591 



Eije Crra£urg at SSotani?. 



[hipp 



Composite, consisting of slender herbs or 

 small branching shrubs, with leaves and 

 flower-heads something like chamomile. 

 The leaves are pinnatifld ; the flowers are 

 minute yellow rayless, disposed in corymbs 

 at the ends of the twigs, and not unlike 

 those of Artemisia, to which the genus is 

 allied. The outer florets have pistils only, 

 the inner stamens ; and the orbicular com- 

 pressed achenes have slightly winged mar- 

 gins, and no pappus. -, [A. A. B.] 



HIPPO BROMUS alatus, the only re- 

 presentative of a genus of Sapindacece, is 

 a South African tree of considerable size, 

 with alternate unequally-pinnate leaves, 

 bearing in their axils short velvety clus- 

 ters of small reddish flowers. The leaves 

 are made up of four to six pairs of unequal- 

 sided serrate leaflets; and the flowers are 

 unisexual, the sterile with five sepals, five 

 pcjgls, and eight stamens, the fertile with 

 a Ke calyx and corolla, and a few barren 

 stamens surrounding a three-celled ovary 

 tipped with a short style. The genus 

 differs from Sapindus, in the petals being 

 destitute of a scale or tuft of hairs on their 

 inner surface, as well as in the round ber- 

 ried fruits the size of a pea accompanied 

 by the remaining calyx. The colonial name 

 of the tree is Paardepis. [A. A. B.] 



HIPPOCASTAXE.E. A group of hypo- 

 ^ynousExogens, forming a subdivision of 

 the order Sapixdace^: : which see. 



BTIPPOCRATEACE^. A natural order 

 . of thalamifloral dicotyledons, included in 

 Lindley's rhamnal alliance of perigynous 

 Exogens. Shrubby plants with opposite 

 simple leaves having deciduous stipules; 

 sepals and petals five imbricate ; stamens 

 | three monadelphous. Fruit either con- 

 I sisting of three-winged carpels, or baccate. 

 The prominent character of the order is 

 the ternary stamens, and pentamerous 

 sepals and petals. The plants are chiefly 

 natives of South America, but some are 

 found in Africa and Asia. The nuts of 

 Hippocratea comr^. are oily and sweet. 

 The fruit of Tontelea piriformis is eaten in 

 Sierra Leone. There are seven genera and 

 about ninety species. Examples : Hippo- 

 cratea, Tontelea, and Salacia. [J. H. B.] 



HIPPOCRATEA. A genus of the small 

 I order Eippocrateacece, consisting of up- 

 wards of thirty species, the greater part 

 I natives of the tropics of the western 

 j hemisphere, the remainder found princi- 

 pally in Western Africa, India, and the is- 

 ! land of Timor. They are climbing shrubs, 

 with opposite entire or toothed usually 

 i smooth leaves, and panicles of small incon- 

 spicuous flowers, produced from the axils 

 ' of the leaves, and characterized by the an- 

 ; thers of their stamens consisting of single 

 | cells, which burst open transversely. 

 ; Their fruit also differs considerably from 

 \ those of the allied genera, being composed I 

 I of three (occasionally only one or two) I 

 I separate flattened leathery carpels, winch 

 < split down the middle into two halves ( 

 j when ripe, each half resembling in shape j 

 a little boat. [A. SJ I 



HIPPOCREPIFORM. Horseshoe-shaped. 



HIPPOCREPIS. The Horseshoe Vetch, 

 a genus of herbaceous or somewhat shrub- 

 by leguminous plants, so called from the 

 peculiar form of their seed-vessels, which 

 are long and jointed, each joint being one- 

 seeded and curved into a shape somewhat 

 resembling that of a horseshoe. In all the 

 species the leaves are pinnate, with a ter- 

 minal leaflet. The flowers are yellow, in 

 some species solitary in the axils of the 

 leaves, but more frequently collected into 

 simple umbels on slender axillary stalks. 

 | The only British species, H. comosa, is a 

 : low trailing plant with much of the habit 

 of the common bird's-foot trefoil, butdiffers 

 both in the shape of its leaves and pods. 

 ! It is not uncommon on sunny banks of 

 1 chalk orlimestone. Several other species, 

 1 some of which are annuals, inhabit the 

 I south of Europe. French, Hippocrepe ; I 

 : German, Hufeisenpflanze. [C. A. J.] j 



HIPPOMANE. The celebrated poisonous 

 : Manchineel or Manzanillo tree of tropical I 

 ' South America (Hippomane Mancinella) is j 

 the only species of this genus of spurge- | 

 | worts. It is a tree forty or fifty feet | 

 high, common in many of the West Indian 

 Islands and in Venezuela and Panama, usu- 

 ally growing on sandy sea-shores. Its leaves 

 are stalked, shining green, egg-shaped or 

 elliptical, with the edges cut into saw-like 

 teeth, having a single gland on the upper 

 side at the junction of the stalk and leaf. 

 Its flowers are very small and inconspi- 

 cuous, and of separate sexes, borne on long 

 slender spikes, the femalesfew placed singly 

 at the base of the spike, the males in little 

 clusters occupying the upper part. The 

 calyx of the males is two-parted, and that 

 of the females three-parted, the male con- 

 taining two or four stamens joined toge- 

 ther by their filaments, and the females a I 

 many-celled ovary, crowned with from 

 four to eight styles and reflexed stigmas. 

 Its fruit is a roundish fleshy yellowish- 

 green berry. 



The virulent nature of the juice of the 

 Manchineel tree has given rise, in the west- 

 ern hemisphere, to nearly as wonderful 

 stories as those associated with the upas 

 tree in the eastern ; but although there can 

 be no doubt that it possesses extremely poi- 

 sonous properties, its powers have been 

 greatly exaggerated, and many of the tales 

 must be regarded as fabulous. Among the 

 statements referable to the latter class 

 may be included the assertions that grass 

 will not grow under it, that mere sleepingin 

 its shade causes death, that its juice raises 

 blisters difficult to heal when applied to the 

 skin, and others of a like nature. It is cer- 

 tain, however, that the juice, which resem- 

 bles pure white milk, does possess a consi- 

 derable amount of acridity, and that some 

 persons suffer great pain from incautiously 

 handling it, while others again do not. ex- 

 perience the slightest inconvenience from 

 it, its effects, as in the case of the poisonous 

 Rhus of North America, depending upon 

 peculiarities in the constitutions of differ- 

 ent individuals. Perhaps its most dangerous 



