egla] 



Ojc Creature of 2Satanp. 



442 



ROUGE. Bosa rubiginosa. — SAUVAGE. ' 

 Rosa canina. 



EGLANDULOSE. Not having glands. 



EGLANTINE. Bosa Eglanieria, and ' 

 Bubus Eglanteria; also applied to Bosa 

 rubiginosa, the Sweet Brier. 



EGREVILLE. (Fr.) Lactuca perennis. \ 



EHRETIAGELE (Ehretiacls). A natural ! 

 order of dicotyledonous plants belonging 

 to De Candolle's subclass Corolliflorce, and 

 to Lindley's echial alliance of peryginous 

 exogens. The plants are closely allied 

 to the borageworts, differing in their ; 

 terminal style, perfectly concrete four- 

 celled ovary, and drupaceous fruit. Trees, 

 shrubs or herbs covered with rough hairs : 

 leaves alternate, simple, without stipules; 

 inflorescence scorpioid ; sestivation imbri- 

 cate. Calyx inferior with five divisions ; 

 corolla gam opetalous and tubular ; stamens 

 five, alternate with the corolline seg- 

 ments. Ovary on a circular disk, two to 

 four-celled, with a terminal style or two- 

 lobed stigma. Fruit fleshy, with a single 

 seed in each cell. Chiefly tropical plants, 

 though some occur in the South of Europe, , 

 others in the Southern States of America. I 

 They have scarcely any important proper- | 

 ties. A few are febrifugal, astringent, j 

 and alterative. The Peruvian heliotrope, 

 cultivated since 1740, has a delightful 

 odour. There are fifteen known, genera 

 and about 330 species in the order. Illus- 

 trative genera: Ehretia, Tournefortia, He- 

 Uotropium. [J. H. L\] 



EHRETIA. A genus of Eliretiacece, con- | 

 sisting of tropical trees or shrubs with > 

 paniculate or corymbose flowers which are 

 usually white. The calyx is deeply five- I 

 parted, the corolla salver-shaped with a 

 five-parted limb, the stamens five, the I 

 ovary four-celled, and the fruit a berry-like \ 

 drupe with two or four stones, each con- 

 taining a single seed. E. buxifolia, an I 

 Indian shrub with sessile wedge-shaped 

 shining scabrous leaves and axillary few- I 

 flowered peduncles, is employed as an alter- 

 ative, and is also regarded as an antidote 

 to vegetable poisons. E.serrata, an Indian 

 tree, with oblong serrated smooth leaves | 

 and fragrant flowers, yields tough light 

 and durable wood. [J. T. S.] 



EHRHARTA. A genus of grasses be- 

 longing to the tribe Oryzece, distinguished 

 by the inflorescence being in compressed 

 spikelets, three-flowered; flowers nearly 

 together : the two lower neutral, one-paled, 

 thick and keeled, mucronate or with 

 short awns:. the terminal hermaphrodite, 

 two-paled ; stamens six ; styles two, with 

 feathery stigmas. The species belonging 

 to this curious genus are mostly natives of 

 the southern hemisphere, South Africa, 

 and New Holland. [D. M,] 



EICHORNIA. A genus of Pontederacece 

 from South America. Kunth restricts 

 Pontedcria to the species in which two of 

 the cells of the ovary are abortive, while 

 Eichomia has a three-celled three-valved 



many-seeded capsule. They are aquatic 

 plants with roundish rhomboidal stalked 

 radical leaves, and a scape with a single 

 leaf or spathe like the root-leaves, and a 

 spike of lilac or blue flowers. E. speciosa, 

 widely spread on the continent of South 

 America, is a very handsome plant with a 

 ten or twelve-flowered spike and the 

 petioles of the leaves curiously swollen, 

 the enlargement consisting of very loose 

 spongy tissue. It is often cultivated in 

 stoves under the name of Pontcderia 

 azurea, or crassipes. [J. T. S.'J 



EICHWALDIA. A genus of the Beau- 



muriacece, distinguished by its many-leaved 

 calyx. The only known species, E. oxiana, 

 found on the Oxus river, which flows into 

 the Caspian Sea, is a scrubby little bush 

 with white stems, alternate linear fleshy 

 leaves, and few somewhat racemed flowers, 

 almost half an inch across. Inside the 

 calyx of numerous round bract-like leaves 

 are five-clawed petals, numerous stamens, 

 and an ovary crowned with five styles. 

 The fruit is a little capsule opening by five 

 valves, apparently one-celled at top, but 

 distinctly five-celled below. [A. A. BJ 



ELACHISTA. A small genus of para- 

 sitic Algce allied on the one hand to Ecto- 

 carpus, and on the other to Chordaria. In 

 E. scutulata the threads are so intimately 

 combined with the tissue of HimantltaUa 

 lorea that it is impossible to say where the 

 one begins and the other ends. Indeed, 

 did not the species produce distinct fruit, 

 they might justly be reckoned as mere 

 transformations of the cells of the mother 

 plant. [M. J. BJ 



ELJEAGIA. A genus of lofty cinehona- 

 ceous trees, natives of the Cordilleras. 

 The flowers are arranged in terminal 

 clusters: they have a cup-like calyx; a 

 corolla with the short tube bulging at top, 

 and a spreading limb; and stamens with 

 very short filaments, and broadly ovate 

 anthers. The globose capsule is ribbed, 

 and bursts into two or four valves. These 

 trees are remarkable for the quantity of 

 green resinous or waxy matter which is 

 secreted by the stipules, which invest the 

 unexpanded buds. This resin is collected 

 by the Indians, and is employed by them 

 to varnish boxes and many other useful or 

 ornamental objects. For this purpose it is 

 purified by immersion in hoc water; its 

 fragility is then removed by chewing it till 

 it becomes ductile ; and after these pro- 

 cesses it acquires a yellow tint, and is 

 ready to receive the various colours im- 

 parted by adding colouring matter to it 

 when melted. The resin when thus pre- 

 pared and coloured is laid on in thin 

 layers by the aid of heat and pressure, and 

 by means of differently coloured layers 

 placed one upon another and cut out into 

 various shapes, a sort of design is produced. 

 To procure a metallic lustre on the objects 

 covered with the varnish, the Indians first 

 coat the surface with a layer of silver foil. 

 The natives speak of the tree producing 

 this resin, E. utilis, as the Wax tree or 



