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T H A 1. A M [ FLO R/E. 
which, on being exposed to the air, changes to a bright yellow, 
and on drying assumes the appearance of Gamboge. The 
native doctors of India drop the juice of the plant into the eye, 
in cases of chronic Ophthalmia accompanied with opacity or 
dulness of the cornea ; and they also apply it to primary 
syphilitic sores. The infusion of the plant is said to be diuretic, 
and to give relief in Stranguary from blisters. 
Argemone albiflora, a native of Georgia and Louisiana, 
has of late been cultivated in our gardens, from seed sent by 
Dr Hamilton of Plymouth. It is a very handsome plant, with 
white flowers thrice the size of those of the common Gamboge 
thistle. It appears to be perennial, and is correctly regarded by 
some Botanists as a distinct species. 
II. Bocconia. 
Sepals 2, caducous. Petals 0. Stamens 8-24. 
Ovary substipitate : stigmata 2, patent. Capsule 2- 
valved, 1 -seeded: seed fixed to the bottom of the 
capsule, erect. 
The species, belonging to this genus, which are natives of 
China, are herbaceous ; those, which are indigenous to America, 
are shrubby. They all abound in a yellow juice. — Name ; in 
memory of Paolo Boccone, M. D., a Sicilian monk, under the 
name of Sylvius, of the Cistercian Order, Author of “ Iconks 
et Descriptiones Plantarum,” published by Morrison, at 
Oxford, 1764. 
I . Bocconia frutescens. Parrot-weed , or Celandine. 
Suffruticose, leaves pinnatifid wedge-shaped at the 
base. 
Sloatie, I. 196. t. 125. — Browne, 244. — Jacq. Am. 146 
Swartz, Ohs. 187 Lodcl. Bot. Cab. 83. — Be Cand. Sgst. II. 90. 
HAB. Common in the interior of the Island. 
FL. October — January. 
Suffruticose, usually 6 feet in height, terete, marked with 
the scars of the leaves which have dropt off, fragile, dividing 
into a few simple branches which at their extremities are velu- 
tino-tomentose : central pith large, white. Leaves at the ends 
of the branches, a foot or more in length, ovali-oblong, wedge- 
shaped at the base, pinnatifid; lobes broad, subacute, subserrated, 
green and puberulous with lhinute flocculent white tufts above, 
glauco-cinereous and tomentoso-velutine beneath : petiole 
nearly 2 inches in length. Panicle terminal, a foot or more in 
length, erect, crowded : common peduncle 3-gonal, farinose, 
branched : pedicels about l an inch in length, filiform. Bracteas 
at the divisions of the panicle, and at the base of the pedicels, 
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