PHY 
ufed the juice of thefe berries to give a deep colour to the 
red-port wines, to which it was thought to communicate 
a difagreeable tafte when mixed in too great a quantity. 
Complaint of this practice having been made to go¬ 
vernment, orders were given, that the ftems of this plant 
fliould be cut down and deftroyed before they produced 
berries. 
“ The young (hoots are brought in quantities to the Phi¬ 
ladelphia market early in the leafon ; they are eaten as a 
fubftitute for afparagus, which they refemble in tafte. 
This plant requires no cultivation.” Tranf. of the Hor¬ 
ticultural Society, vol. iv. 
4. Phytolacca icofandra, or red phytolacca : flowers 
twenty-ltamened, ten-ftyled. This plant is annual, always 
perifliing foon after it has perfe&ed feeds. It rifes with 
an herbaceous ftalk, from two to three feet high, with 
ieveral longitudinal furrows, and changes at the end of 
i'ummer to purple. It divides at top into three or four 
branches. The leaves are lanceolate, fix or feven inches 
long, and almoft three broad in the middle, of a deep 
green, on fliort footftalks; fome are alternate, others 
oppofite, and they are frequently oblique to the footftalk. 
The peduncles come out from the fide of the branches 
oppofite to the leaves; they are nine or ten inches long, 
the lower part being naked, but fora fliorter fpace than 
in the other forts; the upper part narrow, and commonly 
inclined. The flowers are larger, white within, of an 
herbaceous colour on their edges, and purplifh on the 
outfide, on fliort pedicels. The ftamens vary in number 
(roin eight to nine or eleven : in the lower flowers, 
according to Linnaeus, there are certainly twenty; and 
Gasrtner affirms that they vary from eight to twenty. 
Berry globular, fcarcely depreffed, not grooved, hollowed 
at top with a fmall point, and terminated by ten perma¬ 
nent ftyles, fmooth, bluifh black, pulpy, ten-celled : 
ftyles clothed with their proper membrane, which is very 
tender: pulp dark blood-red. Seeds folitary, lens-fhaped, 
very fhortly beaked, fmooth, fhining, black, faftened to 
the bottom of the cells near the axis of the fruit. Thefe 
berries are very fucculent; and their juice (tains paper 
and linen of a beautiful purple colour, but it is not 
permanent. Native of the Eaft Indies. Cultivated by 
Mr. Miller in 1758. 
5. Phytolacca dodecandra, or African phytolacca: 
flowers fif teen-ftamened, five to eight ftyled. This is a 
fhrub, a fathom in height, upright, rude, afti-coloured. 
Leaves four inches long, from eighteen to twenty-four 
lines in breadth ; petioles one-third the length of the leaf. 
Racemes terminating, but by a branchlet puftiing out 
from the uppermoft axil they become lateral, and at the 
fame time oppofite to a leaf; they are upright, bur, when 
in fruit, nodding or pendulous, on fliort peduncles, 
villofe, bra&ed, fix inches long. Flowers fcattered, on 
(hort pedicels, herbaceous, three lines wide. Berry 
roundiih, flattened, many-angled, flefliy, foft, red, with a 
faffron-coloured juice, four lines in diameter; feeds 
folitary, kidney-form, black. It is diftinguiftied from Ph. 
o&andra and decandra by its flirubby ftalk and decan¬ 
drous flowers. Nativeof Abyflinia, whereit was found by 
James Bruce, efq. and by him the feeds were communica¬ 
ted to the Paris Garden ; and to the Royal Garden at 
Kew in 1775. It flowers in May and June. 
6 . Phytolacca dioica, or tree phytolacca: flowers 
dioecous. This is a flirub two fathoms in height, upright, 
very thick, grey. Leaves five inches long, and two in¬ 
ches and a half wide. Flowers fcattered, pedicelled, 
(preading very much, whitifli green; the males five or fix 
lines in breadth, the females fmaller by half; calyx (or 
corolla) five-leaved ; ftamens about thirty, and a rudi¬ 
ment of a germ in the male flowers. In the females a 
head, compoled of from ten to twelve germs, and as many 
ftyles as there are fweiiings. Both male and female 
plants flower every fpring in the Paris garden, but (till 
the latter has continued barren. It is a native of South 
America, and was cultivated by Mr. Miller in 1768. 
