TRINIA. 
the American woods, and thrive only in shaded 
situations, and have a height of from 5 to 10 
inches, and carry either red, brown, white, green, 
or pale purple flowers; and all love a soil of 
sandy peat, and may be propagated by division 
of the root. One of the earliest introduced is 
described as follows by Miller ; and may be taken 
as a fair specimen of the whole. “The root is 
tuberous, and sends out many fibres. The stalk 
is single, naked, and rises 5 or 6 inches high, 
with three oval leaves placed at the top on short 
footstalks, which spread out in a triangle, and 
are 2 inches long and 14 inch broad, smooth, and 
of a deep green colour. From the centre of the 
footstalks of the three leaves comes out one 
flower on a short footstalk, which nods down- 
ward. This has a three-leaved green empalement 
which spreads open; and within are three petals 
about the size of the empalement, of a whitish 
green on their outside, and purple within, having 
6 stamina in the centre, surrounding the style, 
which have oblong summits. The flowers appear 
in April, and are succeeded by roundish succulent 
berries, having 3 cells filled with roundish seeds, 
which ripen in June.” ‘The ternate exfoliations, 
particularly those of the calyx, are alluded to in 
the name trillium. The two-coloured species, 7’. 
discolor, a green-flowered plant of about 9 inches 
in height, introduced in 1831 from Georgia, is 
fragrant. 
TRINIA. A small genus of hardy biennial 
plants, of the umbelliferous order. It is nearly 
allied to the burnet-saxifrage genus. Hoffman’s 
species, 7. Hoffmanni, called by some botanists 
Pimpinella dioica, is a weed of rocky places in 
some parts of England; and has a height of 
about 10 inches, and carries white flowers in May 
and June. 
TRIODIA. A genus of grasses of the oat tribe. 
The decumbent species, or heath-grass, 7’. decum- 
bens, called by Linneus Poa decumbens, is a per- 
ennial indigen of the spongy bogs and barren 
heathy mountains of Britain. Its root is very 
slightly creeping, and has strong fibres; its stem 
is hard, harsh, rigid, jointed, bent, leafy, and from 
4 to 15 inches long, and lies close to the ground, 
except during the period of bloom; its leaves 
are linear, striated, rigid, somewhat glaucous, 
smooth throughout the body, and very rough in 
the rib and edges toward the point; and the in- 
florescence is panicled, and blooms in July and 
August. Hight or nine exotic species are known. 
‘TRIOPTERIS. -A genus of ornamental tro- 
pical plants, of the Barbadoes cherry tribe. Two 
species, the silky and the Jamaica, both ever- 
green climbers of between 5 and 12 feet in height, 
loving a soil of peaty loam, and propagable from 
cuttings, have been introduced to the hothouse 
collections of Britain; and 6 or 7 more are 
known. The name triopteris signifies ‘ three 
winged,’ and alludes to the capsule. 
TRIOSTEUM. See Freverwort. 
TRIPHANA,— popularly Yellow Underwing. 
TRIPLARIS. 489 
A genus of destructive insects, of the moth tribe. 
Their caterpillars are subterranean, and there- 
fore root-eaters ; and can in general be attacked 
by the cultivator only by the methods which are 
used against grubs. The great yellow underwing, 
or bride’s-maid moth, 7riphena pronuba, is very 
common, and does a great deal of mischief both 
in the garden and in the field. “The expansion 
of the wings is upwards of two inches. The up- 
per pair are brownish-grey, dark-liver coloured, 
or some shade intermediate between these two, 
each with two kidney-shaped marks towards the 
centre. The under wings are orange-yellow, with 
a narrow black band at the hinder extremity, 
but not reaching the margin, and continued 
along the anterior margin, emitting a narrow 
streak towards the centre of the wing. The head 
and thorax are of the same colour as the anterior 
wings ; and the abdomen is like the hinder wings. 
The eggs are, in all probability, laid in the earth; 
at all events the caterpillars penetrate into the 
soil, and pass the greater part of their lives be- 
neath the surface. Their skin is tough and re- 
sisting, to fit them for such a mode of life; the 
colour brown, or dull-livid, with a slight tinge of 
green, and two interrupted black lines on the 
back. They pass the winter under the surface 
of the ground, and are capable of enduring a 
great degree of cold. Mr. Curtis states that he 
has known them to be embedded in a sheet of | 
ice and yet recover. They come to the surface 
early in spring, and prepare to undergo their 
metamorphosis to a chrysalis, which takes place — 
in April, the moth appearing early in summer. 
It flies only for a short distance at a time, and 
chiefly in the afternoon and evening. During 
the day it may be found lurking at the sides of 
stones and among grass; and when an attempt 
is made to seize it, it seldom takes wing, but 
endeavours to escape by gliding rapidly away 
among the herbage. It appears to be plentiful 
in all parts of the country. The caterpillar 
seems to be a very general feeder, and destroys 
the roots of many kinds of useful plants. It has 
been known to commit extensive injury to the 
turnip crop by eating away the rootlets, and even 
penetrating into the bulb.” 
TRIPHASIA. A Chinese evergreen, fruit- 
shrub, of the orange-tree family. It constitutes 
a genus of itself, and bears the specific name of 
aurantiola or ‘ the little orange ;’ but is called by 
Willdenow Limonium trifoliata. It was intro- 
duced to the greenhouses of Britain in 1798. 
It has commonly a height of about 2 feet, and 
carries white flowers in June and July; and it 
requires a soil of rich mould, and is propagated 
from cuttings. 
TRIPLARIS. A small genus of exotic ligne- 
ous plants, of the polygonum tribe. The Ameri- 
can species, 7”. americana, is an evergreen tim- 
ber-tree, of naturally about 40 or 50 feet in 
height, inhabiting the tropical parts of South 
America, and introduced to the botanical col- 
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