saaabenaennansenen BE yeaa a a - SS aeonenee ene emnenearennnan at ao jecoardiielaset, al Si peteet Sesser ee ee —————— eee rorennenermnrnnnnomee renee uM waa Hi a a R$ th ee a a i} H | it P, in a an “ Hn =~*\ vi Wy th) i, si as ' i 1 ity X ay As = Nth i Ml il iy, sas = i) | || Hh | Hit} | Mh Wi | a7. iy y is i. i i a i Hl i We i) | 7 We Hi il La Ry. je i Mot ii AN rs wil re, pe . i Hi i a . | ! i" : ie o Hit \n | \ Z — eae” as a, r SS. , ie es a a ~< F- : = \ \ = Venue = = == . — “~2_ = aeons = : = SS raeetae = ree ny id ~ny emretlcession eaetepenectatne ee Se a aot eee = Sears oe ——— ne ~~ —— —s ses pened erat ere, anon neg " owe pit fem, — man: Saoeeeetck ates Drscnaeet a aes Seed Lae en Ag ORNs SoD te eee ry = regia —_ momeee seas. Seer Sena = tee. BS eer ew pom Sas ~ Seren > raw openoe" aware: ee a aac Sse Reheerineine Sete ens pe BCL TR I . poate mab Rathore x Shots ‘| acoeaynavien ney Titres rie rhe emenge vee US Ses ~~ he ee eae i = = : = = iii ip i} \ ; tiga : earl da i FD mi ; al way sjtiiis ne il THE FLOWERING PLANTS GRASSES, SEDGES & FERNS OF GREAT BRITAIN Frontispiece, CILIATED HEATH , Erica ciliaris . CROSS LEAVED H. E. tetralix . MACKAYS H E.mackayi 7 COMMON LING Calluna vulgaris . Pl. 187, PINE LEAVED H E. cinerea. CORNISH H E. vagans MEDITERRANEAN 4H. E. mediterranea . Vol, I. THE FLOWERING PLANTS GRASSES, SEDGES & FERNS OF GREAT BRITAIN AND THEIR ALLIES tie CLUB MOSSES, HORSEIMAILS, &c. By ANNE PRATT NEW EDITION REVISED BY EDWARD STEP, F.L.S. ILLUSTRATED WITH THREE HUNDRED AND NINETEEN COLOURED PLATES FIGURING UPWARDS OF 1500 SPECIES VOL. 1. LONDON FREDERICK WARNE & CO. AND NEW YORK 1905 Mt ts KORG A Appa t 45 Meee ctl LEE “aes Oa FER 7 1968 Achillea decolorans millefolium ptarmica tomentosa Adoxa moschatellina Hgopodium podagraria Aithusa cynapium Anchusa officinalis sempervirens Andromeda polifolia Angelica archangelica sylvestris Antennaria dioica margaritacea Anthemis anglica . arvensis cotula nobilis : c tinctoria Anthriscus cerefolium sylvestris vulgaris Apargia autumnalis hispida Apium graveolens . Arbutus unedo , ; Arctium lappa Arctostaphylos alpina UWva-ursi . Artemisia absinthium . campestris . ceerulescens . : maritime vulgaris Asperula arvensis . cynanchica . odorata Asperugo procumbens Aster tripolium . . Atropa belladonna Azalea procumbens . Bellis perennis . ° Bidens cernua - CONTENTS. VOLE. (Arranged according to generic names.) Dotted-leaved Yarrow Common Yarrow Sneeze-wort Yarrow : Woolly Yellow Milfoil . Tuberous Moschatel 5 Common Gout-weed Fool’s Parsley . ¢ : : : Common Alkanet . ‘ : : Evergreen Alkanet . Marsh Andromeda Garden Angelica Wild Angelica Mountain Everlasting Pearly Everlasting Sea Chamomile Corn Chamomile Stinking Chamomile Common Chamomile Ox-eye Chamomile . Garden Beaked Parsley Wild Beaked Parsley ; Common Beaked Parsley . Autumnal Hawkbit . Rough Hawkbit 2 : C Smallage, or Wild Celery” : c Austere Strawberry-tree : Common Burdock Black Bearberry Red Bearberry : : : : Common Wormwood ; 5 Field Southernwood ; , ‘ Bluish Wormwood F ; Sea Wormwood Common Mugwort Field Woodr uf : Small Woodruff, or See “wort. Sweet Woodruff’ ; German Madwort Sea Starwort Common Dwale, or Deadly Nightshade Trailing Azalea’ Common Daisy : Nodding Bur-marigold Plate Fig. 133 133 133 133 99 89 93 149 149 138 94 94 125 125 133 133 133 132 133 96 96 96 ail 111 88 138 118 138 138 124 124 124 124 124 105 105 105 150 128 151 138 131 123 - 6 7 5 8 1 7 1 1 2 4 1 eo WOE NE OANEONHWNAREOAEPNOAKRONAPWH PWD Bidens tripartita . Borago officinalis . Borkhausia fetida setosa . : . taraxacifolia Bryonia dioica Bunium flexwosum Lupleurum aristatum Jaleatum rotundifoliwm tenwissimvunr Callitriche autumnalis . pedunculata verna . : Calluna vulgaris . . Calystegia sepium . . soldanella . - Campanula glomerata . hederacea . 5 hybrida . 0 lutifolia : patula : . persicifolia . . rapunculus. rapunculoides .« rotundifolia : trachelium . c Carduus acanthoides . marianus . : nutans . tenuiflorus . , Carlina vulgaris “ Carum bulbocastanum . Carut . verticillatum 6 Caucalis daucoides latifolia Centaurea calcitrapa . cyanus 7 asnardt A 5 jacea . c . NUGT A « - paniculata . scabiosa solstitialis . Centranthus ruber . Ceratophylluim demersuin submersum . Cheerophyllum aromaticunr aureum temulentunr Chiora perfoliata . é Chrysanthemum — leucanthe- mum segetwin Chrysospleniwm alternifolium oppositifoliwnr Cicendia filiformis pusillum . Cichorium intybus Cicuta virosa . ; : Circea alpina. . : CONTENTS Trifid Bur-marigold . ; . Common Borage . : - Stinking Borkhausia Bristly Borkhausia . Smaller Rough Borkhausia Red-berried Bryony Common Earth-nut 5 Narrow-leaved Hare’s-ear : Falcate-leaved Hare’s-ear ‘Common Hare’s-ear . Slender Hare’s-ear Autumnal Water Starwort Pedunculated Water Starwo Vernal Water Starwort ; : ; Common Ling . Lrontispiece Great Hooded Bindw eed . : t — Seaside Calystegia : Clustered Bell-flower : [vy-leaved Bell-flower . Corn Bell-flower . i Giant Bell-flower : Spreading Bell-flower Peach-leaved Bell-flower . Rampion Bell-flower 5 Creeping Bell-flower Harebell . : : Nettle-leaved Bell-flower . Welted Thistle Milk Thistle Musk Thistle : Slender-flowered Thistle . Common Carline Thistle . Tuberous Caraway Common Caraway Whorled Caraway . Small Bur-parsley . Great Bur-parsley . ; Common Star-thistle r Corn Bluebottle Jersey Thistle . Brown-rayed Knapweed Discoid Knapweed Jersey Knapweed Greater Knapweed . é Yellow Star-thistle . c Spur Valerian . é . Common Hornwort . Unarmed Hornwort 4 Broad-leaved Chervil Tawny-fruited Chervil Rough Chervil Perfoliate Yellow-wort Great White Ox-eye Corn Marigold Alternate-leaved Mountain Saxifrage Opposite-leaved Mountain Saxifrage Least Gentianella : Guernsey Gentianella Wild Succory . : Cowbane . , Alpine Enchanter’s Nightshade . Plate Fig. 123 150 115 115 81 90 Sil 91 91 91 80 80 80 137 144 144 134 154 134 134 134 154 154 154 134 134 10s) 119 119 119 121 90 1 1 a NAT) NORM OPOAWNCHNONWREPNNEPONWENODUMAWNNATOAT Oe DWE Orb Li} 1S) MeMoOoOonNnre He Or CO Circeea lutetiana Claytonia alsinoides perfoliata Cnicus acaulis arvensis ertophorus . heterophyllus lanceolatus . palustris pratensis tuberosus Conium maculatum Convolvulus arvensis sepiwin soldanella . Coriandrum sativum Cornus sanguined : suecica Corrigiola littoralis Cotyledon lutea umbilicus Crepis biennis paludosa pulchra succiscefol ia virens 5 Crithnum maritimum . Cuscuta epilinwm epithymum . europea trifolit Cynoglossum officinale sylvaticum . Datura stramoniwin Daucus caro'a maritimus . Diotis maritima Dipsacus fullonum pilosus sylvestris : Doronicum pardalianches plantagineum Echinophora spinosa Echiwm violaceunr vulgare Epilobium alpinunr alsinifoliwm angustifoliwm hirsutum lanceolatum montanwir . palustre parviflorwinr roseum tetragonum . Erica ciliaris cinerea mackayt mediterranca tetraliz CONTENTS Enchanter’s Nightshade . Sandwort Spring Beauty . Perfoliate Spring Beauty . Dwarf Plume-thistle Creeping Plume-thistle Woolly-headed Plume-thistle Melancholy Plume-thistle Spear Plume-thistle . Marsh Plume-thistle Meadow Plume-thistle Tuberous Plume-thistle Common Hemlock Small Bindweed : Great Hooded Bindweed Seaside Convolyulus Common Coriander Wild Cornel Dwarf Cornel . Sand Strapwort Yellow Pennywort Wall Pennywort Rough Hawk’s-beard Marsh Hawk’'s-beard Small-flowered Hawk’s-beard Succory-leaved Hawk’s beard Smooth Hawk’s-beard Sea Sainphire Flax Dodder Lesser Dodder . Greater Dodder Clover Dodder Common Hound’s-tongue Green-leaved Hound’s-tongue Thorn-apple Wild Carrot Sea-side Carrot Sea-side Cotton-weed Fuller’s Teasel . Small Teasel Wild Teasel Great Leopard’s- bane Plantain-leaved Leopard’ s-bane Sea-side Prickly Samphire Purple-flowered Bugloss Common Viper’s Bugloss . Alpine Willow- herb . Chickweed-leaved Willow ‘herb Rose-bay . Great Hairy Willow-herb- Spear-leaved Willow-herb Broad Smooth-leaved Willow-herb Marsh Willow-herb . Small-flowered Hairy Willow-herb Pale Smooth-leaved Willow-herb Square-stalked Willow-herb Ciliated Heath Fine-leaved Heath Mackay’s Heath Mediterranean Heath Cross-leaved Heath . apne: ie) 46-2) Frontispiece Plate Fig. 79 121 120 120 120 120 120 121 121 3 to ol i WO F H CODD CO COR OL PWR WNT RW ON NHN WR WON ROHN NE Oe Co co — NAWPR AON. 136 136 136 135 60 249 248 252 267 267 268 75 igi 163 118 120 118 180 — io 2) a bho bo Kon PP OP EP RP OOH PB ONO OO bS bh a co bo 212 217 212 vill Erica vagans EHrigeron acris alpinus canadensis . Eryngium campestre moritimum Erythrea centaurium latifolia linarvfolia . pulchella Eupatorium cannabinum Fedia auricula carinata dentata eriocarpa olitoria Filago gallica germanica . minima . ‘ Feniculum vulgare Fraxinus excelsior F Galinsoga parviflora Galium aparine boreale cruciatum . erectum mollugo palustre parisiense . pusillum