mwwr w I 1 li! THB AMERICAI FLORA, HISTORY OF PLANTS AND WILD FLOWERS: CONTAINING THEIR SCIENTIFIC AND GENERAL DESCRIPTION. NATURAL HISTORY, CHEMICAL AND MEDICAL PROPERTIES, MODE OF CULTURE, PROPAGATION, &C. AS A BOOK OF REFERENCE FOR BOTANISTS, PHYSICIANS, FLORISTS, GARDENERS, STUDENTS, ETC. BY A. B. STRONO, M. D. UDl^Ry BOT.' , VOL. IV. 13 ILLUSTRATED WITH SEVENTY BEAUTIFUL COLORED ENGRAVINGS, TAKEN FROM NATURE. NEW-YOKK: PUBLISHED BY HULL & SPENCEB, 12 ANN STREET. 1855. Entered accoiJing to Act of Congress, in the year 1343, by GKEEX k SPENCER, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern District of ^cw-Yo^k. INDEX TO VOLUME IV. Introduction ... BOTAKICAL. NAMES. Acacia prensans - Acacia vera - - - Amaranthus Hypochondriacus Anemone Jtorfensis Apocynum Androsce mifolium Arbutus laicdo Argemone Mexicana Ast^ amellus Azalea led i folia - Azalea nudijiora Barosma crenulata Begonia sanguinea Bigonia radicans Brougldonia coccinea - Cactus cereus Calandrinia discolor - Campanula macrantha - Cassia Marilandica - Chelone obliqua - Coreopsis diversifolia Crocus sativus Cypripcdium insigne - Diplopappus ineonus Euphorbia atro-purpurea Fritillaria imperialis Fuchsia globosa Fumaria cava Gardenia fiorida Gentiana acaulis - Goldfussia anisophylla COMMON NAMES. Prickly Acacia - - 146 Gum Arabic Tree - - 148 Prince's Feather - - 90 Broad-leaved, Garden Anemone 96 Dog's Bane - - 72 Strawberry Tree - - 75 Mexican Argemone - 111 Italian Aster - - - 83 Purple-flowered Azalea - 160 Naked-flowered Azalea - 114 Crenulated Bucku - 177 Blood-red Begonia - - 24 Ash-leaved Trumpet Flower 81 Crimson Broughtonia - - 103 Night-flowering Cactus - 101 Tri-colored Calandrinia - 38 Giant Bell-flower - - 62 American Senna - - 34 Pved-flowered Chelone - 79 Tick-seeded Sun-flower - 51 Safl'ron Crocus - - 16 Large Ladies' Slipper - 122 Hoary Diplopapjjus - 173 Blood-flowered Spurge - 123 Crown Imperial - - 104 Balloon-flowered Fuchsia - 14 Hollow-rooted Fumitory - 107 Cape Jasmine - - 164 Large-flowered Gentian - 54 Unequal-leaved Goldfussia - 9 IV. INDEX. botanicaij names. Hdlehorus viridis Hypericum liircimim - Jamhosa vulgaris Justicia carnea Kalmia glmica - Nelumbium s]^cciosum Nolana prostrata (Enotlicra Drummondii Opmitia Brasiliensis Pceonia russi Passijlora Iccrmesina Phlox Drummondii - Primula amoena - Prinos verticillatus Rliodanthe manglesii Rhododendron arboreum Salpiglossis straminca Sarracenia r%iba Saxifraga liguJata Silphium terehinthaceum Sollya hctcrophylla Syringia Josika:a COr.IMON NAMES. Green Hellebore - - 152 Fuitid St. Jolin's-wort - 154 Kose Apple - - - 116 Flesh-colored Justicia - 169 Glaucous Kalmia - - 44 Chinese Water Lily - 48 Trailing Nolana - - 46 Evening Primrose - 69 Brazilian Prickly Pear - 180 Crimson Peony - - 135 Crimson Passion-flower - 136 Mr. Drummond's Phlox - 7 Caucasian Primula - 26 Winter Berry - - 40 Mangle's Rhodanthe - 21 Tree Rhododendron - - 11 Painted Salpiglosis - 68 Red Side-Saddlc - - 174 Fringed Saxifrage - - 182 Stately Silphium - - 170 Various-leaved Sollya - 22 German Lilac - - 161 INDEX. COMMON NAMES. Acacia, Prichly Anemone, Broad-leaved, Garden Apple, Bose - - - Argemone, Mexican Aster, Italian Azalea, Nalicd-floivered - Azalea, Purple-flowered Bane, Dog's Bell-floioer , Giant Begonia, Blood-red Broughtonia, Crimson Bucku, Crenulated Cactus, Night-floiuering Calandrinia, Tri-colored - Cape Jasmine Chelone, Red-floioered Crocus, Saffron - ^ . Croion-Imp)erial - Diplopap2)us, Hoary - Fuchsia, Balloon-floiuered Fumitory, Uolloto-rooted Gentian, Large-floioered - Goldfussia, Unequal-leaved - Gum Arabic Tree Hellebore, Green - Justicia, Flesh-colored Kalmia, Glaucous Ladies' Slipper, Large Lilac, German - Lily, Chinese Water - Nolana, Trailing Passion-flower , Crimson Peony, Crimson - - - Phlox, Mr. Drummond's Prickley Pear, Brazilian BOTANICAI. NAMKS. Acacia prensans - - 146 Anemone hortensis - - 96 Jamboso vulgaris - - 116 Argemone Mexicana - - 111 Aster amellus - _* 83 Azalea niuliflora - - 114 Azalea ledifolia - - 160 Apocynum Andros aamiflolium 72 Campanula macrantlia - 62 Begonia sanguiuea - ' - 24 Broughtonia coccinea - 103 Barosma crenulata - - 177 Cactus cereus - - 101 Calandrinia discolor - - 38 Gardenia florida - - 1G4 Chelone obliqua - - 79 Crocus sativus - - 16 Fritillaria imperialis - - 104 Diplopappus incanus - 173 Fuchsia globosa - - 14 Fumeria cava - - 107 Gentiana acaulis - - 54 Goldfussia anisophylla - 9 Acacia vera - - - 148 Helleborus viridis - - 152 Justicia carnea - - 169 Kalmia glauca - - 41 Cypripedium insigne - - 122 Syringia Josikaea - - 161 Nelumbium speciosum - 48 Nolana prostrata - - 46 Passiflora kcrmesina - - 136 Pasonia russi - - 135 Plilox Drummondii - _ 7 Opuntia Brasiliensis - 180 VI INDEX. COMMON NAMES. Primrose, Evening Primula, Caucasian Prince's Feather Phodantkc, Mangle's Bhododendron, Tree - Salpiglosis, Painted Saxifrage, Fringed - Senna, American Side-Saddlc, Red Silphium, Stately Sollya, Various-leaved Spurge, Blood-jloioered - St. John's wort. Foetid Straiuherry Tree - Sun-fioiccr, Tick-seeded Tru mpet-Jlmoer, A sh-leaved Winter Berry BOTANICAt NAMES. Oenothera Drummondii - 69 Primula amccna - - 26 Amaranthus Hypochondriacus 90 Khodanthe manglcsii - - 2] Rliododendron nrlxireum - H Salpiglossis straminea - 68 Saxifrage ligulata - - 182 Cassia MarUandica - - 34 Sarraccnia ruba - - 174 Sili)liium terebinthaceum - 170 Sollya heteropliylla - 22 Etiplihorbia atro-purpurea - 123 Hypericum liircinun - 1,'54 Arbutus unedo - - 75 Coreopsis diversifolia - 51 Bigonia radicans - - 81 Prinos verticillatus - 40 * »■ INTRODUCTION. The perfection of an art, consists in the employment of a comprelienBive system of laws, commensurate to eveiy purpose within its scope, LutvConcealed from the eye of the spectator ; and in the production of eifects that seem to flow forth spontaneously, as though uncontrolled by their influence, and which are equally excellent, whether regarded individually, or in reference to the proposed result. Such is the great art of nature ; and he who would study with success, must, as far as he is able, trace out its various laws, and reduce them to general principles. Applying these principles to the study of Botany, we shall find the most perfect art. It is a theme which can em- ploy the mind of many a person, and one that will afford liim much agreeable pleasure. By the study of Botany wo shall be benefitted ; for all our walks, in every mountain, in every glen, and meadow, on the bank of eveiy little brook, and the way-side, will afford us an opportunity to find employment for the mind,- and lead our thoughts from nature up to nature's God. We shall be much more attentive to all the peculiar jiroperties and relations of plants to the rest of created matter. We shall feel a desire to discover the use of the plant, however small and insignificant to man, remembering that nothing was made in vain. We shall often be led to exclaim, — " How won- derful, sublime, and yet how beautiful are the works of nature \" Plants, shrubs, and even the majestic forest trees, aU take their turn in life, and like the human family, wither when old, and become nourishment for a new generation. It is believed that plants enjoy pleasure and experience pain, and are as sensitive at the disturbances of the laws of nature as the animal creation. Wo cut or wound any part of a plant, and it bleeds. How mys- teriously nature has devised to restore the injury or heal the wound ! Plants do not walk or move, in order to procure their sustenance, like animals ; yet there are many peculiarities connected with their mode of living, the history IV INTRODUCTION. of wliicli would be highly interesting, both to the professor and student. Every variety of plant and shrub has its o^\•^x peculiar manner of sustenance in life, req^uiiing different soils, climate, &c. Few, however, possess the power of locomotion ; the natiiral order, Confervce, alone, we believe, enjoy- ing that i)rivilege ; and, perhaps, of all plants, they alone consist of solitary individuals. Other plants are composed of communities, the buds being the inhabitants, the stems consisting of store-rooms and galleries, the little spongy bodies at the extremities of the roots being the true locomotive organs. But as trees do not Vi-alk ujion the surface of the earth, they m other respects ex- liibit abundant instances of spontaneous motion. For example, the ten- dency of plants to incline their stems, and turn the upper surface of their leaves to the light ; the direction which the extreme fibres of the root will often take to escape the light, or to reach the best nourishment ; the folding up of the flower on the approach of rain ; the rising and falling of the water- lily ; and the peculiar and invariable direction assumed by the twining stem ill ascending its prop. If a pan of water be placed wiihiu six inches on either side of the stem of a young pumpkin or vegetable marrow, it will in the course of the night approach it, and will be found in the morning with one of its leaves floating in the water. This experiment may be continued nightly, until the plant begins to fruit. If a prop be placed within six inches of a young convolvulus, or scarlet runner, it will find it, although the prop may be shifted daily. If after it has twined some distance up the prop, it be unwound and twined in an op- posite direction it wiU return to its original position, or die in the attempt ; yet, notwithstanding, if two of these jdants grow near each other, and have no stake near, on which they can entwine, one of them will alter the direc- tion of its spiral, and they will twine round each other. A very interesting experiment was tried by placing some kidney beans in a cylinder of moist earth : after a short time they commenced to germinate, of course sending the plume upwards to the light, and the root down into the soil. After a few days the cylinder was turned one-fourth round, and again this was re- peated until an entire revolution of the cylinder had been completed. The beans were then taken out of the cyUnder, and it was found that both the plume and radical had bent to accomodate themselves to every revolution, INTRODUCTION. V and the one in its effort to ascend perpendicularly, and the other to descend, they had formed a perfect spiral. But although the natural tendency of the root is downwards, if the soil be dry, and any damp substance be placed above, the roots will ascend to reach it. Or, if the shrub or tree has taken root upon the side of a precipice, and the soil be somewhat nearer above than below, the plant will send a root in a straight line to meet it. In sup- port of the above fact, we would cite a singular coincidence, or freak of na- ture, fuUy illustrating the natural instinct of the vegetable creation ; and one which, perhaps, may have been witnessed by some of our readers. Ujion the precipice, or side of the perpendicular rocks of the natural bridge in Virginia, are to be seen goodly-sized trees, which first took root in the cre- vice of the rock some several feet down from the surface of the earth ; grow- ing in this situation until the trees had exhausted all the nourishment which coidd be obtained in those crevices, and the distance being extremely great beneath, they, in seeking for the necessary support of life, sent up numerous roots to the rich soil above. The curiosity of many a visitor to this remark- able place has been excited in regard to the situation and sustenance of those trees ; there they now stand as living monuments in proof of the powerful and natural instinct of plants. A tree growing from an old wall, or cleft of a rock, will, as soon as i*; has exhausted the surrounding soil, send a stem or root down to the soil be- neath ; and Stevens, in his searches ambng the ruins of Central America, found magnificent trees, of extraordinary size and of a great height, living upon the very tops of some of the highest walls of the deserted edifice of a lost race, which having sent stems down to the soil on each side of the wall, and forming by this means a firm support, and being thus, as it were, strapped together by living cables, they remain to this day in their full vigor and strength. The plants in a hot-house do not direct their leaves to the stove in quest of heat, nor to the door in quest of air, but to the sun in quest of light. Plants in a cellar or dark room struggle towards the light ; plants in an area turn the upper surface of their leaves towards it, and, on the contrary, their roots suddenly avoid it. The tendril of a vine, or the stem of a creeping plant, never makes any turn until it comes in contact with some object around which it can entwine ; VI INTRODUCTION. after which it proceeds in a spiral around the object held in its embrace. The strawberry-plant will thrust its runners completely across a garden walk on to a bed of soil on the oi)posite side ; where it will for the first time, as it were pcrceving its object to be gained, push out roots, and form a new plant. Trees are frequently found, which have taken root on one side of a deep ravine, and having exhausted the sterile soU on that side, have pushed their roots across the abyss, and having gained the opposite side, there struck deep into the fertile soil. The above few preliminary remarks are introduced for the purpose of showing the importance of studying this branch of science ; and in order to make the present volume as instructive, useful and entertaining as possible, the proprietors have made extensive outlays for the improvement of the em- bellishments, as well as the general appearance of the current volume ; and feeling grateful for the more than expected patronage they have received EincG the introduction of the work, they would return their sincere thanks to their subscribers, still asking a continuance of their patronage and co-opera- tion in extending still farther its circulation. ^f 41 t** |r%gv :4<-/^ / '^(^/r/yi/^/t-f^AfZ^ \^^.^ /"' ^ M^^^,. ■f'.U'^^z^i^/^.a/. '^f^uci// LIDRARY NEW yor: BOTANICA' NAT. ORDER. Polcmoniacece. PHLOX DEUMMONDI. ME. DRUMMOND'S PHLOX. Class V. Pentandria. Order I. Monogynia. Gen. Char. Calyx, deeply five-cleft. Segments, acute. Corolla, salver-shaped, with a sub-cylindrical tube, a little cui-ved. Star mens, five, unequal, inserted in the tube above the middle. F'd- aments, filiform. Anthers, sagitate. Cajjsule, roundish. Spe. CItar. Stems, erect, simple at the bottom. Leaves, ovate-lan- ceolate, lower ones opposite, upper ones alternate. Panicle, corymbose. Phlox Drdmmondi has a small and decidedly annual 7-oot. Stem a foot or more high, simple or branched, clothed with long pa- tent hairs ; leaves below opposite and oblong, spathulate above, alter- nate, oblong, acute, aristate, somewhat cordate at the base, sometimes even auriculated and semiamplexicaul, ciliated at the margin, and slightly hairy, but chiefly so beneath, all of them of a pale green color; corymbs tenninal, of several large and very showy flowers ; pedicels short, and as well as the calyx and subulate segments, but united by a pellucid membrane for one-half of their length into a tube ; the limb reflexed corolla, hypocrateriform with the tube, about thrice as long as the tube of the calyx, and very hairy,- with the hairs patent ; the limb of five spreading, obovate, approaching to rhomboidal ; lobes pale, pur- Ci pie without, within, or on the upper side, of a brilliant rose-red or pur- 22 pie, vaiying exceedingly on different individuals in intensity, and in In. tlieir more or less red or purple tinge ; the eye generally of an exceed- ingly deep crimson ; stamens completely within the tube, but at diffei- -4. Vol. IV.— 7. 8 NAT. ORDER. POLEMONIACEa;. ent heig-hts ; the filaments, for almost their whole length, combined with the corolla; germen ovate ; style short ; stigmas three, as long as the style ; capsule ovate-globose, beautifully dotted, tipped with the persistent style, and included within the persistent style. Among the many curious plants which attracted Mr. Di-ummond's attention during his journeyings in Texas, was the present very hand- some species of Phlox. The seeds which he sent to England in the early part of the year 1835, soon vegetated, the plants blossomed most copiously, and with equal profusion and brilliancy of color, whether in the green-house or in the open border ; and it bids fair to be a great ornament to the gardens of our country. Hence, it was detemiined to call it Phlox Dnimmondi, who was its discoverer on the plains of Texas, and who fell a sacrifice to his indefatigable exertions in ex- ploring that portion of our country for the puipose of investigating its botanical riches. Propagation and Culture. All the species are worth cultivating. A mixture of loam, peat and sand, is the best soil for them : cuttings will strike root in sand under a hand-glass. NAT. ORDER. Acanihacc(P. GOLDFUSSIA ANISOPHYLLA. UNEQUAL-LEAVED GOLDFUSSIA. Class XIV. DiDVNAMiA. Older II. Angiospermia. Gen. Cliar. Cofijx, five-parted, unequal. Corolla, bell-form. Sia- mcns, often veiy short, reflext. Anthers, chang-eable. S/igma, simple. Capsule, six-angular, two-valved. Spc. Char. Leaves, oblong, candato-acuminate, opposite, very small. This /j/an^ is from one and a half to two feet high, much branched and glabrous : branches zig-zag, patent or even, recurved, compressed, slightly winged ; the leaves are distichous, opposite, though appearing alternate by the abortion of one of eveiy pair alternately, broadly lanceolate, acuminate-candate, seirated, above dark-green, with pro- minent nerves, beneath pale, with sunken nerves: when held between the eye and the light, copious small pellucid lines, generally lying in a transverse direction, are visible ; petiole short, flat above, keeled be- low, slightly winged at the margin, abortive leaf very small, lanceo- late, acuminate, with an obscure central nerve, sometimes altogether wanting ; jjcxlunclcs axillary, but inclined downwards, so that they are in a measure concealed under the spreading leaves and branches ; peduncles from the axil of the fully-formed leaf; rarely one rises from the opposite side also ; an inch or an inch and a half long, bearing a terminal, sessile, glomerule, and sometimes one or two lateral ones of two to three flowers, and these subtended by about as many small bracteas ; caJy.r very small, of five deep, linear-lanceolate, erect, equal pale yellow-gi-een segments, clothed with glandular hairs ; corolla funnel-shaped, the throat slightly compressed ; the limb a little in-egii- VoL. IV.— 9, 10 NAT. ORDER. — ACANTHACEiE. lar, within hairy, the whole purplish-blue, prettily variegated and veined with pale marks of the same color, and red and yellow ; an- thers nnd filaments white ; style clavato-acuminate. This beautiful plant was found by Francis de Sylva, at Sichet ; and though Dr. Wallick introduced it to European gardens, where it is a great ornament, flowering diu'ing the winter and spring months. The flowei-s are handsome, but in a measure concealed by the dis- tichous foliage, under which they seem to insinuate themselves, though tliey originate in the upper axis of the leaf. The leaves themselves have a striking peculiarity in exhibiting the costa and nei-ves promi- nent on the up2}er side of the leaf, and sunk into the substance of the leaf (the costa excepted, which is slightly prominent), on the under sick. On each side of the nerve, however, on the upper side, the pa- renchyme forms a closely-placed elevated line. 3Icclical Properties and Uses. The medical properties of this foreign plant have not been regarded by physicians of sufficient im- portance to entide it a place among the catalogue of medicines ; yet it possesses properties similar to the Airopa belladonna, (see Vol. i. p. 23.) It is eaten indiscriminately by horses and cattle, without ap- parently any bad effects ; but, on distillation, it is found to possess slightly narcotic and poisonous properties. wix z-""^- >*.\' ^S*' /• / .' /■ . * »■-- -^/'•/u^f/Y''///'/;^v/ ''> NAT. ORDER. EricecB. < . ^ RHODODENDKON AEBOREUM. TREE RHODODENDRON. Var. — Album. White-Floweeed Variety. Class X. Decandria. Order I. Monogynia. Gen. Ciiar. Calyx, five-parted. Corolla, somewhat flinnel-form or campanulate : limb variously five-cleft or lobed. Stamens, five to ten, declined. Antliers, opening by two terminal pores. Cap- sules, five-celled, five-valved, opening- at the summit. <^e. Cliar. Leaves, alternate, oval, entire, subrevolute on the mar- gins, glaucous-pubescent beneath. Floicers, mostly in terminal corymbose clusters. Corolla, deeply divided into three segments, if which the upper one is much the broadest, two or three-lobed •It the end. This is a handsome flowering shruh, remarkable for the appear- ing of the flowers in May, before the leaves are expanded. The stems are about two feet high, dividing at their tops into many erect, slender, flowering branches. Each branch, while yet naked of fohage, has a terminal corymbose cluster of half a dozen white flowers. The corolla is about an inch long ; the stamens are curved down- wards, about equal to the corolla, but rather shorter than the style. This plant coiTcsponds with the Linnaean Rhododendron in all re- spects save tlie very in'egular corolla ; and even in this it is not es- sentially different. The various species of the Rhododendron seem to appear to be subject to much variation in the size and color of the flowers, if we judge from the figures with which we are acquainted. The TMtive plant produces comparatively small flowers, and are of a Vol. TV.— 11. 12 NAT. ORDER. ERICE^. delicate pink or rose color. But no plant when cultivated produces i flower more desirable or more ornamental for an American border or shmbbeiy. It is a plant that will produce its flowers in April, by a little forcing-, at a time when rich flowers are more pleasing- than at any other season of the year. An idea in reference to this plant has been started, that " if a hybrid variety could be obtained between Rlwdodcndron arboreum and some one of our hardy species, the result would be a more robust constitution on the one hand, and a greater brilliancy of color on the other ; and also, that if the pollen of the Rhododendron arboreum could be employed, the stature of the hybrid would also be increased." This suggestion has to a certain extent been carried out. The pistil of the Rhododendron ponticum has been fertilized with the pollen of the Rlwdodcndron arboreum, and the re- sult has been that hig-hly ornamental shmbby one produced equally hardy with the RJiododcndron ponticum, equally splendid in regard to the size and color of the flowers with the RJiododcndron arboreum, and blossoming earlier by nearly six weeks than the common sorts. Take this plant all in all, few are better calculated to enliven a collec- tion than the present. Propagation and Cultw-e. Of all the genera in existence, Rho- dodendron comprises the most handsome, elegant and showy shrubs, well fitted for adorning shmbberies, or to be grown singly on lawns. All the species gi'ow best on peat soil, or veiy sandy loam, or vegetable mould : they are either increased by layers or by seeds. When raised in the latter way, the seeds must be sown early in the spring, in flat pans or pots, filled with peat earth, and covered very slightly ; the pots or pans should then be set in a close frame, or at the front of a hot-house, till the plants come up, watering them very slightly when dry ; and as soon as the seedlings have grown high enough to be laid hold of, they should be planted out into other pans or pots, filled with the same kind of mould ; after which they may stand in a close frame for a few days, undl they have stiiick fresh roots ; and afterwards hardened to the air by degrees. The smaller NAT. ORDER. — ERICE.E. 13 kinds of Rlwdodendron may be propagated freely by cutting's taken off from young wood, and planted in sand, placing a bell-glass over them. There are now in the gardens a great many hybrid kinds of Rhododendron, and they are still increasing in number ; some of which outvie the species in splendor. The species natives of Nipal, China and Japan, in mild winters, would probably succeed in the open air, but they will not survive a severe winter without protection ; they are therefore best kept in pots, and placed among other green-house or frame plants. ItJiododaulron arhoreum and Rhododendron album are among the most showy of the species, and are well adapted for con- servatories, or to be placed in large tubs in the green-house. Young cuttings of the tender kinds, if torn off close to the stem, and planted in a pot of sand, will strike root readily : the pot should be plunged in peat under a hand-glass. For Medical Properties and Uses of R/iododendron, see Vol. IL cage 24. NAT. ORDER. Onagrarice. FUCHSIA GLOBOSA. BALLOON-FLOWERED FUCHSIA. Class VIII. OcTANDRiA. Order L Monogynia. Ckn. Cliar. Calyx, tubular-funnel form, colored, deciduous. Petals, four, in the throat of the calyx, alternate with its segments: nectary an eight-fuirowcd gland. Stamens, eight. Berry, ob- long, obtuse, four-comered. Floiccrs, more often naked, red, rarely white. *^e. Cliar. Leaves, opposite, petioled, ovate, acute, slightly sen-ated, smooth. Floicers, on long filiform peduncles, pendulous. Calyx, of four scarlet sepals, united into a long tube, broad throat, much larger than the included. Bcnnj, puiple. The difficulty of discriminating these different kinds of Fuchsia, now so common in our gardens, of which Fuchsia macrostemma may be considered the original type, has been felt by every one who has turned his attention to the subject ; and this difficulty has been in- creased by cultivation and the skill of the horticulturist in fertilizing one kind with the farina of another; so that wliat few characters were supposed to exist to entitle them to rank as species, are, of ne- cessity, obliterated. Closely allied as the present is to that which goes under the name of Fuchsia gracilis, it will, nevertheless, we think, be found distinct; and possesses one strong claim to our atten- tion, inasmuch as it is a native of the most southern portions of our continent. Propagation and Culture. The elegance of the flowers, and foliage of all the species of Fuchsia are well known to every lover of Vol, IV. — 14. C/'yZ^i'J NAT. ORDER. ONAGRARI^. 15 plants. Tliey all thrive well in rich light soil, and young cuttings of them strike root readily in the same kind of soil, with a hand-glass over them ; the glass to be taken off occasionally, to give the cuttings air, so as to keep them free from damp. Most of the species only re- quire to be protected from frost, and many of them will survive the winter in the open air, with a very slight protection. Some of them, as Fuchsia gracilis, Fuchsia mycrojihylla, Fuchsia ihymifolia, Fuch- sia conica, and Fuchsia coccinca, have a fine effect all summer, when planted in clumps on lawns, or in borders ; in this situation the plants only require to be mulched at the root to preserve them through the winter, and in spring the ground is cleared, and the stems of the pre- ceding year, which are generally dead, are cut off" quite close to the ground, to allow the young shoots to spring fi-om the roots. Capt. King says of this plant, that he has seen the Fuchsia in full flower, within a very short distance of the base of a mountain, covered for two-thirds down with snow, and with the temperatm-e at 36 de- gi-ees. But it was found mostly in sheltered spots. We may remark of this plant that it is possible the same species of Fuchsia may inhabit the valleys of the Chilian Andes, as well as the almost antarctic re- gions of Terra del Fuego, and in such widely different latitudes it may put on different appearances. NAT. ORDER. IridacecB. CROCUS SATIVUS. SAFFRON CROCUS. Class III. Triandria. Orde?- 1. Monogynia. Gen. Char. Corn!/a, six-parted, equal. Perianth, funnel-form, the segments united at the base into a long and slender tube. Stig- ma, three-cleft, convolute, crested. Stamens, three, alternate with three petals. Anthers, two-celled, extreme. Sjie. Char. Leaves, linear, revolute at the marg-ins. Stigma, three- parted, as long- as the corolla, refiexed. Stem, bulbous. Mower, nearly or quite sessile. The root of this plant is bulbous, peremiial ; the fioiccr appears after the leaves, rising very little above the ground, upon a slender, succulent tube ; the kavcs rise higher than the flower, and are linear, simple, radical, of a rich green color, with a white line mnning in the centre, and are at the base incui-ved along with the tube of the flower in a membraneous sheath ; the flower is large, of a bluish-purple or lilac color ; the corolla consists of six petals, which are nearly ellipti- cal, equal, and turned inwards at the edges ; the fllamenis are three, short, tapering, and support long, erect, yellow anthers ; the germen is roundish, from which issues a slender style, terminated by three long, convoluted stigmas, of a deep yellow color; the capsule is roundish, three-lobed, three-celled, three-valved, and contains several round seeds. It flowers in September and October. The common variety has a yellow perianth. Although this plant was unknown to Ray, Miller, and several other English botanists, yet many pretend to say that it is a native of England. We think that Vol. IV.— 16. NAT. ORDER. — IRIDACE^. ^ 17 from all we can learn it is a native of Asia. It has long- been culti- vated in many countries; but the English Saffron is generally preferred here to that which is imported from other countries, and may be dis- tinguished by its being larger and broader. All the different plants f this genus are by Linnaeus considered only as varieties of the Cro- cus sativus. Jacquin, however, makes a distinct species of the Spring Crocus: in that he has been followed by Curtis; and Miller, who de- scribes fom- species of this family, thinks all of them must be allowed to be specifically different, since they do not vaiy fi"om each other. The stigmata of the Crocus which we have given, and which consti- tutes the officinal Saffnin, are easily to be distinguished from those of the other varieties, and are in the places where it is chiefly cultivated prepared for use in the following manner. In autmnn, when the flow- ers appear, they are gathered every morning, and are spread upon a table ; the stigmata, along with a portion of the style, are then picked from the other parts of the flow^ers, which are thrown away as useless. The stigmata being thus collected in sufficient quantity, are then dried, which is effected by means of portable kilns, of a peculiar constiiic- tion, over which a hair cloth is stretched ; and upon this are placed a few sheets of w^hite paper, on which the stigmata are strewed, about two or three inches thick, and then covered with several sheets of paper, over which is laid a coarse blanket, five or six times folded, or a canvas bag filled with straw ; and when the fire has heated the kiln, a board, on which a weight is put, is placed upon the blanket, in order to press the Saffi-on into a cake. For the first hour a pretty strong fire is employed ; the Saffi-on is then found to be formed into a cake, which, after being turned, is subjected for another hour to the same degree of heat: it is then turned a second time, and a more gen- tle heat is applied for about twenty-four hours, or till the cake becomes diy, during wliich time it is turned every half hour. According to the Grecian mythology, the name of this flower is derived from Crocas, a youth who was consumed by the ardor of his love for the nymph, Sinilax, and afterwards changed into the flower IS NAT. ORDER. IRIDACELE. which bears his name. It is the same as the Crocus of tlie Latins, and SafTaran of the Arabians. It was held in much estimation by the Hebrews, who called it Carcom, and was greatly celebrated m ancient times, both by physicians and poets. Cheinical Properties mid Analysis. Saffron, prepared as above stated, has a powerful, penetrating-, diffusive smell, and a warm, pun- gent, bitterish taste. It gives out the whole of its virtues and color to rectified spirit, proof spirit, wine, vinegar and water : about three parts in four of the Saffron are taken up by each of these menstiiia ; and the matter which remains undissolved is inodorous, insipid, and of a pale clay color. The acetous, and even the vinous tincture of Saffron, on long keeping, lose a little of their color and strength, but those made with rectified spirit remain in perfection for years. In distillation it impregnates water strongly with its flavor : if the quantity of Saffron is large, a small portion of a fragrant and very pungent essential oil may be collected, amounting, as is said by Vogal, to about a drachm and a half from sixteen ounces. Rectified spirit elevates also a con- siderable share of its flavor, but leaves much the gi'eater part concen- trated in the extract. Medical Properties and Uses. As a medicine. Saffron was con- sidered to be very powerful. Schroeder asserts, that if taken to the quantity of two or three drachms it proves fatal ; and by several au- thors we are informed, that in large doses it produced cephalagia, in- toxication and mania. We are also assured, that it penetrates every part of the body, tinging the solids and excretions with a yellow color; and that even the odor or effluvia of this drug have been known to produce deleterious effects. It appears, however, from the experi- ments of Dr. Alexander, that Saffron possesses but very little active power, and may be taken in considerable quantities without producing any remarkable effect; and it was lately given in the Edinburgh In- firmary by Dr. Hemy Cullen, even to the extent of half an ounce a day in several hysterical cases, without any sensible effect whatever. I From the foregoing authority it would appear that Saffron, as a NAT. ORDER.