in botany: A genus of the monadelphia order, belonging to the monocotyledons of plants; and in the natural method ranking under the 38th order, Tricocca. The amentum of the male is imbricated, the perianthium truncated: there is no corolla; the filaments are cylindrical, peltate on top, and surrounded with numerous or double antherae. The female has neither calyx nor corolla; the style is funnel-shaped; the stigma cleft in twelve parts; the capsule is twelve-celled, with a single seed in each cell. There is but one species, viz., the crepitans, a native of the West Indies. It rises with a soft ligneous stem to the height of 24 feet, dividing into many branches, which abound with a milky juice, and have scars on their bark where the leaves have fallen off. The male flowers come out from between the leaves upon footstalks three inches long; and are formed into a close spike or column, lying over each other like the scales of fish. The female flowers are situated at a distance from them; and have a long funnel-shaped tube spreading at the top, where it is cut into 12 reflected parts. After the flower, the germen swells, and becomes a round compressed ligneous capsule, having 12 deep furrows, each being a distinct cell, containing one large round compressed seed. When the pods are ripe, they burst with violence, and throw out their seeds to a considerable distance. It is propagated by seeds raised on a hot-bed; and the plants must be constantly kept in a stove. The kernels are said to be purgative, and sometimes emetic.