saccharatwm saxatile gspurium tricorne 3 uliginosum. . verum c Gentiana amarella campestris . nivalis pneumonanthe Verna . Gnaphaliwm luteo- ‘album supinum sylvaticum . uliginosum . Hedera helia 7 Heliosciadium inundatum nodiflorum . Helminthia echioides Heracleum sphondylium Herniaria glabra . hirsuta Hieraciwm alpinum aurantiacum boreale é 5 certnthoides murorum nigrescens . pallidum pulosella . CONTENTS Cornish Heath . . Blue Flea-bane : Alpine Flea-bane. - Canada Flea-bane Field Eryngo : Sea Holly - : Common Centaury Broad-leaved Tufted Centaur y. Danek tufted Centaury : Dwarf-branched Centaury Common Hemp Agrimony Sharp-fruited Corn-salad . Carinated Corn-salad ‘ Smooth Sharp-fruited Corn- salad Hairy-headed Corn-salad . Common Corn-salad Narrow-leaved Filago Common Filago Least Filago Common Iennel : ¢ Common Ash . > : : Small-flowered Galinsoga . Goose-grass, Or Cleavers . Cross- leaved Bed-straw Cross-wort Bed-straw Upright Bed-straw . Great Hedge Bed-straw White Water Bed-straw . Wall Bed-straw . Least Mountain Bed- straw Warty-fruited Bed-straw . Smooth Heath Bed-straw Smooth-fruited Bed-straw 4 Rough-fruited Corn Bed-straw . Rough Marsh Bed-straw . Yellow Bed-straw Small-flowered Gentian Field Gentian . . Small Alpine Gentian Marsh Gentian Spring Gentian Jersey Cudweed Dwarf Cudweed Highland Cudweed . Marsh Cudweed Common Ivy . : : . Least Marshwort . : 3 Procumbent Marshwort Bristly Ox-tongue Common Cow-parsnip Smooth Rupture-wort Hairy Rupture-wort Alpine Hawkweed Orange Hawkweed Shrubby Broad-leaved Hawkweed Honey-wort Hawkweed : Wall Hawkweed . Black-headed Hawkweed . Pale Hawkweed é Mouse-ear Hawkweed Frontispiece Plate ee Fig. ro OVE CO CO BE CD STP On H bo co CoN OT Or WNPHNRH WOE NY QDMNH Oro GD Oo wb EOP OR WNWHE We we ob Page 216 175 175 174 44 43 241 242 242 242 167 117 116 Hieracium prenanthoides rigidum sylvaticum . wmbellatum Hippuris vulgaris . Hydrocotyle vulgaris TTyoscyamus niger . Hypocheris glabra maculata radicata Llex aquifolium Iilecebrum verticillatwm Inula conyza crithmoides. helenium salicina : Isnardia palustris. : Jasione montana . : Knautia arvensis . Lactuca muratlis saligna . 5 scariola Virose Lapsana communis pusilla Lathreea squamaria Leontodon taraxacum Ligusticum scoticum Ligustrum vulgare Linnea borealis Linosyris vulgaris Lithospermum arvense . officinale purpureo-cerulewin Lobelia dortmanna UTENS . Lonicera caprifolium periclymenum aylosteum . Lycopsis arvensis . : Lythrum hyssopifolium . salicaria é Matricaria chamomilla . inodora parthenium Menyanthes trifoliata Menziesia coerulea. polifolia Mertensia maritima Mewm athamanticun Moneses grandiflora Monotropa hypopithys Montia fontana Mulgedium alpinum AMyosotis alpestris . arvensis ceespitosa collina . Z CONTENTS Rough-bordered Hawkweed Rigid-stemmed Hawkweed Wood Hawkweed Narrow-leaved Hawkweed Common Mare’s-tail Common White-rot . Common Henbane Smooth Cat’s-ear Spotted Cat’s-ear Long-rooted Cat’s-ear Common Holly Whorled Knot-grass Ploughman’s Spikenard Golden Samphire Elecampane . Willow-leaved Inula. Marsh Isnardia c c Annual Sheep’s-bit . : Field Knautia . : . Ivy-leaved Lettuce . 5 Least Lettuce . . c Prickly Lettuce 6 Strong-scented Lettuce Common Nipple-wort . Dwarf Nipple-wort . Greater Tooth-wort . Common Dandelion . Lovage : : Privet - Two-flowered Linnea . Flax-leaved Goldy-locks . Corn Gromwell : S Common Gromwell . Creeping, Water Lobelia . Acrid Lobelia . : Pale Perfoliate Honeysuckle Common Honeysuckle Upright Fly Honeysuckle Small Bugloss . Hyssop- -leaved Loosestrife Purple Loosestrife Wild Chamomile. : Scentless Mayweed . Common Fever-few . Buck-bean Scottish Menziesia Trish Menziesia E Sea-side Smooth Gromwell Meu, or Bald-money Large-flowered Moneses Yellow Bird’s nest. Water Blinks or Chickweed Alpine Blue Sow-thistle Rock Scorpion-grass Field Scorpion-grass Tufted Water Scorpion-grass Early Field Scorpion-grass or Purple Gromwell . Plate Fig. 117 116 117 80 88 151 ian iol 111 140 82 2 NOPNHHE RY Roh Or PNWWNRROWRFNNFENFEWONRHE NWP oo ie) bo “STIONO PERO OPENED COR OO x Myosotis palustris . repens sylvatica versicolor Myriophylium alter niflor wm « spicatum verticillatwm Myrrhis odorata @nanthe crocata Jistulosa fluviatilis . lachenalii . pimpinelloides phellandrium silatfolia (Enothera biennis . Onopordum acanthium . Orobanche arenaria carophyllacea coerulea elatior hederee major minor picridis TAaMOSA rubra . ; : Pastinaca sativa. 3 Peplis portula : : Petasites vulgaris . Petroselinum sativum segelum Peucedanum officinale ostruthium . palustre Physospermum cornubiense Phytewma orbiculare spicatum Picris hieracioides Pimpinella magna saxifraga Polemoniun ceeruleum . Polycarpon tetraphyllum Pulicaria dysenterica vulgaris Pulmonaria angustifolic ia officinalis Pyrola media minor rotund fol tu secunda Ribes alpinum grossularia. nigrum rubrum Rubia peregrina Sambucus ebulus . nigra . Sanicula europea . CONTENTS Forget-me-not . Creeping Water Scorpion-g grass Upright Wood Scorpion-grass . Yellow and Blue Scor pion-<¢ erass Alternate-flowered Water Milfoil Spiked Water Milfoil Whorled Water Milfoil Sweet Cicely Hemlock-leaved Water Dropwort Common Water-Dropwort River Water Dropwort Parsley Water Dropwort . Callous-fruited Water Dropwort Fine-leaved Water Dropwort Sulphur-wort Water Dropwort Evening Primrose : Common Cotton-thistle Sand Broom Rape Clove-scented Broom Rape Purple Broom Rape . Tall Broom Rape Ivy Broom Rape Greater Broom Rape Lesser Broom Rape . Picris Broom Rape . : : Branched Broom Rape. ; Red Broom Rape : c Wild Parsnip Common Water Pur: slane . Common Butter-bur Common Parsley Corn Parsley Sea Hog’s-fennel, or ‘Sulphur- -weed Broad-leaved Hog’ s-fennel Marsh Hog’s-fennel, or Milk Parsley Cornish Bladder- seed Round-headed Rampion Spiked Rampion Hawkweed Picris Greater Burnet Saxifr, age . Common Burnet Saxifrage Blue Jacob’s Ladder Four-leaved Allseed . Common Flea-bane . Small Flea-bane Narrow-leaved Lungwort . Common Lungwort ; Intermediate ‘Winter-green Lesser Winter-green Round-leaved Winter-green Serrated Winter-green Tasteless Mountain Currant Common Gooseberry Black Currant . ‘ i Red Currant . 3 ; é Wild Madder F : Dwarf Elder. 5 : ‘ Common Elda ; Wood Sanicle . Plate Fig. 148 2 148 2 148° 5 148 8 80 4 80 2 80 3 97 4 92 4 92 1 92 6 G2 az 92 5 92 3 19) IAL 4 152 2 153 4 152 4 1533 152 1 153 2 153 1 5, 3 Neo} oO DWWOPWR IPA RPUDPW RY EP OWNHPR wo CH Or mee OOF DO an S S mnwe CONTENTS x1 Plate Fig. Page Saussurea alpina . Alpine Saussurea. SSS IG a7, Saxifraga aizoides Yellow Mountain Saxifr age 86. 7 34 cernua Drooping Saxifrage . c 86 69 35 ceespitosa Tufted Alpine Saxifrage c 87 +5 36 we var. 87 66 36 geranotdes . Geranium Saxifrage . 87 68 36 geum . Kidney-shaped Saxifrage . Sone 33 granulata . White Mountain Saxitrage . 86 8 35 hirculus Yellow Marsh Saxifrage . C 86 6 34 hypnoides Mossy Saxifrage : A Sf call 36 Ke vars. ; ‘ 87 2,3,4 36 muscoides Mossy Alpine Saxifrage 5 c My 7 36 nivalis Chickweed Alpine 86 4 34 oppositifolia Purple Mountain Saxifr age 86m 5 34 rivularts Alpine Brook Saxifrage 86 10 36 stellaris Starry Saxifrage : c c Be he 8) 32 tridactylites Rue-leaved Saxifrage ; : : co ee) 35 umbrosa London Pride . : : : ; 5 tld 32 Scabiosa columbaria Small Scabious : é : : 5 OB) AL succisa Devil’s-bit Scabious . : : : 5 HOR) aD) Scandix pecten-veneris Common Shepherd’s Needle . : OMS 73 Sedum acre . Biting Yellow Stonecrop . - op 0 S45. 26 album White Stonecr Oo) : ‘ : oe VE SS 25 anglicum English Stonecrop . ; . : Oar ae 25 dasyphyllum Thick-leaved Stonecrop . : : Sh Ok ee 25 Sorsterianum Welsh-rock Yellow Stonecrop . o we 27 reflecum Crooked Yellow Stonecrop 3 : oY 26 rhodiola Rose-root Stonecrop ; : : 5 6G) el 24 rupestre St. Vincent’s-rock Stonecrop . 84 8 27 sexangulare Tasteless Yellow Stonecrop . 2 Be ok ee 218 26 telephium . : Livelong, or Orpine . ; : é 5 bf 23 villosum : Hairy Stonecrop. ; : . . 84 4 25 Sempervivum tectorwm . Common House Leek : ; ; > | eG a 21 Senecio aquaticus . Marsh Ragwort : : : 5 a LOOT ae S719 campestris . Field Fleawort : . : ; 5 UD) 9 BURY jacobeea Common Ragwort . 5 ; “ 5 28) Be Ize paludosus Great Fen Ragwort . : A 5 I) ). alg®) palustris Marsh Fleawort ; : ‘ 5 5 ie a ave saracenicus Broad-leaved Ragwort’ . : : 5 1 Be squalidus Inelegant Ragwort . : F : 20 elle is sylvaticus Mountain Groundsel ‘ ; : « MBS GS tenwifolius . Hoary Ragwort ‘ ; : . 