— IRIDACE.E. " • -■ . " 19 From the furegoing authority it wouki appear that Saflroii, as a medicine, was of very little consequence ; but modern authors have given us new light on this plant; and it is now considered as one of our most valuable domestic medicines; it is in conunon use all over the country ; raised in almost every farmer's garden, in small beds or patches, and wiicn in blossom makes a verygav appearance. Although the odorous part of SallVon arises in distillation with either menstruum, yet a great portion of fixed matter is obtained in the extract ; but the extract from water is very much changed from the nature of the entire SallVon. That made from the spirit of wine retains the sensible qualities of the Saffron more entirely ; but as there has been some dissipation of the odorous and volatile parts, we can hardly suppose that the concentrated tincture, or extract, can obtain the whole of the medicinal substance of the entire Saffron. We deem it proper to give here as well as we can, the chem- ical history of this famous drug ; but would remark, that from this chemical history we learn nothing towards pointing out or ex- plaining the medicinal powers ; nor, indeed, more from these than may be learned from its sensible qualities. By these, being of some acrimony both in smell and taste, it would seem that Saffron might be very active with respect to the human body. Some writers on the Materia Medica have .spoken of it in the highest terms as an ac- tive medicine. But their reports, in some instances of its etTects, appear somewhat extravagant, though often repeated. Frequent experiments in practice do not always support the opinions that have generally been entertained of it. I have frequently administered this medicine in large doses, without perceiving the least sensible effects, and in many instances without increasing the frequency of the pulse. As an anodyne, or antispasmodic, I have considered it to possess very limited powers, scarcely ever observing any such effects in its operation ; but as a diaphoretic, it is now universally acknowledged to possess highly valuable properties, and as such it is brought into general use by practitioners throughout the country. In all eruptive 20 NAT. OnOER. IRWACEJE. diseases, I have found tlie SaflVon very serviceable; in small pox, scarlet fever, measles, cankered throat, &c., the SaflVon may be cm- ployed with decided benefit; it promotes perspiration very readily, and has a peculiar tendency (o expel the eruption or liumor to the surface of the body. The SaflVon has also been considered famous for its supposed emmenagogue properties ; and in some instances I have reason to be- lieve that it has manifested such powers, but in many other instances, though repeatedly employed in largedoses, it has entirely disappointed my expectations. Propagation and Culture. The culture in all t!ie varieties of lliis plant is easily effected, by planting the buds of oflsets taken from the roots ; tiie Crocus officinalis should be planted in Julv, or the beginning of August; atid the Crocus satirus at any time when the weather is open, troni September to the beginning of April in the following year; but the earlier it is performed, the stronger they flower. The planting should be done by means of a dibble or trowel, to the depth of about two inches, the ground being previouslv well dug over, and left some time to settle. They may be set either in beds by themselves in rows, at the distance of eight or nine inches, and six or eight inches apart, or in patches of five or six roots in each, on the front of the clumps, borders, or other parts of gardens and pleasure grounds, putting them in varied positions, both in respect to sorts, and the order in which they are planted. In the culture of these plants, great injury is frequently done by triuiniing olT the green leaves at the time the flowers decline, in order to prevent litter ; as by such means the future blow is rendered more weak and less beautiful. A\'here new varieties are wanted, recourse must be had to the seed, which must be sown in the spring season, either where the plants are to remain, in a bed of light mel- low earth, or in pots filled with the same. NAT. ORDER. CompositcB. RHODANTHE MANGLESII. MANGLE'S RHODANTHE Class XIX. Sygenesia. Order I. Polygamia jEqualis. Gen. Char. Calyx, five-cleft, stilF and bony. Papus, covered with tine hairs. Receptacle, marked with irregular dots. Spe. Char. Leaves, oblong, somewhat pointed, obtuse, and cordate. Brandies, wavy or snake-like, and very slender. The root is annual ; the s^fim (like the whole plant) is glabrous, rounded, slightly glaucous, branched in a dicliotomous manner, with a leaf at the setting on of the branches ; the branches are wavy, slender, and forming a sort of a panicle upwards ; the peduncles are single-flowered, and more or less drooping ; the leaves are oblong- obtuse, cordate, amphlexicaul at the base, dark green above, and paler beneath ; involucre turbinate, much tapering at the ba.se, formed below of numerous laxy, imbricated, purplish-gray, membranaceous, ovate-lanceolate scales, gradually as they proceed upwards, larger and longer, and of a fair rose color, toothed at the apex ; the upper forming a beautiful concave ray around the disk, which consists of numerous yellow, tubular florets ; the receptacle is naked ; hairs ol the pajipus, feathery. This is a beautiful hardy annual ; it is considerably cultivated in the south part of Germany, where it bears its brilliant ro.se-colored and yellow blossoms in the early part of the summer months. " In July," Prof Lindley observes, "it becomes shabby, and by the begin- ning of August, its .seed is ripe, and its life departed." This plant is said to be a native of Holland Vol. iv.— 21 NAT ORDER. PiUosporccB. SOLLY A. HETEROPHYLLA. VARIOUS-LEAVED SOLLYA. Class V. Pentandria. Order I. Monogynia. Gen. Char. Leaves^ five-parted. Petals, five-parted. Anthers, con- nivant. Pericarp, biocular. iSfigina, obscure. Spe. Char. Leaves, oblong. Petals, oviil, obtuse. Sepals, five. This is a twining shrub, usually found growing from three to four feet high ; the leaves are oblong, glabrous, entire, or rarely sinu- ato-serrate, and shortly petiolate ; corymbs terminal, or axillary and opposite the leaves, of several patent, nearly campanulate, bright blue flowers ; the cali/.v is small, and of five ovate-acute segments ; petals oval and obtuse ; stamens and Jilaments five, short ; anthers subsagitate, connivant, opening at the extremity, bent for a conside- rable way down by a long pore or short fissure ; gcrnioi oblong, ta- pering upwards, and very silky ; style linear ; sii^;na obscurely two- lobed. This charming plant, which has recently been ascertained by modern botanists to be the Billardierafnsiformis, was first discovered growing on Van Dieman's Land ; from there specimens were taken, and introduced into Holland and other parts of the adjoining country. It is spoken of by gardeners as being a highly ornamental plant, and is undoubtedly a great acquisition to the flower-garden. In Scotland and the northern parts of England, it is is said to thrive and grow well, and blossoms in the months of August and September. It grows in the open air without any protection, and the roots live through the winters of even that cold country. Vol. iv— 2-3. Nat. order. — piTTosPOREiE. 23 Some difference of opinion exists in regard to the continuance of SoLLYA as a genus, some conten ling that the fruit is the same as that of Billardicra, while Dr. Lindley observes that the seeds are imbedded in a fleshy or pulpy substance, which cii'cumstance, added to the inflorescence being opposite to the leaves, and the short some- what campanulate corollas, short stamens with the anthers adhering in a cone round the style, and opening by two pores at the points, which would seem to constitute a distinct genus. This plant derived its name in compliment to Richard Horsman Solly, Esq., author of a valuable work on tlie use of the Blicroscope, and ardently attached to the study of Vegetable Physiology. This order contains some beautiful trees and shrubs ; some of the shrubs are climbing, which renders them doubly valuable in point of beauty, as their flowers then make a splendid appearance. There are eight varieties spoken of as considered valued in point of culti- vation. - Propagation and Culture. In Holland and many parts of Ger- many; all the species are considered worthy of cultivation, and very desirable shrubs for the conservatory. They thrive well in an equal portion of loam and peat. Cuttings, planted in a pot of sand, with a b^ll-glass placed over them, will root very readily. They may also be raised from seed, which several of the species produce in abun- dance. One of the varieties, a tree of from twenty to thirty feet in height, is planted as an ornament and shade tree along the road- side ; which in the spring and summer makes a beautiful appear- ance, besides flavoring the air with their sweet-scented perfume. NAT ORDER. Begoniaceoe. BEGONIA SANGUINEA. BLOOD-RED BEGONIA. Class XXI. MoNCEciA. Order VII. Polyandria. Gen. Char. Cci/i/.r, none. Corolla, polypetalous. Petals, from four to six, unequal. Sfijlcs, three. Spe. Char. Slems, several in number. Leaves, large, sub-peltate. Petioles, very unequal. Stamem, numerous. Germens, winged. The stems of this plant are several in number, all rising froiii the crown of the root, subligneous, red, with scattered, oblong, paler spots; the /cares are from four to six inches long, two and a half to three and a half inches broad, sub-peltate, unequally cordate, acumi- nate, the apex soon withering, leathery-succulent, perfectly glabrous and shining on both sides, green above, blood-red below, the edge crenulate and revolutc all round ; nerves about ten, radiating, the larjier branched, the smaller subsimple ; petioles of very unequal length, round, resembling the stem ; stipules intra-foliaceous, large, ovate, acute, keeled ; peduncle about ten inches long, terminal, becom- ing axillary, tapered, similar to the stem, but without spots, repeatedly dichotomous at the apex, the primary branches are about one inch long, the others gradually shorter; bractras lanceolate-elliptical at each division ; Jloircrs white, rather small ; mule Jloircrs in the clefts of the cyme, or on the inner side, where the ultimate branches are reduced to two flowers (the outer one being a female), or, occasion- ally, solitary on the ultimate branches ; petuls four, the two outer subrotund, slightly crenate, the two inner linear, elliptical, very nar- row, entire; stamens numerous; filaments free, excepting at the Vol. iv -21. )eip(^a^^l' ■^may: NAT. ORDER. — BEGONIACE;E. 25 base, where they are nionadelphous ; untliers spathulate; female flowers with five subequal petals, expanding later than the males ; stigmas pale rose colored; gernicn with three subequal wings. In the hot-house it flowers in April. This plant is more remarkable for the color and texture of it.s leaves, than for its elegant form. It has been attended with some pains to ascertain the relative position of the male and female flow- ers when only these two were found at the extremity of the ultimate branch. It seems to me that the normal form is the conversion of the last dichotomous ramification of the cyme into the pedicels of two female flowers, and that the male flowers here, as elswhere, is placed in the cleft; the loss of the inner female flower being an illustration of the opinion, that internal parts, from pressure, more frequently abort tiiaii those which are external. As the conmion support of these two flowers generally turns half round on its axis, their true position may not be obvious unless examined wlicn they are very young. It is a native of Jamaica, and flowers from May until December. Propagation and Culture. Tiiese plants may be raised either by seed, layers, or cuttings. The seeds should be sown in pots of light earth, in the early part of the spring season, and brought for- ward by being plunged in a moderate bark hot-bed. When the plants have attained sufficient strength, they may be removed into separate pot«, and placed in the stove. In the second method the layers may be laid down in the early part of spring, and be taken oflf in the autumn, and planted in sepa- rate pots. The cuttings may likewise be i)lanted out in the spring mouths, being transplanted into separate potsafter they have become w^ell rooted, and then placed again in the stove. The plants succeed best when kept in the bark stove, or even over the flue of the dry stove, being very ornamental both in their flowers and leaves, which sometimes continue nearly all summer. This plant has never been considered as possessing properties worthy to bring it into use. NAT. ORDER. Prhnulacccc. PRIMULA AMCENA. CAUCASIAN PRDIUI,A. Class V. Pentaxdria. Order I. Monogynia. Geii. Char. Cahjx, inaiiy-Ieavcd. Corolla, monopetalous. Tube, cylindrical, the length of the calyx. Spe. Char. Stamens, with five very short filaments. Anthers, acu- minate. Style, filiform, length of the calyx. The leaves are about three inches and a half long, one and a quarter broad; \.\\espathc is oblong, crenate, denticulate, much atten- uated towards the base, but scarcely petioled, slightly hirsute and bright green above, densely covered witii white wool below, neatly and regularly rugose, middle rib and veins very prominent behind, primary veins nearly at right angles with the middle rib and secon- dary veins, which are nearly at equal distance apart, reticulated at the edges of the leaf ; scape and jlowers about seven inches iiigh, lateral, erect, tomentose-villous ; umbel many-flowered ; involucre awl-shaped ; pedicels erect, unequal, from half an inch to an inch long, pubescent; caUj.x glanduloso-pubescent, pentagonal, ovatc-nb- long, five-toothed ; angles prominent and green ; corolla very hand- some, purplish-lilac in bud or when recently expanded, more blue after a few days ; tube scarcely longer than the calyx, purple, glab- rous and wrinkled; /imi spreading, nearly flat; se§'/»t7??s elliptical, emarginate ; anthers nearly sessile in the throat, and yellow ; pollen yellow ; i^crmen. globular, glabrous, and lobed ; the style is about .twice the length of the germen; the stigma is large and hemi- spherical. Vol iv.—26. T rlti. i M. '/T/zm^M' af?//ae^??a . NAT. ORDER. PRIMULACE^. 27 The varieties of this beautiful plant are numerous, being partly wild and partly produced by cultivation. The principal of which are, the Common Yellow-flowered, tlie White, the Paper White, the Red, the Double Yellow, the Double White, the Double Red, the Double Pink, and the Double Crimson Primrose. This is a na- tive of most parts of Europe, and the United States. It produces its flowers in March and April with the Wood Anemone. It is to be observed, that a fine flower of this sort should pos- sess a graceful elegance of form, a richness of coloring, and a perfect symmetry of parts. The properties are mostly similar to those which distinguish the AwicuUt, in what relates to the stem or scape, the peduncles or flower-stalks, and the formation of the umbel, bunch or thyrse, vulgarly termed the truss : the tube of the corolla above the calyx should be short, well filled at the mouth with the anthers, and fluted termination rather above the eye : the eye should be round, of a bright clear yellow, and distinct from the ground color : the ground color is most admired when shaded with a light and dark rich crim- son, resembling velvet, with a mark or stripe in the centre of each division of the border, bold and distinct from the edging down to the eye, where it should terminate in a fine point: the petals, techni- cally termed the pips, should be large, quite flat, and perfectly circu- lar, excepting the small indentures between each division, which separate into five and sometimes six heart-like segments ; and the edging should resemble a bright gold lace, bold, clear, and distinct, and so nearly of the same color of the eye and stripes, as scarcely to be distinguished from it. In the following we introduce the varieties which are in most general cultivation, their botanical description, &c. Primula vulgaris — Common Primrose. This species has a perennial root, growing obliquely, appearing as if bit off at the end, beset with thick reddish scales, which are the remains of past leaves, sending down numerous very long, round, whitish fibres ; it has a singular smell, somewhat like that of anise ; the leaves are 28 NAT. ORDER. — PRIMULACEIS:. obovate-oblong, about five iiiclies in length, nearly upright, tapering to the base, blunt, veiny, wrinkled, smooth above, hirsute beneath, rolled back at the edge wiien young, slightly waved, unequally notched, the midiib whitish, terminating in a footstalk of a reddish color, channelled on one side and keeled on the other ; the scapes or peduncles numerous, the length of the leaves, upright, round, hirsute, pale green, having awl-shaped bracteas at the base, after the flow- ering is over bending back ; flowers upright, large, sweet-scented ; the corolla is of a pale sulphur color ; each of the five clefts are ob- cordate, and marked at the base with a spot of a much deeper yel- low ; the mouth has a foint rim round it. The flower of the wild Primrose is of a deep brimstone color ; but in some places it is found of a purple hue. The varieties of this species are numerous, being Dartly wild and partly cultivated. Primula elatior — Great Cowslip or Oxlip. This species has the leaves contracted towards the middle, similar to tiie Cowslip ; the scapes are few, erect, longer than the leaves, many-flowered ; flowers umbelled, pedicelled, the outer ones generally nodding ; like those of the Primrose in form and color, but smaller. From wliich it is evidently distinguished by its many-flowered scape ; as it is from the Cowslip by the flat border of the corolla. It is found in the woods and other places of this country, flowering in April and May. Martin, speaking of this plant, remarks, " that if it be a variety, it is rather of the former than the latter ; but we are inclined to think that it is a hybrid production, or mule from a Primrose impreg- nated by a Cowslip. It varies much in the color of the flowers, but the most are purple-flowered, red-flowered, golden-flowered, orange- floXvered, with vai-ious shades of each. Primula officinalis — Common Cowslip, or Paigle. This has a root like that of the Primrose, but smelling more powerfully of anise ; the leaves are obovate-oblong, contracted suddenly towards the mid- dle, or rather ovate with the petiole winged, siiorter than those of the Primrose by nearly one-half, fuller at the edge, which is some- NAT, ORDER. — PRIMULACE^. 29 times folded as well as notclied, stronger, of a deeper green, not running so tapering at the base, covered on the under side with shorter and softer hairs ; the petioles smoother, whitish, with scarcely any red in them ; the scapes few, three or four times longer than the leaves, round, upright, pale, villose ; the involucre at the base of the umbel, surrounding the peduncles, consisting of many very small, concave, pale, acuminate leaflets ; the flowers are in an umbel, une- qually-pedicelled, hanging down, generally to one side, full yellow, with an orange-colored blotch at the base of each segment, contracted about the middle of the tube, where the stamens are inserted, paler underneath, very fragrant. It is a native of Europe and the United States. The fragrant flowers of this plant make a pleasant wine, ap- proaching in flavor to the muscadel wines of the south of France, and is generally supposed to possess a somniferous quality. Primula far inosa — Bird's-eye Primrose. This species has a perennial root, somewhat prajmose, with numerous long, perpendic- ular fibres, and sweet-scented ; the leaves obovate-lanceolate, bright green, smooth and even, thickish, here and there turned back on the edges, underneath veined and powdered with white meal ; the scape is about six inches in height, far exceeding the leaves, round, upright, stiff, and straight, of a pale green color, and mealy ; flowers sweet- scented, of a purple yellow color, in an upright umbel, having at its base a many-leaved involucre, each leaflet of which is awl-shaped, and placed at the base of each peduncle. It is an elegant plant, and a native of the United States and many parts of Europe. It flow- ers in July and August. This plant varies greatly in point of size, in regard to its wild or uncultivated state ; wild it is found a foot and a half in height, and in the cultivated plant a tendency to become vivaporous, which has been observed by Curtis, or to produce one or more tufts of leaves among the flowers of the umbel. In its wild state seeds readily, and frequently when cultivated ; the flowers also 30 NAT. ORDER. — PRIMULACEjE. vary with different shades of purple, and have been found entirely "white. Primula longifolia — Long-leaved Bird's-eye Primrose. This species bears a great aflinity to the last-mentioned, but the leaves differ in form, color, and manner of growth ; when fully grown being about twice the length of those of the other; they are not mealy, the under side being as green as the upper, and they have a greater tendency to grow upright ; the scape is shorter and thicker; the flowers form a similar umbel, but each is smaller, and in point of color much less brilliant. Upon the whole, though superior in size, it is inferior to that in beauty. It flowers early in May. Primula corfusowZcs —Cortusa-leaved Bird's-eye Primrose. This species, in the wrinkled appearance of its foliage, approaches the Primula vulgaris, whilst in its inflorescence, the color of its flowers, and solitary scape, which rises to an unusual height, it bears au affinity to the Primula farinosa. In the winter it loses its leaves entirely, and forms a sort of bulbous hybernacle under ground ; this circumstance is necessary to be known, as it subjects the plant to be thrown away as dead. This is a native of Liberia, and flowers in June and July. Primula marginata — Silver-edged Primrose. This, in its fari- naceous tendency, accords with the Primula aricula, but is far from being like it in its wild state, the leaves being much narrower ; the flowers larger, and of a different color ; the flowers approaching in color to that of the lilac ; it becomes mealy, particularly on the edges of the leaves. This is a delicate pretty plant, with a pleasing musky smell, and flowers in March and April. It is said to be a native of the Alps. Primula aricula — Aricula or Bear's Ear. This plant possesses fleshy leaves, succulent, with the edges mealy, serrated, or entire ; the adult ones serrate above the middle ; the petioles leafy or winged ; leaflets of the involucre unequal, wide, lanceolate or blunt ; flowers very sweet smelling, four or five in number, in an upright umbel ; NAT. ORDER. PRIMULACE^. 31 the calyx is one-third of the lengtli of the tube of the corolla, bell- shaped, toothed, mealy, also the scape ; the tube of the corolla gradually widening upwards, not contracted at the neck ; the border concave ; the segments emarginate, but not deeply, being cut only partly to the neck ; the most common colors are yellow and red, but it is sometimes found purple variegated, with a white eye powdered with meal ; capsule spherical or nearly so, a little flat at the top, and sprinkled with meal. It is a native of the mountains of Switzerland and Austria, and flowers in April and May. Propagation and Culture. These beautiful plants are raised without much difficulty, by proper care and management with respect to the parting of the roots, and the planting them out in their due season ; they succeed best in a strong soil, and some of them, as the Primrose kinds, in a shady situation. Cultivation in the Polyanthus kinds. These are all capable of being increased by seed, and the parting of the roots, the former being the only method for obtaining new varieties, or a large supply of plants. The seeds should be collected from such flowers as have large upright stems, and which produce a large number of flowers upon the stalk, being large, beautifully striped, open, flat, and not pin-eyed, as from such seed a great variety of desirable sorts may be expected ; care should be taken, however, that no bad or common flowers stand near them, as they will be apt to debase them, by the admixture of their farina. The seeds should be sown in boxes or large pots filled with light rich mould. The proper season for this business is in the autumn or the early part of spring ; but the former is the better, as by sowing then the plants come up well the same year, and are strong and fit to plant out the following spring, and are also fine plants for flowering the second season. In the first season the sow- ing should be performed as soon as possible after the seed becomes well ripened, though some advise December as a good time ; but when in the later, or the spring season, it may be done in February, 32 NAT. ORDER. — PRIMULACE.E. March, or April. The seed should be sown over the surface quite thick, and covered in very lightly, and the boxes or pots placed where they may have a little of the morning sun, but avoid the mid-day heats. The plants may be much forwarded by plunging the pots or boxes into a mild hot-bed ; in the spring, when dry, tliey should be frequently refreshed with water, in very moderate proportions at a time, removing the plants more into the shade as the heat advances, as it soon destroys them. It is necessary, in order to keep up a good stock of plants, to raise new seedling plants every two or three years, as tiie old plants mostly decline in beauty after the third year. In the latter method, the roots should be parted in the beginning of the autumn, as soon as the flowering is over, and it may likewise be done early in the spring ; but the former is the best time, as the plants get stronger and flower better in the spring. In performing the work the plants should be taken up out of the ground, and each branch divided into several slips, not too small, unless where a great increase is wanted, being careful to preserve some root to each slip ; they are then to be planted in a fresii dug border, enriched with dung as above, setting them live or six inches asunder, giving them water directly, and repeating it occasionally, till they have taken good root. All the approved sorts may in this way be easily preserved. These plants, it has been observed, are very liable to the depre- dations of snails and slugs, in the spring of the year ; the plants and pots therefore should be carefully examined on all sides early in the morning. But their worst enemy is a small red spider, or Acarus, ■which in summer forms its web on the under side of the leaves. — These little insects are scarcely visible without a magnifying glass : they cause the leaves to become yellow and spotted, and eventually destroy the plant ; they multiply with such rapidity as to take pos- session of a whole collection in a very short time. Such plants as appear infected should therefore be selected from the rest, taken up, NAT. ORDER. — PRIMULACE^. 33 and soaked for two or three hours in a strong infusion of tobacco water, and tlien replanted in a fresh soil or compost, and removed to a situation at a distance from the former. But if the whole bed or border be overrun with this insect, it is best to take up all the plants, and having soaked them, to plant them elsewhere. The bed or bor- der should then be trenched up, and remain fallow to the next sea- son, or be planted with another crop not liable to tliis calamity. In their after management, they are said to blow at the same time, and require nearly the same treatment, as Auriculas, both with respect to soil and situation ; they are, however, more impatient of heat and drought, and more partial to shade and moisture. They may be set in the same sized pots, and in the same compost as the Auricula, only with the addition of more loam : or they may be planted on cool shady beds or borders, being very hardy, and seldom destroyed by the coldest and most severe season, because their parent is a native of this country ; but during the heats of summer they are frequently destroyed, unless proper precautions are taken. Tiiis dis- like of heat seems to indicate, that Polyanthus is rather an offspring of the Primrose, which requires shade, than of the Cowslip, which grows in open pastures ; though some seem to regard it as a variety of the latter. The roots of the wild plants, when they can be procured, may be taken up, divided, and planted out in the autumn, when they will flower in the following spring. The Auricula kinds may all be in- creased by seeds ; but in order to procure new varieties, choice should be made of the best flowers, which should be exposed to the open air, that they may have the benefit of the showers, with which they seldom produce good seeds. These ripen in June. NAT. ORDER. Lomcntacea:. CASSIA MARILANDICA. . AMERICAN SENNA C^ass X. Decandria. Order I. Monogynia. Gen. Char. Calyx, five-cleft, deciduous. Corolla Petals, five, lower ones larger. Stamens, ten, separate, the three upper anthers barren, the rest fertile ; three lower ones arcurate. Legume, membraneous, many-celled. Seeds, albuminous. Embryo, straight. Spc. Char. Legume, long, cylindrical, woody, not opening by valves, many-celled, cells filled with pulp. The wild Senna is a beautiful plant ; it grows to ; NAT. ORDER. — LOMENTACEiE. . . 