1241 



W)t Crca^urg cf SSotang. 



[XIPH 



herb with the habit of an asphodel, bearing 

 a dense tuft of wiry dry rough-edged 

 root-leaves, and an erect stem clothed with 

 needle-like leaves, and terminated by a 

 compact raceme of white flowers. These 

 have oval sessile spreading distinct seg- 

 ments ; six stamens, with short kidney- 

 shaped two-celled anthers ; three thread- 

 like styles ; a globular loculicidal pod, with 

 two triangular seeds in each cell. The 

 nut is margined with a membranous seed- 

 coat. X. asphodeloides is common in the 

 pine-barrens of North America, from New 

 Jersey and Oregon, southward. [J. T. S.] 



XEROTES. A genus referred to Jun- 

 cacece. It consists of dry rigid rush-like or 

 sedge-like herbs, natives of the coast of 

 Australia, and having linear grass-like 

 leaves, with dilated bases and occasionally 

 toothed points. The flowers are dioecious, 

 racemose spicate or capitate, with scarious 

 imbricated bracts when sessile, or bract- 

 less when stalked. The male flowers have 

 a six-parted somewhat coloured perianth, 

 with the inner or all the segments cohering 

 at the base, and six stamens ; and the 

 female flowers have the segments free and 

 persistent, the ovary three-celled, with 

 three styles. The capsule is cartilaginous, 

 almost berry-like. [J.T. SJ 



XEST2EA. A genus of Gentiandcece, 

 comprising an herbaceous species, native 

 of damp places in Venezuela. The flowers 

 have a "four-cleft calyx, whose segments 

 are keeled at the back ; a funnel-shaped 

 corolla, with a contracted tube and a di- 

 lated throat, expanding into a four-parted 

 limb ; four stamens, inserted into the base 

 of the corolla-tube, the unchanged anthers 

 concealed within the corolla; ovary partly 

 two-celled, with a deciduous style, and a 

 stigma divided into two plates. The fruit 

 is a two-valved capsule, containing nume- 

 rous seeds. [il. T. MJ 



XIMEXESIA. A genus of Compositce, 

 consisting of annual plants, with more or 

 less divided hairy leaves, and flower-heads 



in loose corymbs. The scales of the invo- 

 lucre are arranged in two rows, and are 



leafy, narrow 



equal in shape : the 



florets of the ray are ligulate, those of the 

 disk tubular. The achenes of the ray- 

 florets are flattened, winged, notched, and 

 two-awn ed. The species, which are na- 

 tives of Mexico, have yellow flowers, not 

 unliKe those of Coreopsis. [M. T. M.] 



XMEXIA. One species of this genus 

 of Olacacece is widely dispersed over the 

 tropics of both the Old and Xew World, 

 while the others are restricted to their 

 respective localities in either hemisphere. 

 The genus is characterised by its flowers 

 having a very small calyx, which does not 

 Anally become enlarged ; four distinct 

 petals, very hairy inside, conniving at the 

 bottom and curved back at the top ; twice 

 as many free stamens, all fertile ; and a 

 free four-celled ovary, with a single ovule 

 in each cell. The three or four species are 

 either large shrubs or small trees, fre- 



quently armed with spines ; and having 

 smooth leathery entire leaves, and axil- 

 lary few-flowered racemes or clusters of 

 flowers, producing fleshy fruits containing 

 a one-seeded stone. 



X. americana produces oblong yellow 

 fruits about an inch in length, which are 

 eaten by the natives in various parts of 

 the tropics. They have an acid-sweet 

 aromatic taste, with some degree of aus- 

 terity. Its flowers are very fragrant, 

 smelling something like cloves; and its 

 wood is also odoriferous, and is used in 

 Western India as a substitute for sandal- 

 wood, but it is obtainable only in pieces 

 of small size. X. ellipiica is a native of 

 theFeejees and other islands of the Pacific 

 Ocean, and bears round orange-coloured 

 fruits, of which the natives are very fond, 

 though they are rather tart : before they 

 are ripe they possess a powerful odour of 

 essential oil of almonds. It also produces 

 an extremely hard wood. [A. S.] 



XIPHIDIUM. A genus of Liliacece, 

 inhabiting Tropical America. They have 

 simple stems, leafy at the base ; the leaves 

 ensiform, equitant, and entire or subserru- 

 late : and the flowers panicled, subsecund, 

 nodding, with a six-leaved coloured spread- 

 ing perianth; stamens three; styleflliform, 

 with a capitate threelobed stigma ; seeds 

 numerous. [J. T. S.J 



XIPHOPTERIS. A small genus of 

 polypodiaceous ferns belonging to the 

 Plciinxirammece. It is found chiefly in 

 South America and the West Indies, but is 

 reported also from Tropical Western 

 Africa. The fronds are small fasciculate 

 erect, sterile and deeply-toothed below, 

 dilated and soriferous above, where they 

 are often longitudinally folded. The veins 



Xiphopteris serrulata. 



are simple from a central costa and free, 

 the receptacle of the naked sori coalescent 

 with the costa, and sometimes more or 

 less continued up the basal part of the 

 veins. Hence these plants have sometimes 