5 UZ) Ales! viscosUs Stinking Groundsel . ‘ ; : lose 8 vulgaris Common Groundsel . : : ; 5 AS AGT Serratula tinctoria Common Saw-wort . : ; eS arom 47 eselt Libanotis Mountain Meadow Saxifrage c : 1 eh 3 59F Sherardia arvensis Blue Sherardia j ; : Peer OMe mmm laltes Silaus pratensis Meadow Pepper Saxifrage c . ¢ 6S 60 Sison amomum Bastard Stone Parsley. : , o of E 49 Sium angustifolium Narrow-leaved Water Parsnip . : 5 ile = 52 latifolium . Broad-leaved Water Parsnip. c > @i il 51 Sinyrnium olusatrum Common Alexanders : : é 5 Yo 71 Solanum dulcamara Woody Nightshade . : é e svi he = Byl nigrum. Common Nightshade ; , : 5 aligh e e Solidago virgawrea Common Golden-rod : : : eee 2S lO Sonchus arvensis . Corn Sow-thistle . . e ablsy ci alee! asper . : 3 . Sharp-fringed Annual Sow-thistle . > like 6 iets oleraceus Common Anvual Sow-thistle . : . 113 4 = 134 palustris Tall Marsh Sow-thistle . ; : ny TUB} 2 alse! Symphytum officinale Common Comfrey . : : ‘ » 149 4 “263 tuberosum . Tuberous Comfrey . ; : 6 ey ay Aas Tamaria gallica Common Tawiariskys) “ae 4 9%) | T8l Caer xl Tanacetum vulgare Thrincia hirta Tilleea muscosa Tordylium maximum officinale Torilis anthriscus . infesta nodosa Tragopogon porrifolius pratensis Trinia vulgaris Tussilago farfara . Vaccinium myrtillus oxycoccos uliginosum . vitis-idea . Valeriana dioica . officinalis pyrenaica Viburnum lantana opulus Villarsia nympheoides . Vinca major minor Viscum album Xanthiwm sirumarium . CONTENTS Common Tansy . Hairy Thrincia . Mossy Tillea Great Hartwort . Small Hartwort. Upright Hedge Parsley Spreading Hedge Parsley . Knotted Hedge Parsley Purple Goat’s-beard . Yellow Goat’s-beard . Common Honewort Common Coltsfoot Bilberry, or aan Cranberry . Bog Whor tleberr y Red Whortleberr Vv, Or Cowberny Small Marsh Valerian Great Wild Valerian . Heart-leaved Valerian Mealy Guelder-rose Common Guelder-rose Nymphea-like Villarsia Greater Periwinkle Lesser Periwinkle Common Mistletoe Broad-leaved Bur-weed Plate Fig. 123 4 Wats Som 9 3 Ss Sse 98: 5 98 6 UNO 2 Wig) 89) 3 127 2 136) 136 64 U3{5 il 1360 3 106° 2 106 «3 WO 4 LO UO 143° 3 140 5 140 4 5 ee oo (eS) le) fhe fT eOWERING. PLANTS OF uk GREAT BRITAIN Order XXVII. ONAGRARIZ—WILLOW-HERB TRIBE. CaLyx of 4, sometimes 2 lobes, which in the bud are attached to each other by their edges ; calyx-tube more or less united to the ovary ; petals as many as the lobes of the calyx, twisted while in bud, falling early ; stamens 4 or 8, rarely 2; ovary of 2 or 4 cells, often crowned by a disk; style slender ; stigma knebbed, or 4-lobed; fruit a berry, or 4-celled capsule. This order consists chiefly of herbaceous plants, rarely shrubs, found mostly in the temperate parts of the world. None of the plants contain unwhole- -some properties, but they contribute little either to medicinal or domestic purposes, though some of the species add largely to the beauty of our gardens. Several of our most common and ornamental flowers are included in it, as the Fuchsias, Clarkias, and Evening Primroses. 1. WiILLow-HERB (Hpildébium).—Calyx 4-parted, the lobes not combined after expansion; petals 4; stamens 8, 4 long and 4 short; capsule long, 4-sided, 4-celled, 4-valved ; seeds numerous, tufted with long down. Name from the Greek epi, upon, and lobos, a pod; the flowers being placed at the top of a seed vessel, shaped somewhat like a pod. 2. EVENING PRIMROSE (nothéra).—Calyx 4-parted, the lobes more or less combined after expansion, and bent back ; stamens 8; capsule 4-celled, 4-valved ; seeds numerous, not bearded. Name in Greek signifying “catch-— ing the flavour of wine.” 3. ISNARDIA.—Calyx 4-parted ; petals 4, or none; stamens 4 ; capsule in- versely egg-shaped, 4-angled, 4-celled, 4-valved, crowned with the calyx. Named after Antoine d’Isnard, a French botanist. 4. ENCHANTER’S NIGHTSHADE (Circéa). — Calyx 2-parted; petals 2 ; stamens 2; capsule 2-celled, each cell containing a seed. Name from Circe, the enchantress. 1. WILLOW-HERB (Epildbium). * Petals unequal in size ; stamens bent down. 1. Rose Bay, or Flowering Willow (E. angustifélium). — Leaves scattered, lanceolate, veined, smooth; flowers somewhat spiked. Plant u.—1 2 ONAGRARLA perennial. A variety of this plant occurs very commonly in gardens, having larger flowers and shorter capsules, which is sometimes called E. brachy- carpum ; this is occasionally found as an escape from gardens. This Willow- herb is a rare plant in moist woods in England, though less so in Scotland. Some botanists have thought it to be not truly wild, but it has long estab- lished itself, and, in some woods, as in those about Wrington, in Somerset- shire, whole acres of ground are covered with it ; and it occurs in many parts of North Wales. It does not seem to have been common in Gerarde’s time, for he mentions one place only where it might be found. “It groweth,” he says, “in Yorkshire, in a place called the Hooke, neere unto a. close, called the Cow-pasture, from whence I had these plants, which doe grow in my garden, very goodly to behold, for the decking up of houses and gardens.” The old herbalist describes it as a “ goodly and stately plant, having leaves like the greatest willow, or ozier. The branches,” he says, ‘come out of the ground in great number, growing to the height of sixe foote, garnished with brave flowers of greate beautie, consisting of fower leaves apiece, of an orient purple colour.” The variety so common in gardens, often, by its profusion there, occasions much trouble to the gardener, not so much by the seed which it produces, as the roots which creep to a great distance, and take a very firm hold of the soil; and if by chance the common form of the plant is introduced, as it often is, instead of the variety, it is far worse, as this bears seeds in abundance, and as each seed has a little silky feather attached to it, it wafts itself away over garden and shrubbery during August and September, and comes up in profusion in the following April. This plant. is from four to six feet in height, bearing showy rose-purple flowers in August ; its stem and flower-stalk are much tinged with lilac. It is called by gardeners French Willow, and in France one of its common names is Laurier de St. Antoine, after St. Anthony, the first founder of monastic institutions. Rare as this plant is on the English landscape, yet in some countries towards the north of Europe, it, by its profusion and bright colour, gives during its season a characteristic feature to the landscape. The border of the lake near Tornea is described as beautified during summer with large masses of this plant, which towers over the brink of the water, displaying everywhere the most gaudy garlands, even on spots where vegetation in general seems dwarfed and barren. In Kamtschatka, this and other Epilobiums are exceedingly abundant, and mingle with most showy and brilliant species of groundsel (Senecio), to beautify large tracts of land. Both plants contribute greatly to the physiognomy of the landscape, for the groundsel plants, as tall as a man, and laden with flowers, frequently cover the meadows with a fine yellow colour ; while a splendid red tint is given to wood-sides and rivers by the Willow-herb. Both the English and scientific names of this genus are very appropriate. Several of the larger species, before coming into flower, closely resemble the rods of a willow in the first year of their growth, only that they are herbaceous instead of woody. The name Lpilobiwm describes with much accuracy the position of the petals: ep, on, lobos, the long pod-like seed- vessel, which at first sight might be taken for a flower-stalk. It is quad- ROSE BAY WILLOW HERB Epilebram angustifolium GREAT HAIRY W I hirsetom SMALL FLOWERKD HATRY Wl I parvif lorum BROAD SMOOTH LEAVED WH P. montanvra cs) ALPINE WH E, alpina Pl, 7. PALE SMOOTH-lL Y SQUARE STALKED VH [.. roseum WH N.tetragonum NARROW LEAVED MARSH WII CHICKWIED: 1, W.H E pa lustre [ alsinifoliam — se ll ; ™ reer ie lk - . we = be a ; ol aye & en WILLOW-HERB TRIBE 3 rangular in form, opening by four valves, and if when ripe it be carefully opened on one side, the seeds with their silky appendages burst from their prison. This and some other of the species are well fitted for planting in shrubberies, as they are uninjured by the shade and frequent dripping of trees, and they thrive well in city gardens, unhurt by smoke. The leaves and stems of the Bay Willow afford a decoction, which is said to cause intoxication, and it is added to the fermented drink which the Kamtschatdales procure from the cow-parsnip. The pith has, when dried, a sweet flavour, and both ale and vinegar are commonly made from it in the north of Europe ; while the young shoots both of this and some other species are, when dressed, a good and wholesome substitute for asparagus. Goats are said to be very fond of the plant, and both cows and sheep will eat it. The wool of the seeds, mixed with fur or down, has been manufactured into stockings, and into some kind of fabric intended for dresses, but this was too fragile to be of much use. The French call the Willow-herb, L’Epilobe & épi and Osier Fleurt, and the Germans, Der Weiderich. Its name among the Tartars is Karamuk, and the Russians term it Xzpree. * * Flowers regular ; stamens and styles erect ; stigmas 4-cleft. 