3 1 Southern States. I have understood tliat the Alexandria Senna has been cuUivated in North Carohna with success. Since it appears that we do not obtain pure Senna from Egypt, and diat the aduUeradng- plant, or Cassia Semia is much inferior to our native species, it cannot be doubted that the cultivation of the Cassia Lanceolata and the Cijnanchum Olfcpolium, and mixing- diem with the Cassia Marilandica, would afford a much purer Senna than we now use, and at one-fourth the cost of the imported article. These facts and hints are certainly not unworthy the attention of our southern planters and physicians. The Senna italica, or blunt-leaved Senna, is a variety of the Alexandrie species, which by its cultivation in the south of France, has been found to assume this change : it is far less purgadve than the pointed-leaved Senna, and consequently should be given in much larger doses. It is employed by the inhabitants of Jamaica, where it grows in great abundance near, and on the sea coast. This plant is liardly ever employed as a cathardc, except in die form of an infusion. In order to divest it of its griping quality, which it possesses to a considerable degree, it is commonly mixed with other substances, such as manna, coriander, fennel, or anise seeds. It is to be obseiTed, also, that the powdered Senna is very apt to undergo alteration or decomposition, from being suffered to remain exposed to a humid atmosphere. In such a situation it becomes covered with a kind of pellicle, or mouldiness, which contains a small portion of pot- ass. The powder, however, is very seldom employed, except with other cathartics. The infusion is disturbed by strong acids, lime wa- ter, nitrate of silver, oxymuriatc of mercury, acetate of lead, tartarized antimony, and by the infusion of yellow cinchona. NAT. ORDER. Portxdaceoi. OALANDRINIA DISCOLOE. TRI-COLOEED CALANDEINIA. Class XIII. PoLYANDRiA. Onlcr I. Monogtnta. Gen. Cliar. Calyx, permanent, bipartite. Sepals, roundish, ovate. Petals, three to five, inserted into the bottom of the calyx. Sta- mens, four to fifteen. Style, one, very short. Lobes, collected. Spe. Char. Leaves, quite entire, radical or alternate. Pedicels, one flowered, axillary or opposite the leaves. Tlie stem of this plant is suffmticose, succulent, much branched, flexuose, and marked with the scars arising from the falling of the old leaves ; the leaves are mostly confined to extremity, or near the ex- tremity of the branches ; they are lanceolate-spathulate, acute, fre- quently rc-cm-ved, succulent, of a glaucous green on the upper surface, and a puiplish red beneath ; the racemes which are terminal from the apex of the branches, are long ; tlie pedicels compound and deflexed before and after flowering ; the fioicers are large and about twice the size of those of Calandrinia grandiflora ; the cff/^/.U7n .yArr/^ ./f^^r/ NAT. ORDER. NYMPHIACE-E. 49 proper Lotos, has obtained a relig-'ious revei-ence. It is remarkable that neither Herodotus nor Theophrastus, the most ancient wi-iters by which it is described, have attributed any sacred character to it, but speak of it as only used as food by the Eg-yjitians. Both root and seeds are esculent, sapid and wholesome. They are accounted cool- ing and strengthening, and to be of service in extreme thirst, diarrhcEa, tenesmus, vomiting and too gi-eat internal heat. In China it is called Lienwlw, and the seeds and slices of the hairy root, with the kernels of apricots and walnuts, and alternate layers of ice were frequently presented to the British Ambassador and his suite at breakfasts given by some of the principal Mandarins. The roots are laid up by the Chinese in salt and vinegar for winter use. Sir George Staunton re- marks that the leaf, besides its common uses, has from its structure, gi'owing entirely round the stalk, the advantage of defending the flower and fruit arising from its centre from contact with the water, which might injure them. He also remarks that the stem never fails to ascend in the water, let the depth be ever so great, unless in a case of sudden inundation, until it attains the surface, when its leaf expands, rests upon it and often rises above it. Many varieties of this plant are distinguished by the Chinese ; one of them with pure-white flow- ers, and another having about an hundred petals white or rose-colored. From the root of the JVclumbo, Sir George Staunton says, the Egyp- tians are supposed to have prepared their Colocasia, but as the plant is no longer to be found wild in that country, from which circumstance some naturalists infer that it never was indigenous there, but culti- vated by the inhabitants with extreme care. The ancient Romans made repeated efforts to raise it from seeds brought out of Egypt. Dr. Patrick Browne is of the opinion that the ancients confounded two plants under the name of Lotos or Egyptian-bean, and that under these titles they described the upper parts of the JVelumbium and the roots of Caladium Colocasia, now commonly called Coccos, in Jamaica. Thunberg says that it is considered as a sacred plant in Japan, and pleasing to their deities, and that the images of their idols were often 50 NAT. ORDER. NYMPHIACEiE. drawn sitting on its large leaves. Lourciro relates that it abounds in ■ muddy marshes in India and China, and is cultivated in large, hand- some pots in the gardens and houses of the Mandarins. The Chinese have always held this plant in such high value, that at length they re- garded it as sacred. The seeds are somewhat of the size and form of an acorn, and of a taste more delicate than that of almonds. The ponds in India and China are literally covered with the plant, and ex- hibit a very showy appearance when it is in flower, and the flowei-s are no less fragrant than handsome. It is the Pytlmgorean bean of the ancients, and has been regarded from the most remote periods as an emblem of fertility. Projmgation and Cullurc. The species of this beautiful aquatic genus should be grown in cisterns, tubs, or large pots, in a rich, loamy soil ; they require a strong heat in order to make them flower in per- fection. The cistern, pot, or tub should be kept full of water all the time the plants are gi-owing, but may be allowed to dry when the flowering season is over. The plants may be increased by dividing tlie roots, but are obtained more readily from seeds, which vegetate freely. None but the present species have ever flowered in this coun- tiy. They all require to be kept in a very warm situation in a stove. Professor Lindley, speaking of this plant, says, " that it is a native of the temperate and tropical regions, of the northern hemisphere, both in the Old and New World ; but is found in the greatest abundance in the East Indies, and that they were formerly very common in the southera part of Egypt, but are now extinct in that country according to the account given by Delilc." All writers who have mentioned this plant, speak of it being extensively used as an article of food in China, and considered as a luxury even by Uie nobility. fyll '^ /r^///'^. .^ C2,''y'^r;i^<^/'J (rev^'€^^/, NAT. ORDER Composit(s. J^ COREOPSIS DIVERSIFOLIA. TICK-SEEDED SUN-FLOWER. Class XTX. Syngenesia. Order- III. Frustrania. Gen. Char. Calyx, eight leaved, coarse and placed in a circle. Corolla, compound, rayed. Females, eight in the ray. Stamens, five. Spe. Cliar. Germ, compressed. Style, filiform, length of the stamens. Stigma, bifid, acute, slender. Receptacle, chad'y. The root of this plant is annual ; the stem, a foot, or a foot and a half high, branched, varying exceedingly in hairiness, sometimes thickly clothed with rather long, spreading hairs, at other times quite glabrous ; leaves generally glabrous, petiolated, extremely variable, sometimes obovate-spathulate, and quite undivided, sometimes ternate, with the two lateral segments or leaflets smaller, at other times pinnatifid, and not rarely even bipinnate ; the leaflets obovate or oval, and very obtuse, those of the lower-most leaves almost orbicular ; peduncles double, small, terminal and axillary, also long, slender, and glabrous ; involucre double, monophyllous and about eiglit partite ; the outer lax with linear, green segments ; the inner with broadly-elliptic, brown, glossy, membranaceous ones ; florets of the ray eight, very large, obovate, spreading, brigiit orange, with a dark brown spot at the very base, unequal teeth, the two middle ones the largest ; germ,en ovate, compressed, slightly curved ; receptacle chaffy ; the scales long, lanceolate-subulate, dark purple brown, and pale below. Tliis elegant plant is a native of the United States ; it is cultiva- ted by many gardeners as an ornament, but is mostly found growing in a wild or uncultivated state. It seeks mostly old gardens, hedges Vol. iv.-51. 52 NAT. ORDER. COMPOSIT.E. and waste places. It abounds abundantly in various parts of Texas, from whence it was sent in the year 1835 to England, by the late Mr. Drummond, who was favorably struck with its beauty. The seeds which were planted in March, produced plants which displayed their large and bright orange-colored flower with a dark eye in the open air, in the following July. It is a hardy and most desirable annual. Its nearest affinity, as a species, is undoubtedly with the Coreopsis aiiriculotn, with which some botanists appear, though doubtfully, to have united it. It differs from that plant in its being of much smaller size, thinner, and usually more divided leaves, with broader and blunter segments in its much larger flowers, and above all, the truly annual duration of the root. There are several varie- ties cultivated. Coreopsis vcrticilluta. Whole-leaved Coreopsis. This has a perennial root, with many tall, stiff, angular stems, upward of three feet high ; the leaves are opposite, often in whorles ; leaflets very narrow and entire; the branches opposite; the peduncles long, slender, and one-flowered ; the ray yellow ; and the disk dark purple. It continues long in flower in the latter end of the summer. This is a native of North America. Coreopsis triptcris. Three-leaved Coreopsis. This species has likewise a perennial root ; the stems, strong, round, smooth, and six or seven feet high ; the flowers appear in bunches at the top of the stem, on long peduncles ; the ray of the corolla, is of a pale yellow ; the disk a dark purple. Native of the United States. Coreopsis aUcrmfolia. Alternate-leaved Coreopsis. This has a woody perennial root ; the stems, several in number, annual, erect, angular, filled with white pith, winged, from five to ten feet high, simple, having only very short subdivisions at the top into roundish villose peduncles ; the leaves are ragged on both sides, of a dirty green color ; the lower ones three or four together, or two opposite, the rest alternate, decurrent ; the flowers are large and of a yellow- ish color, coming out late. This is a native of Virginia. NAT. ORDER. C0MP0S1T.E. 53 Coreojisis lanccolata. Spear-leaved Coreopsis. — This species has several stems, decumbent at the bottom, and thence arising obliquely from a foot and a half to two feet in length ; at each joint a pair of oblong leaves appear, with other .smaller ones ; the peduncles are round and smooth ; the florets in the ray eight or nine, broad, with four deep, large teeth at the end. It is a native of Carolina, and lasts two or three years. .^ . Propagation and Culture. The propagation of these plants is easily effected, either by slipping or dividing the roots in autumn, when the stalks decay, planting them out where they are to remain, keeping them clear fi'om Aveeds, and cutting down the stalks annually in autumn, when they begin to decay. The fourth and fifth sorts may be rendered more forward by the use of a hot-bed. They are all well calculated for the more large borders and clumps, intro- ducing them in the vacant spaces between shrubs. They exhibit a great profusion of flowers until late in autumn. Medical Properties and Uses. These plants possess emetic, tonic, diuretic, and diaphoretic properties ; although seldom used for either of these purposes, and in order to produce the effect desired, large quantities of the root, or decoction of the seeds is necessary. As an emetic it operates very mildly. In extreme large doses it has been known to prove cathartic. NAT. ORDER Gentianece. GENTIANA ACAULIS. LARGF^ FLOWERED GENTUN. Class V. Pentandru. Order IT. Digynia. Gen. Char. Calyx, campanulate, four or five parted ; segments unequal. Corolla, tubular at the base. Star)icns, five, equal. Germen, oblong, two stigmas, sessile, or with a style. Spe. Char. Slcms, rough. Leaves, opposite, sessile, ovate, lanceo- late, subtrinerve, acute. Flowers, capitate, calicynal segments longer than the tube. Corolla, tubular, plaited. The root of this plant is large, woody, and of a purplish-yellow color ; the leaves are ovate-lanceolate, in sets or pairs, and spread considerable upon the ground ; the stem is from two to six inches in height, with one or two pairs of leaves on it, and terminated by one very large, upright, handsome flower, which is of a deep azure blue, dotted on the inside. When cultivated in gardens there are sometimes two and three flowers upon the same stem. It is said to be a native of Austria, but is found in some parts of the United Slates. All the Gentians are beautiful plants, more or less bitter in the roots or leaves. There are many species in the United States, some of Avliich have only lately been noticed, and many are as yet undescribcd. The Genus Gcntiana took its name from Gentius, king of lUyria : it gives its name to a large Natural Family. This genus is a very heterogeneous one, although striking by its habit ; but the flowers have the peculiarity of being variable in sliapes and numbers, wherefore many botanists have rationally divided it into subgenera, which might be rather deemed Genera. This whole order is distinguished more readily by its habit alone than by character. The species are chiefly natives of cool and Vol. iv. — 54. NAT. ORDER. — GENTIANE^. 55 mountainous regions of Europe, Asia, and America. They are mostly dwarf herbaceous plants, with deep blue, yellow, or white flowers, the former color prevailing. They are all pretty and most of them beautiful in the highest degree, but with few exceptions, they are impatient of cultivation. The species are numerous, but mostly valuable as ornaments, rather than their utility in medicine The following are the varieties cultivated and used in medicine. Gentiana Cutea. Yellow Gentian. This has a thick root, of a yellowish brown color, and a very bitter taste, the lower leaves are petioled, oblong-ovate, a little pointed, stiff, yellowish green, having five large veins on tiie back, and plaited ; the stem three or four feet high or more, with a pair of leaves at each joint, sessile or almost embracing, of the same form "with the lower ones, but diminishing gradually to the top ; the flowers are in whorls at the upper joints. Tills is a native of Switzerland, and produces its flowers in June and .July. Gentiana punctata. Spotted-flowered Gentian. Tliis plant has the leaves ovate, elongated, and strict ; the calyxes shallow, and in form of a basin, the calycine teeth narrow, sharp, and not very leafy ; the corolla is of a papery substance, extremely thin, of a dull and very pale greenish straw-color, with very minute dots thickly and irregularly scattered over it ; the segments of the border are most generally seven, sometimes eight, but very seldom six, always shor- ter, narrower, contiguous, rounded, blunt, without any auricles at the base ; and finally the bell part of the corolla is blunter and almost the same over the whole bell. It is a native of Lower Canada and is found in some parts of Vermont and New Hampshire. Gentiana asdepiatka. Swallow-wort-leaved Gentian. This plant has the stem upright, nearly a foot in height ; the leaves smooth, about two inches long, and three quarters of an inch broad at the ba.se, embracing there, and ending in an acute point; they are of a fine, beautiful green, have five longitudinal veins, joining at both ends, but diverging in the middle, and diminish in size as they are 56 ' NAT. ORDER. GENTIANEiE. nearer the top ; the flowers are in pairs opposite, on short peduncles ; rather large, bell-shaped, and of a fine blue color. This is also said to be a native of Switzerland. It flowers in July and August. Gentiana linearis. Linear Gentian. The stem is rough ; leaves linear lanceolate, undulate, ciliate ; flowers capitate, sessile ; corolla campanulate five cleft, with the internal folds denticulate. This plant is a native of the Alleghany Mountains. Geyitiana ochroleuca. Pale Gentian. Stem rough angular ; leaves elliptic rough ; flowers capitate, sessile ; corolla ventricose closed, five cleft, inner folds simple, acute. This is a native of this countrv, and is found in most abundance in the State of Xew York and Pennsylvania. The flowers are of a yellowish white. Gentiana heterophylla. Grey Gentian. Stem simple, erect, round, smooth ; leaves subtrinerve, lower oboval, obtuse, medial, elliptic, upper oblong, accute ; flowers terminal, sessile, two or four ; calyx campanulate ; segments cuncate, obtuse ; corolla ventricose, five cleft. This is also a native of this country. It is found in Virginia, East Kentucky, and Tennessee ; the flowers are of a pale bluish grey. It is sometimes called Flux-root, and used for the dysentery. Gentiana serpentaria. Snake-root Gentian. Stem smootli, flex- uose, subangular ; leaves obovate or oblong, subobtuse, subtrinerve, undulated ; flowers fascicled sessile ; bracteoles petiolate ; calyx campanulate, angular ; segments linear and carinate ; corolla tubu- lar, five-cleft; segments obtuse notched, inner folds lacerated. This root is considered a specific for men or cattle bitten by rattle-snakes and copper-heads ; it is also said to stupify snakes. It is a native of Indiana and Illinois. Gentiana s/iortiana. Shortain Gentian. Several assurgent stems, rough, ancipital, one-flowered ; leaves oblong or cuneiform, as long as the intervals, glaucous beneath, edges rough, uninerve, the lower obtuse ; flowers sessile bracteate, calycinal segments, short, oblong ; corolla nearly companulate, five cleft, internal folds lacerated. This is common in the glades of Kentucky, Tennessee, Illinois, «S;c. The NAT. ORDER. GENTIANE.E. 57 flower is blue, and the stem sometimes only about four inches long. It was named in honor, and dedicated to Dr. Short of Kentucky. Gentiana torregana. Torreyan Gentian. Stem erect, rough, quadrangular ; leaves linear-lanceolate, obtuse, glaucous, short, twice as long as tlie intervals, uninerve, clasping, often revolute ; flowers three to five, terminal, sessile, calycinal segments, linear, as long as the tube ; corolla nearly campanulate, five cleft, segments acute, inner folds entire. This grows in the glades in the middle States. The flowers are blue, about one inch long. Dedicated to Dr. Torrey. Gentiana rigida. Stiff Gentian. Stem stiff, round, rough ; leaves lanceolate, acute, stiff, small, subtrinerve, clasping, longer than the intervals; flowers one to five terminal, calycinal segments linear, as long as the tube ; corolla campanulate, five cleft, segments acute, inner folds. It is found growing in West Kentucky, and Tennessee. The stem is red, flower blue, one inch long, leaves glaucous beneath, and small. Gentiana quinqucjlora. Five flowered Gentian. This plant is easily known by its branched winged stem ; which is small, oval, and the leaves clasping ; the flowers five cleft, small, axillary by bunches of three, four or five, and blue. This is common from New England to Kentucky, and the best substitute for the oflicinal gentian ; the whole plant may be iised, being intensely bitter like Sahbalia ans:nlaris. Gentiana amarelloides. Yellow bunch Gentian. This differs from the former, by its having oval lanceolate leaves, stem round Avith four small angles; flowers axillary and terminal, yellowish ; calyx longer foliaceous. It is an inhabitant of Kentucky, Illinois, and other Western States. It is an annual, and equally valuable in medicine. Gentiana crinita. Fringed Gentian. Easily known by its lance- olate leaves, large solitary flowers, on long peduncles, with a fringed four cleft corolla. Tliis is an elegant species, and is found from New York to Soutii Carolina ; a perennial. 58 NAT. ORDER. — GENTIANE^. Gcntiana saponaria. Soap Gentian. In this species the leaves are oval lanceolate, acute, trinerve ; flowers verticillate, sessile ; calyx with short oval segments ; corolla oblong, Avith ten teeth, the inner unequally trifid. This is a good medical plant, and is common from New England to Virginia. Gentiana clausa. Closed Gentian. In this species the stem is round, smooth ; leaves ovate, lanceolate, acuminate, and subtrinerve ; flowers verticillate, sessile; calyx four to six cleft, angular; seg- ments foliaceous and short ; corolla clavate, short, closed, with eight or ten teeth, internal teeth equally bilobed. Tliis plant is found on the Taconick and Green Mountains, the flowers are blue, and about half the size of Gentiana saponaria and quite shut ; there is a variety with ternate lanceolate leaves. Gentiana angustifoUa. Narrow leaved Gentian. The stem is simple, slender, and one flowered ; leaves narrow, linear, spreading ; corolla funnel-shaped, ten-cleft, with five internal lacerate segments ; this is a rare and most beautiful plant ; the flowers are very large. It is a native of all the middle States. Gentiana elliottca. Elliottan Gentian. Stem round, smooth ; leaves oblong, narrow, subacute at both ends, as long as the inter- vals, subtrinerve, glaucous beneath ; flowers three to five terminal, sessile ; calyx elongated ; segments oblong, acute, as long as the tube ; corolla campanulate, inner folds lacerated. Native of North America, and found in the greatest abundance in Kentucky. Dedi- cated to Dr. Elliott. Gcntsana gracilis. Slender Gentian. Stem slender, rough, round, ancipital ; leaves twice as long as the intervals, not spreading linear, uninerve, clasping, sessile, long and slender, calycine segments linear, as long as the tube ; corolla slender, tubular, sub-campanulate, five cleft, segments deep, acuminate, inner folds simple. Native of West Kentucky. Leaves one inch long, flowers two inches long. Gentiana axillaris. AxHlary Gentian. Stem round, rough ; leaves oblong, lanceolate, acute at both ends, trinerve, twice as long NAT. ORDER. — GENTIANE.E. 59 as the intervals ; flowers axillary, pedicellate, shorter than the leaves ; segments of tlie calyx linear, as long as the tube ; corolla tubular, five cleft, segments acute with a lateral tooth. Native of all the middle States. Leaves three inches long, flowers one inch. Gcntiana coUinsiana. Collinsian Gentian. Stem round, smooth ; leaves lanceolate, acuminate, trinerve, longer than the intervals; flowers copitate, involucrate ; segments of the calyx lanceolate, involucrate ; acute, as long as the tube ; corolla campanulate, five cleft ; segments mucronate, innerfolds rounded, notched. This is a fine species, leaves three incheslong, flowers two inches, and blue. Native of the Western States. Dedicated to Z. Collins. The above account may be considered as a concise monography of our Gentians ; but there are some other species in the Southern States. The perennial kinds, which are the most numerous, have their medical pi-operties concentrated in tlie roots, which may safely be substituted to the Officinal Gentian. The annual kinds have the whole plant intensely bitter and available as in Sabbatia, Chclone glabra, Verbena hastata, . St ♦ ■ NAT. ORDER. — CAMPANULACEiE. ' '■ &^ , - •whole plant ; the flowers are in a thia spike, one or two together, " /• on very long peduncles, which have two stipules at the base; the corolla is large, broad bell-form, deep blue ; the segments are short and moderately acuminate. It is a perennial plant, native of most t- « parts of this country, and is found in many parts of Europe. * Cumpamda pijramidalis. Steeple Bell-flower. This species as it appears in the garden, has thick, tuberous roots, which are milky ; " - j^ these send out three or four strong, smooth, upright stalks, which rise nearly four feet in height, and are garnished with smooth, oblong leaves, whose edges are a little indented ; the lower leaves are much broader than those on the stalks ; the flowers are produced from the side of the stalks, and are regularly set on for more than half their length, forming a sort of pyramid ; these are large, open and shaped like a bell, and mostly of a light blue color. There are varieties of white flowers, and of double flowers. Native of Europe. Camjxmula caipatica. Heart-leaved Bell-flower. This plant aflbrds a milky juice when wounded ; the root is whitish and peren- nial; the stems herbaceous, annual, weak, hardly branching, bear- ing one or very few flowers. In gardens it becomes branching and many-flowered ; the root-leaves are kidney-form, and roundish ; (he peduncle elongated and smooth ; the corolla smooth and blue. It flowers the whole summer, and is a native of the Alps. Campanula Intifolia. Giant Throat- wort. This species has the stem from three to four feet high, and more angular and smooth, but not branching ; the leaves are sharply serrate, on short petioles, and hirsute ; the flowers are axillary, one or two together, on peduncles shorter than the leaf; calyx smooth, with broad, triangular seg- ments ; corolla very large, and blue ; the segments triangular, and divided by a line, the fruit obliges the peduncle to bend down with its weight. It is a native of the northern parts of England. There are varieties with single and double purple, and with single and double white-flowers ; with single and double pale red flowers ; and with striped flowers. 64 NAT. ORDER. CAMPANULACEiE. Campanula trachelium. Great Throat-wort or Nettle-leaved Campanula. This species has a perennial root ; the stems grow from two to three feet in height, upright, stiff, hairy, angular, the angels membranaceous, putting out a few short side-branches ; the leaves resembling those of the great nettle, but rather shorter and broader, aUernatc, ovate, cordate, pointed, hairy, deeply toothed, some times having two or three lobes ; petioled, except the upper ones, which are sessile; the peduncles are alternate, axillary, trifid, and three-flowered. The number of flowers, however, varies from one to two and sometimes three and four, and even five; they are large and nodding. It is a native of the United States, but ii^found all over Europe. It produces its flowers in July and August. There are also varieties, with single and double blue flowers, with single and double white flowers, and with single and double pale purple flowers. Campanula grandijiora. Great-flowered Bell-flower. In tliis species the whole plant is very smooth ; the root is perennial, white, fusiform, the thickness of a finger, and branched ; the stems are few, erect, or ascending, simple, round, about a foot higli, leafy all over, an- nual, terminated with one handsome flower, but witliout scent, nodding a little, with sometimes one or two flowers more from the upper axillas ; the leaves are Lrregularly scattered, sessile or on very short petioles, ovate, or subcordate, short and sharply serrate ; sometimes a few of the leaves, and at others all of them are in threes ; the corolla is two inches in diameter or more, very deep blue, with numerous blue veins; elegantly pear-shaped before expanding, and at first green. It flowers in June and beginning of July, and is a native of Siberia. Campanula medium. Canterbury Bells. This plant has a bien- nial root ; the leaves are oblong, rough, hairy, serrate, coming out without order from the root narrowing into a petiole. I<'rom the centre of these the second season, arises a stiff, hairy, furrowed stalk about two feet high, sending out several lateral branches, with long, narrow, hairy, serrate, sessile leaves, placed alternately ; from the NAT. ORDER. — CAMPANULACEiE. 65 setting on of these leaves, spring out of the peduncles, those on the lower part of the stem and branches four or five inches long, dimin- ishing gradually in length upward, and thus forming a sort of pyra- mid ; the flowers are A'ery large, and make a fine appearance ; they are smooth, and the segments turn back at the end ; the flowers appear in the beginning of June, and if the season should not prove very hot, they will continue in bloom a month exhibiting great beauty. It is a native of Germany, but is found in various parts of the United States. There are varieties, with blue, purple, white, striped and double flowers. Campanxda speculum. Venus's Looking-glass. This species is an annual plant ; the stalks are slender and rise from one to two feet in height ; the flowers are of a beautiful purple, inclining to a violet color, (sometimes pale, purple or white,) and in the evening fold up into a pentagon figure, whence it is sometimes called Viola pcntagonia ; the calyx is composed of five narrow leaves, which spread open, turn buck, and are much longer than the petals ; these remain on the top of the primatic seed-vessel, which is filled with small angular seeds ; the stem is tender, quadrangular, naturally procumbent, branched from the bottom at very great angles ; the leaves sessile, obovate, and waved about the edges ; the flowers axillary, erect, on very long peduncles ; tiie corolla wiieel- shaped, and so deeply five-cleft that the segments, which are ovate, scarcely cohere. It is a native of the Southern countries of Europe, flowers from May till September. There are varieties with bright blue flowers, with white flowers, and with pale purple flowers. Campanula Americana. American Bell-flower. This species Jias an annual root ; the stems and germs smootli ; the leaves acumi- nate ; the flowers three or more from each axil or bracte ; the corollas small ; the style longer than the corolla. It is a native of Pennsylvania, and flowers in July. There are varieties with single ■wliite, single blue, and with double blue flowers. Campanula fruticosa. Shrubby Cape Bell-flower. This is a 66 NAT. ORDKR. — CAMPANULACKE. shrubby ornamental plant, a native of the Cape of Good Hope, and flowers here in August. Campanula Rupuncidas. Esculent Rampion. In this species the whole plant is full of a milky juice ; the root is biennial, spin- dle-shaped, sometimes branching; the stem upright, angular, two feet high, hairy towards the base, and smooth above; branches alternate, short, upright ; the leaves towards the base of stem hairy above on both sides, blunt ; the upper ones smooth, and becoming gradually more pointed, obscurely notched ; teeth glandular, whitish, not projecting beyond the edge of the leaf; there is an awl-shaped bracte at the base of each peduncle ; the segments of the calyx are awl-shaped or setaceous, twice as long as the germ, with a small tooth on each side of the base; the corolla bluish purple, sometimes very pale purple or whitish ; each segment marked with three lines ; the nectary fringed. It grows wild in all parts of France, and flowers in June, July, and August. The fleshy roots are eatable, and are much cultivated in France as sallads. Propagation and Culture. The plants in this extensive genus are mostly hardy, and increased w ith very little difliculty. The six first sorts and their varieties, are all capable of being raised by dividing the roots in the autumn or early in the following spring, and planting them out on the beds' borders, or other parts where they are to remain. The former is, however, the better season for the purpose, as the roots become belter established before they begin to shoot up into stem. They thrive in almost any soil or situation. As the plants of the steeple-bell-flower, trained for halls and chim- neys are seldom proper for the purpose the following season after being planted out, a supply of young plants should be annually raised. And though this is mostly done by ofiscts, as being the quickest mode, the plants raised from the seeds are always stronger; the stalks rise higher, and produce a greater number of flowers, especially where good seeds can be procured. In the fifth sort especially with varieties, the parting of their roots NAT. ORDER. — CAMPANDLACE^. 