one 

 or two pairs of pinnte, but with a consider- 

 able number of leaflets. 



There are several species scattered over 

 the warmer regions of America, Asia, and 

 Africa. Amongst them P. dulcis, with se- 



3 O 