2. Great Hairy Willow-herb (E£. /irsiitwm).—Leaves partly clasping the stem, narrow, oblong, serrated, downy; stem downy, much branched ; root creeping. Plant perennial. Our stream-sides, beautiful as they ever are with their rich verdure and.many flowers, receive an additional ornament when, during July and August, this Willow-herb grows there in profusion, Most of the rills which trickle among our green meadows, and the streams and rivers which wind their silvery way, as well as the stagnant ditches, can then boast this ornament in more or less abundance. Often the purple blossom waving at a distance, on a hot summer’s day, invites the wanderer to some cool sequestered spot, where he may feel as Chaucer did in such a scene :— ‘* And the river which that I sate upon, It maden siche a noise as it ron, Accordant with the birdis armony, Methought it was the best melody That mighten bin y’ hearde of any man.” The stems of this Willow-herb are much branched, so that the plant has somewhat the appearance of a shrub. The foliage, like most downy foliage, is of a greyish-green tint, and the large blossoms are reddish-purple. ‘They have a very pleasant odour, like that of cooked fruit, hence a common country name for the flower is “codlins and cream.” It never grows on a dry soil, but on river-brinks, and the sides of ditches. 3. Small-flowered Hairy Willow-herb (#. parviflérum).—Leaves sessile, lance-shaped, downy, and toothed ; stem nearly unbranched, generally downy, but sometimes smooth. Plant perennial. This species has flowers of less size than the last, and is altogether a smaller plant ; it is easily dis- tinguished from it by its stem being branched only at the upper part; its stolons, too, afford a marked character, as they are not nearly so fleshy. It 1—2 4 ONAGRARIAG grows usually to a height of between a foot and three feet, and has, in July and August, flowers of a purplish-red colour. It is very common on moist lands. 4. Spear-leaved Willow-herb (EL. lanceoliitum).—Leaves stalked, lance- shaped, irregularly toothed ; stem obtusely angled ; stigma slightly lobed ; root fibrous and perennial. This rare species has been found near Tintern, Monmouthshire, in the neighbourhood of Bristol, and in various places ranging from Surrey to Cornwall. The flowers, though small, are numerous, of a pale rosy tint, and appearing from July to October. It is fond of rather stony ground, especially when accompanied by moisture. 5. Broad Smooth-leaved Willow-herb (Z. montanum).—Leaves egg-shaped, acute, smooth, toothed, rounded at the base, the lower ones shortly stalked ; stem slender, rounded, sometimes slightly downy. Plant perennial. This species grows commonly on dry places, as on shady hills and banks, and is often to be seen on the cottage-roof. It is a small and unattractive plant, its flowers being rarely fully expanded. They are of a purplish rose-colour, and of small size, though slightly larger than these of the next species. They are produced in June and July. * * * Flowers reqular ; stamens erect ; stigma clubbed, not 4-cleft. 6. Pale Smooth-leaved Willow-herb (£. résewm).—Leaves on stalks, smooth, egg-shaped, finely toothed ; stem erect, imperfectly 4-angled ; stigma undivided, or slightly lobed. Plant perennial. This Willow-herb is local, occurring more frequently in the south than in the north, near water, or in hedges and copses. It has very small rose-coloured flowers in July and August. 7. Square-stalked Willow-herb (EH. tetragénwm).— Leaves lance- shaped, sessile, and slightly toothed ; stem with two, three, or four angles ; stigma undivided. The small rose-coloured flowers of this species appear in July and August, and are not conspicuous, though the plant would, after flowering, attract attention by its long pod-like seed-vessels. Its stems are nearly smooth, and it is distinguished from the last species both by the more distinct angles of the stem, and by its narrower leaves without stalks. It is a very common plant in wet places; its stem is about one or two feet high, and it is in flower during June and July. The most common form of this produces its stolons in summer, and they have the leaves in scattered, opposite pairs; this form is also known as £. obscurum. The less frequent typical form has autumnal stolons, with leaves forming a rosette. 8. Narrow-leaved Marsh Willow-herb (EZ. palistre). — Leaves narrowly lance-shaped, entire, or toothed ; stem rounded, erect, and nearly smooth ; flower-buds nodding ; root-stock with thread-like scions, which pro- duce scaly buds in autumn. Perennial. This species has minute rose-coloured flowers in July and August. Its stem is from sixteen to eighteen inches high, and has often two downy lines on opposite sides. It grows in bogs, and near ditches and pools. 9. Chickweed-leaved Willow-herb (E. alsinifolium).—Leaves egg- shaped and pointed, very thin, smooth, and nearly sessile, the upper ones toothed, the lower entire; stem round. Plant perennial. This is a moun- WILLOW-HERB TRIBE 5 tainous plant, frequent on moist places of Scottish mountains, and in Durham and Westmoreland, having a few purplish-red flowers a third of an inch across ; these appear in July. Its stem throws out slender suckers, with here and there a leaf upon them. It may be known at a glance from the other species, by its thin, flagging foliage. 10. Alpine Willow-herb (£. alpinum).—Leaves oval and blunt, on short foot-stalks, nearly entire; stems somewhat smooth. Plant perennial. This, too, is a plant of mountainous regions, where it grows by rills. It is common on all the Highland mountains, and extends south as far as Durham and Cumberland. In July it has two or three flowers, which droop while in bud, and are of bright purplish-red. It is a plant of much lower growth than any other species, the stem being much less than a foot in height. 2. EVENING PRIMROSE (Cinothéra). Common Evening Primrose ((@. biénnis).— Leaves lance-shaped, somewhat egg-shaped, toothed; stem slightly hairy ; flowers large, sessile ; stamens about the length of the corolla ; capsules nearly cylindrical. Plant biennial. This pretty flower must be considered rather as naturalized than truly wild in this kingdom, neither is it at all a frequent ornament of our country scenery. On a few spots of sandy soil near Liverpool, on some of Sussex, and in many parts of Warwickshire, it grows and thrives far from the care of man. It is not mentioned by our earliest writers on plants ; but Parkinsen, who calls it the Tree Primrose of Virginia, names it in his “Garden of Pleasant Flowers,” which was published in 1629. It is known to have been first sent from Virginia to Padua, in 1619, and probably found its way into England at about the same period. It is a frequent garden flower, opening its large primrose-coloured and somewhat fragrant blossoms about seven in the evening, just when the summer twilight is on its way. Its mode of expanding is very curious. The petals are held together at the summit by the attached tips of the calyx. The segments of this flower-cup at first separate at the base, and the yellow petals may be seen peeping through these openings, a long time before the flower is fully blown. The expansion is very gradual till the blossom is freed from the confinement of the calyx-tips ; but when this is effected, it unfolds very quickly for a minute or two, and then stops ; after which it opens very gradually, spreading itself out quite flat. The whole of this process sometimes occupies half an hour, and in some instances a little sudden noise is made as it jerks the topmost hooks asunder. The flowers hang next day in a discoloured and flaccid condition on the stem, and this circumstance renders the plant less attractive, as usually it has little beauty till evening. It sometimes, however, varies from its ordinary habits, and a blossom or two may occasionally be seen fully open even at noonday. The French call the Evening Primrose L’Onagre ; and it is the Nachtkerze of the Germans, and the Tweejaarige of the Dutch. The Hungarians call it Viola. It was formerly termed Onagra, the “ass food,” by botanists ; and its name was changed to a word signifying wine- trap, because the roots have been used as incentives to wine-drinking, and were formerly eaten after dinner, as olives are at the present day. The roots, 6 ONAGRARILAE as well as those of several other species of (Znothera, contain much nutriment, and the root-stock is almost as good as the potato. Perhaps we owe some of the wild plants which occur on our landscape to the former cultivation of the flower for the sake of these root-stocks, which were once much valued, and which would probably have retained their place at the modern table, had not the potato become so general and accessible. They still, in some countries, form a common article of food. The Evening Primrose grows to the height of two or three feet, beginning to flower about July. The uppermost blossoms expand first, and there is a constant succession of pale yellow flowers, till the end of autumn. Many of the garden species are much larger and handsomer than this. (/nothera is quite an American genus, all but one (Tasmanian) member of this family having been brought from the New World. 