459 



€l)t Ercas'ttrj? at MaUiw. 



[erem 



slender tube and an unequally lobed limb 

 There are two fertile stamens. [W. CJ 



ERANTHIS. A highly prized little her- 

 baceous plant belonging to the Ranun- 

 culacem and allied to Helleborus, from 

 which it may at once be distinguished by 

 the more delicate texture of its leaves, and ] 

 by having its solitary flowers surrounded 

 by an involucre cleft into numerous seg- 

 ments. It is most commonly known by ' 

 the name of "Winter Aconite, because its 

 foliage resembles that of the aconites, and 

 its bright green involucre and pretty yel- ' 

 low flowers are in perfection when snow- 1 

 dreps bloom. Being a low-growing plant, 

 but a few inches high, it is well adapted 

 for the front of borders. It is perfectly 

 hardy as to temperature, and will thrive 

 in any soil. E. hyemalis, the species most 

 generally cultivated, is a native of central 

 and southern Europe, in moist shady places, 

 and on hills. E. sibiricus, a native of Eastern 

 Siberia, a plant of precisely similar habit, 

 has five sepals; whereas E. hyemalis has 

 six to eight. French, Eranthis d'hiver, Heir 

 [C. A. J.] 



ERASMIA A genus of Piperacece, com- 

 prising a low-growing Mexican herb, with I 

 lance-shaped leaves, and branching spikes | 

 bearing scattered persistent peltate bracts ; ' 

 the filaments of the stamens are rather 

 thick, short ; anthers globular ; ovary ses- 

 sile, cylindrical ; stigma conical. The fruit 

 is an elongated smooth berry. [M- T. M.] | 



EREMJEA. A genus of shrubs of the 

 myrtle family, natives of Swan River, and 

 nearly allied to Melaleuca, but distinguish- 

 ed from it by the stamens, which are either 

 entirely detached, or more or less united 

 into groups. The anthers are fixed more- I 

 over by their base, and not by their backs ; 

 and the flowers grow singly at the end of 

 the branches, where they are covered with 

 overlapping bracts. pi. T. M.] 



EREITIA. The generic name of shrubs, 

 natives of the Cape of Good Hope, belong- 

 I ing to the heathworts, having the calyx 

 bell-shaped or somewhat globose, and the 

 stamens more than four, usually six or 

 : eight, very rarely Ave. The name Eremia 

 was assigned for the purpose of indicating 

 1 another mark Cnot however confined to 

 ! these plants), viz. one seed in each cell of the 

 i fruit. The species have the general aspect 

 I of heaths, with leaves three or four in a 

 whorl, spreading or bent down, and having 

 I stiff hairs. [G.D.] 



EREMOBTRA. A term proposed to de- 

 signate that group of ferns in which the 

 fronds are produced laterally on the rhi- 

 zome, and articulated with it. See also 

 Eesmobrya. [T. 3L] 



EREMOCARPUS. A genus of Euphorbia- 

 cem, remarkable for having its little hairy 

 fruit, about the size of an orange-seed, 

 composed of a single carpel, not of three, 

 which is the usual number in the family. 

 E. setigerus, so named from the bristle-like 

 hairs on the stems, is peculiar to California, J 



and is the only species of the genus, ft is 

 a small, prostrate annual herb, having all 

 its parts densely clothed with soft, white 

 starry hairs. The stalked alternate leaves 

 have broadly-oval obtuse blades, and the 

 small green flowers come in dense clusters 

 in the forks of the branches, males and fe- 

 males together, the females sessile. The 

 whole plant has a strong disagreeable 

 odour, even in a dried state. [A. A. B.] 



EREMODENDRON. A genus of Myopo- 

 racece containing a single species from 

 New Holland. It is a beautiful tree, with 

 long narrow lanceolate leaves, and axillary 

 flowers on the tops of the branches. The 

 large coloured lobes of the five-parted calyx 

 are oblong, obovate, narrow at the base, 

 and not changing in fruiting, while the ! 

 corolla has an incurved tube, and an un- 

 equally five-lobed limb. The ovary is ; 

 ovoid-oblong, compressed, and two-celled. ; 

 This genus is scarcely separable from Ere- i 

 mophila, except by the peculiar lobes of ' 

 calyx. [W. C] I 



EREMOLEPIS. A genus of plants in- j 

 eluded in the order Loranthacece. The I 

 flowers are dioecious, and have no petals ; 

 the staminate flowers have a tripartite 

 calyx, with three stamens which are insert- 

 ed opposite to the calycine segments ; and 

 the pistillate flowers have a tripartite calyx, 

 an inferior ovary, a short style, and a simple 

 stiarma. They are parasitic shrubby plants, 

 with alternate leaves destitute of a termi- 

 nal scale, the staminate flowers in catkins, 

 the pistillate in clusters. The genus is 

 allied to the Eubrachion of Hooker. Two j 

 species, natives of South America, have | 

 been described, E. punctulata and E. verru- 

 cosa. [J. H. B.] 



ERE3IOPHILA. A genus of My op or acece, 

 containing four species of broom-like 

 shrubs, natives of New Holland. They 

 have opposite or alternate leaves, and 

 axillary crowded or solitary peduncles 

 supporting flowers which have a five-parted 

 scarious calyx, and a corolla with a large 

 tube and bilabiate limb. [W. C] 



EREMOSTACHTS. A genus of labiate 

 plants distinguished by the upper lip of the 

 corolla being elongated and helmet-like, 

 narrow below, and hairy on the outside, 

 the lower lip with three spreading rounded 

 lobes, the middle being broadest. The name 

 is derived from two Greek words signify- 

 ing ' solitary ' and ' spike.' The species are 

 hardy plants of little importance. One of 

 them, E. laciniata, has been long known in 

 cultivation as a hardy perennial, a native 

 of dry hills in the eastern part of the Cau- 

 casian range ; it has large spindle-shaped 

 fleshy roots well adapted to resist the 

 drought to which, in its native wilds, it is 

 sometimes subjected. [G. D.] 



EREMOSYNE. A genus of Saxifragacece 

 from New Holland, with rosettes of obovate 

 entire root leaves, and pectinate-pinnate 

 stem leaves ; the flowers -small, white, in 

 compact dichotomous cymes : with a hemi- 

 spherical calyx-tube adhering to the ovary, 