6', should be annually performed in the autumn, otherwise the plaata are apt to degenerate to single, and the soil should not be too light or ricu in which they are planted, as in either of these cases they degeu- erate. In a strong fresh loam their flowers are in the greatest per- fection. The broad-leaved sort is also easily propagated by seeds, wliich it furnishes in great plenty. In all these different varieties when not sown in the places where they are to remain, the plants should be transplanted into such .situations in the beginning of the autumn, as by that process they flower much better. The seventh and eiglith kinds are increased by seeds which should be sown in the spring, on beds of common earth, keeping them clean from weeds till the following autumn, when they may be transplanted into the borders or other parts. And as the plants in the first of these sorts perish or decay the second year, young ones should be annually raised. The latter of these kinds are mostly sown in patches in the borders or clumps, among other hardy annuals at the above period ; but if sown in autumn the plants grow much taller and flower much earlier. The ninth sort is propagated by planting the offsets from the roots in the beginning of the autumn, in beds, or other places, where they are to remain. And the tenth species may be increased by planting the cuttings of the shoots in pots of light earth and placing them in he hot-bed or the stove. The eleventh kind is raised from the seed, which should be sown in April, in a moist, shady situation, the plants being thinned out to five or six inches distance. They are ready for use in the beginning of autumn. It requires to be sown annually. There are two hundred and twenty-seven species of Campanula, and most of which have been cultivated at different periods of time. The species and varieties here described, are among those mostly sought for ; they are all highly ornamental in the borders and plea- sure-grounds, as they continue long in bloom, and the tender kinds afford variety in the green-house. NAT. ORDER. SolonacecB. SALPIGLOSSIS STRAMINEA. PAINTED SALIIGLOSSIS. C2ass XIV. DiDYNAMiA. Order II. Angiospermia. Gen. Char. Calyx, five angled, five cleft. Segments, two lobed. Stamens, four. Style, tongue-shaped. Sjje. Char. Corolla, cream-colored, veined with blue. The stem rises from two to three feet high, paniculatcly branched at the top ; the branches dichotomous, forked ; the corolla is large, purple or straw-colored, and variegated ; the leaves are alternate ; the lower ones petiolate sinuated ; upper ones narrower, entire; the caly.T is angled, five cleft, funnel-shaped, and gradually widening to the top ; the limb is ' five cleft and plicate ; the segments are two lobed ; stamens four in number, two long and two short, with the rudiment of a fifth between the two longer ones ; style truncate at the apex ; stigma truncate, transverse ; capsule ovate, two-celled, two-valved, valves bipartible ; seeds erect, angular, a little com- pressed, truncate, scabrous from elevated dots ; embryo arched, with short oval cotyledons. This family are all annual, or biennial plants, and generally clothed with glandular hairs. Natives of Peru and Chili. Propagation and Culture. A light fresh earth, not too rich, will be found to suit this species of plants best. They are all sliowy plants, and succeed best when the seed is sown in the open border in the spring. They can, however, be reared in the autumn and placed in the hot-house during winter, for spring use. Vol. iv.— €8. <■ /a//>////ri^/^'/.^^ J /i i^'i!«««^!'. NAT. ORDER Cactece. CACTUS CEREUS. NIGHT-FLOWERING CACTUS. Class XII. IcosANDRiA. Older I. Monogtnia. Gen. Char. Calyx superior, hairy, pointed, many cleft Segments somewhat imbricate, coliering. Petals very numerous, inserted in four different setts of series — the interior ones of a lightish color, and more broad at the base and short — external ones more slender. Spe. Char. Leaves fleshy, hairy, lanceolate, Stem round and ribbed, tuffed in spots. This curious species of the cactus tribe is found in the tropical regions of this country, inhabiting the borders of marshes and low lands. It grows from two to three feet in height, and some- what creeping ; the i-oots are long, fibrous, white, somewhat tuber- ous, and woody ; also a considerable stringy; the petals are very numerous, and inserted in several different rows ; the inner ones short and more broad at the base — the outer ones longer, lanceolate, pointed, more fleshy^ and deeper tinged with a yellowish tint near their extremities ; the stamens are indefinite, cohering somewhat with the sepals ; the filaments are numerous, long, slender, and fila- form ; the anthers ovate, slender, and a little curved ; the stigmas are quite numerous, and collected rather closely together, and some- what clustered ; the Jloicers are large, showy, spreading, placed at tiie end of the fleshy flowering stem, and when in full blossom pro- duces an enchanting appearance. For external appearance exam- ine plate. Vol. iv.— 101. 102 NAT. ORDER. CACTE^. Mexico, and the warmer regions of America, are the parts, seem- ingly, selected for the habitation of this family of plants. Many of the species, however, have found their way into more northern lati- tudes, but principally by the hand of cultivation. Still farther north it is placed as an ornament in the flower-garden and private nurse- ries. This, like all the other various species belonging to this curious family of plants, requires protection from the frosts and severe cold winds. It is sought for only as an ornament, to produce variety. Propagation and Culture. This species requires a somewhat different mode of culture to produce luxuriant plants, to many of the other varieties. Most of the species require dry, exposed situations, where they can receive the full heat of the sun ; but on the contrary, this plant seeks more shaded, desolate, and marshy districts, inhab- iting the low lands, the borders of swamps and small streams. It can be easily increased either by parting the roots, or by slips or cuttings. No plant is more easily cultivated than the Cactus — the smallest shoot stuck into the earth will readily take root. The cuttings should be taken off early in the spring, and placed sufficiently under the surface of the earth to receive a constant moisture, which is from two to three inches, placed upright. If for the green-house or parlor ornaments, they should be placed in pots of midling size, and watered sufficiently to keep the earth continually moist. The earth should be formed of about one-half of vegetable mould, and the remainder of a fine gravelly soil. Medical Properties and Uses. The whole family of these succu- lent plants do not contain any remarkable qualities as a medicine, yet some are used for medicinal purposes, but have never excited the attention of the medical profession. See Vol. iii. page 86. t-^t^ai^i^^i'-^a'^.-c^-c^'-'t^zr.^ If' N A T. ORDER. Orcliidece. BROUGHTONIA COCCINEA. CRIMSON BROUGHTONIA. Class XX. GvNANDRiA. Order I. IMonandria. Gen. Char. Calyx consists of three sepals. Petals spreading. Peduncle one, erect, and nodding. »S^. Cliar. Anther-case small. Column short, whitish. The bulbs of this 7-00^ are very much clustered, roundish-ovate, often richly stained with brown, compressed, and bearing from the apex one or two leaves, which are linear-oblong, three to four inches high, and soniewhat coriaceous ; the peduncles also arise from the same place, eight to ten inches or more high, jointed and bracteated. and bearing a raceme of six to nine Jloicers at the summit, which are of a very ricii crimson color ; the calij.v consists of three sepals ; they are spreading, equal, equidistant, lanceolate ; jjetals spreading, two lateral ones broadly ovate, acute, and slightly crisped ; the lower one, or labellum, rotundate-cordate, obscurely tvvo-lobed, waved, and delicately crenate at the margin ; the base beneath running down into a very long adnate spur upon the scarlet germen ; the colmnn is quite siiort and whitish ; the anther-case is extremely small and hemispiierical ; polen-rnasses, two compressed pairs, with the caudi- cles folded down upon them. This is undoubtedly one of the most rare plants in our country ; consequently is but little known, even by the most experienced botanists. Its beauty and elegance when in blossom is very attrac- tive, and is to be reckoned as one of the most splendid in that family of plants. Its medical properties have never been examined. Vol. iv.— 103 NAT. ORDER. Liliaceon. FKITILLARIA IMPERIALIS. CROWIS IMPERIAL, Class VI. IIexandria. Order I. Monogynia. Ge7i. Char. Caly.v none. Corolla six-petalcd, bell-shaped, and spreading at the base. Petals oblong, parallel. Slainciis have six subulate filaments approximating to the style. Spe. Char. Anthers quadrangular, oblong, erect. Pist'dl an oblong germ, three-cornered. Stigma triple, spreading blunt. Sfxjle trifid, with three stigmas. Seeds many, flat, in a double row. This plant belongs to a genus comprising those of the bulbous- rooted kinds, and of a flowering nature. The root of this p/a?i^ is large, round, scaly, bulbous, of a yellow color, and a strong, foxy odor; the stalk rises to the height of four or five feet; it is strong, succulent, and garnished two-thirds of the length on every side with long, narrow leaves, ending in points, which are smooth and entire ; the upper part of the stalk is naked about a foot in length ; thejloic- ers come out all around the stalk upon short foot-stalks, which turn downward, each sustaining one large flower ; above these rises a spreading tuft of green leaves, which are erect, and called the coma. It flowers in the beginning of April, and the seeds ripen in July. The chief varieties are : those with yellow flowers ; with large flowers ; and with double flowers ; but that which has two or three whorls of flowers, above all others, makes the most beautiful appear- ance, though it seldom produces its flowers after this manner the first year after removing. Fritillaria Mcleagris. Chequered Lily. In this species the root is a solid bulb or tuber, about the size of a hazle-nut, white or yellow- ish-white, roundish, compressed, divisible intc several, and inclosed Vol. iv.— lot NAT. ORDER. LlLIACE.ffi. lOo by the withered, wrinkled bulb of (he preceding }ear, as if in a case; tlie stem varies in heiglit, sometimes six, and sometimes even eighteen inches high, and still advancing a considerable after flower- ing ; it comes out from the side of the root, is simple, upright, round, smooth, glaucous, and very often of a purple color ; the leaves from three to six, grass-like, distantly alternate; half embracing, round on the under, and hollow on the upper side, somewhat twisted and glaucous ; the flower usually single, sometimes two, or even three on the top of the stem, large, pendulous, at first somewhat pyramidal, but afterwards bell-form, chequered with purple and white, or purple and greenish yellow. It is a native of southern countries of Europe, and flowers in April and May. There are numerous varieties of this : the Common Purple, the Blood Red, the White, the Great Purple Red, the Double Blush, the Purple Yellow, the Chequered Yellow, the Great Yellow Italian, the Small Italian, the small Portugal Yellow, the Black, and the Spanish Black. Fiitillaiia pyrcnaica. Black Fritillary. This species has a double, fleshy bulbous root ; the leaves are broader, and of a deeper green than in the first ; the lower leaves are opposite, but those above alternate; the stem is from one to two feet high, terminated by two flowers of an obscure yellow color, and spreading more at the brim than those of the first, but turned downwards in the same manner. It flowers in the latter part of May, and is a native of France. Fritillaria Persica. Persian Lily. This species has a large, round root ; the stem ri.ses about three feet high, the lower part closely garnished on every side with leaves, which are about three inches long and half an inch in breadth, of a grey color, and twisted obliquely ; the flowers are in a loose spike at the top, forming a pyr- amid, shorter than the other sorts, spreading wider at the brim, and not bent down, of a dark purple color, appearing in May. They have not been known to produce seeds in this country. 106 NAT. ORDER. — LILIACE^. There is a variety which has a much shorter stem and smaller leaves ; the stem branches out at the top into several small pedun- cles, each sustaining one dark-colored flower. It is called Dwarf Persian Lily. Propagation and Cullure. The common mode of propagation in all these plants is by off-sets from the sides of their roots, separated every second or third year ; and the proper time for this business is when their flower-stalks decay, taking the whole root up entirely, and separating them into distinct roots, then planting the smaller off- sets by themselves in nursery-beds, to remain a year or two to acquire a flowering state ; and the larger roots, where they are (o remain for flowering. They are all, likewise, capable of being propagated by seed ; but this is principally practiced for new varieties, and the process is tedious ; the Fritillary and the Persian Lily being three years, and tlie Crown Imperial sometimes six or seven before they flower in perfection. The seeds may be sown in the beginning of autumn in large wide pots, or in boxes of similar width, fdled with light mellow earth, each sort separate, covering them carefully with fine earth, about half an inch deep, placing the pots in such a situation as to have only the morning sun all summer, or especially during the hot, dry weather, and in the full sun in winter and spring ; the plants will appear in the spring, which, after the first or second year's growth, when the leaves decay in summer, may be taken up, and the whole planted immediately in nursery-beds, m shallow drills, four inches apart, to remain till they flower. Medical Properties and Uses. These plants are mostly valued for their flowers and the bulbs of the roots. They are roasted and eaten in Kamtschatka, where it is as commonly cultivated as the potatoe is with us. The roots of the FritiUaria Imperialis, are employed in stranguary and fevers, in many countries, and is valued for that pur- pose. This plant emits a most powerful scent in the evening imme- diately after sunset. *i /V!i%»l^^5?^^<«^ /:^m'^ . NAT. ORDER. FumariaceeB. . FUMARU CAVA. HOLLOW-ROOTED FUMITORY. Class XVII. DiADELPHiA. Order II. Hexandria. Gen. Char. Calyx two-leaved. Corolla ringent. Filaments two, membranaceous, with three anthers on each. .^e. Char. Peiicarps one-seeded, racemed. Stem diffuse. This plant has a root about the size of a large hazle-nut with the shuck on ; the Jloiccr-stalk rises in height about eight or nine inches; the root-leaves stand in pairs, triternate, gashed, smooth, slender, and with red petioles ; the scape is simple, round, the length of the leaf, and rufous ; the racemes are terminating and simple ; the Jioioers pendulous, and of a dull purple-white color. It is a native of Vir- ginia. Perennial, flowering in June and July. The generic name is from famus, smoke, in allusion to the disa- greeable smell of the plant. The French, with the same meaning call it Fumeterre, whence our Englisii Fumitory. The economy of the fructification of this family of plants is remark- able. The stamens are in two parcels, the anthers of which are a little higher than the stigma ; the two middle ones of these anthers are turned outwards, and do not appear capable of communicating their polen to the stigma : the four latteral ones are also naturally turned outwards, but by a^twist of the filament their face is pre- sented to the stigma. They are all held firmly togetlier by the cohesion of the tops of the flowers, which, never unclosing, offer no apparent means of the polen being distributed so as to be shed upon the stigmatic surface. To remedy this inconvenience, the stigma is furnished with two blunt horns, one of which is inserted between and under the cells of the anthers of each parcel, so that without Vol. iv- 107 108 NAT. ORDER. FDMARIACE^. any alteration of position on the part of either organ, the mere con- traction of the valves of Uie anthers is sufficient to shed the polen upon tliat spot where it is required to perform the ofiice of secunda- tion. Their principal range is in the temperate latitudes of the northern hemisphere, where they inhabit thickets and waste places. Famaria cucullaria. Naked-stalked Fumitory. This plant is an annual ; the stem upright, about a foot and a half high, roinid, and very smooth, sending out several branches at the top ; the leaves smooth, branching, pale, divided like the common sort, but the leaf- lets larger and more obtuse ; the flowers hang in loose panicles from the sides of the stem and at the extremity of the branches, of a pur- ple color, with yellow chops or lips ; the pods are tapering, narrow, an inch and a half long, and contains many small, black shining seeds. It flowers during the summer, and is a native of N. America. ' Fumaria lutea. Yellow Fumitory. In this species the root strikes deep into the ground; the stems are many, succulent, diffused and six inches in height ; the leaves on long, brandling petioles, composed of many irregular leaflets, trifid at tlie top; peduncles axillary, naked, longer than the leaves, supporting eight or nine flowers of a bright yellow color, and hang in a loose spike ; the leaves continue green all the year, and the flowers in succession from April to October. It is suppo.sed to be a native of Barbary. Fumaria capnoidcs. White-flowered Fumitory. This is an annual ; the stem four cornered at the base ; the leaves superde- compound, the terminating leaflets larger, and semitrifid ; the middle segment lobcd ; the petioles three cornered ; the racemes naked ; the pedicles about one-half the length of the corolla, and blackish at the tip. There is a succession of the flowers from May to October. It is a native of the south of Europe. Fumaria officinalis. Officinal Fumitory. In this species the pods are globose, retuse ; fructiferous pedicles erect, double the length of thebracteas; racemes rather loose; stem diffuse; leaves supra-decompound : lobes linear. This is nn annual plant, native NAT. ORDER. — FUMARIACE.E. 109 of corn-fields and cultivated lands all over the United States — also quite common in most parts of Europe. There are twelve other varieties of this highly interesting family, most of which are very ornamental, and others useful for the sus- tenance of life, both to man and beast. They should command the attention of Gardeners and Florests, as their culture might be made profitable. Propagation and Culture. All the species are rather weedy- looking plants — hence their neglect of cultivation. The annual kinds should be sown in the open border, and treated as other hardy annuals. Some of the species are climbers, and highly de- serving of notice ; others do well, planted m rock-work. The variety of these flowers make a beautiful appearance in pleasure- grounds and gardens. ' ~\ Medical Properties and Uses. The various species of Fumaria possess similar properties. In some their qualities are very limited, and in otiicrs they appear to be almost inert ; hence rendering them of little importance in medicine, except Fumaria officinalis, which appears to be the most active, and is recommended for medical pur- poses. By the ancients this plant was named Cap7ios, from being thought to be peculiarly useful in dimness of sight, and other dis- eases of the eye. The leaves, which are the part of the plant directed for medicinal use by the Medical College, are extremely succulent, and haA'e no remarkable smell, but a bitter and somewhat saline taste. The expressed juice and a decoction of the leaves in water, inspissated to the consistence of extracts, are very bitter and con- siderably saline ; on standing for some time, throw up to the surface copious saline efiervescences, in figure somewhat resembling the crystals of nitre, to the taste bitterish and somewhat pungent. A tincture of the dry leaves in rectified spirit, yields an inspissation, an extract less in quantity and bitterer in taste than either the watery extract or inspissated juice. Fumitory has been supposed by several Physicians of great authority, both ancient and modern, to be very 110 NAT. ORDER. — FDMARIACE.C. efficacious in opening obstructions and infractions of the viscera, particularly those of the hapatic system. It is also highly com- mended for its power of correcting a scorbutic and acrimonious state of the fluids ; and has therefore been employed in various cutaneous diseases. When taken in rather large doses, it proves diuretic and laxative, especially the juice, which may be mixed with whey, and used as a common drink. Dr. Cullen classes this plant among the tonics. He says, " It is omitted in the London dispensatory, but retained in ours, and in every other that I laiow of. I have found it useful in many cases in which bitters are prescribed ; but its remarkable virtues are those of clearing the sldn of many disorders. For this it has been much commended ; and I have myself expe- rienced its good effects in many instances of cutaneous affections, which I would call Lepra. I have commonly used it by expressing the juice, and giving that in quantities of one to two ounces in the course of the day ; but I find the virtues remain in the dried plant, so that they may be extracted by infusion or decoction in water." An extract can be thus prepared possessing all the properties of the fresh plant. In the writings of one of the most eminent Physicians of modern practice, he says : " The expressed juice, in doses of two oimces, taken twice a day in whey, is useful in hypochondrical, scorbutic, and cochetic habits. It corrects acidity, and strengthens the stomach. Hoffman prefers it to all other medicines as a sweet- ener of the blood. There is no doubt of its utility in obstructions of the viscera, and the diseases arising from them. The celebrated Boerhaave frequently prescribed it in black jaundice and bilious colics. An infusion of the leaves was used as a cosmetic to remove freckles and clear the skin ; and Dr. Cullen has experienced its good effects in many cutaneous disorders." The same Phy.sician thought it useful as a tonic wherever bitter medicines are advi- sable. "7. v NAT. ORDER. Papaveracece. j\RGEMONE MEXICANA. MEXICAN ARGEMONE. Class XIII. PoLYANDRIA. OrcJcT I. MONOGYNIA. Gen. Cliar. Sepals two or three, concave, mucronate. Petals four to six. Stamens indefinite. Style scarcely any. Stigmas four to six, opening. Seeds spherical, scrobiculate. ^)e. Char. Leaves profoundly rcpand-sinuated, spiny, blotclied with white. Flowers solitary. Calyx smooth. Capsules prickly, three or four valved. Petals four to six. Stig^nas four to five. This is an annual plant, rising in height to two or three feet, with steins armed thickly with prickles ; the leaves are sinuate or jagged, soft, shining, stem-clasping, the points of the jags ending in sharp, yellow spines ; on the upper side there are milky veins, as in our Lady's Thistle ; on the under, small prickles along the mid-rib and veins ; thejlowers are solitary at the ends of the stem and branches ; the corolla is yellow, with from four to six petals ; the calyx consists of from two to six prickly leaves ; the stigma is capitate, small, and with five notches ; capsule superior, having five or six ribs from top to bottom, and between the ribs armed with bristle-shaped spines ; at the top is the flatted stigma ; the seeds are very numerous, round, black, rough, with a compressed scar on the side ; the valves of the capsidc vary in number, as well as the petals, from four to six. This plant is a native of Mexico, and flowers in July and August. This plant is also found in Canada, and through all the States to Loui- siana, all over Florida, West Indies, Brazils, Africa, St. Helena, East Vol. iv.— 111. 112 NAT. ORDER. PAPAVERACE^E. Imlics, Sandwich Islands, &c. It is called by the Spaniards in Mexico, Figo del Inferno, or Devil's Fig. In the West Indies it is called Yellow Thistle. Argemone albijlora. White-flowered Mexican Poppy. This plant is l)ut little known, being an inhabitant of the extreme southern part of Mexico, and as yet found in no other country. The leaves are sessile, feather-nerved ; the petals are usually only three ; flowers white, emitting a fragrant and pleasant odor. The natives of that country adorn their heads with these flowers at their celebrations and dances. A)gemone ochrobcuca. Cream-flowered Mexican Poppy. The leaves of this plant are profoundly sinuated or pinnatified, glauces- cent ; nerves with prickly bristles ; flowers solitary ; stamens few ; capsules oblong, deeply five or six furrowed, covered with some- what reflexed pricldes ; stigmas five or six, distinct, spreading, and purple. It is a native of Mexico, but is found growing in Georgia and Carolina. There is a variety with pale yellow flowers ; calyx of the three sepals ; petals six, crenated ; stem prickly. Argemone gi-andljlora. Great-flowered Mexican Poppy. This plant has leaves sinuated, smooth, spring-toothed ; the nerves are unarmed ; the flowers panicled, polyandrous ; the calyx smooth ; capsules quadrangular, and almost unarmed ; flowers large and white ; stigmas four, with as many pale-blue pits ; anthers yellow. These plants raised from seed will not flower till October ; but when the roots liaA-^e existed through the winter, they will flower early in the summer. Propagation and Culture. Argemone is a genus of beautiful, hardy annuals, and should be sown in the open flower-borders about the end of March or the beginning of April; or tiie rarer kinds may be sown on a hot-bed, and afterwards planted out into the borders. Medical Proj)ertics and C'scs. Every one knows what narcotic, properties are possessed by the Poppy, and this character prevail* NAT. ORDER. — PArAVEHACE.E. 113 generally through the order. Their seed is universally oily, and in nearly all the varieties in no degree narcotic. The oil obtained from the seeds of the PapaA'er somniferum is found to be perfectly wholesome, and is, in fact, consumed as food in many parts of Europe, in considerable quantities. The expressed oil is also em- ployed extensively for the adulteration of Olive oil. At one time its use was prohibited in France, by decrees issued in obedience to popular clamor, but is now openly sold by all the druggists in that country. Meconopsis napalensis, a nipal plant, is described as being extensively poisonous, especially its roots. The Sanguinaria cana- densis, or Puccoon, -belongs to this order. This plant is well known to be emetic and purgative in large doses, and in smaller quantities stimulant, diaphoretic, and expectorant. See Vol. iii., page 121, for particulars. The seeds of Argemone Mexicana are used in the West Indies as a substitute for ipecacuhanha ; and the juice is considered by the native doctors of India as a valuable remedy in ophthahnia, dropped into the eye and over the tarsus ; also as a good application to chancres. It is purgative and deobstruent. The Brazilians admin- ister the juice of this plant (which they call Canlo santo) to persons or animals bitten by serpents— but, from the authority of those who have witnessed its operation, without much success. The narcotic principle of this plant is an alkaline substance called Morphia. An oil is expres.sed from the seeds of this plant which is used in Mexico for shining wood. The yellow juice with which the plant abounds, when reduced to a consistence, is not distinguishable from gamboge. In very small doses it is probably of equal efficacy, given in dropsies, jaundice, and cutaneous eruptions. It is esteemed very detersive, and generally used in diseases of the eyes ; but the infusion is looked upon as a sudorific and sesolutive. The seeds are said, by those who have used them, to be more powerful and a stronger narcotic than opium. NAT. ORDER. EricacecR. AZALEA NUDIFLORA. NAKED-FLOWERED AZALEA. Class V. Pentandria. Order I. Monogvnia. Gen. Char. Calyx five-parted. Corolla short, campanulate, five- cleft. Stamens five, equal, shorter than the corolla. Style straight, inclosed. Capsule five-celled, with five cloven-pointed valves. Spe. Char. Leaves opposite, small, elliptic, glabrous. Flowers pedicillate, snnall, red, rising in foscicles from the axils of the upper leaves. The Seeds many, and roundish. This is a genus containing plants of the hardy, deciduous, flower- ing, shrubby kinds. This plant, in its native situation, often rises to the height of fifteen feet, but is seldom if ever more than half that height in other countries ; it sends out several stems from the roots ; the leaves are oblong, smooth, and alternate and petioled ; the peduncles are axillary, long, and naked, supporting a cluster of red flowers, which are tuberous, swelling at their base like those of the hyacinth, and contracted at their neck ; they are divided at the top into five equal segments, which spread open ; the five stamens and styles are much longer than the petals, and stand erect. It is a native of Virginia, but inhabits most of the New-England States, where it seeks rough and rocky places. There are varieties of this plant with scarlet flowers, with pale- red flowers, with early white flowers, with red and wliite flowers, and with variegated flowers. Azalea viscosa. Viscid-flowered Azalea. This species is a low slirub, rising with several slender stems to the height of nearly four Vol iv.-lU ^^^^^,2^^^ NAT. ORDER. — ERICACE^. 115 feet; the leaves appear in clusters at tlie ends of the shoots without order ; they are spar-shaped and narrow at their base ; their edges are set with very short teeth, which are rough ; the flowers come forth in clusters between the leaves at the extremities of the branch- es ; they are white, witli a mixture of dirty yellow on the outside ; the tube is about an inch long, and at top they are pretty deeply cut into five segments ; the two upper are reflex, the two side ones bent inward, and the lower one is turned downward ; the stamens are a little longer than the petals, and support oblong, saffron-colored anthers ; the style is much longer than the stamens, and is covered by an obtuse stigma; the flowers have somewhat the appearance of those of Honeysuckle, and are very agreeably scented, much more so than the one previous. The flowers appear about the middle of July. It is a native of North America. It is considerably cultivated in England, but the .seeds will not ripen. This plant has varieties with white-striped flowers, with narrow petalled flowers, and with clustered flowers. Propagation and Culture. These plants may be raised without much difficulty in rather moist soils where the situation is shady. In England, where these plants are most extensively cultivated, they are produced from offsets from the roots, or layers from the young shoots, as they will not produce seed in that country. The best season for either of these methods is the early part of autumn, when they should be set out where they are to grow, or be planted in rows after the nursery manner. The plants should have some protection about their roots during the winter season, by covering the ground with old tan, or some other substance of a similar nature. In this country, where the seed can easily be procured, plants may be raised by sowing them either in pots or on warm borders ; in the former method, forcing their growth by plunging them in mild hot beds. Medical Properties and Uses. The general qualities of these plants are astringent and diuretic, and may be used as substitutes for other remedies. NAT. ORDER. Mijrtacece. JAMBOSA VULGARIS. ROSE APPLE. Class XII. IcosANDRiA. Ordcv I. Monogynia. Gen. Char. Tube of the Ca/j/.r turbinate. 