3. ISNARDIA. Marsh Isnardia (J. paliistris).—Leaves opposite, egg-shaped, acute, and stalked; stem procumbent, rooting, and smooth ; flowers solitary and axillary ; capsule 4-angled. Plant annual. This little herb has stems about six or eight inches long, and flowers which have pistils and stamens, but which are destitute of petals. It is very rare, having been found in a pool at Buxstead, in Sussex, and on Petersfield Heath, in Surrey, where it occurred in abundance. It also grows near Brockenhurst, in Hampshire, and in Jersey. It was formerly recorded as a British plant, but was again lost in this king- dom, thougk known as a plant of various parts of Europe and America, as far south as Mexico. Mr. Borrer, in 1827, rediscovered it in Sussex. Some authors call it Ludwigia palustris. 4, ENCHANTER’S NIGHTSHADE (Circea). 1. Common Enchanter’s Nightshade (C. lutetidna).—Leaves egg- shaped, tapering to a point, toothed ; bracts none; stem erect, downy ; calyx hairy ; root perennial. This is a very common plant in lanes where the thick bushes or high trees cast a deep shadow, and in shrubberies, woods, and gardens. The stem is about a foot or a foot and a half high ; and the dark green leaves, somewhat heart-shaped at the base, are very large in pro- portion to the blossoms. It is very troublesome in damp gardens, on account of its strong creeping roots; and the two-petalled flowers are too small to render the plant ornamental in any situation. They appear in June and July, are white or pale rose-colour, with pink stamens, and are destitute of odour. The genus Circwa, though named after the enchantress Circe, does not appear ever to have been used in enchantments, and it has no active properties either of a useful or deleterious kind. Some writers think that the name was given because many of the dark shady nooks in which it grows are such places as would be chosen for incantations by the pretender to magic, in order that their gloom might affect the imagination of his victims. Boerhaave ingeniously suggested that the fruit, which is clothed with hooked bristles, laying hold of unwary passengers, and clinging to them, might, to him who al EVENING PRIMROSE 3 ENCHANTERS NIGHTSHADE (Enothera biennis Cirexea lutetiana MARSH ISNARDTA 4 ALPINE E WN Isnardia palustris C alpina Pl. 79. WILLOW-HERB TRIBE | é named the plant, have been suggestive of the practices of the fabled Circe, who drew the unguarded into her toils ; but neither notion seems probable, and the origin of the name is involved in mystery. The French call the plant La Circée; the Germans, Das Hexenkraut ; the Dutch term it Stevens- kruid. The ancient Greeks had a plant which they called Circea. Our common plant is one much used by the leaf-cutter bees in the construction of their cells. Everyone observant of garden flowers must have seen how often little semicircular pieces are neatly cut out of the leaves of the garden roses ; and the leaves of several wild flowers are subject to the same depreda- tions. The perennial mercury, three species of willow, the sweet briar and dog rose, the barren strawberry, and our Enchanter’s Nightshade, ave among the wild plants chiefly selected ; while, in the garden, the Provence, Frankfort, and monthly roses are sought by these insects, that they may hang their cells with the green tapestry taken from the foliage. Baxter tells us that the caterpillar of the elephant hawk-moth (Chwrocampa elpenor), which feeds chiefly on the water bed-straw (Galiwn palustre), sometimes regales itself also on the Enchanter’s Nightshade. 2. Alpine Enchanter’s Nightshade (C. alpina).—Leaves heart- shaped, toothed, nearly smooth; stem ascending, nearly smooth. Root perennial. This species much resembles the last, but is smaller, and less branched. It is found in woods, thickets, and stony places, especially near the lakes in the north of England and Scotland. Its flowers occur in July and August. Its leaves are remarkable for their thin and delicate texture. Some botanists describe a third species as C. intermedia, which in some specimens appears to be a variety of the first of the species, in others of the last. Order XXVIII. HALORAGEA—MARE’S-TAIL TRIBE. Calyx tube adhering to the ovary, and either expanding into three or four minute lobes, or forming simply a rim; petals either minute, and placed at the mouth of the calyx, or wanting; stamens either equalling the petals in number, or twice as many, or, when petals are wanting, one or two in number ; ovary with one or more cells ; stigmas equal in number to the cells of the ovary ; capsule not opening; seeds solitary, pendulous. The order consists of herbaceous plants of little beauty, and possessing no important properties. In several species the stamens and pistils are in separate flowers. 1. Mare’s-rarn (Hippiris).—Calyx forming a minute, indistinctly 2-lobed rim to the ovary ; petals 0; stamen 1; style 1; seed 1, nut-like. Name in Greek signifying a horse’s tail. 2. WaTER MiFort (Myriophyllum).—Stamens and pistils in separate flowers, but on the same plant ; calyx 4-parted ; petals 2 or 4 ; stamens 2 to 8; styles 4; fruit of 4 nut-like seeds. Name from the Greek myrios, ten thou- sand, and phyllon, a leaf, from its numerous leaves. 3. WATER STARWORT (Callétriche).—Flowers without calyx or petals, often with 2 bracts at their base ; stamen 1 ; anther 1-celled ; styles 2; ovaries 2, 8 HALORAGEAL each 2-lobed; fruit of four 1-seeded carpels. Name in Greek signifying beautiful hair, from the hair-like roots. 1. Mare’s-raiL (Hippiiris). Common Mare’s-tail (H. vulgdris).—Leaves linear and whorled ; stem erect, jointed, without branches. Plant perennial. This singular plant would not fail to attract notice when abundant, as it often is in ponds and ditches. It grows frequently also on the borders of slow streams, especially such as have a gravelly base. It is tall and slender, rising ten or twelve inches above the water, and very well deserving its common French name of Pin deau, or the no less expressive German one of Schaftholm. The flowers are inconspicuous, small and green, appearing in May and June close to the stem, in the angles which it forms with the short whorled leaves. This is remarkable as being one of the simplest of herbaceous plants, sometimes having a mere rim for its calyx, having no petals, and but one stamen, one pistil, and one seed. When the plant has flowered it sinks down and dies, and its stems and leaves form a mass at the bottom of the water. Like many another aquatic plant, the Mare’s-tail has its uses, not alone to water animals, as the freshwater snails and insects, not only to the wild ducks and water-fowls which hail it as a welcome repast, but also to man. It renders the neighbourhood of stagnant water less prejudicial to human health, by absorbing a great quantity of noxious gas, thus serving to purify an atmosphere rendered putrid by the exhalations of the pool. In deep water it attains considerable luxuriance, and is sometimes three feet in height. There is no other plant with which the Mare’s-tail could possibly be con- founded, save some of the horse-tails, those allies of the ferns, and many of which abound in moist places. It is, however, essentially distinct, for the horse-tails have no flowers, and bear their fructification in cones or catkins at the tops of their stems or branches. Their leaves, too, are longer and more rigid, those of this herb being short and clear, with a thick strong vein running up the centre. The Dutch call this plant Kuftestail, and the Italians term it Ippuride. 2. WaTER Miuroru (Myriophylluni). 1. Whorled Water Milfoil (J. verticilldtum).