ANNOTTA, or Roucou; a genus of the monogynia order, belonging to the polyandria clas of plants. Of this genus there is but one species known, viz. the orellana, a native of the warm parts of America. This rises with an upright stem to the height of eight or ten feet, sending out many branches at the top forming a regular head, garnished with heart-shaped leaves ending in a point, and having long footstalks. The flowers are produced in loose panicles at the end of the branches: these are of a pale peach-colour, having large petals, and a great number of brittle stamens of the same colour in the centre. After the flower is past, the germen becomes a heart-shaped, or rather a mitre-shaped, vessel, covered on the outside with brittle opening with two valves, and filled with angular seeds. These seeds are covered with a red pulp or pate, from which the colour called Anotto is prepared, according to the process described under that article. This plant must be propagated by seeds procured from America. They are to be sown in pots in the spring, and plunged in a bed of tanners bark: the plants must afterwards be removed into separate pots, and always kept in the stove.