2/o6es roundish. Petals four. Stame7is numerous. Style filiform. Stigma simple, acute. Cotyledons fleshy, thick. Floicers large, bractless. Sjje. Char. Racemes cymose, terminal. Leaves narrow-lanceolate, six or seven inches long. Fruit ovate, globose. This is an extraordinary evergreen tree, from twenty to thirty, and sometimes even forty feet high, with a bushy but not close head of shining, fine dark-green foliage; quite smooth in all its parts; bai/c of the stem and branches cracked, but clean and even, and of a red- dish brown ; the stem rarely exceeds nine inches or a foot in diame- ter ; branches not much spreading, densely leafy towards the ends ; the ultimate ones drooping from the weight of the fruit and flowers; all round, smooth and even ; leaves opposite, lanceolate, six or eight inches long, and one and a half or two inches broad, attenuated at the base, gradually accuminate at the apex, coriaceous, firm, and stifiish, rather faintly veined and punctate, dark shining green above — paler and opaque beneath, and the younger ones and shoots of a bright cinnamon red ; petioles short, stout, channelled, and not more than one-fourth of an inch long ; Jlowers large, handsome, very pale yellowish or greenish white, with a slight fragrance of Prim- roses or Cowslips ; generally in terminal, small, loose, short cymes or bunches ; occasionally lateral from the axils towards the ends of the branches ; peduncles either simple, bifid or trifid — usually the latter, Vol. iv.— 116. NAT. ORDKR. MYRTACE^E. 117 placed cross-ways, and at nearly right or wide angles with the branch ; very rarely more than once compound ; the pedicles divari- cate, stout, round, smooth and shining, and pointed at the top ; Jlow- er-buds inversely pear-shaped, hard, firm, purplish-red below, the imbricate sepals green ; sepals four, patent concave, transversely oval, permanent as a crown to the fruit, and then erect and conni- vent; petcds greenish or white, much larger than the sepals, round, very concave, patent, deciduous, with very numerous stamens, which are curiously subspirally involute, as if in four sets, in the buds ; Jil- amcnts long, the outer ones an inch and a half, white, with a very pale primrose or greenish yellow tinge, becoming deeper by age ; the innermost gradually shorter, seated on a raised, prominent, suboc- tagonal ring at the base of tlie sepals ; anthers very small, oblong, and of a yellowish white ; sti/le longer than the stamens, white sub- ulate, simple, persistent. A naked, hollow, cup-shaped square, or four-sided space surrounds its base, within the raised staminiferous ring ; but I have never seen the filaments exposing this (as figured by some botanists,) unless when part of them had fallen ofi". On the contrary, they quite conceal the whole centre of the flower, incurv- ing rather, and becoming denser towards the style. They retain something of a spiral tendency, acquired in the bud, for sometime after full expansion. (9t'«r?/ uniformly two celled, containing numer- ous angular, narrow-oblong, ovules, attached by one end to a pla- centa, prominent into each cell from the central axis or dissepiment , fruit a subglobose, one-celled, rather dry, smooth, drape-like berry, approaching always more or less to pear-shaped, about an inch in diameter, crowned by the persistent calyx, and umbilicate at the top, of a delicate pale oehre-yellow, suflTused more or less on one side with rose color, and with a very powerful smell and taste of rose- water ; the flesh about two lines thick, sweet, but somewhat dry and mealy, or rather grumose ; a large cavity inside of one cell, witii merely traces of the obliterated dissepiment, containing from one to three large brown seeds, these are loose and rattle within the cavity. 118 NAT. ORDER. MYRTACE^. When there is only one seed it is about the size of a marble, sub- globose, but a little flattened on one side. When there are two or three, they are irregularly flattened by compression, and smaller; one, however, being always the largest ; the testa brown, crustaceous, easily shelling off; cotijlcdons from two to four, or even five to six, usually two or three, large, bright green, punctate, of very irregular, u;icqual shape and size ; tlie external surface rounded, inner angu- lar. The Rose A])ple, a native of the East Indies, is one of the most common garden trees of Maderia ; but there is scarcely another that combines so eminently the beauties of flower, fruit, and foliage. The delicate white tassal-like bunches of flowers, contrasting with the thick, dark foliage, enliven the trees from February to July or August, when the fruit is principally in season. The fullest bloom, however, is in March or April, and just after this the trees are beautifully enriched by the fine, cinnamon-colored or reddish young leaves or shoots. Nothing can exceed the loveliness and delicate appearance of tile fruit — its rich clusters half hidden by the dark, thick tufts of foliage which clothe the outer branches. But though one or two may be eaten with some relish, the over-powering perfume and taste of rose-water, together with the want of juice or dryness, renders it generally unpalatable ; and it is entirely excluded, except to satisfy occasional curiosity, from the table or desert. It is produced in great abundance and profusion, but used for no other purpose than sometimes to feed the pigs which eat it greedily. This tree, by its thick, evergreen foliage, is admirably adapted for a screen to buildings, or for shelter. It is also of rapid growth, and extremely tractable, bearing lopping well, or heading down to any height, and produces its flowers at all ages or sizes, whether as a tree or a bush. The name is from the Indian lainboo, or Schamber. Jamhosasamarangcnsis. Samarang Rose Apple. This tree grows from twenty to twenty-five feet in height ; racemes loose, terminal, or axillary, shorter than the leaves ; branches usually throe-flow- «v NAT. ORDER. — MYRTACE.E. 119 ercd ; leaves elliptic-oblong, bluiitisli, rounded at the base, or nearly cordate, glabrous ; flowers rose- colored or wliitisli ; leaves acutisb, greyish-green beneath, perhaps sufficiently distinct from the follow- ing. It is a native of Java. Jumbosa vcnosa. Veiny-leaved Rose Apple. This tree is about twenty feet higl) ; racemes simple, terminal, or sub-corymbose, few- flowered ; leaves elliptic, coriaceous, opaque, glabrous on both sur- faces, and reticulately veined ; branches angular ; leaves on siiort petioles, about four inches long, and two to two a and half broad; fruit is said to be one seeded. There are several varieties diflerinij in the size and color of the fruit. It is not so much esteemed as the Malay- apple ; it is, however, nevertheless excellent, resembling in appear- ance and flavor a Brussels apricot. To grow the fruit in this coun- try it requires a hot and moist atmosphere. Native of Madagascar. Jumbosa mocrophylla. Long-leaved Rose Apple. This tree rises from twenty to thirty feet high ; the cymes lateral fascicled ; leaves ovate-lanceolate, obtuse at the base, acuminated at the apex ; one foot or more long and five broad ; peduncles five-flowered, and about tnree inches long; flowers white. It is a native of the East Indies. Jamhosa purpurascens. Purple-flowered Rose Apple. This tree, also, rises from twenty to thirty feet high ; cymes lateral, in fascicles ; leaves elliptic, hardy, acute at the base and apex; flowers purple. This is a native of the Island of Trinidad, where it is probably culti- vated as the other species. Jambosc malaccensis. Malay Apple. This tree varies much in its height, being from twenty to forty feet; cymes lateral short; leaves ovate-lanceolate, attenuated at both ends, about a foot long, and shining ; fruit pear-shaped ; flowers white. This tree resem- bles the jamsorade, but has broader leaves. The fruit is ovate, an inch and a half in diameter, fleshy, and sweet-scented like the rose, agreeable to the taste, smell, and sight, and esteemed wholesome It 120 NAT. ORDER. MVRTACE^. is a native of the East Indies, and is common in most of the Islands in tlie South Sea. Jambosa amplexicaulus. Stem-dasping-leaved Rose Apple. This tree generally attains tiie height of twenty or tiiirty feet; racemes fc\v-flo\vcred, terminal — lower ones axillary, solitary ; leaves mem- branous, oblong, lanceolate, obtuse, glabrous, undulated, rather cor- date at the base ; fruit very fine, purple, and about the size oT a small apple ; calyx fleshy, bluntly four-cleft. It is a native of Su- matra. Jcunhosa australis. Soutliern Rose Apple. This tree rises about twenty feet in height; peduncle-s axillary, tliree-flowered, solitary — terminal ones rather solitary, panicled ; leaves elliptic-lanceolate, acute ; flowers white. It is a native of New Holland, where it is cultivated as an ornament by the road sides and pleasure grounds. - Jambosa furmosa. Beautiful Rose Apple. This species rises from twenty-five to thirty feet in heigiit; leaves elliptic-oblong, rather accuminated, sessile, cordate, stem-clasping ; racemes axillary, rising after the leaves have fallen, sessile, short ; pedicles clavate- elongated ; flowers smooth ; stamens very long ; berry globose, pen- dulous ; calyx and petals reddish ; filaments white. Xative of the East Indies, at Moalmyne, and at the bottoms of the rocks on the banks of the Athan. Jambosa laurifoUa. Laurel-leaved Rose Apple. This tree is rather uniform in height with the other species, being from twenty to thirty feet ; cymes axillary, opposite, three to five-flowered ; lower pedicles opposite, elongated ; flowers three, terminal, sessile on the tops of the peduncles ; leaves elliptic, bluntish at both ends ; flowers white. Native of the East Indies. Jambosa hypericifoUa. St. John's-wort-leaved Rose Apple. This species is a shrub ; pedicles terminal, solitary, one-flowered shorter than the leaves ; leaves sessile, oblong-lanceolate, acuminated, rather cordate at the base, glabrous ; calyx four cleft, rather attenuated at base. It is a native of Java, on Mount Salak. NAT. ORDER. MYRTACE.E. . 121 Jainbosa otcaricnsis. Waree Rose Apple. This is a stiiali tree, about twenty feet high ; cymes panicled, terminal; branches oppo- site, three-flowered, especially at the apex ; calyxes turbinate, shortly and bluntly four-lobed ; leaves oval, acuminated, coriaceous, glabrous, surty beneath ; the veins of the leaves are parallel in the figure and rather prominent ; they are three inches long and about one and a half broad ; the stamens very numerous, exserted ; branches furnished with super-axillary, opposite tubercles ; fruit unknown, but in the form of the calyx this plant agrees Avith cam- b:)sa. Native of the west coast of Africa^ in the Kingdom of Waree. Junihosa ohlusissima. Obtused-leaved Rose Apple. This tree rises about twenty-five feet in heigiit ; panicles corymbose, terminal or latteral ; branches three-flowered ; calyx four-cleft, attenuated at the ba.se; leaves almost sessile, oblong, obtuse, somewhat cordate at the base, coriaceous and glabrous. It is a native of Java. Jamhosa densajlora. Dense-flowered Rose Apple. This species rises about twenty feet in height; corymbs terminal, coarctate ; pedicles three-flowered ; calyx four-cleft, very much attenuated at the base ; leaves oblong-lanceolate, coriaceous, glabrous, acuminated at both ends. Native by the .sea-side, in the Island of Nusa-Kam- banga, in the East Indies, where it is called by the inhabitants Jumbon. Jarnhosa glabrata. Smooth Rose Apple. This is rather a dwarf- ish tree; peduncles filiform, one to three-flowered, glabrous and shorter than the leaves; ovarium clavate; calyx four-cleft; leaves oblong-lanceolate, bluntly accuminated, finely veined, quite glabrous; calyx attenuated at the base. This dwarfish and shrubby looking tree is a native of Java on the mountains. Propagation and Culture. This is a genus of fine trees, witji large foliage, beautiful flowers, and eatable fruit. They thrive well in a mixture of sand, loam, and peat; and flower freely when the plants are of good size. Ripened cuttings strike root readily in sand under a hand-glass. NAT. ORDER. Orckidcoii. CYPRIPEDIUM INSIGNE. LARGE LADIES' SLIPPER, Class XX. Gynandria. Oidiir I. Monandria. Gen. Char. Lip ventricose, inflated, saccate. Petals four, the under one bifid. Column terminating in a petaloid lobe. Spe. Char. Scajic leafless, one-flowered. Leaves radical, two, oblong, obtuse. Lobe of the style roundisli-rhomboidal, acumin- ate, deflexed. Petals lanceolate. Lij) shorter than the petals, cleft before. Of the most beautiful genus Cypripedium, no species, perhaps, in the world, excels the one here figured, whether in size and beauty of its blossoms, or the color and markings of its floral cover- ings. Stems none; leaves radical, few, and equitant at the base, broadly linear, coriaceous, distichous, keeled at the back, glabrous, and of a yellow green color ; Scape terete, downy, curved at the extremity, and there bearing an ovate-oblong, green, glabrous, remark- ably compressed, striated spathc ; flowers solitary, very large, three to four inches across ; the whole richly spotted with white ; the two inner and latteral segments spreading, oblong, broader towards the extremity, yellow green, and pale at the base; lip large, saccate, rich greenish-brown without, and yellow within ; column of fructification short, terminated by a large, obversely cordate, yellow, slightly con- vex lobe, glandular below ; beset with minute red hairs above ; beneath this at the base, are two short, latteral processes or filaments, to the side of each is attached a single, sessile, two-leaved, orange- yellow anther; its lobes rather unequal. Medical Properties and Uses. See pages 102 and 103, Vol. II. ; and pages 68 and 69, Vol. III. of this work. Vol. iv.— 122 ^2^A-^-^/i/.a^'^^'^ny^^?Zi/^ i€^a^e'. NAT. ORDER. Eupliorhiace(£. EUPHORBIA ATRO-PURPUREA. BLOOD-FLOWERED SPURGE. Class XXL MoNOECiA. Order I. Monandria. Gen. Char. Tnvolucrum resembling a calyx, ventricose, the alter- nate segments petaloid. Filaments twelve or more, simple, each consisting of an anther. Calij.v and Corolla very rarely present. Sli/lcs three, two-cleft. Capsules three-lobed. Spe. Char. Stem simple, erect, smooth, round. Leaves oblong-cu- nate, obtuse, umbel-form. Capsules smooth. The stem in this plant is between three and four feet in height, frutesccnt, rather larger than the human finger, dichotomously branched above, bare of foliage (but copiously marked with the scars of the fallen leaves,) except at the summit of the branches — there the leaves are numerous, from three to five inches long, lanceo- late, tapering at the base, obtuse, pale glauceous-green, patent or drooping, nerves obsolete ; umbel of from eight to ten rays, each of which is quadrifid or four rayed, these lesser rays having each an oblong, colored bractea at its base, forming a four leaved involucre ; two other bractcas immediately surround the proper involucre — these are large, deep, red-purple or blood-colored, broadly oblong, obtuse, combined at the base ; proper involucre small, cup-shaped, red, with four retuse, fleshy, yellow-green glands at the margin ; male Jlowers, about four are excluded at the same time ; cells of the anthers globose, distinct ; female Jloicers, germen, globose, shortly pedicellate ; style with three bifid segments. Vol. iv— 123. 124 NAT. ORDER. EUPHORBIACE.E. Thi.s extensive order, (according to Dr. Lindley,) which does not probably contaia less than 1500 species, either described or unde- scribod, exists in the greatest profusion and abundance in equinoctial America, where about three-eighths of the whole number have been found, sometimes in the form of large trees, frequently of bushes, still more usually of diminutive weeds, and occasionally of deformed, leafless succulent plants, resembling the Cacti in their port, but dif- fering from them in every other particular. In the Western world they gradually diminish as they recede from the Equator, so that not above fifty species are known in North America, of wiiich a very small number reach as far as Canada. In the old world the known tropical proportion is much smaller, arising probably from the species of India and equinoctial Africa not having been described with the same care as those of America — not above an eighth having been found in tropical Africa, including tlie Islands, and a sixth being perhaps about the proportion in India. A good many species inhabit the Cape, where they generally assume a succulent Iiabit ; and there are almost one hundred and twenty species in Europe — inclu- ding the basin of the Mediterranean — -of these, sixteen only are found in Great Britain, and seven in Sweden. This genus, which is so extensive, was named in honor of Eu- phorbus. Physician to Juba, King of Mauritania. The different kinds of which are so remarkable for the copious acrid, milky juice, in some constituting caoutchouc. No less than two hundred and nine species are known to possess this property, and numerous undes- cribed ones are known to exist in our Herbarium. Many of them recommend themselves to cultivation by the strangeness of their forms, especially among the more succulent kinds — a few by the rich colors, not of the flowers indeed, but of the bractcas and floral leaves. The one in figure, though it cannot vie with the Euphorbia splcndcns or Eiqihorbia piinicea, both of which bear such rich scarlet bracteas, is yet well deserving a place in every green-house, from the deep blood-color of its bracteas and floral leaves, wh'cli present a Nat. order. — euphorbiaceje. 125 strong contrast to the pale glauceous hue of the rest of the foliage. This plant is a native of TcncrilTe, where it was discovered by Mr. Broussonet. The species most worthy of cultivation are the follow- ing, althougii tliere are, perhaps, many others equally deserving, yet they have not been brought into common use. Euplwrhia antiquorum. Triangular Spurge. This has a trian- gular, compressed, succulent stem, rising to the height of eight or ten feet, and sending out many irregular, spreading, twisting branches, for the most part three-cornered, but some having two, and others four angles ; at their extremities are a few short, round- ish leaves, which soon fall off — and near these come out occasionally a few flowers, which have five thick, whitish petals, with a large three-cornered germ in the centre — the flowers soon dropping off without producing seeds. It grows naturally in the East Indies. It has generally been taken for the true Euphorbium ; btit Martyn observes that it is from the next species following that the drug now imported under that name is taken. There is a variety with a naked, three-cornered, compressed stfilk, sending out a great number of erect branches, which are also gen- erally three-cornered, but sometimes four-cornered, armed with short, crooked spines, having no leaves. The plants have not pro- duced flowers here. This is also a native of India. Euphorbia Canariensis. Canary Spurge. This species, in its native country, grows to the height of twenty feet or more, but in this climate it is rarely seen more tiian six or seven ; the stem is very thick, green and succulent, having four or five large angles, closely armed with black looking and crooked spines, which come out by pairs at every indenture ; it sends out from every side large succulent branches of the same form, which extend to the distance of two or throe feet, then turning their ends upwards, so that the plants when well grown have some resemblance to a chandelier; they have no leaves, but are closely armed with black spines, like the stem ; at the ends of the branches the flowers make their appear- 126 NAT. ORDER. — EUPHORBIACELE. auce, which are shaped like those of the second species. It is a native of the Canary Islands, and flowers in March and April. Eupliorhia ojjicinarum. Officinal Spurge. This species puts out many stalks just above the surface, which are thick, succulent, and roundish, having eight or ten angles whilst they are young, but as they grow old they loose their angles and become round — the branches grow distorted and irregular, first horizontal, but after- wards turning upwards ; the angles are armed with small, crooked spines, and on the upper part of the branches appear the flowers, which is in June and July — they are small, and of a greenish-white color. It is a native of Africa. Euphorbia caput-medusce. Medusa's-head Spurge. This species has thick, roundish, succulent stalks, which are scaly ; they send out many branches from their sides of the same form, which are twisted, and run one over another, so as to appear like a nest of ser- pents, whence it has the appellation of 3Iedusa's-head. At the end of these are narrow, thick, succulent leaves, which drop ofT; and round the upper part of them the flowers appear — these are white, and of the same form with those of the other sorts, but larger ; and frequently succeeded by fruit. There is a variety termed Little Medusa's-head, which has a thick, short stalk, seldom more than ten or twelve inclies high, from which spring out a great number of slender, trailing branches, about a foot in length, intermixing, and having the same appearance with the other, but smaller and much shorter; the ends beset with narrow leaves, between which the white flowers come out and appear. It is a native of Africa. Euphorbia tithijmaloidcs. Myrtle-leaved Spurge. This is a wand- like, suberect plant, six feet high, the whole of it abounding in a white, bilterish milky juice; the stems numerous, round, smooth, weak, very pliant, branched, the size of a man's thumb — the elder ones ash-colored, and the younger green ; the leaves, some obtuse, others acute, coriaceous, quite entire, petioled, deep green* two or NAT. ORDER. EUPH0RB1ACE.E. 127 three inches long, deciduous except on the brandies, the middle dossal nerve and the petiole augmented by a longitudinal lamella more or less waved and conspicuous, at first frequently tomentose on both sides, but with the upper surface very even, and the edges e.Ktremcly waved ; afterwards both sides always become flat and smooth ; the peduncles one-flowered, short, aggregate about the extremities of the branchlets, coming out principally when the plant is without leaves ; the flowers are void of scent, of a beautiful scar- let color. There are varieties with laurel leaves, and variegated leaves. It is a native of Caribbee Islands. Euphorbia licptagona. Seveu-angled Spurge. This sort has a roundish, upriglit, succulent stem, about three feet high, putting out several brandies on the side, of the same form ; the angles are armed with long, single, black spines ; at the ends of the branches the small flowers make their appearance, which are sometimes suc- ceeded by small fruit. It is a native of the Cape. Euphorbia mammdlaris. Warty-angled Spurge. This plant has also roundish stems, swelling out in the middle, and having knobbed angles, between which come out long, straight spines ; these stems are two feet high, and put a few branches from their sides of the same form, at the ends of which flowers are produced, sitting dose upon the angles — they are small, and of a yellowish-green color. It differs from the preceding in having the angles doubled and swell- ing a little, and the spines single between the tubercles, which are placed longitudinally. It is a native of the Cape, flowering in July and August. Eupkorbia lathyris. Caper Spurge. This species has an upright, succulent stem, from three to four feet high, with oblong, smootli, sessile leaves ; the upper part dichotomous, and an umbel comes out from each division — that in the first being the largest, and tho.se in the upper the smallest. The flowers are of a greenish-yellow color, appearing in June and July, and are soon after succeeded by fruit. It is a native of France. 128 NAT. ORDER. — EUPHORBIACE^E. Propagation and Culture. All these plants may be raised by setting cuttings, made at a joint, five or six inches long, after being rubbed in sand and laid on the shelf a few days to have the wounds healed over, in the summer about June, in small pots filled with light, dry, sandy mould, with some rubbish at the bottoms, such as that constituted of a fourth part of screened lime rubbish, the same proportion of sea-sand, and one-half of light, fresh, vegetable earth, well mixed and blended together by frequent turning over, plunging them in the bark hot-bed, giving suitable shade in the hot sunny weather, and a little water once or twice a week, as there may be occasion. When the plants have stricken root, they should have air admitted quite freely while in that situation, or be removed into the stove to be hardened before winter. They must afterwards be allowed larger pots once a year as they advance in growth, and be frequently refreshed with water in the summer season, but only very sparingly in the winter. Most of these sorts are capable of being kept on the shelves of hot-houses, and some of them, such as the sixth, seventh, and eighth sorts, in a dry, airy green-house, or glass-case, during the winter season, care being taken to guard them against the frost, and in the summer they may be set out in the open air. : The fifth species stands in need of support to prevent the weight of the branches forcing it upon the pots ; and by such management they will rise four or five feet in height, producing numerous side branches. The ninth sort requires little or no care when once intro- duced, except keeping the young plants dean, as it will be continued by its scattering the seeds. The whole of these varieties, except the last, afford variety in hot and green-house collections, and that in the borders of pleasure-grounds. The properties of i?(/7j/ior6/occ« are so important, that I do not think I should fulfil the object of this work, if I did not, in addition to the foregoing general view of the order, add a detail list of the qualities of the most important species named by writers — some o. NAT. ORDER. EUPHORBIACE^. 129 which have already been described in various parts of lliis work, and otliers scarcely known to the majority of the medical profession. Medical Projicrtics and Uses of various plants in this order. The excellent monograph of M. Adricn de Jussien contains the best infor- mation that exists upon this subject, and I accordingly avail myself of it, adding such additional facts as have since been discovered. The general property is that of excitement, which varies greatly ia degree, and consequently in effect. This principle resides chiefly in the milky secretion of the order, and is most powerful in proportion as that secretion is abundant. The smell and taste of a few are aromatic ; but in the greater part the former is strong and nau- seous, the latter acrid and pungent. The hairs of some species are stinging. The bark of various species of Croton is aromatic, as Cas- carilla. ; and the flowers of some, such as Cacturas spidjloras, give a tone to the stomach. Many of them act upon the kidneys, as sev- eral species of P.'ti/llunlhas, the leaves oC Mercurlalis annua, and the root of Ric'uuis cunnnunis. The root of various Euphorbias, the juice of Cummia, Anda, Mercwialis perennis, and others are emetic; and the leaves of Box and Mercwialis, the juice of Eapliorhia, Coni- mia, and ILira, the seeds of Ricinus, Croton tigliiim, &c., are pur- gatives. Many of them are also dangerous, even in small doses, and so fatal in some cases that no practitioner would dare to prescribe them — as, for example, Manchineel. In fact, there is a gradual and insensible transition in this order, from mere stimulants to the most dangerous poisons. The latter have usually an acrid character ; but some of them are also narcotic, as those of PlnjUantliuscs, the leaves of which are thrown into the water to intoxicate fish. Whatever the stimulating principle of EupIiorhiacccB may be, it seems to be of a very volatile nature, because application of heat is sufficient to dissi- pate it. Thus the root of the Jatliropha, Manihot, or Cassava, vvhic|i Avhen raw, is one of the most violent of poisons, becomes a whole- some, nutritious article of food when roasted. In the seeds the albu- men is harmless and eatable, but the embryo itself is acrid and 130 NAT. ORDER. EUPHORBIACEiG. dangerous. Independently of this volatile principle, there are two others belonging to the order which require to be noticed. The first of these is Caoutchouc, the most innocuous of all substances, pro- duced by that most poisonous of all families, which may be almost said to have given a new arm to surgery, and which has become an indispensable necessary of life ; it exists in Artocai-pcce and else- where, but is chiefly the produce of species oi Eaphorbiacece. The other is the preparation called Turnsol, which, although chiefly obtained from Crozophora tinctoria, is to be procured equally abun- dantly from many other plants of the order. Aadijplia Ctipamcni, an Indian herb, has a root which, bruised in hot water, is cathartic ; a decoction of its leaves is also laxative. The nut of Aleurites amhinux is eatable and aphrodisiac, but rather indiijestible. The nuts of another kind are eaten in Java and the Moluccas ; but they are intoxicating unless they are roasted. The Aiida, of Brazil, is famous for the purgative qualities of ils seeds, which are fully as powerful as those of the Palina Christi. The Brazilians make use of them in cases of indigestion, in liver com- plaints, the jaundice, and dropsy. The rind, roasted on the fire, passes as a certain remedy for diarrhoea brought on by a cold. According to Marcgraaf, the fresh rind steeped in water communi- cates to it a narcotic property which is sufiicient to stupify fish. The seeds are either eaten raw, or are prepared as an electuary. They yield an oil, which is said, by M. Auguste St. Hilaire, to be drying and excellent for painting — in short, much better than nut oil. The bark of Bricddla splnosa, an Indian herb, is, according to Roxburgh, a powerful astringent. The leaves are greedily eaten by caltle, which, by their means, free themselves of intestinal worms. The leaves of common JBox are sudorific and purgative. According to Hanway, camels eat them in Persia, but they die in consequence. The flowers of Cuturus spiciJJorits are spoken of as a specific in diarrluca, either taken in decoction or in conserve. The succulent fruit of Cicca disticha and raccmosa is sub-acid, cooling and whole- NAT. ORDER. EUPHORBIACEj?!. 131 some. Its leaves are sudorific, and its seeds cathartic. The capsules of Cluytia coUina are poisonous, according to Roxburgh. The root and bark of Codiesum variegcdum are acid, and excite a burning sensation in the mouth if chewed ; but the leaves are sweet and cooling. The juice of Commia cochinchmensis is white, tenacious, emetic, purgative, and deobstruent. Cautiously administered it is a good medicine in obstinate dropsy and obstructions. The Qidna Blanca of Vera Cruz is produced by the Croton Elutcria of Swartz, and is probably the Cascarilla of Europe. The drastic oil of Tigli- um is expressed from the seeds of Croton Tiglmm, formerly known in Europe under the name of Grana molucca. It is said, by Dr. Ainslie, to have proved in a singular manner emmenagogue, (ex. vol. i. page 86.) A decoction of Croton jjerdicipes, called Pe dc Pcrdis, Alcamphoi'O, and Cocallera, in difierent provinces of Brazil, is much esteemed as a cure for syphilis, and as a useful diuretic. The root of another species, called Vclamc do Campo, Croton campestiis, has a purgative root, also employed against syphilitic disorders. The leaves of the species Croton gratlssimum are so fragrant as to be used by the Koi-as of the Cape of Good Hope as a perfume. Cro- zophora tinctora yields the preparation called Turnsol — the plant itself is acrid, emetic, and drostic. An abundance of useful oil is obtained from two species oi Elaococea — it is, however, only fit for burning and painting, on account of its acridity. Six sorts of Euro- pean Eaphorhias are named by Deslongchamps as fit substitutes for Ipecacuanha, the best of which he states to be Eujihorbia gerardi- ana, the powdered root of which vomits easily in doses of eighteen to twenty grains. The root of Euphorbia ipecacuanha is said, by Barton, to be equal to the true Ipecacuanha, and in some respects superior. It is not unpleasant either in taste or smell. Various species of fleshy Euphorbia, especially the Euphorbia antiquruni and canaricnsis, produce the drug Euphorbiian of the shops, which is the in.spissated milky juice of such plants. In India it is mixed with the oil expressed from the seeds of Sesamum orientulc and 132 NAT. ORDER. EDPHORBIACE^. used externally in rheumatic affections, and internally in cnses of obstinate constipation. It is but little used in this country or Europe. Orfila places it among his poisons. Euphorbia ptipillosa is administered in Brazil as a purgative; but is apt, if given in too strong a dose, to cause dangerous superpurgations. The juice of the leaves of Euphorbia nercifolia is pi-escribed by the native practi- tioners of India, internally as a purge and deobstruent, and exter- nally, mixed with Margosa oil, in such cases of contracted limbs as are induced by ill-treated rheumatic affections. The leaves have, no doubt, a diuretic quality. The leaves and seeds o^ Eaphoibia thymifuUa are given by the Tamool doctors of India in worm cases, and in certain bowel affections of children. The same persons give i\\e ive^h iuice oi Euphorbia jnlulifera in apthous affections. The fresh, acrid juice of Eujjhorbia Tirucalli is used in India as a vesica- tory. The Ethopians are said, by Virey, to form a mortal poison for their arrows from the juice oi Euphorbia hcptagona. The juice of ExccBcaria Agallocha, and even its smoke when burnt, affects tlie eyes with intolerable pain, as has been experienced occasionally by sailors sent ashore to cut fuel, who, according to accredited authority, having accidentally rubbed their eyes with the juice, became blind- ed, and ran about like distracted men, and some of them finally lost their sight. The famous Manchinccl tree, IUppomane Mancindla, is said to be so poisonous that persons hav^e died from merely sleeping beneath its branches. This is doubted by Jacquin, who, however, admits its extremely venomous qualities : but it is by no means im- probable that the remark has some foundation in truth, particularly if the volatile nature of the poisonous principle of these plants be considered. The juice of Hura crepitans is stated to be of the same fatal nature as that of Exccccaria — its seeds are said to have been administered to negro slaves as purgatives, in numbers not exceeding one or two, with fatal consequences. The powdered fruit of //i/(£ii- anchc globosa is used in the colony of the Cape of Good Hope to poi- son hyienas, as mix vomica to poison stray dogs in this country. NAT. ORDER. — EUPUORBlACEiE. • . 