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round the filaments. Stamina: filaments three, fhorter 
than 'the petals, inserted into the receptacle ; anthers 
upright, oblong, large. II. Female flower intermediate. 
Calyx: involucre common with the males ; perianthium 
inferior, onS-leafed, bell-(haped, entire, permanent; (in¬ 
flated, Gartner.) Corolla: petals eight, of which four are 
interior and narrower, all fitting on the germ ; (petals fix, 
G .) nettary, glands four, obovate, alternate with the inte¬ 
rior petals. Piftillum: germ roundifii ; ftyle filiform; 
Higma oblique, fomewhat funnel-fhaped, large. Peri- 
caVpium: drupe dry, ovate, eight-furrowed,'one-celled, 
inclofed in a very large, inflated, roundifti, flelh^, co¬ 
loured perianthium, with the month entire. Seed: nut 
globular, (lightly depreffed.— EJential Charafter. Male. 
Calyx, three-parted ; corolla, three-petalled. Female. 
Calyx, truncate, quite entire ; corolla, (ix-petalled ; 
drupe hollow, with an open mouth, and a moveable 
nucleus. (Nut fuperior, clothed with the calyx inflated; 
feed globular, bony. Gartner.) 
Species, i. Hernandia fonora, or whittling hernandia: 
leaves peltate. This is an upright lofty tree, with an 
elegant head. The flowers are of a pale yellow colour, 
in panicled racemes; the calyxes of the fruit are yellow. 
It is very common in the Weft Indies, in gulleys, near 
rills of water ;' the Englifh there call it Jack-in-a-box, 
and the French, myrobolan. If it be Rumphius’s plant, 
it is alfo a native of the Eaft Indies. It has alfo been 
found by the late circumnavigators in the. Society and 
Friendly iflands. Dr. Patrick Browne fays, it is com¬ 
mon in Barbadoes and Montferrat, where it grows to a 
confiderable fize ; but that he had not feen it in Jamaica, 
though he had been credibly informed that it is frequent 
ih the parifh of Portland. He attributes the whiffling 
noife to the cups that fuftain and partly envelope the 
nuts; thefe, he adds, are very large, and as they move 
in the wind, produce found enough to alarm unwary tra- 
' vellers. The feeds are very oily. It was cultivated in 
1714, by the duchefs of Beaufort. 
2. Hernandia ovigera, or egg-fruited hernandia: leaves 
ovate, petiolet? at the bafe. Gaerfner thus defcribes 
the fruit from a fpecimen in the colledtion of fir Jofeph 
Banks: It is a nut, within the enlarged, membranaceous, 
inflated, calyx; in fubftance coriaceous and hard ; in 
form from a fwelling bafe narrowing upwards, like a 
pitcher; marked with eight prominent ribs, and a con¬ 
vex knob, ending at the top in eight fwellings or rifings; 
black, fmooth, not opening by valves; (hell larger than 
the feed, very thick and fpongy near the knob, in other 
parts thin, feparate all round from the feed, and filled 
with a thin cellular fubftance. Seed one, large, globu¬ 
lar, bony, erefted at the.top with a flatted- rim, or the 
rvhole furrounded by this rim in the manner of a ring; 
it is fmoothifh, of a pale teftaceous, or reddifli bay, co¬ 
lour. There is no receptacle ; but the feed coheres by 
its tip only to the fungous knob of the (hell ; the reft of 
it being enveloped in the cellular membrane. The feed 
has two coverings': the outer, cruftaceotis, hard, of a 
blackifli chefnnt colour; the inner, membranaceous and 
fpongy, buried deep in the clefts of the kernel. There 
is no albumen, but the embryo is the full fize of the 
.feed, umbilicated at both ends, tomentofeand inverted: 
the cotyledons, when ripe, adhere together pertinaci- 
oufly; they divide into four or five larger lobes, and 
thele again irregularly into feyeral other fmaller ones ; 
they are fle(hy, oily, friable, and whitifh. The radicle 
is acuminate, very (mail, placed in the flatted top of 
the embryo, and ftretches, upwards. The fruit of the 
firft fpecies agrees with this.in every refpett, except that 
'tlie feed has no ring, and is of a globular form, only a 
little flatted. This is a native of the Eaft Indies ; but 
has not yet been introduced into culture in Europe. 
