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Phytolacca (From phyton a plant and lae)

(from phyton, a plant, and lae, lake; referring to the crimson juice of the fruit). ORD. Phytolaccaceae. A genus comprising about half-a-score species of stove, greenhouse, or hardy shrubs, herbs, or rarely trees, erect or climbing, natives of tropical and sub-tropical America, Africa, and Asia. Flowers mediocre, racemose or thyrsoid, opposite the leaves; perianth herbaceous or slightly coloured, four-parted, the segments remaining unchanged during fructescence, * spreading or reflexed; stamens five to twenty-five, inserted at the base of the perianth. Fruit sometimes deep purple, depressoglobose, succulent; carpels five to twelve, free or connate. Leaves alternate, sessile or stalked, acute or obtuse, entire; stipules none. The under-mentioned species--those best known to cultivation--are very desirable, hardy, herbaceous plants. They are of easy culture in almost any kind of soil. Propagated by seeds, or by divisions.

P. decandra (ten-stamened).* Virginian Poke Weed; Pigeonberry; Red-ink Plant. fl. white, in long, extra-axillary racemes, succeeded, in the autumn, by dark purple berries, filled with crimson juice. l. ovate, petiolate, nearly 6in. long and about 2 1/2in. broad, changing to purple in the autumn. Stem often purple, erect, divided at top. Roots large, fleshy, poisonous. h. 3ft. to 10ft. 1768. A vigorous-growing plant, with a rather unpleasant odour. See Fig. 141. (B. M. 931.) P. icosandra (twenty-stamened). fl. pinkish-white, in a very loose raceme, 6in. to 12in. long, attenuated at the apex. fr. depressed at apex, watery. l. elliptic or oblong-ovate, acuminate, mucronate, rather thick, 4in. to 9in. long (including the slender petiole of 1in. to 3in.), and 1 1/2in. to 4in. broad, but sometimes as much as 1ft. long. Stem 2ft. to 3ft. or more high. Mexico, &c. (B. M. 2633, 4967.) SYN. P. mexicana (S. B. F. G. 571). P. mexicana (Mexican). A synonym of P. icosandra.