133 From the seeds of Jatropha glauca the Hindoos prepare, by careful expression, an oil which, from its stimulating quality, they recom- mend as an external application in cases of chronic rheumatism and paralytic affections. The seeds of Jatropha Curcas are purgative and occasionally emetic. An expressed oil is obtained from them which is reckoned a valuable external application in itch and herpes. It is also used, a little diluted, in chronic rheumatism. The varnish used by the Chinese for covering boxes is made by boiling this oil with oxide of iron. The leaves are considered as rubefacient and disculieat ; the milky juice is supposed to have a detergent and healing quality, and dyes linen black. The roots of the Jatropha Manihot, Mandiocca, yields a flour of immense importance in South America. This is obtained by crushing the roots after the bark has been removed, and then straining olT the water; after which the mass is gradually dried in pans over a fire. The seeds of several species of Jatropha are purgative, but they sometimes act so dan- gerously as to require extreme caution in administering them. Mcr- curiulis 2>iircnnis is purgative and dangerous. It sometimes produ- ces violent vomiting, incessant diarrhoea, a burning heat in tlie head, a deep and long stupor, convulsions, and even death; yet tin's very plant, when boiled, has been eaten as a pot-herb. Tlie seeds of Omphalca are eaten safely if tlie embryo is first removed — if this is not done, they are cathartic. Both Pcdilantkus tithymaloides and PadifoUus are used medicinally in the West Indies. The former, known under the name of Ipecacuanha, is used for the same purpo- ses as that drug — the latter called the Jew Bush, or Milk Plant, is used in decoction of the recent plant as an antisyphilitic, and in cases of suppression of the menses. The purgative qualities of Ricinus, the Caster Oil plant, is well known ; the root is said to be diuretic. The juice of Supiujn auciiparium is reputed poisonous. A case is mentioned by Tussac of a gardener whose nostrils became swollen and seized with erysipelatous phlcgmasis, in consequence of the fumes only of this plant. The root of Tragia involucrata is reckoned 134 NAT. ORDER. EUPHORBIACE*. by the Hindoo doctors among those medicines which they conceive to possess virtues in altering and correcting tlie iiabit in cases of cachexia, and in old venereal complaints attended willi anomalous symptoms. There is reason to believe that the timber imported from the coast of Africa into Europe, under the name of African Teak, belongs to some tree of this order. From a species of a tree, stated by Mr. Brown to be an unpublished genus, it is said that a substance resembling caoutchouc is procured from it. Euphorbia corollata possesses, according to Rafinesque, emetic, cathartic, dia- phoretic, expectorant, astringent, rubefacient, blistering and stimula- ting properties. It is reckoned equivalent to the officinal Ipecac. It purges at the dose of three to ten grains, and vomits at ten to twenty. ■ ^«K^^e^^, yt^^cU^' NAT. ORDER. RanunculacecB. P^ONIA RUSSI. CRIMSON PEONY. Class XIII. PoLYANDRiA. Order I. Monandria. Gen. Char. Calyx five cleft, unequal. Petals five to ten. Sta- mcns indefiuate. Z>is/>; fleshy, Spe. Char. Floicers large, and of a crimson color. The 700^ of this beautiful exotic plant is long, creeping, sending out numerous fine fibre.s, and of a cream color externally, and whitish within ; the stem, is upright, round, stiff, with from two to four branches of leaflets, and is terminated with a beautiful large blood, or crimson-red blossom ; the stamens are numerous, and of a yellow color ; the leaves are long lanceolate, of a dark green on the upper surface, almost grey on the under, and placed several upon the same foot stalk ; the seeds are rather globose, and shining ; the whole plant, especially when in blossom, produces a very disagreeable smell. Medical Properties and Uses. This species of poppy is sometimes gathered in connection with the other varieties for medical purposes, but as its properties are so essentially different, and even sometimes proving dangerous, it should be avoided. The root is acrid, bitter, and fetid, and its qualities are reported to be narcotic and dangerous. The seeds possess the same qualities, and are somewhat emetic. Vol. iv. —135. NAT. ORDER: Passiflorecb. PASSIFLORA KERMESINA. CRIMSON PASSION-FLOWER, Class XVL MoNADELPHiA. Order II. Pentandria. Gen. Cliar. Tube of the Calyx short. Tliroat none. Berry pulpy. Spc. Char. Calyx on both sides crimson-red. Petioles slender. Segments ten. Stigmas club-shaped. Filaments of a dark purple. The stems are slender, branched, climbing, and rise, when sup- ported, from ten to thirty feet in fieight ; the petioles are cordate, three-lobed, glabrous, and also every other part of the plant ; lobes nearly equal, oval, obtuse, here and there glandulosa-dentate, green above and purple beneath ; thejietioles are also slender, bearing tvs'o or three elongated, dark-purple glands ; from the axil a simple ten- dril arises, and from each side at the base, a large, semi-cordate, obtuse stipule, of the same color and texture as the leaves ; the calyx, which is on both sides, is of a crimson-red ; the segments ten, uni- form, narrow-oblong, at first horizontal, afterwards reflexed, and whitish at their base ; they are combined below into a short tube, swollen at the base ; at tiie mouth of this tube is a filamentous croim of several series of nearly erect, dark-purple filaments, the outer ones paler at the extremity — within this is another and smaller circle of white filaments, united for the greater part of their length into a conicle tube ; column much elongated : stigmas club-shaped. The real name of the floral envelopes of this remarkable order, is a question upon which botanists entertain very different opinions : Vol. iv.— 13G. NAT. ORDER. — PASSIFLORE.E. 137 and their iJcas of its affinities are consequent!}' much at variance. According to Jussieu, the "parts talvcn for petals are notliing hut inner divisions of the calyx, usually in a colored state, and wanting in several species ;" and therefore, in the judgment of this venerable botanist, the order is apctalous or monochlamydeous. De CandoIIe adopts the same view of the nature of the floral envelopes as Jussieu ; but he nevertheless considers, we think with propriety, the order polypetalous. Other botanists consider the outer series of the floral envelopes as the calyx, and the inner as the corolla ; the one is green and the other colored. The nature of the filamentous appen- dages, or rays, as they are called, which proceed from the orifice of the tube, and of tlic membranous or fleshy, entire or lobed, flat or plaited annular processes, which lie between the petals and the sta- mens, are ambiguous, but are probably abortive stamens. With regard to the aflinity o{ Passijlorcce, Jussieu, swayed by the opinion he entertains of their being apetalous, and De Candolle, who partly agrees and partly disagrees with Jussieu in his view of their struc- ture, both assign the order a place near Cacurbitacece ; but when we consider the stipitate fruit occasionally valvular, the parietal placen- tas, the sometimes irregular flowers, the stipulate leaves, and the climbing habit of tiie plants, it is not difficult to admit their aflinity witii Cappaiidice and Violariea — the dilated disk of the former of which is probably analogous to tlie innermost of the annular pro- cesses of Passiflotxoc. The plants composing Passijlorcoi, are the produce of South America and the West Indies, where the dense forests are filled with their numerous species, climbing over shrubs and trees, and bearing flowers of the most curious form of striking beauty, and so singular in their appearance that many christian traditions have been adapted to these singular floral inhabitants of the forests. Its name is from pnssio, passion, and Jlos, a flower — resemblance in crown of appen- dages to the passion of Christ. Passijlora incarnata. Rose-colored Passion-flower. This species 138 NAT. ORDER. PASSIFLORE.E. has a perennial root; the stalks are annual, slender, rising four or five feet liigli ; at each joint one leaf, on a short foot-stalk, having mostly three lobes, but the two side ones are sometimes divided part of their length into two narrow segments, and thus becoming five- lobed ; they are thin, of a light green, and slightly serrate ; the flow- ers are produced from the joints of the stalk, at the foot-stalks of the leaves, on long, slender peduncles, in succession as the stalks advance in heiglit during the summer months ; they have an agreea- ble scent, but are of short duration, opening in the morning, and fading away in the evening ; the fruit is about the size of a full grown apple, changing to a pale orange color when ripe. This is a native of Virginia. Passljiora lalca. Yellow Passion-flower. This plant has a creeping root, sending up many weak stalks, three or four feet high ; the leaves are shaped like those of ivy, and almost as large, but of a pale green color and very thin consistence; the peduncle is slender, an incli and a half long ; the flowers dirty yellow, not larger than the thumb nail when expanded. It is a native of Virginia and Jamaica, flowering in May and June. Passijlora serratifolia. Notch-leaved Passion-flower. This spe- cies is perennial and shrubby ; the stems are round — the younger ones slightly villo.se, and climbing very high ; the stipules are linear and accuminate; the foot-stalks of the leaves furnished with two pairs of glandules ; the leaves ovate, smooth, and slightly serrated round their whole outline ; the peduncles are one-flowered and soli- tary ; the flowers have an extremely agreeable odor. This plant is a native of the West Indies, flowering from 3Iay till October. Passijlora mallfonnis. Apple-fruited Passion-flower. This species has a thick stem, triangular, by slender tendrils thrown out at every joint, rising to the height of fifteen or twenty feet; at each joint is one leaf, six inches long and four broad in the middle, of a lively green, and thin texture, having a strong midrib — from this arise sev- eral small nerves, diverging to the sides, and curving up towards the NAT. OKDER. — PASSIFLORE^ffi. log top ; petioles pretty long, having two small glands in the middle ; two large stipules encompass the petioles, peduncles, and tendrils at the base ; the peduncles are rather long, having also two small glands in the middle ; the cover of the flower is composed of three soft, velvety leaves, of a pale red, with some stripes of a lively red color ; the petals are white, and the rays blue ; the flowers being large make a fine appearance, but are of short duration — there is, however, a succession for some time ; the fruit is roundish, the size of a large apple, yellow when ripe, having a thicker rind than any of the other sorts. It grows naturally in the West Indies. Puss'ijlora quadrangidaris. Square-stalked Passion-flower. In this species the stem is almost simple, thick, membranaceous at the four corners, somewhat hispid ; the leaves are petioled, five or six inches long, entire somewhat rugged, but without any pubescence; the tendrils very long, axillary ; stipules in pairs, ovate at the base of the petiole.s, on which are si.K glands ; the peduncles opposite to the petioles, thicker : the flowers very large, encompassed by a three leaved involucre, the leaves of which are roundish, concave, entire, smooth, pale ; the fruit is very large, oblong, and fleshy ; the flower is much larger, though very much resembling the above sort in color. This is a native of Virginia, and some parts of South Carolina. Pussiflora alata. Wing-stalked Pa.ssion-flower. Tliis species very much resembles tlie preceding at first sight ; the flower, which is open, has also about the same appearance, but the peduncle is cylindrical ; the three divisions of the involucre small, lanceolate, with glandular serratures ; the pedicel thickest at the insertion into the convex base of the flower; the five or six outer petals are oblong with an awn, the inner longer; the outer principal rays thinnest and shortest, imperfect rays in a double row, — below and distinct from them a single row; no imperfect operculum; opercu- lum partly horizontal and partly turning up to the column, then folding back down again and embracing the column, with which it is so connected that it appears inseparable, but is not joined to the 140 KAT. ORDER rASSIFLORE.E. column ; nectary round the column, is confined by the base ; the column comes to the bottom of it. It is a native of the West India Islands. If this does not equal the previous sorts in elegance, it exceeds them in magnificence, in brilliancy of coloring, and in fragrance, the flow- ers being highly odoriferous, and one of the most delightful of all climbing plants. Passijlorn laurifolia. Laurel-leaved Passion-flower, or Water Lemon. This species has a suffrutescent stem, with many divari- cating, filiform branches ; the leaves are a little emarginate at the base, nerved, and very smooth, on short petioles compressed a little, having two glands under the base of the leaf ; the tendrils are very long ; the peduncles the length of the petioles ; the three leaflets of the involucre are roundish, concave, with blunt glandular toothlets about the edge, and pale ; the five leaflets of the calyx are broad- lanceolate, slightly membranaceous at the edge, horned with a point or awn, smooth, variegated on the inside with blood-red dots ; petals five, the length of the calyx, narrower, accuminate, with blood-red dots scattered over them ; the flowers are very handsome and odor- iferous, but the fruit is ovate and watery. It flowers in June and July, and is a native of Jamaica. Passijiora mullijlora. Many-flowered Passion-flower. In this species the stalks are very slender, .sending out many small branches, and climbing to the height of twenty-five or thirty feet; by age they become woody towards the bottom, and their joints are not far apart ; the leaves are on slender, short petioles, three and a half inches long and about two broad in the middle, rounded at the base, but terminating in a point at the top, smooth, entire, and of a lively green color ; the flowers are axillary, on long peduncles, having an agreeable odor, but seldom continuing twenty-four hours open. There is a succession of them from June to September, and the fruit will sometimes ripen in this climate. It grows naturally in the neighborhood of Vera Cruz. NAT. ORDER. PASSIFLOREiE. 141 Passijlora rubra. Red-fruitccl Passion-flower. This spec'es has an herbaceous stem, twining round, grooved, hirsute, and red ; the lobes of the leaves entire, nerved, somewhat hispid and soft; the petioles are round, red, villose, and without glands ; the tendrils sub- axillary ; the flowers alternate, nodding, on solitary, one-flowered peduncles; the fruit spherical, marked with six lines, scarlet, when ripe hirsute. It is a native of the West Indies, flowering in April and iMay. Passijlora murucuza. Moon-shaped-leav-ed Passion-flower. This species has an herbaceous, grooved, smooth stem ; the leaves ovate or oblong, two-horned, with an intermediate bristle, three-nerved, veined, smooth, entire; dots on the back hollowed, pellucid ; the petioles grooved, smooth, destitute of glands ; the tendrils sub-axil- lary, filiform, and long; the flowers stand in pairs, they are axillary, large, and of a scarlet color ; the berry is ovate^ about the size of a pigeon's egg, and pedicelled. It is a native of the West Indies. Passijlora vcspcrtUio. Bat-winged Passion-flower. This species has several striated, roundish stalks, somewhat less than a straw in size, of the same tliickness from top to bottom, and of a brownish red color, dividing into many slender branches; the leaves shaped like the wings of a bat when extended, about seven inches in length, or rather breadth, from the base to the top not more than two inches and a half, tiie upper ones smaller, the middle wider, and the lower narrow^er, smooth and somewhat shining — the color in the upper ones pale, in the middle deeper, in the lower darker green, with two purple tubercles or glands towards the base, where they are connected with the petiole, which is set half an incli from the base of the leaf, thret nerves springing from it, two extending each way to the narrow points of the leaf, the other rising upright to the top, where there is the greatest length of the leaf ; the flowers are on short round pe- duncles from the axils of the middle and upper leaves, white and of a middling size, and about three inches in diameter when expanded ; they are without scent, open in the evening or during the night, in 142 NAT. ORDER. — PASSIFLORE.E. tlie month of July, and finally close about eight or nine o'clock in the morning. It is a native of the West Indies. Pusaifiora rotund'ifoliu . Round-leaved Passion-flower. In this species the stem is suffrutescent at the bottom, subdivided, angular, and grooved ; the leaves semi-ovate, three-nerved, veined, smooth on both sides, marked behind longitudinally with pollucid dots ; lobes terminated by very small bristes ; the middle one a little longer than the others ; the petioles short without glands ; the tendrils filiform, very long ; the stipules two, opposite awl-shaped ; the peduncles axillary, filiform, and about an inch long ; the flowers nodding, pale green, and rather large ; the berry egg-shaped. It is distinguished from the jtlier sorts by its rounded leaves, w4iich are slightly three- lobed at the top only. It is a native of Louisiana, and is also found in Jamaica. Passijlora ciliata. Ciliated Passion-flower. This species runs to a great height, and has dark green glossy leaves ; the involucrum is composed of three leaves divided into copillary segments, each ter- minating in a viscid globule ; the pillar supporting the germen is bright purple with darker spots ; the petals are greenish on the out- side and red within ; the crown consists of four rows of radii, which are varied with white and purple. It is a native of Jamaica. Pass'ijlura suherosa. Cork-barked Passion-flower. This species rises with a weak stalk to the height of twenty feet; as the stalks grow old they have a thick fungous bark like that of the cork tree, which cracks and splits ; the smaller branches are covered with a smooth bark ; the leaves are smooth on very short petioles ; the middle lobe is much longer than the lateral ones, so that the whole leaf is halbert-shaped ; the flowers are small, and of a greenish yel- low color ; the fruit is egg-shaped and of a dark purple when ripe. It is perennial, and a native of the West Indies, flowering from June till September. Passijlora holoscricca. Silky-leaved Passion-flower. In this spe- cies the stalks rise about twenty feet high, dividing into nsany NAT. ORDER. — PASSIFLORE^. 143 s'ender branches, corered with a soft hairy down ; the leaves are shaped like the point of a halbert, three inches long and an inch and a half wide at the base, light green, soft and silky to the touch, standing obliquely to the foot-stalks ; the flowers are not half so long as those of the common or blue Passion-flower ; the fruit small, roundish, yellow w^hen ripe ; leaves ovate, tomentose on both sides: lateral lobes short, with an absolete gland underneath, behind the sinus of the lobe. It grows naturally at Vera Cruz, flowering nearly all the summer months. Passiflora glauca. Glauceous-leaved Passion-flower. In this species the whole plant is very smooth and even ; the leaves glau- ceous underneath, and undotted ; the petioles furnished with two or four glands below the middle ; the stipules acute, quite entire, more than half an inch in length ; the flowers are sweet. This sort is a native of Cayenne. Passiflora minima. Dwarf Passion-flower. This species has the stem twining, simple, becoming corky at the base with age, round and smooth ; the leaves subpeltate, subcordate; lateral lobes almost horizontal, all acute, nerved, smooth on both sides ; "the petioles short, round, reflex, and smooth ; the glands two, opposite, small, sessile, concave, brown, and in the middle of the petioles ; the sti- pules two, opposite, awl-shaped, by the side of the petioles ; the tendrils long, between tlie petioles ; peduncles axillary, solitary, longer than the petioles, loose, one-flowered ; the flowers small, whitish ; the berry small, blue, and egg-shaped. Native of Louis- iana. We have thus given a brief description of some of the most orna- mental and valuable species of the Passion-flower tribe, and it is with much regret that we are compelled to delay a farther descrip- tion of this most beautiful and enchanting genus for want of room. Tiiere is yet one hundred and thirty-five species of this curious plant undescribed in this work, some of which are valuable for their fruit and as an ornament. The remaining ones undescribed are of a 144 NAT. ORDER. PASSIFLORE^. character but little known to tlie inhabitants of this country ; hence their history would be of but little interest. Projmgallon and Culture. All the species of this elegant and curious genus are well suited for climbers in conservatories and stoves, being free growers and of easy culture. They thrive well in very light, rich soil, and the more room they are allowed, both for roots and for stems, the freer they will grow and (lower. They are all easily raised from cuttings planted in sand or mould, placed in heat, and the younger the cuttings are the sooner they will strike root. Mo,st of the species ripen fruit in our stoves, and consequently many fine varieties have been raised by impregnating the stigmas of one witli the polen of another. Several hybrids, raised from the seeds set by the polen of Passijlora cocrulca, are nearly hardy ; and in fact, this is the only species that can be considered quite hardy, and this requires a sheltered situation. It is therefore safest to plant against a wall, that it may be protected by a mat in severe weather. It thrives well in any soil, and cuttings of it are readily rooted under a hand-glass. Culture of the Edible Species of Granadllla. All the species will fruit even in large pots, but it is best to plant thetn in an angle of a stove, which has been parted off either by boards or brick- work, as low as the pit goes. At the bottom of the cavity formed by this division should be laid some brick rubbish, over which may be thrown a little dead tan, and the whole be then filled with equal parts of very old tan, and a compost of leaf-mould and rotten vegeta- ble compost — therein the roots will strike freely, and will even spread through the partition into tiie pit. They do not require the full heat of the stove, for they flourish best in a temperature of from 65*"" to IQ^ ; but they will not bring their fruit to perfection if kept in a common green-house or conservatory, though they will grow and flower in it. The shoots, as they advance, may be trained near to, and under the inclined glass of the stove. The first flowers will appear in May, and the blooming will continue until September, (he NAT. ORDER. — PASSIFLOREiE. 145 fruit setting the whole time; but if it does not set well, it will be advisable to impregnate the sligmas by applying the polen with a feather. As they grow, the very strong shoots should be cut out from their origin, for these do not bear fruit so abundantly as those which are less vigorous ; but the fruiting-branches must not be short- ened on any account. The temperature must be kept up equally during the time of flowering and fruiting. The crop will begin to come in August, and will continue until January, but the earlier produce is the best. When the crop is all off, which will be early in January, the heat must be reduced to about 50°, so as lo check and stop the growth. It is found that the shoots break better and in greater quantity from the older wood than from that of two years standing. In this dormant and reduced state it is to be kept during January and February, after which the necessary heat may be applied to causf it to resume its funct'ons for the ensuing season. All the species find various varieties of this genus are worthy of cultivation, anr* »ught to attract the attention of gardeners and florists. NAT. ORDER, Leguminosae. ACACIA PRENSANS. PRICIO^Y ACACIA. Class XXIII. PoLYGAMiA. Oidtr I. Monoecia. Gen. Char. Stem climbing, erect, stout. Leaves feathery. Petioles velvety, or downy. Leaflets numerous. .^e. Char. Stijmles deciduous. Peduncles unarmed. Flowers sessile. Cabjx pubescent, shining, cylindrical. Petals four to six. This is a climbing shrub, of external, rapid, and luxuriant growth, and remarkably elegant and delicate foliage ; the stem is erect and stout, but not thicker tiian the arm, and covered with a dark-brown bark ; the branches are smooth, round, and ash-colored below ; ex- cessively elongated, climbing, and clinging tenaciously to every thing ^vithin their reach by their copious, small hooked prickles, of extra- ordinary rapid growtii, quickly reaching to the top of any lofty tree nithin their neighborhood, which if unchecked, they soon, by their luxuriance, completely over-run ; sulcated towards the ends, which with all other parts of the plant, while young, are densely but minute- ly pubescent, or rather velvety, and of a rich tawny, or golden ferrug- inous color ; tlie leaves are very beautiful, and feathery, of a bright green, subdeflexed, and five or six inches long ; petioles about an inch long, with a sugary gland below the middle, velvety or downy like the rachides, which have from two to four similar glands be- tween the ultimate pairs of pinnce — the lowest however, placed always a little below the origin of the pinnce ; the petioles are gen- Vol. iv.— 146. cui : A ^>'■^^^r^>u^/ . NAT. ORDER. LEGDMINOS^. 147 erally unamied, but the rachides are prickly beneath ; leaflets from sixteen to twenty, and generally an odd one at the lower side of the base of each pinnos ; narrow, almost linear, acute, very unequal at the base, or subdimidiate ; and sdpells minute, linear at the origin of the pinnoe ; stipules deciduous ; panicles from six inches to a foot long, sub- cylindrical or thyrsiform, their main stems prickly, at first terminal, but their ends ultimately shoot out into a branch ; j^edimcles full an inch long, round, unarmed, covered with a fulvous or golden brown toinen- tum, patent, divaricate, singly or in bunches of from two to six from each axil ; bractcas ovate or lanceolate, deciduous ; heads globose, very dense and close ; flowcre perfectly sessile, with minute, linear, short, hairy, deep dull red or puiplish bracteolas at their base, not visible externally; c«/?/.r pubescent, but shining, cylindrical, four to six toothed — the teeth short, half-ovate, often unequal in breadth, each two-nerved ; ^jcto/s four to six, but their number does not uniformly correspond with that of the sepals — pale green with whitish edges, and the tip purplish-red ; stamens very numerous and dense, not spreading, but forming close, thick bundles ; between which appears the dull-red color of the calyxes ; filaments rather short, smooth, and nearly white ; anthers small, globose, pale yellovy ; style smooth, near- ly white, a little longer than the stamens, with a simple stigma ; pods never perfected in this country. All the flowers, however, appear to be hermaphrodite. This is a most elegant and lovely shrub, but a dangerous neighbor to other plants within its reach, and requiring much space for its dis- play. It would be capable of being formed into an impenetrable fence, or might be advantageously employed to give additional security, if trained along a wall. The flowers arc scentless, but singular and handsome, from the strong contrast between the pale yellow bundles of stamens, and the dark dull-red of their interstices. In the bud the heads are altogether of a deep red, becoming yellower as die filaments expand. The native country of this species of Acacia must remain uncertain. In medicine it is but little known. NAT. ORDER. Legumnosce. ACACIA VERA. GUM AEABIC TREE. Class POLYGAMIA. Oldcr MONCECIA. Gen. Char. Floivers, polyamous. Cali/a:, four to five toothed. Pe- ials, four to five, sometimes free, and sometimes joined into a corolla. Stamens, variable, ^e. Char. Branches and leaves, glabrous. Flowers, usually twin yellow. Branches and spines, red. This is a most elegant climbing sfn-iih, with long, weak, diffuse, interweaving branches, clinging and supporting themselves by means of their very short, recurved, weak prickles, which are inconspicuous to the feye, though at once perceptible to the touch. The jmcklcs are found on eveiy part of the plant, except the peduncles, and secondary rachiscs of the leaves ; they are also generally worn off the old branches and stems. These, when old, are pale brown or grey, as well as smooth and round ; the young ones are strongly sulcated and angular, and more or less pubescent with short, wooly, fulvous, glan- dular hairs ; foliage most delicate and lovely ; the leaves resembling gracefully curved or drooping plumes of feathers, of a fine, bright, pe- culiar yellow-gi-een, six to eight inches long, and one to two broad ; stipules very minute, narrow-minute, ovate, erect, and vithering ; ])c- tioles geniculate at the base, the part below the elbow two lines long, angular and slender, the upper side channelled with an oblong, hol- low, boat-shaped gland a little above the elbow ; copiously clothed with short, glandular, fulvous pubescence, and fimiished with recurved, Vol. IV.