—Flowers all whorled, having bracts at their base, cut into slender segments, and longer than the flowers. Plant perennial. This aquatic can boast no brightness of corolla, its greenish petals being too small to attract observation. It is, however, very pretty in its greenness, and in the graceful form and movement of its feathery leaf-like bracts, which lie like green threads in the water, and are swept down- wards if perchance a wind stirs up acurrent in the still pool. The plant well merits its name of Myriad-leaf, as well as its German name of Venderball. The French call it Volant d’cau, and the Dutch Vederkruid. The Milfoil is common in many of the pools and ditches of Europe; and this species is frequent in such places throughout England and Wales. Mr. Backhouse found a Milfoil growing with some of the pond-weeds (Potamogeton) in the waters of New South Wales, and believed it to be identical with the English species. a 2 MA RES TALL 4, ALTERNATE FLOWERED W. Hiippuris valgaris M. alterniflorum WHORLED WATER - “MITFOTL, a WATER STAR-WORI, Myriophyltom verticillatum . Calhtmche verna SPIKED W. M 6 PEDUNCULATED W. S. W M. spicatum C. -peduncolata Hii AUTUMNAL W, S. Ww C. autumnalis Pl, 80. MARE’S-TAIL TRIBE 9 2. Spiked Water Milfoil (MZ. spicdtum).—Flowers whorled, longer than the bracts at their base, which form an interrupted leafless spike ; stem slender and branched. Plant perennial. This is a common plant in standing pools, where it forms entangling masses by its slender stem and branches, which, when we take them from the water and shake them, drop numerous little living creatures, that have evidently found a home amid the leaves and bracts. The whole plant looks very green and pretty, as it lies in the water, where it floats below the surface, save when in July and August its spikes of minute greenish flowers rise just above the pool. These spikes are from three to five inches long, and the leaves, which are four in a whorl, are cut into slender segments. 3. Alternate-flowered Milfoil (W/. alterniflérwm). — Barren flowers arranged alternately on a short leafless spike; fertile flowers about three together, in the axils of the leaves at its base ; spikes drooping when in bud. Plant perennial. This rare species occurs in a few places in England and Scotland in ponds and ditches, its small green flowers appearing from May to August. It is very similar to the last species, but is more slender, and its flowers are less abundant. 3. WATER STARWORT (Callitriche). 1. Vernal Water Starwort (C. vérna).—Leaves in pairs, united at the base ; flowers in the axils of the leaves, usually containing one stamen or one pistil only, but occasionally both organs ; carpels bluntly keeled at the back. Plant annual. This little Starwort is abundant in ditches, pools, and slow streams, everywhere, and is often probably mistaken by those little familiar with plants, for some species of bedstraw (Gdlium). Its shoots are most truly starry, the leaves being crowded on the top of the slender stem, and often the plant when in masses forms thick tufts like green cushions in the pools lying among the grass of marshy lands. The verdure is of emerald hue, and numerous little white hair-like shining roots proceed from the joints of the stem, forming a characteristic feature of the Starwort. The foliage is submersed, but the stamens of the little green flowers in June and July rise just above the surface of the water. The Starwort is called by the French La Callitric, and by the Germans Wassersten. It is the Callitrica of the Italians, — and the Sterrekruid of the Dutch. Several varieties or sub-species are described, one having the lobes of the fruit slightly keeled, another with the lobes slightly winged at the back. 2. Pedunculated Water Starwort (C. pedunculdta). — Fruit-stalks without bracts at the base; fruit 4-sided, each lobe bluntly keeled at the back. Plant annual. This rare species is very nearly allied to the last, of which it is probably a sub-species. It is found in ditches in Sussex, and some other English counties, as well as in Wales, producing its inconspicuous flowers somewhat earlier than C. verna. 3. Autumnal Water Starwort (C. autwmnilis),—Fruit-stalks very short, without bracts ; fruit somewhat 4-sided, each lobe winged at the back. Plant annual. This species occurs about London, in various lakes from Scotland to Devonshire, and in Ireland. It flowers in June and July. A variety known as C. truncata is distinguished by having its fruit keeled. 11.—2 10 CERATOPHYLLEA.—_HORNWORT TRIBE Order XXIX. CERATOPHYLLEA.—HORNWORT TRIBE. Stamens and pistils in separate flowers, but on the same plant; calyx many parted ; corolla none ; stamens 12—20, without filaments ; anthers 2-pointed ; ovary 1-celled; style curved; seed-vessel nut-like, 1-seeded, not opening. This is an aquatic order, containing only the genus Hornwort, which is very distinct from any other known plant. The affinities of this order have been much disputed by botanists. Hornwort (Ceratophyllum).—Characters those of the order. Name in Greek signifying horn-leaved. Hornwort (Ceratophyllum). 1. Common Hornwort (C. demérsum).—Fruit armed with two thorns near the base, and terminated by the curved style. Plant perennial. Our illustration will remind all accustomed to roam in the country of a plant which they often see lying in slow streams and ditches. This Hornwort grows quite under the water, and being unlike most other plants in the cone- like form which its mass of crowded leaves often assumes, it will hardly fail to be noticed, though no bright corolla adds grace to its verdure. The whorled leaves, rigid as bristles, are two or three times forked, and somewhat serrated ; they are often also inflated and jointed. The green flowers grow in whorls in the axils of the leaves. The plant has no known uses, except that it aids with other aquatic vegetation in purifying the water, by absorb- ing carbonic acid and giving off oxygen. Some varieties of this plant have, by various botanists, been described as species; in one, the spines of the fruit are long, rigid, and rounded; in a second, they are also long but flattened, and winged at the base ; a third variety has no spines on its fruit, but two tubercles at its base. The first of these is most common in this country. 2. Unarmed Hornwort (C. submérsum).—Fruit without either spines or tubercles, and ending with the very short styles. Plant perennial. This species much resembles the last, and can be known from it only by the character of its fruit. It is rare, being found only in the pools and ditches of the south of England, its flowers appearing in June and July. It is prob- ably only a sub-species of C. demerswin. Order XXX. LYTHRARIA—LOOSESTRIFE TRIBE. Calyx of one piece, often tubular, 3 to 6-parted, sometimes with inter- mediate teeth ; petals inserted between the outer divisions of the calyx, soon falling off; stamens springing from the tube of the calyx, within the petals, and either equalling them in number, or twice, thrice, or four times as many ; ovary 2 to 6-celled ; style single ; capsule many-seeded, covered by the calyx, but not united to it. This order consists chiefly of herbaceous plants, having mostly four-sided stems, and opposite leaves. Many of the species are astringent, and several are used by dyers. The celebrated Henna or Al hanneh of the Arabs is furnished by a plant of this order, the Lawsonia alba. ‘The paste made of its pounded leaves is used by the Egyptians, Arabs, and LYTHRARIA—LOOSESTRIFE TRIBE 11 Turks to impart a yellowish red hue to their nails. The practice is of high antiquity, for the nails of the mummies have evidently received this tinge. 1. PurPLE LOoosEstriFE (Lythrum).—Calyx cylindrical, with 8 to 12 divisions, alternately smaller ; petals 4 to 6; stamens 8 to 12; style thread- like. Named from the Greek lythron, blood, from the hue of the flowers. 2. WATER PURSLANE (Péplis). — Calyx bell-shaped, with 12 divisions, alternately smaller ; petals 6, minute, soon falling off ; stamens 6 ; style very short. Name of Greek origin, and anciently given to another plant. 1, PURPLE LOOSESTRIFE (Lythrum). 1. Purple Loosestrife (L. salicéria).