457 



&f)e &rca<3ttrg at £rjtauj). 



[eryt 



form is less common, but it is not unfre- 1 

 quent in clays. [J. BJ . 



ERYCIBE. A genus of climbing shrubs, 

 containing seven species, natives of tro- 

 pical Asia. They have entire leaves, and 

 flowers in terminal panicles ; the calyx 

 consisting of five sepals, the corolla deeply 

 five-cleft, with large bifid lobes, having a 

 triangular sericeous part on the middle of 

 the back, the five stamens inserted on 

 the tube of the corolla, and the ovary cy- , 

 lindrical-ovoid, glabrous, and one-celled, | 

 surmounted by a large fleshy ten-ribbed j 

 stigma. The fruit is a one-seeded berry. 

 An order, Erycibece, has been established 

 for the reception of this anomalous genus. 

 Isearly approaching Convolvulacece, it dif- 

 fers from this order in having a sessile 

 radiating stigma like a poppy. The sessile 

 stigma exists in Ebenacew, but in most 

 other respects Erycibe has no relation with 

 that group. [W. C] 



ERYNGIUM. A "well-marked genus of 

 umbelliferous plants, distinguished by 

 spiny leaves, and hemispherical or oblong 

 heads of sessile flowers, the base of which 

 is surrounded by a whorl of conspicu- 

 ous bracts, most frequently rigid and 

 spiny. E. maritimum, Sea Eryngo, or Sea 

 Holly, is a common plant on most of the 

 sandy shores of Great Britain, where it is 

 conspicuous by the glaucous hue of its 

 short rigid leaves and stems, and its thistle- 

 like heads of blue flowers. It has exten- 

 sively creeping cylindrical fleshy roots, 

 the gathering of which, for the purpose of 

 converting them into a sweetmeat, was 

 formerly an occupation of some conse- 

 quence to the sea-side population. Candied 

 Eryngo-root is still to be obtained in some 

 places, but its medical powers, which were 

 at one time highly extolled, are now held 

 in no repute. The venation of this plant, 

 as well as of other species, being remark- j 

 ably strong and durable, the leaves and i 

 flowers arefrequently employed as fit sub- 

 jects for skeleton bouquets. E. campcstre, I 

 was formerly to be found in a few places ' 

 in England, but has recently become ex- 

 tinct. Of the foreign species of Eryngium, 

 which are numerous, the most worthy of 

 notice are E. amethyst inum, so called from 

 the brilliant blue tint, not of its flowers 

 only, but of the bracts and upper part of 

 the stem ; it is a native of Dalmatia and 

 Croatia, but is frequently cultivated in 

 English gardens. E. alpinum, a smaller 

 plant of a still more brilliant colour, is a 

 native of the Swiss Alps. French, Panir 

 caut ; German Krausdistel. [C. A. J.] 



ERYXGO. Eryngium maritimum and 

 campestre. 



ERYSIMUM. A genus of Cruciferw, dis- 

 tinguished from the other long-podded 

 genera, which have the radicle of the seed 

 bent round and lying on the back of one of 

 the cotyledons, by having the pods four- 

 angled and elongated. The species are 

 usually biennials, found in Europe and tem- 

 perate Asia, with narrow leaves often at- 

 tenuated at the base, and terminal racemes 



(at first corymbs) of yellovr, or very rarely 

 white, flowers. E. cheiranthoides, with nar- 

 row-based leaves and small yellow flow- 

 ers, is not uncommon in England ; and 

 E. orientate, with the stem leaves amplexi- 

 caul, and the flowers small and white, has 

 occurred in some of the eastern counties, 

 but scarcely even naturalised. E. Perof- 

 skianum and E.arkansauum, are handsome 

 cultivated species, the former with rich 

 orange-coloured flowers. [J. T. SJ 



ERYSIPHE. A large assemblage of asci- 

 gerous Fungi, now broken up into a num- 

 ber of distinct genera. The mycelium is 

 white, or in parts slightly tinged with 

 brown, creeping over the green parts of 

 plants.or more rarely, bursting through the 

 stomates, and sending out here and there 

 suckers which exhaust the juices of the 

 matrix. The creeping threads send forth 

 here and there perpendicular branches, 

 which are articulated, and break up at the 

 tips into large conidia, which either ger- 

 minate immediately or produce a multi- 

 tude of threads from the granular contents. 

 Some of these joints occasionally become 

 cellular and produce in their centre a mul- 

 titude of minute conidia or spennatia. At 

 different points in the creeping threads 

 little swellings are formed, which ulti- 

 mately become perithecia, and are fring- 

 ed with curious appendages, which are 

 sometimes straight and pointed with a 

 bulb-like base, sometimes waved, some- 

 times hooked or incurved, sometimes re- 

 peatedly forked either with straight or di- 

 varicate branches, and sometimes end in 

 a thick spongy body. The perithecia con- 

 tain occasionally only a single ascus, as 

 in Splicer other a, while in other genera, the 

 asci vary in number, but are generally few, 

 and never so numerous as in Spheeria. Pe- 

 rithecia sometimes occur which are not 

 distinguishable from the true, but which, 

 instead of containing asci, yield a multi- 

 tude of minute spores joined together with 

 mucous matter. Five kinds of fructifica- 

 tion, therefore, have been found in these 

 plants. 



In an early stage, the species, which are 

 then described as Oidia, constitute the 

 white mildew so destructive to various 

 plants, as vines, hops, peaches, &c. In this 

 state they are easily checked by the ap- 

 plication of sublimed sulphur, which seems 

 to combine with the nascent oxygen to 

 form sulphurous acid. [M. J. B.] 



ERYTHR.3EA. Herbaceous plants, grow- 

 ing in many parts of the world, with simple 

 or branched stems, and pink or pale yellow 

 flowers in cymose panicles ; they differ 

 from those of the allied Gentiana, by their 

 calyx being divided to the base, by their 

 anthers, which become spirally twisted as 

 they wither, and by the greater length of 

 the style. E. Centaurium is a common 

 English plant, in dry, sandy, or chalky 

 soils especially ; and found also throughout 

 Europe and Central Asia. It is an annual, 

 with erect square generally branched 

 stems, broad egg-shaped leaves at the base, 

 and flowers of a pale pink colour in 