— 148. ^^lU^^Z^, L^ oca^t^f i'e^'/a . NAT. ORDER. — LUGUMNOS.E. 149 scattered prickles beneath, like the main rachis, which is elegantly curved ; kajlcts very minute and delicate, ajjparently smooth and naked, but through the lens minutely and irregularly puberulous, es- pecially at the edges ; they close up and lose all their beauty about four or five o'clock in the afternoon ; the spikes (not heads) of flowers are short and oblong-, pale ochre-yellow, produced four or five together from the axils of the upper leaves, which become less and less devel- oped towards the ends of the branches, so as to form a long', irregular sort of a terminal, leafy, compound, branched panicle ; slightly fra- grant ; jicdides, half to three quarters of an inch long, round, unarmed, densely fulvo-pubcscent ; spikes oblong, abbreviate, and about half an inch long ; calt/.v very minutely pubescent, in five shallow segmets like the corolla, both pale green ; stamens very numerous ; antliers simjjle ; seeds numerous, ten to twelve, rather large, flattened, but convex in the middle. Though the flowers of this plant are not remarkably conspicuous, it is impossible to conceive of anything more graceful and elegant than the thick tufted, feathery foliage, or the extreme delicacy and symme- try of its parts. The pod and seed are singularly large in proportion to the rest of the plant. This is the shrub which yields the gum-arabic of the shops, and succus acacice. According to Hasselquist, the Arabs call it c/uisad. The gum is gathered in vast quantities from the trees or shrubs grow- ing in Arabia Petreea, near the north bay of the Red Sea, at the foot of Mount Sinai. This gum is called by the dealers 77m?- or T/107; which is the name of the harbor in the north bay of the Red Sea, thereby distinguishing it from gum-arabic. The gum-thur is also more pellucid and white, whereas gum-arabic is of a brown or dirty color, and generally opaque. Gum-arabic is a concrete juice which exudes from various species of Acacia, but especially from Acacia vera, Acacia Arabic, and Aca^- cia Senegal, natives of the sandy deserts of Africa, Arabia, and other parts of Asia. It either exudes spontaneously or from incisions made 150 NAT. ORDER. LEGUMNOS.E. in the bark, and afterwards hardens in the air. The barks of all the species are highly astringent, and some are used in India for tanning-. There are two kinds of g-um found in the shops in this country, and often sold promiscuously, but distinguished in commerce by the names of gum-arabic and East India gum. Gum-arabic consists of roundish transparent tears, colorless, or of a yellowish color, witliout smell or taste, and almost perfectly soluble in water. The pieces which are most transparent, and have least color, are reckoned the best. They are sometimes separated from the g^um-arabic, and sold for about double the price, under the name of picked gum. The East India gum is darker colored than gum-arabic, and is not so readily soluble in water. Gum-tliur, the produce of Acacia Arabic, is almost colorless, and resembles the picked gum, and giim-seneg-al resembles the East India gum. About the middle of November, that is, after the rainy season, which begins early in July, a g-ummy juice exudes spontaneously from the trunk and principal branches. In about fifteen days it thickens in the furrow down which it rans, either into a vermicular shape, or more commonly assuming- tlie form of round or oval tears, about the size of a p'geon's egg, of different color, as they belong to the white or red gum tree. About the middle of December, the Moors encamp on the borders of the forests, and the harvest lasts five weeks. The grim is packed in very large sacks of tanned leather, and brought on camels and bullocks to certain ports, where it is sold to the French and Eng- lish merchants. Mr. Jackson, in his account of the Empire of Moroc- co, informs us that from Mogodor they export two sorts of gum, one is common gum-arabic, the other finer, called gum-soudan, brought from Tumbucto by the caravans. He also says that die gum called ]Mo- rocco or Barbary-gum, is produced fi-om a thorny tree called Allabch. It yields most gum during the parching heat of July and August, and the hotter the weather, and the more sickly the tree appears, the more gum it yields. The gum is highly nutritious. During the whole time of the gum KAT. ORDER. — LEGUMNOS^. " 151 harvest, of the journey, and of the fair, the Moors of the desert Uve al- most entirely upon it ; and experience has proved that six ounces are sufficient for the support of an adult during twenty-four hours. Medical Properties and Uses. The characters g-enerally given of gum as a vegetable pi'inciple, belong only to the gum-arabic, which is transparent and colorless, easily I'educed to powder, without smell, and of a slightly sweetish taste. The solution of gum in water con- stitutes mucilage. It is thick and adhesive, and soon dries when ex- posed to the air. Gum is also soluble in weak acids, but is totally in- soluble in alcohol. Gum is very little disposed to spontaneous decom- position. By oxygenizement with nitric it forms successively mucic, malic, and oxalic acid; with oxymuriat acid it forms citric acid. By exposure to heat it does not melt, but softens, swells, and becomes charred. In medicine, gmn-arabic possesses the powers of mucilaginous demulcent in a high degi'ee. It is useful in all cases where there seems to be a natural deficiency of mucus in the intestinal canal. — Dissolved in milk, barley-water, or almond emulsions, it removes tenes- mus. It is useful in an irritable state of the respiratory passages, in catan-h, hoarseness, and cough. For this purpose it may be either administered in substance as a troche, or in a strong solution, and may be combined with a little opium. It is also useful in salivation after mercury, or in small pox. Externally it is applied in powder to bleed- ing vessels of a small size as a stj^ptic, operating by glueing them up. It is also used in solution as an injection in gonon-hcea. NAT. ORDER. Eanunculaceoe. HELLEBORUS VIRIDIS. GEEEN HELLEBORE. Class XIII. POLYANDRIA. OrdCT III PoLYGYNIA. Gen. Char. Cali/.r, permanent. Petals, eight to ten. Stamens, thirty to sixty. Stigmas, terminal, orbicular. Spc. Char. Xearcs, radical, very smooth. Pcdunclcs,h\fiA. Sepals, roundish-ovate, green. This species of hellebore has a round, delicate stem, a little branched near the top, but not near as much as the other varieties ; leafy, reddish at the base, upright, smooth, and from a foot to eighteen inches in heig-ht ; the leaves are soft, and of a light pea-green color ; those from the bottom are on long- petioles, but those on the stem sit close to their sheaths ; the leaflets are from seven to ten in number, lanceolate, acuminate, sharply serrate, smooth, gashed, usually trifid, the divisions sometimes deeply lobed ; and at the base of each pedun- cle is a similar leaf, only smaller ; the peduncles are axillary, an inch long, round, supporting one and two nodding green flowers. It is said to be a native of France, but is found in many parts of the United States. Large quantities of this plant I have found growing on the north side of Great Hills, (so called by the inhabitants.) in the town of Leverett, Franklin county, Mass. Medical Properties and Uses. Haller reckons up all the reputed virtues of Hellebore under this species ; and indeed seems to be what German practitioners have substituted for the tme plant of the ancients, HeUeborus oricntalis. We learn from the Flora Londinensis, that die Vol. IV.— 152 NAT. ORDER. RANUNCULACE.E. 153 roots of this plant are used in London for the true Black Hellebore ; and probably their qualities are the same, for this species is even more nearly allied to the ancient Greek plant Helleboms orientalis than the Hellebonis nig-er. The whole herb is fretid, acrid, violendy cathartic, with a nauseous taste, especially when fresh. The leaves, when dried, are sometimes g-iven as a domestic medicine to destroy worms ; but they must be used sparingly, being so violent in their operations, that many instances of their fatal effects are recorded. A dose of about fifteen grains of the powder of the dried leaves is given to chil- dren, which proves gently emetic and purgative. The decoction of about a drachm of the fresh leaves being considered equal to fifteen grains of the dry ones. It is usually repeated on two, and sometimes three successive mornings, and seldom fails to bring away worms, if there be any in the intestinal canal. In small doses this plant proves diuretic and emmenagogue. It has been used as a purgative in cases of mania, melancholy, coma, dropsy, worms, and psora. But its use in any form requires very gi-eat caution, for its effects are very uncer- tain, and affected by many circumstances. It may be exhibited in the form of an extract, although its activity be much dissipated by the pre- paration. An infusion and tincture certainly promis.e to be medicines of more uniform powers, and are prefen-ed to other preparations. NAT. ORDER HypericinecE. HYPEKICUM HIRCINUN. FCETID ST. JOHN'S-WORT. Class XVIII. PoLYADELPHiA. Order II. Polyandria. Gen. Clmr. Capsule, membranaceous. Stamens, numerous, free. Petals, five. Sejuils, five, connected at the base. Styles, three to five. Capsules, one, many celled, many seeded. Spe. Cluir. Branches, winged. Leaves, emarginate. Peduncles, bi- bracteate. Stamens, exceeding the corolla in length. This species of St. John's-wort has a shrubby stalk, and rises from three to three and a half feet high, sending out small opposite branches at each joint ; the leaves are oblong, ovate, sessile, placed in pairs, and have a peculiar disagreeable rank smell ; the flowers are in terminating bunches, producing the appearance of a large ball of flowers when in full blossom. It is said to be a native of the south of Europe, but grows naturally on the liills in the central part of Massa- chusetts. It seeks the most rocky, desolate places on the north side of high hills, where the forest is densely set with trees, forming almost a perpetual shade. Hi/pcrk'um bakaricum. Warted St. John's-wort. This j)lant rises with a slender shrubby stalk in this country, about two feet high ; but in its native soil it acquires the height of seven or eight feet, send- ing out several weak branches of a reddish color, and marked with scars where the leaves have fallen off; the leaves are small, oval, waved on their edges, and having several small protruberanccs on their under side — they sit close to the branches, half embracing them Vol. IV. — 154. ^ytyyi^z^^v^^n^xm^g^c^^i ^ue^^^^y. NAT. ORDER. HYPERICINE^. 155 at the base ; the flowers are terminating-, large, and of a bright yel- low. It grows most naturally in Majorca. JFft/pcriaim Asajron. Great-flowered St. Peter's-wort. This spe- cies has a stem about two feet high, round, smooth, and rufescent ; — the leaves are pale green, paler underneath, about an iitch long and half an inch ^vide, roundish, opposite ; the flowers terminating ; calyx green ; corolla pale yellow, and about five times as large as the com- mon sort. This is a native of the middle sections of the United States. Hypericum Androscemum. Common Tustan. This plant has a perennial, thick, woody root, of a reddish color, and sends out a num- ber of very long slender filjres ; the stems are suffi'uticose or under- shrubby, ancipital, two-edged, or slightly winged on opposite sides, from two to three feet liigh, branched towards the top, of a reddish color, and smooth ; branches brachiate or decussated, and spreading ; the leaves opposite, sessile, ovate, entire, smooth, dark green, glauce- ous on the under side, netted with numerous projecting- veins and nen-es, which become through age ferruginous ; on the stem they are about two inches long, and an inch and a half broad at the base ; — those on the branches are smaller, of different sizes, and some of them approaching to lanceolate ; the flowers are small for the size of the plant, and disposed in a cyme ; the peduncles are round, smooth, usually two or three flowered, but sometimes only one flowered ; the fruit is an ovate capsule, assuming the appearance of a berry, at first sight of a yellowish-green, then red or brownish-purple, and lastly al- most black when ripe. This is a native of the southern parts of Eu- rope. f/i/pcriaim Cmutriensc. Canary St. John's-wort. This species rises with a shrubby stalk six or eight feet high, and dividing into branches at the top ; the leaves are oblong, set by pairs close to the branches, having a strong smell, but not so foetid as some of the other varieties ; the flowers terminate in clusters, very much like those of the preceding sort. It is a native of the Canary Islands, and flowers from July till September. 156 NAT. ORDER. HYPERICINE.E. Hypericum datum. Tall St. John's-wort. The younger stems of this plant arc somewhat reddish ; leaves ovate-oblong-, acute, dila- ted at the base, somewhat emarginate, with the margins somewhat re volute, flowers corymbose ; peduncles bibracteate ; sepals ovate- oblong. It is a native of North America, and flowers in July and August. Ilypericiim frondosum. Frondose St. John's-wort. The branches of this plant are two-edged ; leaves ovate-elongated, blunt at the apex, and narrowed at the base ; flowers large, usually solitary ; calyx equalling or exceeding the petals in length ; styles united together. It is a native of North America, on shady Rocks in Kentucky and Tennessee. Flowers in July and August. Hypericum amoenum. Pleasing St. John's-wort. This plant rises about two feet in height, bearing branches two-edged ; the leaves are oblong elliptical, bluntish at the apex, but tapering to the base, with curled revolute margins ; flowers terminal, and usually solitary ; sepals ovate, acuminated, never equal in length with the corolla ; styles connected together. Tliis plant is a native of South Carolina and Georgia. The flowers are large, of a bright yellow, and with red ovaries. Flowers in July and August. Hypericum sessilijiorum. Sessile-flowered St. John's-wort. This plant rises about three feet in height, with round branches ; leaves are stem-clasping, cordate-oblong, without nerves, dotted ; corymb termi- nal ; flowers nearly sessile ; sepals oblong, acute, leafy, and much longer than the corolla ; styles joined together. Native of North America. Flowers in August and September. Hypericum graiidijlorum. Great-leaved St. John's-wort. This is a shrubby plant rising about three feet in height ; the stem round, and of a reddish cast ; leaves ovate-oblong, cordate, somewhat stem-clasp- ing, acute at the apex, netted widi pellucid veins ; flowers corymbose ; peduncles after flowering much longer than the corolla. This is a native of Teneriffe, and flowers in July and August. Hypericum irwdorum. Scentless St. John's-wort. This is a NAT. ORDER. HYPERICINEjE. 157 shrubby looking- plant, from three to three and a half feet in height ; the stem is suffruticose, and round ; branches are somewhat wing-ed ; leaves ovate, very blunt ; calyx lanceolate, acute ; peduncles some- times bibracteate ; stamens equal in length with the corolla. The herb is scentless. Native of Greece and die Levant. Flowers in September. Hypericum Jioribtmdum. Bundle-flowered St. John's- wort. This is a shrubby plant, varying in height from two to four feet, with a round stem ; leaves sessile, lanceolate, numerous, without dots ; peduncles dilated and somewhat compressed towards die apex; calyx obtuse ; corolla and stamens marcescent. It is a native of the Canary Islands, and flowers during the month of August. I/ypericum cordifoUum. Heart-leaved St. John's-wort. This is a shmbby looking plant, sending up a round stem about two feet high ; leaves elliptical, acute, coriaceous, smooth, somewhat stem-clasping, without dots ; flower-bearing branches crowded, and leafy below ; bracteas ovate-cordate, acute ; sepals ovate, mucronate, without dots ; petals oblong, unequal-sided, obliquely mucronulate ; stamens short ; styles unconnected, scarcely longer than the corolla. This plant is a native of Nipaul, and flowers from April till October. Hypericum cpiinqucncrvium. Five-nerved-leaved St. John's-wort. This is a small, delicate looking plant, with a stem about one foot in height ; and which is tetragonal ; leaves somewhat stem-clasping, ovate, obtuse, obscurely five-nerved, full of pellucid dots, which are acute on the under surface ; corymbs dichotomous ; sepals linear-lan- ceolate. This is a perennial, herbaceous, hardy plant. NaUvc of the United States, and found quite plenty from Canada to Carolina, in over- flowed places. It is also found on Mount Quindiu, in South America. Hypericum, axillare. Axillary-flowered St. John's-wort. This species has a shrubby, round stem, somewhat diffused ; leaves lance- olate-linear, naiTOwed at the base, with revolute margins ; sepals rather unequal ; styles at first joined, but afterwards free ; peduncles on the top of the branches axillary, three-flowered, with the middle flower 158 NAT. ORDER. — HYPERICINE^. sessile ; flowers about the size of those of the Hypericum perforatum, (ex. vol. i. page 55.) It is a native of North America, iu the pine woods of Georgia and Florida, and flowers in July. Jfijpericiun hhsutum. Hairy St. John's-wort. This plant rises ft-oin two to three feet high, and sends up an erect, round, hairy stem ; leaves ovate-oblong, downy, ribbed, full of pellucid dots intermixed with a few dark ones ; panicle long, racemose ; calyx lanceolate, somewhat acute ; fringed like the bracteas with numerous black, vis- cid glands, on shortish stalks, such as also terminate the petals ; styles diverging ; flowers of a bright yellow color ; according to Linnaeus they close at night. It is a liardy, herbaceous plant. Native of most parts of Europe, and the northern parts of the United States, in shady places, thickets and hedges, and chiefly on a dry, chalky soil. It flowers in June and July, and sometimes late in August. Propagation and Culture. The greater part of the species are very showy, although they have quite a common appearance. The hardy, herbaceous kinds will grow in any common garden-soil, and are easily increased by dividing the plants at the roots or by seeds ; the stove, frame, and green-house herbaceous species should be increased in the same manner. The annual soils only require to be sown in the open border about the beginning of April. The hardy, shrubby kinds, being dwarf and showy, are well fitted for the front of shrubberies ; they will thrive in any common garden soil, and are easily increased by dividing the plants at the root, by seeds, or by cuttings planted un- der a hand-glass. The green-house and frame shrubby kinds will thrive well in a mixture of loam and peat, and young cuttings of them will root freely in sand under a bell-glass. The stove shrubby species will thrive in the same kind of soil as that recommended for the green- house species, and young cuttings of them will root in sand under a bell-glass in heat. Medical Properties and Uses. Nearly the same properties per- vade all the species of this extensive genus. Hypericum hircinuni, is promiscuously gathered and sold witli the Hypericum perforatum, be- NAT. ORDER. HYPERICINE.E. ' 159 in2" SO nearly alike both in qualities and appearance. It has a power- ful, loetid, lemon-like scent when rubbed, staining the fing-ers with a dark purple, from the g-reat abundance of colored essential oil lodged in the herbage, and even in the petals. As this plant was found to bleed at the slightest touch, it was supposed to have a vulnerary quality, and became the "balm of the warrior's wound," giving a blood- red color to eveiy composition, whether of a spirituous or oily nature, into which it entered. The essential oil, the seat of this color, is aro- matic, and possibly tonic or stimulating, without much acrimony. Although in the present practice this plant is not much regarded as a medicine, yet its sensible qualities, and the repeated testimonies of its virtues, entitle it to further trials. To the taste it is astringent and bitter, and it seems to be chiefly diuretic. It has been given in ulcerations of the kidneys, and has even been supposed to possess vir- tues as a febrifuge. The leaves, given in substance, are said to des- troy worms. The dried plant, boiled with alum, dyes wool yellow. The common people in France and Germany gather this species of St. John's-wort with great ceremony on St. John's day, and hang it in their windows as a charm against storms, thunder, and evil spirits : mistaking the meaning of some medical writers, who have fancifully given this plant the name of Fuga Dcemonum, from a supposition that it was good in maniacal and hypochondriacal disorders. Formerly it was also carried about by the people of Scotland as a charm against witchcraft and enchantment ; and they fancy it cures ropy milk, (which they suppose to be under some malignant influence,) by milk- ing afresh upon the herb. NAT. ORDER. Ericacece. AZALEA LEDIFOLIA. PUEPLE-FLOWERED AZALIA. Class V. Pentandria. Order I. Monogynia. Gen. Char. Calyx, five-parted. Corolla, short, companulate, five- cleft. Stamens, five, equal, shorter than the corolla. Cells of anthers, opening- by a terminal pore. Style, straight, inclosed. Capsule, five-celled. Spe. Char. Leaves, opposite, small, elliptic, glabrous, with revolute margins. Floiccrs, pedicellate, rising in fascicles from the axils of the upper leaves, small, red. Tnis is a small shrub, rising from two to four feet in height. Its general characters are mostly allied with the Azalea indlca, both in qualities and habits of growth ; the roots are fibrous ; the Jibres mod- erately slender, branched ; the stetn is slender, erect, compressed, bearing four or five pair of leaves alternately placed ; spathc terminal, of two unequal leaves ; j^cdunclcs nearly as long as the spathe, slender, curved as if from the weight of the flower, which sometimes droops ; 'perianth of six oblong, slightly concave, obtuse, bright purple, moder- ately spreading sepals, faindy striated externally ; capsules five-celled, with five valves, cloven-pointed, and inflexed edges from the double partitions. Our wild specimens of this richly colored plant perfectly accord wiUi the one here figured, only they are rather smaller, and the flower less drooping. It appears to be a rare plant in collections, and though stated to be hardy, we find the shelter of the green-house is required to protect them through the winter. Vol. IV.— 160. ^^. ■t-J^J^^^Oi^l.. ^ NAT. ORDER. OlcinccB. SYKiNGiA josikj]:a. gekman lilac. Class IT. DiANDRiA. Order I. Monogynia. Geyi. Char. Corolla^ funnel-shaped, or companulate, four-parted. Stamens, two, short. Fi^uit, capsular, two-celled. •' ■ . ^ Spe. Cliar. Calyx, small, four-toothed. Stigma, bifid. Capsule, ovate, compressed, two-celled, two-valved, two-seeded. Leaves, ovate-lanceolate. This skrah rises erect from six to eight feet in height ; branches spreading, very slightly warted, twigs purple ; leaves about three inches long and an inch and a quarter broad, elliptical-lanceolate, at- tenuated at both ends, shining and lurid above, white and veined be- low, wrinkled, glabrous on both sides, ciliated, short ; panicle terminal, erect ; calyx like the pedicels, peduncles, rachis, petiole, middle rib of the leaf and the branches pretty closely covered with short, glandular pubescence, four-toothed, teeth blunt and much shorter than the tube ; corolla half an inch long, clavate-funnel-shaped, deep lilac, glabrous, wrinkled ; tube slightly compressed ; limb erect, four-parted ; segments involute at their edges ; stamens adhering to about the middle of the tube ; anthers incumbent, oblong, yellow ; jnstil much shorter than the tube ; stigmas large, cohering ; style filiform, glabrous ; germen green, glabrous, bilocular ; ovals four. This is a new species of lilac, and though less beautiful than the two in common cultivation, yet being equally hardy it cannot fail to be a most acceptable ornament to our gardens and shrubberies. The Vol. IV.— 161. 162 NAT. ORDER. OLEINE^. first knowledg-e we have of this curious plant is from Baron Jacquin, who exhibited dried specimens of it from Sicbenburgen, and since its discovery was due to "Frau Baronin von Josika, gebohren Grafin Czaki." He named it in compliment to that distinguished lady, and gave it a specific character. In another part of the same work, we find that not only is die present species a native of Germany, but that the common Lilac, Si/ringn im/garis, which has hitherto been con- sidered almost exclusively of Persian origin, as staled by Dr. IIeuffel, to adorn with its copious blossoms the inaccessible chalky precipices of the Cverna Valley, and Mount Domaglett in Hungary. Syringa is from the Greek work syrinx, a pipe. The branches are long and straight, and are filled with medulla ; hence the old name of the Hlac, pipe-tree. Linnaeus places it among poetical names. The story of the nymph Syrinx, in Ovid, is well known. The English name of the genus is from lilac or lilag, the Persian word for flower. Si/ringa vulgaris. Common Lilac. This is a very common shrub which grows to the height of eighteen or twenty feet in good ground, and divides into many branches ; those of the white sort grow more erect than the blue ; and the purple or Scotch Lilac has its branches yet more difllised ; the branches of the white covered with a smooth bark of a gray color ; in the other two it is darker ; the leaves of the white are of a brighter green — they are heart-shaped in all, nearly five inches long, and three and a half broad near the base, placed oppo.site, on foot-stalks about an inch and a half in length ; the buds of the fu- ture shoots, which are very turgid before the leaves fall, are of a very bright green in the white sort, but those of the other two are dark g-reen ; the flowers are always produced at the ends of the shoots of the former year, and below the flowers, other shoots come out to suc- ceed them — as that part ui)on which the flowers stand decays down to the shoots below every winter. There are generally two bunches or panicles of flowers joined at the end of each shoot; djose of the blue are the smallest — flowers ai-e also smaller, and placed Uiinner than either of the others ; the bunches on the white are larger, but those of the NAT. ORDER. — OLEINE.E. 163 Scotch arc still larg-er, and the flowers fairer ; it of course makes the best appearance ; the panicles of flowers grow erect, and being- inter- mixed with the bright green leaves, have a fine effect, which, with the fragrance of the flowers, renders it one of the most beautiful shrubs of tlie g-arden. The flowers appear early in May, or towards the end of April, and when the season is cool, continue three wrecks — but in hot seasons soon fade. It is supposed to be a native of Persia. There are several varieties of this species, some with white flowers, blue flowers, and purple flowers, or Scotch Lilac Syringa Persica. Persian Lilac. This species is a sln-ub of much lower g-rowth than the common sort, seldom rising more than five or six feet high ; the stems are covered with a smooth brown bark ; the branches are slender, pliable, extend wide on every side, and frequently bend down where they are not supported ; the leavers two and a half inches long-, and three-fourths of an inch broad, and of a deep green color ; the flowers hang- in large panicles at the end of the former year's shoots, as in the former ; of a pale blue color, and having- a very pleasing-, agreeable odor. They appear at the end of May, soon after those of the common sort, and continue longer in beauty, but do not always perfect their seeds in this northern climate. There are also several varieties of this species, such as the common piu'ple- flowered ; white-flowered ; blue-flowered ; and the laciviated, or cut- leaved. Propagation and Culture. These plants are mostly raised by suckers or layers, and sometimes by seeds. The suckers should be taken off in the autumn or spring, with root-fibres to them, and be planted out either in nursery rows, to remain a year or two, or where they are to remain. The layers may be made from the young, pliant shoots, and be laid down in the autumn in the usual way, and in the autumn following, taken off and planted out, as in the suckers. NAT. ORDER. Ruhiacca. GARDENIA FLORIDA. * CAPE JASMINE. Class V. Pentandria. Order I. Monogynia. Gen. Char. Calyx, an ovate ribbed tube. Corolla, funnel-shaped. Anthers, from five to nine, linear. Stigma, clavate. Ovarium, one-celled, half divided. Berry, fleshy, crowned. Seeds, minute. Mowers, axillary, terminal, solitary, pale yellow. i^e. Cliar. Leaves, elliptic, acute at both ends. Floimrs, solitary, five to nine parted. Berry, five to six angled, five to six celled at the base, and one-celled at the apex, orang-e colored, size of a pigeon's egg. This is a shrub from two to six feet high, with numerous stout, woody branches, which bear crowded " foliage towards their extremi- ties ; leaves oval or obovate, acute, subcoriaceous, opposite, often ap- pearing verticillate ; hracteas acute, membranaceous, deciduous ; Jlowers large, solitary, very fragrant ; calyx segmoUs erect, narrow, al- most linear, much shorter than the tube of the corolla ; corolla, pale yellow, somewhat leathery, soon turning quite yellow, hypocrateri- form ; iuhe long, straight ; limb spreading, of six oblong, wavy, obtuse segments ; anthers nearly sessile, linear, situated at the mouth of the corolla ; gcrmcn inferior, scarcely ribbed ; style as long as the tube of the corolla ; stignui thick, bifid, exerted ; the berry is oi-ange colored, about the size of a pigeon's egg, and the pulp is used for dyeing yel- low in China and Japan. It flowers in July and August. Gardenia radicans. Rooting Gardenia, or Cape Jasmine. Tlijs is a shrubby plant, from one to two feet high, unarmed : stems radi- VoL. IV.— 164. ^/^>^tci:i/^cty. NAT. ORDER. — RUBIACE^. 