| tribe. 
XEROTES. 
sabadilla, mistaken by some botanists for a vera- | pagable by radical division, have becn introduced 
trum or a vellozia, about 3 feet high, white-flow- 
ered, loving a soil of peaty loam, and propagable 
| from cuttings, has been introduced from Vera 
Cruz. 
XEROTES. A genus of ornamental, dicecious, 
evergreen, Australian herbs, of the rush tribe. 
The name alludes to the aridity of the herbage. 
Upwards of a dozen species, varying in height 
from 10 to 40 inches, have been introduced to 
the horticultural collections of Britain; and all 
love a soil of rich mould, and are propagable by 
radical division. Some have the female fiowers 
in heads, and the leaves at the top entire; others 
| have all the flowers in racemes, or the female 
ones in spikes and the male ones in panicles; and 
others are stemless, and have the branches op- 
posite or whorled, the leaves.at the top denticu- 
late, the flowers spiked or panicled, the male 
ones sessile and imbricated, and the capsules 
smooth. 
XIMENESIA, A genus of ornamental, yel- 
low-flowered, herbaceous, Mexican plants, of the 
sunflower division of the composite order. Two 
annual, one biennial, and two evergreen peren- 
nial species, all about 2 or 3 feet high, and bloom- 
ing in the latter part of summer and in autumn, 
have been introduced to Britain; and the an- 
nuals and biennial thrive in any common soil; 
and the perennials do best in a soil of loamy peat, 
and, as well as the others, require to be raised 
from seeds. 
XIMENIA. A small genus of ornamental, tro- 
pical, evergreen trees, of the olax tribe. The 
American species, X. americana, 1s a native of 
the West Indies, and was introduced to the col- 
lections of Britain in 1759. Its stem is branched 
and about 20 feet high; its branches deflect on 
all sides, and are armed with thorns, and gar- 
nished with lanceolate leaves, standing round 
them without any regular order; its flowers are 
produced at the ends of the branches, and have a 
bell-shaped corolla, cut almost to the bottom into 
three segments which are yellow inside, hairy, 
and rolled backward; and its fruit are ovate-ob- 
long fleshy drupes, somewhat similar in appear- 
ance to plums, and each enclosing a hard nut of 
the same form. This plant. loves a soil of sandy 
peat, and is propagated from cuttings.—The un- 
armed species, Y. znermes, is also West Indian, 
but is fully twice the height of the preceding, and 
was not introduced to Britain till 1810, and loves 
a comparatively rich or somewhat loamy soil. 
XIPHIDIUM. A small genus of ornamental, 
tropical, evergreen herbs, of the hemodorum 
The name alludes to the sword-shaped 
form of the leaves. Two species, with respec- 
| tively white and blue flowers, and both about 20 
_ inches high, loving a soil of sandy peat, and pro- 
SFE 
XYRIS. 
to Britain from the West Indies and Guiana. 
XIPHIUM. See Iris. 
XYLOBIUM. A small genus of curious, epi- 
phytous, tropical plants, of the orchis family. It 
is nearly allied to the genus dendrobium at once 
in name, structure, and habit; for the word 
xylobium signifies ‘ to live upon wood,’ while the 
word dendrobium signifies ‘to live upon a tree,’— 
and both are descriptive. Two species, the dirty- 
flowered and the long-leaved, have been intro- 
duced to the orchis-houses of Britain from tro- 
pical America. See the articles Orncuis and Duy- 
DROBIUM, 
XYLOPHAGI. See Bosrricurps. 
XYLOPHYLLA. A genus of ornamental, exo- 
tic, evergreen shrubs, of the spurge tribe. The 
name signifies ‘ wood-leaf,’ and alludes to the 
rigidity of the foliage. Two-species have been 
introduced to Britain from Siberia, one from 
India, one from the Bahama Islands, and seven 
from Jamaica; and all have a height of about 3 
feet, and carry yellow and red flowers, and love 
a soil of sandy peat, and are propagable from cut- 
tings. The Siberian species bear their flowers on 
the branches, and bloom in July and August, and 
require little protection; and the other species 
carry their flowers on the margin of the leaves, 
and bloom during a longer period than the Sibe- 
rian ones, and require the heat and protection of 
the stove. 
XYLOPIA. A genus of ornamental and eco- 
nomical evergreen, tropical shrubs and trees, of 
the custard-apple tribe. Three species, the fru- 
tescent, the rough-fruited, and the smooth-fruited 
—the last naturally about 25 feet high, and the 
other two about 4 or 5 feet high, and all loving 
a soil of peaty loam and propagable from cut- 
tings—have been introduced from the West In+ 
dies and Guiana to the botanical collections of 
Britain ; and six or seven other species are known. 
The bark of the silky species is used in its native 
country for cordage, and is admirably adapted to 
that purpose; and the wood of the larger kinds 
is used as timber. 
XYLOSTROMA. See Timser. 
XYRIS. A genus of ornamental, exotic, ever- 
green herbaceous plants, of the rush tribe. Hight 
or nine species have been introduced to the gar- 
dens of Britain from Australia and America ; 
and about twenty more are known. One of the 
introduced species, XY. altissima, is about 7 or 8 
feet high, and the rest vary in height from 6 to 
24 inches; one, XY. americana, has blue flowers, 
and all the others have yellow flowers; all in- 
habit bogs,—and the greater number require to 
be raised from seeds ; X. altissima blooms in Oc- 
tober, and most of the others bloom from June 
til] August. 
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