BORRERIA, a genus of plants named in honour of William Borrer, F.L.S. It belongs to the natural order Cinchonaceir, and has tho following characters :—Calyx with an ovate tube, and a permanent limb which is parted into 2-4 teeth; corolla salver-shaped or funnel shaped, 4-lobed ; stamens 4, exserted or inclosed; stigma bifid or undivided ; capsule crowned by the limb of the calyx, 2-celled, opening from the apex at the dissepiment when mature, but without any dissepiment ; come or nuts 1-seeded, opening by a longitudinal chink inside. The species, which are very numerous, are most of them herbs or underslarubs, and are nearly all natives of tropical America.
B. ferruyinea, has a herbaceous, hard, erect, branched stem ; tetragonal hairy branches ; oblong, acute, obliquely 3-4-nerved leaves, scabrous above and pale beneath, and scabrous on the nerves from hairs ; bristles of the stipules the length of the sheath ; whorls of flowers globose, terminal, and axillary ; capsule downy, crowned by the four subulate teeth of the calyx. This plant is a native of Brazil, in elevated pastures in the provinces of Minas Germs and St. Paul. The plant is called Poaya, and Poaya da Maya at Cape Frio. This is one of the plants which yield a bastard ipecacuanha. The roots are
of a brown colour, and when taken produce sickness and vomiting.
B. Poaya is glabrous, and has a herbaceous simple tetragonal stem ; sessile oblong-elliptic acute leaves, obliquely 6-nerved on both aides of the midrib; the stipules cleft into many long bristles ; whorls of flowers capitate, sessile, few, axillary, and a larger terminal one; lobes of calyx 4, lanceolate linear acute, longer than the ovarium corolla smooth ; anthers exaerted. A native of Brazil in elevated pastures. It has blue flowers. The roots are white, and produce sickness when taken, and are consequently frequently substituted for ipecacuanha. The leaves when chewed have a sweet taste at first, and afterwards an acid one ; a decoction of them is sometimes employed in the cure of colic. Upwards of 80 species of this genus have been described, of which only the above two appear to be used by man. They may be cultivated in this country in greenhouses. A light soil suits them best, and cuttings of the shrubby pieces readily strike root under a hand-glass in heat. The herbaceous species require the same treatment as other tender annuals.
(Don, Gardener's Dictionary.) BOS. [Bovim.]