165 cant ; leaves lanceolate ; flowers solitary, almost terminal, and nearly sessile, salver-shaped ; segments of the calyx vertical, linear-subulate, equal in leng-th to the tube of the corolla ; flowers very fragrant. It is a native of Japan, and cultivated at the Cape of Good Hope, the East and West Indies, and the southern parts of the United States. It flowers from March till June. Gardenia coslala. Ribbed-fruited Gardenia. Tliis is a tree about twenty feet high, arboreous, unarmed ; leaves cuneiform-oblong, smooth, and ribbed ; flowers terminal, salver-shaped ; calycine segments resini- ferous, caducous ; berry drupaceous, oval, five-i'ibbed, one-celled, con- taining a two-valved shell ; placentas two, opposite ; flowers large, white, sweet-scented, the tube being above three inches long, and the" border above four inches in diameter ; limb five-parted ; berry yellow, containing a soft and rather foetid pulp. It is a native of the moun- tainous part of India ; but is now spread over most of Europe, and is cultivated in green-houses in the United States. Gardenia carinaia. Keeled Gardenia. This is a tree linarmed, arboreous, resinous on the younger parts ; leaves elliptic-obovate, rib- bed, villous beneath ; flowers terminal, solitary ; limb of the calyx tiTjncate, broad, obscurely five-lobed, and five-keeled ; tube of corolla very long ; limb six-eight-lobed ; flowers smaller than those of Gar- denia costala, at flrst snow white, but afterwards yellow, becoming, when dry, a beautiful orange color ; fruit exactly like the previous species. It is a native of Asia, where it grows on the hills. Gardenia ai'horea. Arboreous Gardenia. This is a good sized tree, arboreous, unarmed ; leaves ovate-oblong ; flowers terminal, al- most sessile, usually by threes ; corolla with a filiform tube, and a five-parted limb ; berry drupaceous, smooth, containing a four or five- valved shell ; the leaves are deciduous during the cold season, and the shrub continues naked till the hot season is pretty far advanced. From the buds and wounds made in the bark there exudes a very beautiful yellow resin, like that from Gardenia gummifera. The size, number, fragrance, mutability, and beauty of the flowers of this species, render IQQ NAT. ORDER. RUB1ACE.E. it more deserving- of a place in the garden than any other species. — The natives eat the fruit when ripe. It is a native of the East Indies among- the Circars. Gardenia kuifoUa. Broad leaved Gardenia. This is a shmb from ten to twelve feet liigh, arboreous, unarmed ; leaves almost ses- sile, ovate or obovate ; in die axils of die veins beneath are hollow glands widi hairy marg-ins ; flowers terminal, from one to four togethe)-, almost sessile, salver-shaped from seven to eleven parted ; limb of the calyx short, subdentatc ; berry drupaceous, round, one-celled, five- valved ; flowers very large and very fragrant — when they first open in the morning white, gradually growing yellow before night ; berry about the size of a pullet's c^g, crowned by a small part only of die tube of the calyx ; leaves opposite or three in a whorl. It is a native of the East Indies on barren rocky hills, in the Circars and Cornatic. Gardenia lucida. Shining-leaved Gardenia. This is a middling sized tree, subarboreous, unarmed, wiUi resinous buds ; leaves oblong, smooUi, shining, with lateral simple parallel veins ; flowers almost terminal, solitary, on short pedicels ; lobes of the calyx five, subulate, three times shorter than the tube of the corolla ; berry drupaceous, containing a two-valved shell ; leaves about six inches long and three broad ; peduncles clavate, one to one and a half inch long ; flowers large, purple-white, fragrant, five-parted. Native of Chiltagong and various other parts of India, and of the Island of Luzon. Gardenia clusicefoUu. Clusia-leaved Gardenia. This is a slu-ub about five feet in height, unarmed, glabrous ; leaves obovate, retuse and somewhat emarginate, coriaceous, on short petioles ; peduncles almost terminal, racemose ; flowers on long pedicels ; limb of the calyx short, five-toodied ; corolla salver-shaped, with five linear acute segments, which are about the length of the lube ; flowers white, sweet-scented, with a greenish tube ; beriy large, oval ; seeds imbed- ded in the pulp. The internal sti'ucture of the bcny is unknown. It differs from Gardenia in the shape of die stigma and disposition of die flowers. Native of the Bahama Islands, where it is called by the in- habitants Seven Years' Apple. NAT. ORDER. — RUBIACEJE. li^T Gardenia tub'ifera. Tube-bearing' Gardenia. This is a shrub rising- from ten to fifteen feet in height, subarboreous, unarmed ; leaves cunate-oblong", petiolate, slightly scabrous above and pubescent be- neath ; drupe round, uneven, crowned by the very long- truncate caly- cinc tube ; leaves five to six inches long- ; ch'upe containing- a putamen ■which is divisible into eig-ht valves ; flowers uiiknown. All the young parts of the tree are resinous. Native of the East Indies, in Singapore. Gardenia anisophylla. Unequal-leaved Gardenia. This species is also a tree, rising from thirty to sixty feet in height, arboreous and unarmed ; leaves elliptic, those opposite .each other unequal, densely clothed with villi ; stipules concrete at the base, bearded inside ; corymbs axillary, villous ; limb of calyx five-toothed ; tube of corolla short ; drupe oval, villous ; the leaves are also tapering to the base, six to twelve inches long- ; flowers rather small, white, by threes, villous outside ; liml) five-parted ; stigmas clavate, two-lobed ; drupe size of a walnut, containing a two-valved putamen. Native of the Is- lands of Pulo-Penang and Singapore, on the hills. Gardenia corni/olla. Dogwood-leaved Gardenia. This is a shrub about five feet high, shrubby and spinose ; branches glabrous ; leaves accuminated, ovate, rather coriaceous, and are, as well as the branches, downy ; flowers white, sweet-scented, six to eight together at the tops of the branches, sessile, subcorymbose, each furnished with a bifid involucel; calyx four-toothed; corolla villose on the outside, with a terete tube, and a spreading four-parted limb. The ovarium and fmit being unknown, it is doubtful whether it belongs to the genus. Na- tive of the temperate parts of New Granada, near Gaudua. There are about forty species more belonging to the genus, most of which, however, are of but httle value. Propagation and Culture. All the species of Gardenia bear ele- gant sweet-scented flowers, which in most of the species are large. They are generally free flowerers. The soil best suited for them is ^ mixture of loam, peat, and sand. The stone species thrive best in a moist heat ; and cuttings of all root readily if taken off" while not too 168 NAT. ORDER. — RUBIACE^E. ripe, planted in a pot of sand, which should be plunged in a moist heat under a hand-glass. The double flowered varieties of Gardenia Jlorida, and Gardenia radicans, are cultivated to a considerable extent, under the name of Cape Jasmine, for the beauty and fragrance of their flowers ; the best manner of getting these to bloom freely, is to set them in a close frame, on a little bottom heat, in spring, but the pots should not be plunged ; and in winter they may be set in the green- house. t ^- . !' •y '■ 1 (Z^cic^fj/Zf/'tt (U^-^z^^x, NAT. ORDER. Acanthacece, JUSTICIA CARNEA. FLESH-COLOEED JUSTICIA. Class II. DiANDRiA. Order I. Monogynia. Gen. Char. Caly.r, four or five divided. Corolla, monopetalous. Limb, ring-ent, two-lipped. Stamens, two, both bearing anthers. Ovarium, two-celled, seated in the disk. Style, one. Stigma, two-lobed, rarely divided. Capsule, two-celled. Cells, two, many seeded. Spe. Cliar. Leaves, opposite, rarely in fours. Flowers, usually op- posite, in spikes, sometimes alternate, with three bracteas. The stem, of this plant is from four to five feet high, branched, the branches four-sided ; lea,ves opposite, ample, on long petioles, ovate, attenuated at the base, sharply acuminated at the extremity, glabrous, entire, reticulated, gradually smaller upwards, where they pass into bracteas, which are very numerous, the outer ones ovate-lanceolate, inner ones small and linear ; corolla very long and of a beautiful rose color, two-lipped, upper lip erect, entire, lower one revolute, three- toothed ; antlicrs deep pui-ple. Native of Florida. Medical Properties and. Uses. This plant has, when rubbed, a strong and not unpleasant smell, and is, after being roasted, prescribed in India in cases of chronic rheumatism attended with swelling in the joints. Jasticia bijlora is used in Egypt for poultices. Justicia Ec- bolium is said to be diuretic. The flowers, leaves, and root of Justicia Adhatoda are supposed to possess antispasmodic qualities. They are bitterish and subaromatic. Justicia pectoralis, boiled in sugar, yields a sweet-scented syrup which is considered in Jamaica a stomachic. Vol. IV.— 169. NAT. ORDER. Composite^. SILPHIUM TEREBINTHAOEUM. STATELY SILPHIUM. Class XIX. Syngenesia. Order IV. Polyga.mia-Necessaria. Gen. Cluir. Caly.v, common, ovate. Scales, ovate-oblong-. Corolla, compound. Stamens, hermaphrodite. Filaments, five, capillary, very short. Spe. Char. Anthers, cylindrical, tubular. Germen, round, slender. Style, filiform, very long, villose. Stigma, simple. This is a perennial plant; stem herbaceous, four to six feet in height, glabrous, striated, branched, erect ; lower leaves ample, some of them a foot long, cordate, coriaceous, acute, smooth above, beneath and at the margin beset with numerous short bristles, each seated on a smell white callous point ; ^7C//o/e very long, sometimes measuring a foot or a foot and a half, below dilated into a sheathing base ; the leaves gradually become smaller and nan-ower and less stalked up- wards, and among the flower-stalks they pass into bracteas about an inch long, often spreading, and with their margins involute ; flowers paniculate, large, handsome, yellow; involucre globose, of several roundish, green, closely imbricated, glabrous scales, inermost ones smaller and longer ; corolla of the ray numerous, ligulate, entire at the apex, each bearing a pistil : segments of the style long, filiform ; florets of the disk each subtended by a blunt, linear-oblong scale ; corolla yellow ; anthers protruded, dark brown ; stifle linear, filiform, entire ; germen cylindrical, slightly downy, abortive. This is a fine and elegant species of Silphium, to which the spe- cific name seems to be applied on account of a terebinthine gum. Vol. IV.— 170. (zA^tmu^my .^i-^dc^n^ NAT. ORDER. COMPOSITE. 171 which exudes from the plant, as in the Sllphium gunimi/erum of Mr. Elliott, and probably in other species of the genus, during- the hot summers which are experienced in their native climates. But in the northern and eastern States, no such exudation is observable, thoug-h the sap yields a pecuhar odor. It is a stately plant, remarkable for the great size of its lower leaves ; and though inhabiting- the western mountains of Carolina and Georgia, and the prairies of St. Louis, on the Missouri, it bears the open air of New England, and other noithern States, remarkably ^vell — flowering in the autumnal montli. There are three other species, natives of this country, -viz : SUphiuin laciniatum. Jag-ged-leaved Silphium. This has ' a perennial root ; the stem rises from eight to fourteen feel in heiglit, from one to two inches in thickness, quite simple, smooth below, above rug-ged, with brown tubercles and white, spreading hairs, round ; the leaves petioled, two feet in length and a fool in breadth, embracing at the base, pinnatifid ; segments on each side four or five, distant narrow, tooth sinuate, rugged, with very solid ribs raised on both sides ; mar- gin of the upper leaves purplish ; the calyx of ten scales, ending iu large awl-shaped spines ; the petals of tlie ray thirty, length of the calyx, with a bifid, slender style ; the florets of the disk yellow, many, separated by chaffs, attenuated at the base, with a simple style. It is a native of North America, flowering from July till September. SUj)hium asteriscus. Hairy-stalked Silphium. This species has a perennial root ; the stem four or five feet high, thick, solid, set with prickly hairs, and having many purple spots ; the lower leaves alter- nate — upper opposite and sessile, rough, about two inches long, and an inch broad near the base, having a few slight indentures on their edges ; the upper part of the stem divides into five or six small branches, terminated by yellow radiated flowers like those of the perennial Sun-flower, but smaller, having generally nine florets in the ray. Native of North America, flowering from July to September. Silphium trifoUalmn. Three-leaved Silphium. This species has a perennial and woody root ; the stems annual, rising about five feet 172 NAT. ORDER. — COMPOSIT.E. high or more in g-ood soil, of a purplish color, and branching" towards the apex ; the leaves oblong-, roug-h, having some shaip teeth on the edg-es — they are from three to four inches long, and almost two broad — towards the bottom of the stem they stand by fours at each joint, higher up they are by threes, and at the top by pairs, sitting close to the stems ; the flowers stand upon rather long peduncles, which are solitary. This plant is a native of most parts of Nordi America, from Maine to Georgia, and produces flowers from July till October. Propagation and Culture. This species of plants are all readily increased by parting the roots, and planting them out in the autumn or spring in proper situations, which is usually done in the borders or clumps. They may also be raised by planting the slips in the same manner. If placed in a bed they should be set from one to two feet apart in rows, and the rows from two and a half to three feet apart, after which they should be managed as the perennial Sun-flower. — ■ They aflbrd a beautiful and pleasing effect among other perennial plants in the summer season. '-^tyt^yf^^/f'U^ .2^v^ -'^t^-ty? NAT. ORDER. Compositce. DIPLOPAPPUS mCANUS. HOAEY DIPLOPAPPUS. Class XIX. Syngenesia. Order II. Superflua. Gen. Char. Sepals, four to five. Pelals, four to five. Sf.amcns, generally indefinite. Anthers two-celled. Ovarium, sing-le, from four to ten carpels. Sdjle, one. Sdgmas, as many as the carpels. Spc. Cfiar. Fruif, dry, of several cells. Seeds, numerous. EtnJmjn, erect. Floicers, axillary. Leaves, simple, stipulate, toothed. The stems of this plant are very much branched, and, as well as the foliage, everywhere clothed with short, dense, glauccous pubes- cence, occasioning a hoary appearance, which suggested the specific name ; the leaves are scattered, about an inch long, linear-lanceolate entire, patent or recurved, gradually becoming smaller on the ultimate branches, which are terminated by a large siwgXe flower ; the involucre is almost globose ; the scales numerous, linear, squarrose, slightly glandular ; the ray is composed of many florets, and of a bright purple color ; disk of a deep yellow. This genus is very nearly allied to the Aster, being only distin- guished from it by the double rows of the pappus, whence its name. It includes, however, plants with yellow as well as purple flowers, a color never known in Aster. Few of the Asteroid family are more worthy of cultivation than the present, bearing as it does large beauti- ful flowers, of peculiar bright color, and continuing to blossom in the ipen border till late in October. It is a native of California, where it ft'as discovered by Mr. Douglass. Vol. IV.— 173. NAT. ORDER, Sairacenie ."Z^t t, fT^-^z^^-iPi/^^y?.^^ ^>^^e^^ '^^^. NAT. ORDER. — S.\URACENIE.E. lT-5 are attached to the centre of each valve, and separate from the cen- tral axis of the column ; scapes, always one-flowered ; Jlowers, large, nodding, greenish-yellow or dark purple. These well known singular plants, are inhabitants of the swamps of North America, remarkable for the singular form of their leaves, which are tubular and hold wha- ler, and some species have lids or covers, which it is alleged shrink and close over the mouth, so as to prevent the exhalation of the water. In dry weather birds resort to thern for drink. Tliis order differs chiefly from Papancracco!, and JVi/niphinccre, in having a broad, peltate, leafy stigma, but it is still nearer to the former than the latter, in the cap- sules being furnished with intervalvular placentas. Sarraceniajlava. Yellow side-saddle flower. In this species the leaves rise nearly three feet high, small at the bottom, but widening gradually near the top ; they are hollow, and arched over the mouth like a fi-iar's cowl ; the flowers grow on naked pedicels, rising from the root to the height of three feet, and are of a green color. It is a native of North Amei'ica, in open swamps, from Virginia to Florida. This is the tallest growing species ; the leaves are often three feet long. Flowers in June and July. Sairaccnia piapurca. Purple side-saddle flower. This species has a strong fibrous root, which strikes deep into the soft earth, from which arise five, six, or seven leaves, in proportion to the strength of the plant ; these are about five or six inches long, hollow like a pitcher, naiTOW at their base, but swell out large at the top ; their outer sides are rounded, but on their inner side they are a litde compressed, and have a broad leafy border iimning longitudinally the whole length of the tube ; and to the rounded part of the leaf there is on the top a large appendage or ear, standing erect, of a brownish color ; this sur- rounds the outside of the leaves ; it is eared at both ends, and waved round the border ; from the centre of the root, between the leaves, arises a strong, round, naked foot-stalk, about a foot high, sustaining one nodding flower at the top ; the leaflets of the upper calyx are ob- tuse, and bent over the corolla, so as to cover the inside of it; they 176 NAT. ORDER. — SARRACENIE.E. arc of a purple color on the outside, but green within, only having- pur- ple edges ; the petals are of a purple color, and dished somewhat like a spoon. It is a native of most parts of North America, in swampy places about Quebec, Lake Huron, and probably common throughout Canada, and as far north as Bears Lake, and as far south as Carolina. Sarraccnia variolaris. Chequered side-saddle flower. This is a small dwarfish looking plant, rising not more than a foot high ; leaves elongated, their tube spotted on the back, ending in a short arched ap- pendage ; flowers yellow ; the transparent spots on the back of the leaf distinguishes this species readily from the preceding, with which it has often been confounded. It is a native of North America, in open swamps on a sandy soil, from Massachusetts to Florida. It may be found in great abundance near the base of Great Hills in the town of Leverett, Franklin county, Mass., where I have seen it blossom from May till late in July. Proiyagation and Culture. These singular and handsome plants are very desirable objects in the collections of the admirers of nature. They are all inhabitants of the swamps of this country, but will not stand in the open air of Canada or England. They should be kept in pots filled with turfy peat at the bottom, and the upper part with spag- num or water-moss, in which the plants must be set and then placed in pans of water ; they succeed best in frames in a shady situation or in a stove. They also succeed very well if set in spagnum in a frame without pots, but they always will require to be kept rather moist and well shaded. In this last way the sashes require to be almost kept shut. There is no way, as yet, known by which they can be increased except by dividing the plants at the root. There are many of these plants cultivated in England as a curiosity, but are all exported from this country. NAT. ORDER. '^ BiUacecB. BAEOSMA CEENULATA. CEENULATED BUCKU. Class V. Pentandria. Order I. Monogynia. Gen. Char. Cali/.i:, five-cleft. Disk, covering- the bottom of the calyx. Petals, five, with short claws. Filaments, ten. Style, leng-th of the petal's. *S^;e. Char. Leaves, opposite, ovate, acute, dotted. Pedicels, solitaiy, one-flowered. Flowers, white. The plant from which this description and figure are taken, is an upright shrub, between two and three feet in height, with twiggy branches of a brownish purple tinge ; leaves decussate, spreading, about an inch long, oval-lanceolate, on very short j}efioles, very obtuse, deli- cately and minutely crenated, quite glabrous, rigid, darkish-green, and quite smooth above, with a few very obscure oblique nerves, beneath paler, dotted with glands which are scarcely pellucid, while at every crena- ture is a conspicuous pellucid gland ; there is also a narrow, pellucid margin round the whole leaf; peduncles about as long as the leaf, axillary and terminal, chiefly from the superior leaves, single-flowered, often (but not always) bearing a pair of small opposite leaves, or brac- teas, above the middle, each of which in my native specimens some- times bears a flower in its axil ; beneath the calyx are two or three pairs of small imbricated bracteas ; cabjx of five ovate-acuminate leaf- lets, green, tinged with purple ; corolla of five ovate petals, purple in the bud, blush-colored when fully expanded : stamens five, at first erect, then recui-ved, about as long as the petals ; ^/amcn/s slightly villous ; anthers oblong ; ban-en filaments, five, lanceolate, white, rather Vol. IV.— 177. 178 NAT. ORDER. RUTACE.E. villous, tipped with a gland, the lower part erect, the upper half spread- ing- ; hypogijiious disk, an annular, dark -green gland ; gcrmen very short, abortive, crowned with five lanceolate, fleshy, slightly spreading appendages ; slt/le, filiform, curved ; stigma, minute. There are, perhaps, few plants that have been long cultivated in our collections, which are less understood and which require more il- lustration by figures, than the various species of the old Genus Dios- vui of the Cape of Good Hope, and which now constitutes a section of the Natural Older Ridacccc. The individual now figured is an old in- habitant of the green-houses, both of this country and England, e.spe- cially the latter, where it has gone under various names, such as Diosma crcnala, Diosma laiifoUa, Diosma odorata, §t. Wendland figured it under the name of Parapctalifcra odorata in his collections, but he made it, afterwards, the variety of Diosma sci-ratifoUa, and has referred to the same variety, the Diosma crenata, of Linneeus, &c. — But surely if it can be proved to be the Diosma creriulata (not crenata) of Linnaeus, that name ought to be adopted in preference to any others ; and Linnaeus' description does appear to be so characteristic, that for my own part I have no hesitation in preferring the name. My opinion is further strengthened by a remark of Sir I. E. Smith, in Rees's Cy- clopaedia, where he notices the great affinity of the Diosma serratifolia, (a supposed Australian species,) with the Diosma crenata of Linnaeus. 'Of the true Diosma sorratifolia, I have only seen cultivated specimens ; they have much longer, narrower, and accuminated leaves, marked with raised glands on the upper surface, and three distinct nerves ; they have decidedly serrated leaves, and always pure white flowers ; •so that I have no hesitation in keeping these two distinct. If the above "be con-ect, I see no impropriety in referring to our Barosma crcnulata, the valuable properties of which, as an internal medicine, and as an outward application, for healing lacerated flesh, are well and highly ■'tipoken of by both ancient and modern writers. Lastly, I would mention that tlie Bucku of our Pharmacopaeias, which has lately obtained so much celebrity as a sudorific, diuretic, NAT. ORDER. RUTACE.E. 179 and tonic ; such at least as I have examined and prescribed from our dniggists, undoubtedly belongs to the present species. Hence, though others of the Diosma groupe may contain similar properties, abound- ing, as they all do, in a strong aromatic odor, and glands filled with essential oil, yet by the Hottentots and those who gather Bucha for the European and American markets, preference is given to our Ba- rosma crenulata. The scent seems to me to be as powerful as that of any other of the tribe, but at the same time much more agreeable, and more resembling that of some mints. Barosma pulchdla. Neat Barosma. This shrub grows from one to three feet in height ; leaves crowded, ovate, quite smooth, with thickened, crenate-glandular margins ; peduncles axillary, usually soli- tary, exceeding the leaves ; flowers pale-red. The Hottentots use the leaves of this plant, dried and powdered, under the name of Bucku, to mix witli the greece with which they anoint themselves. It gives ihem so rank an odor, that Thunberg says he could not bear the smell of tlie men who drove his wagon. It is a native of the Cape of Good Hope, and flowers from September till February Propa^adon and Culture. This is a genus of pretty little shrubs, ■which thrive best in a mixture of sand, peat, and a little turfy loam ; and cuttings taken from ripened wood, and planted in a pot of sand, witli a bell-glass placed over them, will strike root readily and thrive well. NAT. ORDER. Cdctcce. OPUNTIA BRASILIENSIS. BEAZILIAN PRICKLY-PEAR. Class XT. IcosANDRiA. Order I. Monogynia. Gen. Char. Sepals, numerous. Stamens, numerous, shorter than the petals. Style, cyHndrical. Stigmas, many. Spe. Char. Berry, ovate. Petals, conivant. Moicers, red. Joints, obovate. The peculiar habit and mode of growth at once distinguish this species. It rises with a perfectly straight, erect, slender but firm and stiff, round stem, to a height of from ten to twenty, or even thirty feet, very gradually tapering to a point from a diameter of two to six inches at the base, and furnished all the way up with short, mostly horizon- tal or declining branches, spreading round on all sides, and gradually becoming shorter upwards ; the whole j)lant resembles a straight ta- per ; pole, artificially dressed up with branches ; main stem perfecdy round, continuous and straight throughout ; branches horizontal, or de- clining, short ; the ulumate johits are obovate, and resemble leaves in appearance and thickness, more than in any other described species of Opimtia ; being only about twice as thick as those of Ccrcus pthyllan- thus, ovphyllanthoides, but stiffer; the whole yVr//)/ is a bright green in- clining to yellow, especially in young or sickly plants ; the lower part of the stetn only is brownish ash-colored ; the Jloiccrs open in long succession, being abundantly produced all over the plant from the prominent parts of the edges of the terminal joints ; they are bright lemon-yellow, middle-sized ; when expanded, from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter ; and without tube ; petals imbricated, sub- VoL. IV.— 180. NAT. ORDER.— CACTE.E. 181 patent ; the outer ones short, thick, and fleshy, the inner from half an inch to an inch long- ; style, long-er than the stamens, pale yellow, thickish, swollen downwards, solid, or with only a thread-like, central hollow towards the top ; stigma of generally five, sometimes four, pale- yellow, finally ferrug-inous bordered, erect, subconnivant, ovate lobes ; filaments and anthers pale ; gcnnen half or three-quarters of an inch long-, cup-shaped at top, uneven, bearing a minute, fleshy, ovate-globose, yellowish, deciduous leaf at the summit of each irregular tubercle, in- side of which is a fascicle of short, minute, chestnut bristles ; a verti- cal section discovers the central, subtriangular, cell-hke ovarium, con- taining from one to five ovules ; fruit subglobose, approaching to oval more or less, with the cup-sliaped hollow at the top obsolete, so as to be often truncate, from an inch to an inch and a half in diameter, the color of a Magnum-bonum Plum ; perfectly even, but furnished with short, dense fascicles, tufts, or branches, of rich chestnut-colored bristles, contrasting beautifully with the delicate transparent yellow of the thin, smooth skin ; a few of these are twice as long as the rest ; all are extremely deciduous, brittle, and a.cute, so as to render the ex- amination of the fruit more than ordinarily troublesome. It is hardly possible to touch the plant when in fructification v/ithout getting the skin or clothes full of these bristles ; inside of the fuit })alc yellowish- white, containing in the middle from one to four, much flattened, rather large round seeds, three or four lines in diameter, enveloped in a sin- gular, dense, cottony mass of fibres ; the fruit is rather agreeable, juicy, with a fine acid, somewhat resembling an indifferent, hard-fieshed, or unripe Plum, with a smell and slight flavor like the leaf-stalks of gar- den Rhubard. Its principal flowering season is May and June. NAT. ORDER. Saxifragc(c. SAXIFKAGA LiaULATA. FKINGED SAXIFRAGE. Class X. Decandria. Order II. Digynia. Gen. Char. Caly.r, five, parted. Petals, five, on short claws. Sta- mens, ten. Ca})S7iles, adnate to the calyx. Seeds, numerous. Spe. Char. Leaves, obovate, subcordate. Flowers, pale-red, almost white. This p/ffl/ii has a thick woody root, bearing several large spread- ing, bright-green, broadly ovate leaves, beautifully ciliated at the mar- gin, and frequently waved there also ; the piiiolc is short, diick, bear-, ing a long, erect, ciliated sheath or ligiile (whence the specific name) just above where it is set on the stem ; scales five or six inches long, with one or two bracteas, and terminated by a cymosejaanicfc of large, handsome, white flowers, frequendy tinged with rose-color ; cahjx ob- tuse and red at the ba.se, and greener upwards, and five-cleft ; corolla of five, obovate jxtals, with short claws ; statn'^ns ten ; Jilaincnts erect, alternately shorter, rose-colored ; anthers reddish piuple ; gcrmeii. free ; styles long, erect ; stigmas obtuse. Sa.vifraga petrwa. Rock Saxifraga. This plant grows almost flat upon the ground, only rising from three to six inches in height ; die leaves are radical and palmately five-lobed ; cauline ones tripartite and cut ; peduncles are very long, one-flowered ; calycine segments linear, acute ; petals obovate, truncate at the apex and cmarginate, twice the length of the calyx ; the plant is difflisely branched, and fur- nished with glanduliferious hairs ; stems erect, branched at the base ; branches elongated fastigiated ; radical leaves on long jictioles, somc- VoL. IV.— 182. NAT. ORDER. SAXIFRAGES. 188 what reniform at the base ; lobes obtuse ; cauline leaves all petiolate ; upper cauline leaves undivided, acute at both ends ; peduncles and calyxes clothed with viscid down ; flowers white, much larger than those in many of the other species ; petals triple nerved ; nerves sim- ple. It is a native of Mount Baldo, among- broken rocks, and of the Alps of Corinthia ; also of North America, in alpine rivulets on the Rocky Mountains. It flowers in April and May. Saxifraga hyponoides. Hypnum Saxifrage. This plant rises only from three to eight inches high, gemmiferous ; surculi very long, pro- cumbent ; radical leaves five or three parted ; surculine leaves simple, linear, stifl", ciliated, mucronately awned, furnished with ovate, acute, buds in the axils ; calycine segments triangularly ovate, awned ; pe- tals roundish, obovate, white, triple-nerved, rose-colored on the out- side at the apex ; nei^ves simple ; the herb is densely tufted before flowering, quite glabrous, but afterwards becoming loose, surculose, and villous ; from two to four flowered. This is a native of the Alps of Switzerland, Austria, and Pyrenees. In Britain, in the north of England, Scotland, and North Wales, in both the Upper and Lower Canadas, on high rocky mountains ; as well as on limestone rocks, walls, and roofs in less elevated situations, abundandy. It flowers in April. Medical Properties and Uses. Linnaeus describes the taste of this plant to be acrid and pungent, which we have not been able to dis- cover ; neither the turbercles of the root, nor the leaves manifest to the organs of taste any quality likely to be of medicinal use, and there- fore, though these species of Saxifrage have been long employed as a popular remedy in nephritic and gravelly disorders, yet we do not find either from its sensible qualities, or from any published instances of its efficacy, that it deserves a place in the Materia Medica. The superstitious doctrine of Signatures suggested the use of the root, which is a good example of what Linnaeus has termed radix granulata. The bulbs or tubercles of such roots answer an important pui-pose in vegetation, by supplying the plants with nourishment and moisture, and thereby enabling ihem to resist the effects of that 184 NAT. ORDER. SAXIFRAGEjE. droug^ht to which the dry soils they inhabit peculiarly expose them. Sedum Telephium, one of the species, is admitted in the Materia Medica in the foreig^n pharmacopoeias ; it has not the acrid characters of the various species here figxired, but on the contrary is bland and mucilaginous. It is said to be diuretic, and, according to Dr. Wither- ino-, is used with success to cure the piles. Simpei-vivum tectorum (common house-leek) which is nearly allied to the Telephium in bo- tanical affinity, hkewise abounds with a mucilaginous juice, said to be an useful application to burns, creeping ulcers, and in apthous cases. Cactus Opuntia (common Indian fig) and Portulnca ohcracca (garden purslane) both of this natural order, afford a similar juice, which also has been applied to medical purposes. PropagalAon and Culture. Saxifraga is a most extensive genus of pretty alpine plants, the greater part of which are well adapted for rock-work, or to be grown on the sides of naked banks to hide the surface. Many of die more rare and tender kinds require to be grown in pots, in light sandy soil, and placed among other alpine plants, so that they may be protected by a frame in winter. The species be- longing to sections Micranthes and Hirculm grow best in a peat soil, which should be kept rather moist. The species belonging to the sec- tion Porphyrcon are so very pretty little plants as to be worth growing in pots for ornaments, being clothed with elegant litUe red flowers early in the spring. A mixture of peat and sand suits them well. The varieties are all well suited to ornament the borders of flower-gardens. Ne« Vorh Botanical GjrQpn LiRr.ify QK110.S768 1855V.4 gen Strong, Asa B/The American flora : or hi 5185 00001 5519