—Leaves opposite, or about three in a whorl, long and narrow, heart-shaped at the base; flowers whorled, and forming a leafy spike. Plant perennial. This Loosestrife is among the handsomest of our native flowers, rivalling the foxglove and viper’s bugloss in beauty. Its blossoms appear in June and July, forming tall tapering spikes, sometimes a foot long, on a stem which is from two to four feet in height. The colour is of rich purplish red, and when these gay pyramids rise up, as they often do, above the sedges, and rushes, and willow boughs which fringe the water, they render the margin most beautiful, and may be seen far away over the landscape. The plant is called by several country names, as Grass-poly, Purple Grass, and Willow Lythrum. It is in many counties called Long Purples; and Clare in several of his poems alludes to it under that name :— ‘* As shadowy April's suns and showers would pass, And summer’s wild profusion plenteous grew, Hiding the spring-flowers in long weeds and grass, What meads and copses would I wander through, When on the water oped the lily buds, And fine Long Purples shadowed in the lake, When purple bugles peeped in the woods "Neath darkest shades that boughs and leaves could make.” Additional interest has been given to this species in recent years by the discovery that the flowers are “ trimorphic”—that is, three separate plants may yield us flowers differing from each other in the length of their style ; but really there are six forms. No. 1 may have a long style accompanied ° by stamens of medium length and yellow pollen grains of medium size. No. 2 will also have a long style, but its stamens will be short and its yellow pollen grains smaller than those of No. 1. No. 3 has a style of medium length, long stamens and large grains of green pollen. No. 4, medium style, short stamens, and small yellow pollen. No. 5, a short style, long stamens and large green pollen. No. 6, a short style, medium stamens and medium yellow pollen. These differences have very direct relation to the fertiliza- tion of the seed-eggs by the agency of bees, the pollen of one flower being useless for the fertilization of its own seeds. The pollen grains of Nos. 2 and 3, for instance, will only serve for fertilizing the short-styled Nos. 5 and 6, and thereby a healthy cross between individuals of the same species is assured. This Loosestrife grows in all parts of this kingdom, and is very general on the Continent. It occurs in great profusion in the streams and ditches 99 a ~_ 12 LYTHRARLZ—LOOSESTRIFE TRIBE about Brussels, especially near Laerken, the king’s country palace. The French, Italians, and Spaniards call it Salicaire ; the Germans term it brawne weiderich ; the Dutch, Partyke; and the Russians, Plakun. The streams about Australia are as gay in summer with its crimson blooms as are our own watersides ; and the same, or a very similar species, blooms on the borders of lakes in Mexico. In the latter country several species of Lythrum are found, and they are very generally used as applications to wounds. Our own Grass-poly is very astringent and tonic, and has been recommended by De Haen and other continental physicians for intermittent fevers. Though it has long been celebrated in Ireland for its remedial uses, it is rarely pre- scribed in England by regular practitioners. Its leaves contain tannin, and have been used with success in the preparation of leather. In India the flowers of the Lythrum hunterii are mixed with the blossoms of the Morinda, and are then called Dhawry, and commonly used as a dye. 2. Hyssop-leaved Purple Loosestrife (L. hyssopifélium).—Leaves mostly alternate, linear-lanceolate, blunt ; flowers axillary, solitary ; bracts 2, very small, and awl-shaped ; stamens about 6. Plant annual. ‘This species is so unlike the last in its general appearance, that only the botanist would perceive the affinity of the two. It is a lowly plant, about four or five inches high, having a few little blossoms growing singly between the leaves and stem. They are of a dull purplish-lilac colour, expanding in July. This may occasionally be seen growing with the taller Loosestrife at the edge of the water, but is more likely to be found in bogs or among the grass of woods which have standing pools among their trees. It is not anywhere a common flower, but the author found it some years since in some profusion in Eridge woods, near Tunbridge Wells, and it has been recorded from Herts, Cambs, Northants, Norfolk, and Cornwall. 2. WATER-PURSLANE (Péplis). Common Water-Purslane (P. pértula).— Leaves inversely egeg- shaped ; flowers solitary. Plant annual. Those who were intent on gather- ing a wild nosegay would leave this little aquatic untouched, or probably pass it by unnoticed. It grows either on moist lands or on places sometimes overflowed by water, having often a reddish tinge on its stems and leaves. It is a lowly creeping plant, and not unfrequent ; its stems being from four to six inches long, with few branches. Its small green flowers, often without petals, appear in July and August. Order XXXI. TAMARISCINEA—TAMARISK TRIBE. Sepals 4—5, overlapping when in bud, remaining after the corolla is withered ; petals 4—5 from the base of the calyx; stamens either equal to the petals in number, or twice as many, distinct or united by their filaments ; ovary not combined with the calyx; styles 3; capsule 3-valved, 1-celled, containing many seeds, which have downy tufts at the extremity. The plants of this order are mostly shrubs, with long slender branches and small scale-like leaves. They are very numerous on the shores of the Mediterranean, L SPIKED PURPLE LOOSF STRIPE 3 WATER. PURSLANE Lythram salicarna Pephs portula 2. HYSSOP LEAVED Pi, 1 ENGLISH TAMARTSK 18 hyssopfohum [Tamarix Gallica a RED BERRIED BRIONY Bryoma choica Pl. 81, TAMARISCINEAA—TAMARISK TRIBE 13 thriving well by the sea or on the saline soils of deserts. The bark is astringent, and many species are remarkable for the large quantity of sulphate of soda afforded by their ashes. TAMARISK (Zdmariz).—Calyx 5-parted; petals 5; stamens 5 or 10; stigmas feathery. Named from the 'Tamarisci, the people who inhabited the banks of the Tamaris, now the Tambra, in Spain, where this plant is in great abundance. TAMARISK (Tdmariz). Common Tamarisk (7. gallica).—Leaves quite smooth, somewhat narrowed at the base ; flower-buds egg-shaped ; capsule rounded at the base and narrowed upwards. Plant perennial. This pretty shrub is very orna- mental to many parts of our coast, with its rich deep verdure, and its delicate red branches clothed, in July, with elegant spikes of pale rose- coloured flowers. It is very common in seaside gardens, and in many places by the sea grows in profusion, without culture, on rocks, cliffs, and sandy soils. Truly wild, however, the plant is not, in any part of the kingdom ; for although it is abundant in some places, as at Hastings and Sandgate, it was doubtless originally planted there. It is often said to be wild in Cornwall, as Tamarisk shrubs abound about the Lizard and along the south coast, having probably been brought thither from the opposite coast of France. The plant is said to have been introduced into the Lizard district by a carter, who, having lost his whip, gathered one of the long flexible branches of the Tamarisk at St. Michael’s Mount, which, at the conclusion of his journey, he stuck into the ground, where it grew and flourished. Nor is this an unlikely mode of its propagation, for it grows from cuttings as freely as the willow. Fuller, in his ‘“ Worthies of England,” remarks :—‘The Tamarisk was first brought over by Bishop Grindal out of Switzerland, where he was an exile under Queen Mary, and planted in his garden at Fulham, where the soil, being moist and fenny, well complied with the nature of this plant ; yet it groweth not up to be timber, as in Arabia, though often to that substance that cups of great size are made thereof.” Richard Hakluyt also says that in his time the plant had so increased that there were thousands of the trees in this country, and adds, “Many people have received great health by this plant.” This writer published his work in 1582. In those days the cup made of Tamarisk was thought to improve the flavour of ale; the spit made of its wood imparted an excellence to the meat roasted upon it ; and its use was considered so beneficial to persons afflicted with diseases of the spleen, that physicians ordered patients to eat from dishes made of Tamarisk wood. It also had other domestic uses, as Browne in his “ Pastorals ” refers to it— ‘* Amongst the rest, the Tamarisk there stood, For housewives’ besoms onely knowne most good.” And Pliny mentions its use for brooms by the Romans. Dioscorides praised it as a cure for every disease. It is the Myrica of the Greeks and Romans ; and to the reader of the Classics is connected with many poetic associations. ‘It is so referred to,” says Mr. Baxter, “in the Pastorals of Theocritus and Virgil, and many times in the Eclogues of the latter poet ; Ovid also names 14 TAMARISCINEZ—TAMARISK TRIBE it in several poems.” Homer mentions it as the tree against which Achilles laid his spear before he rushed into the Xanthus to pursue the fleeing Trojans :— “So plunged in Xanthus, by Achilles’ force, Roars the resounding surge with men and horse ; His bloody lance the hero cast aside, Which spreading Tamarisks on the margin hide.” Iivelyn says that it was considered one of the unfortunate trees, and gives that as the reason why its branches were in ancient times bound around the head of the criminal. It is in England commonly called Sea Cypress ; but though its foliage somewhat resembles that of the cypress, its mode of growth, pale hue, and