Flora Medica

BREWERIA.red, burning readily when lighted. Taste bitter, balsamic. Yields bydistillation an essential oil of bitter balsamic flavour; little used, except,according to Fee for adulterating oil of Roses. (Lignum rhodium Officin.)N.B. This plant is said (Rom. and Sch. iv. 300.) to have a 1-celled1-seeded capsule opening at the base. If so it is not more a Breweriathan a Convolvulus. But it is so extremely like a Breweria found inArabia by Fischer (No. 53.) that I cannot but suspect some mistake inthis point.HYDROLEACE^E.Nat. syst.ed. 2. p. 234-.HYDROLEA.Calyx 5-parted. Corolla somewhat campanulate. Anthers 5.included, sagittate filaments dilated at the base. ; Styles 2 ;stigmas truncate. Capsule 2-3-celled, many-seeded.822. H. zeylanica Vahl. symb. ii. 46. Wight and Am. inComp. Sot. Mag. ii. 193. t. 26. Nama zeylanica Linn, sp.pl.Wl.fl. zeyl. 117. t. 2. Steris javana Linn. mant. 34. Sterisaquatica Burm. Ind. 73. t. 39. f. 3. Water, and marshyground in the East Indies.Herbaceous. Stems erect, towards the extremities variously bent,decumbent, and sometimes rooting near the base, round, glabrous, somewhatflexuose. Leaves short, petioled, lanceolate, rather obtuse, smooth,bright green above, below marked with numerous prominent parallel veins.Racemes axillary, somewhat leafy, spreading, few-flowered ; every partof them, raches, pedicels, and calyx, glanduloso-pubescent. Pedicels1-flowered, usually opposite to a small bracteal leaf; but sometimes alittle either above or below the opposed leaf, rarely axillary. Flowersdeep blue, with a white spot in the centre. Calyx 5-parted divisions;lanceolate, acute, nearly as long as the corolla, thickly covered withglandular hairs. Corolla wheel-shaped; tube short; limb 5-cleft;divisions obtuse, spreading, or even somewhat reflexed when fully open.Stamens 5, alternate with the segments of the corolla. Filaments thelength of the tube, attached to itby a dilated base. Anthers large,sagittate. Ovary superior, 2-celled : styles 2, diverging, about thelength of the stamens, dark-blue, with paler capitate stigmas. Capsuleinclosed in the permanent calyx, 2-celled, many-seeded. Seedsgrowing all round a large fleshy receptacle, which forms part of thepartition. Wight and Arnott. The leaves beaten into pulp and appliedas a poultice are in India considered efficacious in cleaning and healingill conditioned ulcers, particularly those in which maggots have begunto breed. Wight.401