1233 



CJ)£ CrnuSurjj of tetany, 



[wild I 



cially applied In this country to the fruit of 

 Vaccinium Myrtillus; sometimes also ap- 

 plied to the fruit of Oxycoccus. — , RED 

 or MOUNT IDA. Vaccinium Yitis idtea. 



Wl. The Feejean name for Spondias 

 dulcis. 



WIBELIA. Davallia. 



WICHFR-EA. A genus of Australian 

 shrubs of the family Rhamnacece. The 

 branches are somewhat spiny; the leaves 

 linear, somewhat tufted; the stipules mem- 

 branous, persistent; and the flowers nearly 

 sessile at the ends of the branches, sur- 

 rounded by dry membranous bracts. The 

 calyx-tube is dilated, its limb divided 

 into Ave triangular acute segments; petals 

 five, stalked , stamens five; diskflve-lobed, 

 hairy, the lobes overhanging the semi- 

 adherent three-celled ovary ; style distinct ; 

 stigma three-toothed : capsule surrounded 

 by the persistent calyx and corolla, sur- 

 mounted by the style, and girt at the base 

 by the disk, when ripe dividing into three 

 valves; seeds three. It is by some included 

 in Cryptandra. [31. T. 31.] 



WICKSTR03IIA This genus of Thyme- 

 lacece consists of about twenty species, 

 scattered over Tropical and Subtropical 

 Asia Australia and the Pacific Islands, 

 some of them being small trees, and others 

 shrubs. It is distinguished from Daphne 

 by its usually opposite always deciduous 

 leaves, and by its flowers having four small 

 narrow scales below the ovary. The flowers 

 are disposed in short terminal or axillary 

 racemes or spikes, and have a tubular 

 coloured calyx with four spreading lobes, 

 without any scales in the orifice ; eight 

 stamens, with scarcely any filaments, in 

 two rows near the top or the calyx-tube ; 

 and an ovary ending in a short style, and 

 round-headed stigma. The fruits are small 

 single-seeded berries, at first enclosed in 

 the calyx but ultimately free, the calyx 

 splitting open and falling away. W. indica 

 is a large tree-like shrub, common on the 

 sea-shores of Tropical Eastern Australia, 

 the Feejee, Society, and other Polynesian 

 islands, where the natives use its bark 

 (which, like that of other daphnads, con- 

 tains an extremely tough and easily-separa- 

 ble fibrei, for making fishing-nets and lines, 

 ropes, &c. The Feejeans, who call the 

 plant Sinu 3Iataivi, also employ it medici- 

 nally, using the bark and leaves as a re- 

 medy for coughs, and the bark alone as an 

 application to sores. It has oval or lanceo- 

 late-oblong net-veined leaves about two 

 inches in length. [A. S.] 



WIDDELILA3I. An Indian name for 

 Peppermint. 



WIDDRIXGTONIA. Formerly included 

 in the genus Thuja, but now constituting 

 a distinct group of the cupressiueous divi- 

 sion of Ccnriferce. The specie3 consist of 

 trees, natives of the Cape of Good Hope, 

 and have crowded alternate leaves (not 

 opposite as in Thuja). These leaves in the 

 young plant are linear and spreading, 

 while in the older plant they are scale-like, 



and closely pressed up against the stem 

 The flowersfare dioecious: the males in I 

 terminal catkins, the stamens numerous, | j 

 and arranged in four rows, each stamen ! 

 having a two-eel led anther ; the females in [| 

 solitary terminal cones, each consisting 

 of four scales, connate at their edges, and 

 each bearing five to ten winged seeds. In 

 the ripe state the cones are globular and 

 woody, with comparatively few seeds. W. 

 cupressoides, better known as Thvjacupres- 

 soides, is cultivated in this country as a 

 greenhouse shrub. [31. T. 31.] 



WIDO W-WA I L. Oneorum. 



WTEDEMANNIA. A small genus of 

 plants, natives of Australia, nearly related 

 both in habit and structure to Lamium, \ 

 but differing in the tubular corolla, which ! 

 is two-lipped, the upper lip being lanceolate 

 and the lower bifid, with all the teeth rigid 

 and very acute. [W. C] 



WIEG31ANNIA. The name of a genus 

 of Cinchonacece which includes a small 

 shrub, native of the Sandwich Islands. The ' 

 purple flowers are borne on contracted I 

 cymes, surrounded by a kind of involucre, 

 formed by the stipules of the upper leaves. 

 The tube of the calyx is marked by eight 

 ridges, and its limb divided into four 

 rather large leafy segments; the corolla 

 is funnel-shaped, the limb four-lobed ; the 

 stamens four, concealed within the corolla, 

 the anthers nearly sessile ; the ovary sur- 

 mounted by a fleshy disk. The fruit is a 

 two-celled eight-ribbed berry, crowned by 

 the leafy limb of the calyx. In each of its 

 cells is a single ovule. [31. T. MJ 



WIGANDIA. A genus of Hydroleacece, 

 containing several species of hispid large- 

 leaved herbs, natives of Tropical and Sub- | 

 tropical America. The flowers are borne 

 in gyrate bibracteated branched spicate 

 racemes ; the calyx is five-parted ; the co- 

 rolla rotate ; the stamens exserted ; and 

 the capsule two-valved with two parietal 

 placentas, the revolute margins of which 

 are entirely covered with seeds. [W. C.] 



WIGHTIA. A genus referred by Ben- 

 tham to Scrophidariacew. It is founded on 

 a single species, a climbing shrub from 

 Nepal. The calyx is coriaceous and cam- 

 panulate, with two to five short lobes ; the 

 corolla is funnel-shaped, the limb two- 

 lipped, the upper lip being erect and bi- 

 lobed, and the lower patent and trifld; 

 the four stamens are inserted in the tube 

 of the corolla, and there is no trace of a 

 fifth ; the two cells of the anthers are 

 equal and parallel ; the ovary is two-celled, 

 with numerous ovules ; and the capsule is 

 oblong, and dehisces septicidally with two 

 valves, and contains numerous oblong 

 seeds furnished with linear wings. [W. C] 



WIG-TREE. Rhus Cotinus. 



WILD. Growing m a state of nature. 

 Sometimes applied in depreciation of plants 

 inferior to others to which they bear more 

 or less resemblance. 



