306 
PHY 
PHY 
ous, procumbent. Stem annual, one foot high, dif- 
fufed, hifpid. Leaves many-paired; leaflets ovate- 
lanceolate, hairy, brownifh - green, oppolite ; flowers 
heaped, axillary, fubfeffile. The whole herb is milky ; 
the Hera, leaves, and calyx, reddilh. The leaves are ereCt 
in this, not horizontal as in the preceding ; the Item fub- 
pubefcent, not fmooth as in that. It has the trivial name 
from its diuretic quality; and is a native of the Eafl In¬ 
dies, China about Canton, Cochinchina, and the eaftern 
coaft of Africa. 
7. Phyllanthus bacciformis, or berry-fliaped phyllan- 
thus: leaves pinnate, with flx leaflets; female flower ter¬ 
minating. Stem half a foot high, quite Ample, afcending, 
angular, even. Leaves alternate ; leaflets twice as big as 
thole of Ph. Niruri. Male flowers a few from each axil of 
the leaves, pendulous, minute. Female flower folitary, 
terminating the compound leaves, or common peduncle; 
it is on a longer peduncle than the male, and ten times 
bigger than that, or the Aze of the flower of Uva urfl, and 
therefore Angular. It is an annual plant, native of Tran- 
quebar, where it was found by Koenig. 
8. Phyllanthus racemofus, or branching phyllanthus : 
leaves pinnate, flowering in a raceme at the tip; fruit ber¬ 
ried, juicelefs; Hera fuifruticofe. This very much re- 
fembles the other fpecies, but the leaves are Amply pin¬ 
nate ; the leaflets alternate, linear, acute, fmaller at the 
tip, u’here the petiole terminates in a contracted little ra¬ 
ceme. Native of Ceylon. 
9. Phyllanthus emblica, or flirubby phyllanthus: leaves 
pinnate, floriferous ; Item arboreous; fruit berried. 
This rifes in Malabar with a tree-like Item to the height 
of twelve or fourteen feet, but in England not more than 
half that height, fending out from the fide many patu¬ 
lous branches. The leaves have very narrow leaflets. 
According to Loureiro, the common height is eight feet, 
with diffufed branches. Swartz obferves, that the fila- 
ment, in the male flower, is very Ihort and columnar: 
the three antherat minute and coalefcent. It is a native 
of the Eafl Indies, Cochinchina, and China; in which lat¬ 
ter country, as Loureiro remarks, the berry is juicelefs. 
It was cultivated by Mr. Miller in 1768. 
10. Phyllanthus Maderafpatenfls, or Madras phyllan¬ 
thus : leaves alternate, wedge-lhaped, mucronate. Calyx 
' of the female flower Ax-toothed, blunt; of the male five¬ 
toothed : thefe latter have five fmall petals, and three fta- 
mens. Native of the Eafl: Indies. 
11. Phyllanthus virgata, or Auftralafian phyllanthus: 
leaves Ample, alternate, linear, mucronate ; peduncles ax¬ 
illary, folitary, one-flowered ; item flirubby. Native of 
the Society Iflands. 
12. Phyllanthus obovatus, or Carolina phyllanthus: 
leaves Ample, obovate, bluntifh; flowers axillary, [talked, 
in pairs; Item branched, round, ereCt. Native of North 
America. It was introduced in 1803 by Robert Barclay, 
efq. to whom the gardens are indebted for feveral of the 
more curious, though lefs oftentatious, American plants, 
overlooked by vulgar collectors and admirers. The pre- 
fent is a hardy annual, flowering in July and Auguft. Stem 
much branched. Leaves [talked, alternate, not an inch 
long, entire, fmooth ; bright green above, paler beneath. 
Stipules fmall, membranous. Flowers fmall, greeni(h; 
one male, the other female; capfule fcarcely lo bigas 
hem p-feed. 
13. Phyllanthus Americana. See Xylophylla an- 
GUSTIFOLIA. 
14. Phyllanthus epiphyllanthus. See Xylophylla 
FALCATA. 
15. Phyllanthus fpeciofus. See Xylophylla ar- 
buscula. 
Propagation and Culture. Thefe plants may be propa¬ 
gated by feeds, when they can be procured from the 
countries where they grow naturally. They mult be 
fown on a hot-bed ; and, when the plants are lufficiently 
grown up, each ftiould be plunged in a fmall pot filled 
with light earth, and plunged into a hot-bed of tanner’s 
bark; [hading and watering them until they have taken 
good root: after this, they muft remain conftantly in the 
bark-ftove, and be treated in the fame manner with plants 
from hot countries. 
