573 



Oje €rea£urg at 28otany, 



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grant flowers of some of the species of 

 this genus of Zingiberacece render them 

 great'favourites in the hothouse. They 

 are plants with tuberous roots, herbaceous 

 stems, clasping leaves, and a terminal spi- 

 cate inflorescence. The corolla consists of 

 six segments in two rows, five nearly equal 

 in size, the sixth or lip large notched or 

 more deeply divided ; the filaments thread- 

 like ; and the fruit capsular. The species 

 are natives of tropical Asia. [M. T. M.] 



HEDYOSMTJM. A genus of fragrant 

 resin-bearing shrubs belonging to the Clilo- 

 ranthacecE. They have unisexual flowers, 

 the males in close spikes without bracts, 

 the females solitary or in groups of four, 

 sessile, provided with bracts ; ovary tri- 

 angular. The species are natives of Brazil 

 and other districts of tropical America. 

 Some of them are used medicinally as anti- 

 spasmodics &c. [M. T. MJ 



HEDTOTIS. A genus of Cinchonacece, 

 comprising a number of herbaceous or 

 somewhat shrubby plants, dispersed 

 throughout the tropics. The floral whorls 

 are arranged in fours; the corolla is 

 funnel-shaped or wheel-shaped ; the ovary 

 has two compartments, and is surmounted 

 by an epigynous disk and cleft stigma ; the 

 fruit is a capsule. H. umbellata supplies a 

 valuable red dye in Coromandel and other 

 parts of India where it is cultivated. The 

 Chay-root, as it is called, is the dye em- 

 ployed for producing the durable red colour 

 for which the chintzes of India are noted 

 (Simmonds). Wild chay-roots are pre- 

 ferred to cultivated ones, and licenses to 

 dig the former are granted in Ceylon. The 

 colouring matter resides in the rind and 

 outer portions of the root. The leaves of 

 this plant are also used by the natives as 

 expectorants. 



Some of the species, especially those 

 formerly included under the genus Hous- 

 tonia, are cultivated in gardens, their low 

 stature, elegant appearance, and pretty 

 flowers rendering them desirable plants 

 for rock-work &c. The colour of the 

 flowers varies from white to scarlet blue 

 and purple. [M. T. M.] 



HEDYPXOIS. A name given by Pliny 

 to a kind of wild endive, said to have 

 medicinal virtues, being astringent and 

 useful in dysentery. By modern botanists 

 the name is applied to a genus of unin- 

 teresting annual herbaceous plants with 

 diffuse stems, toothed leaves, and yellow 

 flowers, belonging to the dehor acece. 

 The generic characters are :— Receptacle 

 naked ; involucre furnished with small 

 bracts ; florets of the disk furnished with 

 a double pappus, the outer bristly, the 

 inner chaffy ; pappus of the ray a membra- 

 nous finely-toothed margin. [C. A. JJ 



HEDYSARUM. A family of herba- 

 ceous or somewhat, shrubby leguminous 

 plants, distinguished by the peculiar struc- 

 ture of the seed-pod, which is composed of 

 numerous even one-seeded joints convex 

 cm both sides. The leaves are pinnate, with 

 an odd leaflet ; and the flowers axillary, in 



stalked clusters or spikes, purple, white, or 

 cream-coloured. A large number of species 

 are known, many of which arc handsome 

 plants, and some are valuable for their 

 nutritive properties as fodder. H. Alhagi, 

 sometimes described under the name of 

 Alhagi Maurorum, is a thorny shrub, com- 

 mon in the East, and produces a sub- 

 stance called manna from its supposed re- 

 semblance to the ' manna ' of the Israelites. 

 H. gyrans is remarkable for the property 

 possessed by its leaves of setting up a spon- 

 taneous motion, independent, as far as ob- 

 servation reaches, of all external impres- 

 sions. Without being touched and without 

 being excited by heat, light, wind, or rain, 

 sometimes a single leaflet, sometimes a 

 whole leaf, oscillates or gyrates, continuing 

 to move for an indefinite time, and ceasing 

 without known cause. H. coronarium is 

 the plant commonly known in English 

 gardens under the inappropriate name of 

 French Honeysuckle, it being a native of 

 Italy, and having no affinity with the 

 honeysuckle (Lonicera). Its latter name it 

 owes no doubt to its similarity to red 

 clover, often called honeysuckle by country 

 children from the use which they make 

 of its sweet flower-tubes. It is a native 

 of Spain and Italy, where it is gathered in 

 great quantities as food for cattle. French 

 and German, Sulla. [C. A. J.] 



HEGBERRY. Cerasus avium. 



HEGEMONE. A genus of Ranunculacece, 

 allied to Trollius, found in the Altai near 

 the limit of perpetual snow. The species 

 on which the genus is founded, IT. lilacina, 

 has an erect stem, leafy at the base, the 

 leaves palmately five-parted, those of the 

 stem similar. The flower is solitary and 

 terminal, pale lilac, with fifteen or twenty 

 persistent petaloid sepals and about ten 

 small irregular petals, having an oblong 

 limb and short tubular base ; carpels nu- 

 merous sessile. [J. T. S.] 



HEIMIA. A genus of Lythraceas in 

 which it is remarkable for its yellow flow- 

 ers, blue or purple being the prevailing 

 colour in the family. The two known 

 species, H. salicifolia and H. grandi/lora, 

 are both smooth erect bushy shrubs, the 

 former common to Texas, Mexico, and 

 Buenos Ayres, the latter confined to 

 Buenos Ayres. The willow-like leaves are 

 opposite below and alternate above, and 

 the yellow flowers, placed singly in the 

 axils of the leaves, have great superficial 

 resemblance to those of Lysimachia vul- 

 garis, but in structure are widely different. 

 According to Mr. Tweedie, both species are 

 common in pasture lands about Buenos 

 Ayres, and, as the cattle do not browse 

 upon them, there is always an abundance 

 of their gay yellow blossoms, which are 

 called abro sol, ' it is open sun.' The twigs 

 are strewed on floors to drive away fleas, of 

 which there are abundance. The willow- 

 leaved species is said to excite violent 

 perspiration. The Mexicans consider it a 

 potent remedy for venereal diseases, and 

 call it Hanchinol {Lindley). The genus is 



