New Genera of American Plants

N E W P L A N T S.

C O A.

Plate 35.

Coa named for the island of Cos, birthplace of Hippocrates is a genus of plant with a single-petaled monopetalous flower, shaped like a bell and spherical; from its many-cleft calyx the outer green part of a flower rises a pistil the seed-bearing organ fixed to the back part of the flower like a nail. This later develops into the fruit, which is composed of three membranes or capsules that are compressed, have two valves, and are divided into two cells, filled with an oblong and winged seed.

I have found only one species of Coa:

Climbing Coa, with triple-formed, roundish fruit. original: Coa scandens, fructu trigemino, subrotundo

Hippocrates of Cos, born on the Island of Cos to his father Heraclides and his mother Pherenate (or perhaps Praxitea), in the first year of the 80th Olympiad—that is, the year 459 before Christ. He was the first to most clearly establish the rules of healing and authored volumes filled with mentions of herbs. He died among the people of Larissa at the age of 85 or 90, though others say 104 or 109; that is, in the year 374, 369, 355, or 350 before Christ.

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E R E S I A

Plate 25.

Eresia named for Eresus, birthplace of Theophrastus is a genus of plant with a single-petaled monopetalous flower, bell-shaped, spreading, and divided into many segments. From its calyx rises a pistil fixed to the lowest part of the flower like a nail; this later develops into a spherical, membrane-like fruit, filled with seeds adhering to a placenta the part of the fruit that attaches the seeds to the ovary wall.

I have seen only one species of Eresia:

Eresia with very long holly-like leaves. original: Eresia foliis aquifolii longissimis

Theophrastus of Eresus, the son of Melanthius the Fuller, was born in Eresus on the Island of Lesbos. He was a man of remarkable sweetness, both in his speech and in his manner of life. He must be awarded the palm of victory for those sixteen books (and more) which he left behind concerning the history and causes of plants; the Roman genius never produced anything to equal them. He lived eighty-five years. Dying, he complained of the brevity of human life: for if it could have been longer, it would have resulted in human life being perfected in every art and all learning.