Propagation and Culture. Sow the feeds in a hot-bed in 
the (pring; when the plants are two inches high, tranf- 
plant each into a fepaiate pot, filled with frefli rich 
earth, and plunged into the hot-bed again, obferving to 
HER 
water and (hade them until they have taken root; after 
which admit air to them, by raifing the glaffes, in pro¬ 
portion to the warmth of the air, or the heat of the bed ; 
and water them frequently. As the plants advance, re. 
move them into larger pots, being careful not to break 
the roots, and to preferve a good ball of earth to them: 
if their leaves hang, fcrCen them from the fun until they 
have taken new root: (hift them in July, that they may 
be well rooted before the cold approaches. Keep them 
conftantly in the bark-ftove ; in winter give them a mo¬ 
derate (hare of heat, and in fummer plenty of air, when 
the weather is hot. With this management, the plants 
(of the firft fpecies) will grow to the height of fixteeu 
feet or more ; and the leaves being yery large, will 
make a beautiful appearance in the ftove. 
HERNE'SIUM, f. in old records, houfehold goods, 
implements of trade or hufbandry. 
HERN'GRUND, a town of Hungary, fituated among 
mountains, in the midft of extenfive mines of copper, 
in-which the inhabitants are chiefly employed : four 
miles north-north-weft, of Neufol. 
HER'Nf A, f. [trom E^vos, Gr. a branch, because it 
rotrudes forwards.] Any kind of rupture, diftinguiflied 
y the name of the part affected. See .Surgery. 
HERNIA'NA, f. in botany. See Parietaria'. 
HERNI A'RI A, f. [from hernia, Lat. a rupture ; for 
which diforder it was formerly imagined to be a cure.] 
Rupture-v/ort; in botany, a genus of the clffs 
pentandria, order digynia, natural order of holoracaea, 
(amaranthij'y^. apetalae, Ray, Tournef. Haller, &c.) 
The generic charatters are—Calyx: perianthium one- 
leafed, five-parted, (harp,' fpreading, coloured within, 
permanent. Corolla : none. Stamina : filaments five, 
tubulate, minute, within the parts of the calyx; anthene 
fimple; filaments other five, alternate, with the parts 
of the calyx, barren. Piftillum: germ ovate; ftyle 
fcarcely any; ftigmas two, acuminate, the length of the 
ftyle. Pericarpium : capfule fmall, in the bottom of the 
Calyx, covered, fcarcely gaping. Seed: folitairy, ovate- 
acuminate, (hining.— EJfential Charafter. Calyx, five-part¬ 
ed ; corolla, none; (lamina, five, barren, befides the 
fertile ones; capfule one-leeded. 
Species. 1. Herniaria glabra, or fmooth rupture-wort: 
herbaceous, and fmooth. This fpecies is chiefly diftin- 
guiftied from the fecond by the fmoothnefs of the habit. 
The ftalks are trailing and many, forming a little tuft, 
the length of a finger, or at mod (lx inches, round, with 
many alternate branches. Leaves ovate-lanceolate, fome- 
thing like thofe of wild thyme, oppofite, feflile or fub- 
feflile, fmooth, bright green, quite entire, fliarpifti at 
the end, of different fi2es, the larger two lines and a 
half in length, and above a line in breadth. Flowers 
axillary, glomerate, feflile, fix or eight together, at the 
joints of the ftem and branches. Seed dark-purple, 
fliining, deeply emarginate at the top. According tb 
Scopoli, the flowers are ufually folitary, and on fliort 
peduncles. It is common in Swifferland in fandy foils, 
in Sweden, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Car- 
niola; with us in England, at the Lizard Point, Corn¬ 
wall ; flowering in July. This plant was formerly in 
fome reputation, not only for curing ruptures, but the 
ftone, gravel, and dropfy ; it was alfo given in diforders 
of the eyes. It has now fallen into utter difufe. With¬ 
ering and Pollich fay, it is faltifti and aftringent; in- 
creafes the fecretions by the kidneys; and that the juice 
takes away fpecks in the eye. According to Krocker, 
it is agreeable to fneep. Mr. Miller informs us, that 
the herb-women commonly bring the parfley-breakftone, 
Aphanes arvenfis, to market inftead of this plant. It is 
of little confequence which of them is brought; and 
neither the one nor the other is now much enquired 
after. 
2. Herniaria fruticofa, or flirubby rupture-wort: her¬ 
baceous and hairy. Linnaeus feems inclined to think 
this only a variety of the foregoing; Mr. Ray had gi ven 
tire 