PHYLLAURE'A, /. [from (pvhhov , Gr. a leaf, and au¬ 
reus, Lat. golden.] A name given by Loureiro to the 
Croton variegatum of other authors, of which he makes 
a diltinCl genus. Lour. Cochinch. 575. See Croton. 
PHYLLE'IUS, in ancient geography, the name of a 
country, a mountain, and a town, of Macedonia. 
PHYL'LIS, [from (puhMv, Gr. a leaf.] A- woman’s 
name. 
PHYL'LIS, in fabulous hiftory, was a daughter of Si- 
thon, or, according to others, of Lycurgus, king of 
Thrace, who received Demophoon, the fon of Thefeus, 
when, at his return from the Trojan war, he flopped on 
her coafts. She became enamoured of him, and did not 
find him infenfible to her pafilon. Afterfome months of 
mutual tendernefs and affeCiion, Demophoon fet fail for 
Athens, where his domeftic affairs recalled him. He pro- 
mifed faithfully to return as foon as a month was expired ; 
but either his diflike for Phyllis, or the irreparable fitua- 
tion of his affairs, obliged him to violate his engagement; 
and the queen, grown defperate on account of his ab- 
fence, hanged herfelf, or, according to others, threw her- 
felf down a precipice into the fea, and periihed. Her 
friends raifed a tomb over her body, where there grew 
up certain trees, whofe leaves, at a particular feafon of 
the year, fuddenly became wet as if Ihedding tears for 
the death of Phyllis. According to an old tradition 
mentioned by Servius, Virgil’s commentator, Phyllis 
was changed by the gods into an almond-tree, which is 
called phijlla by the Greeks. Some days after this tneta- 
morphofis, Demophoon revifited Thrace; and, when he 
heard of the fate of Phyllis, he ran and clafped the tree, 
which, though at that time ftripped of its leaves, fuddenly 
[hot forth, and blolfomed as if Hill fenfible of tendernefs 
and love. The abfence of Demophoon from Phyllis has 
given rife to a beautiful Epiftle of Ovid, fuppofed to have 
been written by the Thracian queen about the fourth 
month after her lover’s departure. 
PHYL'LIS,/. [Linnajus, in his Hortus Cliflortianus, 
mentions having particularly chofen this appellation be- 
caufe the beauty of this ftmib chiefly confifts in its leaves. 
Phyllis would have been more peculiarly appofite for any 
ftirub or tree producing an exuberant foliage fuddenly 
from naked branches, like the almond, into which the un¬ 
fortunate Thracian queen was fuppofed to be metamor- 
phofed.] In botany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, or¬ 
der digynia, natural order of ftellatae, (rubiacese, Juff.) 
Generic characters—Calyx: umbel none (but a panicle.) 
Perianthium very fmall, fuperior, two-leaved, obfolete. 
Corolla: petals five, lanceolate, obtufe, revolute, fcarcely 
connected at the bafe. Stamina: filaments five, [horter 
than the corolla, capillary, flaccid; antherae Ample, ob¬ 
long. Piftillum : germ inferior; ftyle none ; ftigmas two, 
awl-fliaped, pubefcent, reflex, as in grafles, elm, tetrago- 
nia, See: Pericarpium: none; fruit turbinate-oblong, 
blunt, angular. Seeds two, parallel, convex and angu¬ 
lar on one fide, flat on the other, wider at top.— EJfential 
Charafier. Stigmas hifpid ; fructifications fcattered; ca¬ 
lyx two-leaved, obfolete; corolla five-petalled; feeds 
two. 
Phyllis nobla, or baftard hare’s-ear, the only fpecies 
known. Stipules toothed. This plant rifes with a foft 
flirubby (talk about two or three feet high, feldom thick¬ 
er than a man’s finger, of an herbaceous colour, and full 
of joints. Thefe fend out feveral fmall fide-branches to¬ 
wards the top, .garniflied with fpear-fliaped leaves near 
four inches long, and alinoft two broad in the middle, 
drawing to a point at each end; they are of alucidgreen 
on their upper fide, but pale on their under, having a 
ftrong whitifh midrib, with feveral deep veins running 
from it to the fides; the leaves are for the moft part placed 
by threes round the branches, to which they fit clofe. 
3 The 
