1239 



0)C ^Treasury of 230taity. 



[xANT 



less. X.pictarius, a native of the mountains 

 of Northern India, and X. du'eis, found in 

 the islands of the Indian Archipelago, both 

 vield edible pleasant-tasted fruits of a 

 beautiful bright shining-yellowcolour, and 

 of a nearly globular form, about as large as 

 apricots, "but pointed with the remains of 

 the style, which is generally at one side, 

 owing to one or more of the cells being im- 

 perfect. [A. S.] 



XANTHOCOMA. The name of a Mexican 

 herbaceous plant, of the family Compositce. 

 The leaves are linear, entire ; the flower- 

 heads solitary, terminal, surrounded by an 

 involucre of overlapping scales, somewhat 

 leafy at the points ; the outer florets 

 stra'p-shaped female, the central ones tu- 

 bular perfect ; fruits compressed, desti- 

 tute .of pappus. The florets of the ray and 

 of the disk are alike tubular. [M. T. MJ 



XAXTHOGALFM. A subdivision of the 

 genus Galium, comprising the perennial 

 species, that have six to ten stamens in a 

 whorl, and all the flowers perfect, of a j 

 yellow colour, and arranged in a panicle. 

 The common G. verum belongs to this sec- 

 tion. [W. C] 



X AXTHOPHYLL. The yellow colouring- 

 matter of plants. 



XAXTHORRHIZA. A genus of Ranun- 

 culacea?, consisting of an undershrub, A'. 

 apiifolia, inhabiting the Southern States 

 of North America. It has clustered stems, 

 stalked pinnate or bipinnate leaves with 

 cut leaflets, and small dull purple flowers 

 iu axillary branched racemes. The flowers 

 j are often polygamous by abortion; they 

 have five deciduous sepals, five petals 

 ; much smaller than the sepals, five or ten 

 stamens, and from five to fifteen ovaries 

 with two or three ovules in each. The 

 follicles are small, usually one-seeded. The 

 [ generic name is composed of the two 

 j Greek words xanthos 'yellow' and rhiza 

 l 'root'; and is given to this plant on account 

 , of its long roots and rootstock being of 

 I a bright-yellow colour, whence also it is 

 commonly called Yellow-root in the United 

 States. Its inner bark wood and pith are 

 also of the same colour. The plant was 

 formerly employed by the American abori- 

 gines for dyeing yellow ; and the American 

 physicians of the present day use it me- 

 dicinally as a tonic, all parts of it having a 

 pure intensely bitter taste. [J. T. S.J 



XAXTHOKRHCEA. The Black-boy or 

 Grass Gum-trees of the Australian Colonies 

 form a most remarkable genus of Liliacece, 

 differing widely in general appearance 

 from the other genera of that order; most 

 of the species having thick trunks like 

 those of palms, covered with a dense coat- 

 ing formed of the persistent bases of old 

 leaves glued together by the yellow or red 

 resin with which these plants abound, and 

 usually burnt and blackened outside by 

 bush-fires. In somf, however, the trunk is 

 extremely short. Their leaves are long wiry 

 and grass-like, and are borne in a dense 

 tuft at the top of the stem.and hang down 



gracefully all round it ; their long flower 

 stalks rising out of the centre, and some- 

 times growing as high as fifteen or twenty 

 feet, bearing at the top a dense cylindrical 

 flower-spike, resemblingthat of thcTypha, 

 made up of a mass of scales out of which 

 the flowers protrude. These have a calyx 

 of six pieces conniving at the bottom, 

 where the six stamens are inserted, the 

 la ter having long projecting filaments 

 and loose swinging anthers ; and their 

 three-celled ovary bears a long straight 

 style, and ripens into a woody capsule, 

 which splits when ripe into three valves, 

 and contains a few black seeds. 





Xanthorrtioea hastilis. 



The tall-growing species, X. a.rbnrea, X. 

 hastilis, &c, form conspicuous features in 

 some Australian landscapes ; and when 

 denuded of leaves have been compared to 

 or even mistaken for black men holding 

 spears— hence their common colonial name. 

 Their leaves afford good fodder for cattle, 

 while the natives eat the tender white 

 centre of the top of the stem. Two kinds 

 of fragrant resin— one of a yellow colour, 

 called Botany Bayor Acaroid resin, and the 

 other red like Dragon's-blood, and called 

 Black-boy Gum — are obtained from them. 

 For X hastilis, see Plate 5 b. [A. S.] 



XANTHOSOMA. A genus of Aracem, 

 comprising certain "West Indian plants, 

 with erect rootstocks, arrow-shaped leaves, 

 and a yellow spathe rolled round at the 

 base. The spadix is covered with flowers 

 of both sexes ; the anthers adhere one to 

 another, by means of their conical dilated 

 connectives ; the anther-lobes open by a 

 transverse chink at the top ; the ovaries 

 are numerous, crowded, and have very 

 thick styles, terminated by large lobed de- 

 pressed yellow stigmas— whence the name 

 of the genus, from xanthos 'yellow' and 

 soma ' body.' Starch is obtained from the 

 rootstocks of X. sagittifolia. One or two 

 species are in cultivation as hothouse 

 plants. [M. T. M.] 



XANTHOXYLACE^, or XANTHOXY- 



