The Universal Herbal: Eclipta Erecta; Upright Eclipta. Eclipta Punctata; Dotted-stalked Eclipta.

The Universal Herbal;
or botanical, medical and agricultural dictonary.
Containing an account of All the known Plants in the World, arranged according to the Linnean system. Specifying the uses to which they are or may be applied, whether as food, as medicine, or in the arts and manufactures.
With the best methods of propagation, and the most recent agricultural improvements.
collected from indisputable Authorities.
Adapted to the use of the farmer - the gardener - the husbandman - the botanist - the florist - and country housekeepers in general.
By Thomas Green.
Vol. I
Liverpool.
Printed at the Caxton Press by Henri Fisher.
Printer in Ordinary to His Majesty.
1824Eclipta Erecta; Upright Eclipta.
Stem erect; leaves deflected at the base, and sessile; peduncles alternate, usually in pairs, longer than the leaves, one-flowered; flowers white; calix of five or six leaves; scales broad, lanceolate, two larger, somewhat hispid; flowers discoid; of the disk numerous, four-cleft, minute; of the ray very many, minute; seeds angular, thickish, naked, without any down; receptacle naked, not chaffy. — Native of the West Indies, and of the East Indies, Cochin-china, &c. Loureiro says, that in Cochin-china the leaves are not nerved, nor properly serrate, nor sessile; and that the flowers are not in pairs: he adds, that the juice is used for dyeing hair both of men and quadrupeds, whence the natives call it ink-plant. It flowers from July to September, and is an annual plant, although Linneus has marked it as biennial.

Eclipta Punctata; Dotted-stalked Eclipta.
Stem erect, dotted; leaves flat; peduncles one-flowered, subterminating; flowers whitish, having no smell; the whole plant produces a green watery sap, which becomes black when exposed to the air, may be used as ink, and if it could be fixed would make a very fine dye; the n*s are said to increase the blackness of their skin by rubbing it with this juice. This species resembles the first species, but the stem has white dots scattered over it. It is annual, and a native of St. Domingo and Martinico.