Vol. XX. No. 1375. 
PHY 360 
Propagation and Culture. Sow the feeds in the fpring 
upon a bed of light earth; and, when the plants come up, 
tranfplant them into the borders of the flower-garden, 
allowing them fpace to grow, for they will overbear other 
plants, if they are too near them, efpecially if the foil be 
good. Clear them from weeds, and in the autumn they 
will produce flowers and fruit. The firft frofts will 
deftroy the ftems, but the roots will abide, and (hoot in 
the fpring. In very fevere winters the roots will be 
deftroyed, efpecially in a wet foil, unlefs the furface be 
covered with mulch. 
2,4. Thefe being lefs hardy, the feeds fhould be fown. 
upon a moderate hot-bed in the fpring. When the 
plants are fit to remove, tranfplant them into another 
hot-bed, (hading them till they have taken new root. 
Then treat them as other tender exotic plants; and, at the 
beginningof July, fetthem out upon a warm border, or in 
pots filled with light rich earth, and (haded till they have 
taken new root : water them duly in dry weather, and 
keep them clean from weeds. Thefe plants perfett their 
feeds every autumn, and may therefore be eafily preferved. 
6. Plant cuttings during the fummer months, in pots 
filled with light earth, and plunged into a moderate hot¬ 
bed, covering the pots with hand-glafles, and (hading 
them. In five or fix weeks they will put out roots; then 
plant each in a fmall pot, plunge them into the bed again, 
(hade them till they have taken root, and then gra¬ 
dually inure them to the open air, where they may remain 
to the end of September, when they mult be removed 
into a moderate ftove for the winter feafon. 
PHYTOLI'FHUS, f. [from the Gr. (pvlov, a plant, and 
?u 0 o;, done.] Vegetable petrifa&ion. See the article Mi¬ 
neralogy, vol. xv. p. 531. 
The crude and exaggerated ftatements which we for¬ 
merly pofleffed, relative to vegetable and animal folfil re¬ 
mains, have of late years given place to the refults of pa¬ 
tient and fcientific refearch ; and the labours of Cuvier 
alone, in this interefting department of fpeculation, may 
fuffice to direct and facilitate the path of future enquiry. 
As the details of his difcoveries and obfervations, how¬ 
ever, are contained in large and expenlive volumes, a 
more acceflible and condenled view of the fubjeft, fuited 
to the accommodation of the majority of ftudents, was 
(till wanting; and Mr. Parkinfon has, in his “Outlines 
of Oryctology,” juft publiftied, (1823.) remedied the de- 
fe<ff. With regard to Mr. P.’s opportunities and qualifi¬ 
cations for executing the talk with credit to himfelf, and 
benefit to the public, we need only remind our readers 
that the bent of his investigations, fora feries of years, 
has been directed to the ftudy of foflil organic remains; 
that his more ample work on the fame fubject (Organic 
Remains of a former World, 1804.) lias fully eftabliftied 
his reputation for zeal and diligence in refearch ; and that 
his colleftion of fpecimens is at once numerous and ap¬ 
propriate. 
Commencing his defcriptive catalogue with the vege¬ 
table kingdom, the author (hortly reviews the different 
modifications of lignite, peat, coal, jet, amber, See. and 
adverts to the cafts and impreffions of ferns, reeds, and 
other plants, in the coal-formation. The Phytolithus ver- 
rncofus (of Martin) he fuppofes to have been a fucculent 
plant, including a more (olid part, communicating with 
the external furface by a delicate organization ; and he is 
inclined to believe that the alleged foflil-trees in the coal- 
formation of Staffordfliire, Derbyftiire, Lancafhire, and 
even of Glafgow, were originally fucculent plants of 
large dimenfions, analogous perhaps to fome of the Ca£H, 
Euphorbise, Cacalise, See. deferibed by Humboldt. The 
infinuation, however, that a tribe of fucculent plants at 
one period compofed the exclufive vegetation of the 
globe, is not borne out by appearances ; for, if remains 
of them are often found, fo alio tho(e of gramina, reeds, 
and other fpecies peculiar to water, or to marfliy foil, are 
not lefs common ; and although, in many cafes, the ori¬ 
ginal features of the prototype may have been disfigured 
5 IS or 