deciduous habit make it quite distinct even to the unscientific eye. The Tamarisk has associations with scenes and times even earlier than those of the Roman or Greek writers, for there is little doubt that it is the Yschel or Ashel of the Scripture. The passage rendered in our Authorized Version, ‘“ Now Saul abode in Gibeah, under a tree in Ramah,” is translated by Boothroyd, “Saul was sitting on a hill in Gibeah, under a Tamarisk-tree ” —a rendering thought by Dr. Kitto to be the correct one. The author remarks that Saul preferred holding his court under the shadow of a tree, as many an Oriental prince of modern days would do. This, too, is thought to be the tree under which Saul and his sons were buried. Almost all travellers in Eastern countries speak of the Tamarisk-tree as the Athel or Atlé of the Orientals. It is one of the very few trees which will flourish and attain a good size in the soil of the desert. Large Tamarisks, called Asul, are found all about Palestine, not graceful and slender as are those of our country, but tall and sturdy as oaks. The exact species of Eastern ~ Tamarisks are not ascertained; but if not mere varieties of our English species, they are very nearly allied to it, and all have many points of similarity. The tree has long been highly prized by the Arabs for the medicinal uses of the galls which grow on its branches. ‘The Tamarisk was called Tourfa by Avicenna, and its astringent galls are praised in his works ; they are also used in dyeing. In Egypt these trees are as large as oaks. Sonnini tells us that not a village of Lower Egypt is without its Atleés. “There is,” says this writer, ‘no other tree in the land which can in any degree be termed common. It furnishes the timber for mechanical pur- poses, and wood for fuel. Hence the Egyptians say, ‘the world would go badly with them if Atlés were to fail.’” They also make their bowls and drinking-cups of its wood. Another interesting association connected with the Tamarisk is, that it is the only tree now found growing amid the ruins of Babylon. Ker Porter thought that he discovered some traces of the celebrated hanging-gardens, and on an artificial mound there stood a tree which the Arabs called Athela. It was hollow with age, and its branches bending downward gave to it the aspect of a weeping willow. The boughs were graceful and richly verdant, though its large trunk was old and rugged. Some travellers have described this lonely relic of the ancient grandeur—this solitary tree—as a cedar, others as a willow ; but Aucher, in 1835, gathered some specimens which he CUCURBITACEAi—GOURD TRIBE 15 preserved, and which were considered by botanists to be the Tamarix pycno- carpus. ‘The Arabs regard this tree as sacred, because, after the battle of Hillah, the Caliph Ali reposed under its shade. It is thought to be as old as the time of Herodotus, B.c. 440. Our Tamariz gallica is a native of most of the countries of southern Europe, of Asia Minor, Tartary, Japan, Barbary, and Arabia, as well as of many parts of Africa; and some other species, as the Eastern Tamarisk (7. orientalis), are also common in these lands. A variety of our Sea-side Tamarisk affords, according to Ehrenberg, the manna of Mount Sinai. This manna, as it is called, because it is supposed to resemble the manna of the Scriptures, drops during the month of June from the branches and twigs beneath the tree, where it coagulates. If left till after sunrise it dissolves, and is lost. The Arabs, therefore, collect it before dawn. It is a sweet and pleasant substance, which the Arabs prize greatly, and pour over their bread as if it were honey. Falling in small quantities, it is a very costly luxury. This manna probably no more resembles the “ Bread of Heaven,” given in the wilderness, than does the substance called manna in this country, and sold by the druggists for medicinal purposes. This is the product of an ash-tree, Ornus europea. Order XXXII. CUCURBITACEA*—GOURD TRIBE. Stamens and pistils often in separate flowers, either on the same plant or on different plants; calyx 5-toothed, connected with the corolla; corolla often scarcely to be distinguished from the calyx; stamens 5, more or less united ; anthers twisted ; ovary imperfectly 3-celled ; style short; stigmas lobed ; fruit more or less succulent ; seeds flat, in a juicy arillus, or skin. The Gourd Tribe consists of a large number of important climbing herbaceous plants, having succulent stems and tendrils. In many cases their medicinal properties are very violent, but some plants of the tribe produce valuable fruit. To this order belong the Gourds, the fruits of which are, in Arabia, Egypt, and other countries, converted into bowls and other articles of domestic use ; the Bottle-gourds (Lagenaria) seeming exactly formed for this purpose, being shaped like flasks, and sometimes six feet long ; when young they are used as spoons. The plants are of rapid growth, and the Common Garden Pumpkin increases so rapidly in size, that with its long shoots it will, in a good soil, in one season cover the eighth part of an acre. This is extensively cultivated in some parts of France to use in soups and fricassees. The Vegetable Marrow is often seen on our tables; the cool and refreshing Melons and Cucumbers in all their varieties afford us valuable edible fruits ; while in hot countries Water Melons are among the most refreshing articles of diet. The Germans eat the fruit of the Squash Gourd, which, from its shape, they term the Elector’s Hat ; and Cucumbers in Russia are deemed a most necessary vegetable diet. The Colocynth and Squirting Cucumber furnish powerful drugs ; and the plant mentioned in Scripture as the Wild Vine, from which the sons of the prophets gathered gourds for Elisha at Gilgal, is believed to be the Ass, or Wild Cucumber, a plant of this order, which is very bitter. As it resembles the cultivated cucumber it was apparently 16 CUCURBITACEAt gathered by mistake, and its bitterness induced the men who procured it to consider it deleterious, bitterness in a vegetable indicating, in the ideas of the Hebrews, the presence of poison. Our Red-berried Bryony is the only British genus contained in this order. Bryony (Bryénia).—Stamens three ; style 3-cleft ; fruit, a globose berry, Name from the Greek bryo, to bud, from its rapid growth. Bryony (bryénia). Red-berried Bryony (B. diotca).—Leaves palmate, rough on both sides ; pistils and stamens on different plants. Plant perennial. A very pretty climber is this Wild Bryony in early spring, when its half-developed leaves are of a delicate green hue, and its unfolding shoots grey with long silvery hairs. But as the months advance these leaves grow out into large vine-like foliage, and become of a deep rich green hue, covered with thick prickly hairs, and the long shoots armed with branching tendrils wind their way along the bushes, occupying no small space in the green hedgerow :— ‘‘The scallop'd Bryony mingling round the bowers, Whose fine bright leaves make up the want of flowers,” The blossoms, which may be seen from May to September, add little to the beauty of the plant, for though they are large, yet their greenish white petals, marked with darker veins, have nothing very attractive in appearance, and are also destitute of perfume, save such faint and sickly odour as might suggest the idea that they belonged to a poisonous plant: nor would the inference be altogether wrong. The root partakes of that powerful drug yielded by the Colocynth, and the round red berries, which are in autumn amongst our most beautiful wild fruits, are poisonous, while the whole plant abounds with a fetid and acrid juice. The root is very large and succulent, and to this accumulation of nutriment Linnzus attributed the quick growth of the Bryony. Gerarde mentions having seen one as large as a child six months old, weighing half a hundredweight, but this was unusually large. These roots were formerly much prized as a remedy for dropsy, but are not now administered by medical men internally, though Professor Burnett records that they were a few years since still sold at Covent Garden market, and used by the pugnacious to remove the blackness “which follows blows too vigorously applied in the neighbourhood of the eyes.” The root, how- ever should not be used even externally when in a fresh state, or it would blister the skin. The acrimony is partly removed by drying. The writer just alluded to says, “ Bryony root has also been often used, when cut in slices, to mix sith calumba-root, a vile adulteration, as the properties of the drugs are most dissimilar.” He adds, that the most serious consequences might ensue from its use in cases in which a tonic like the calumba is required. The fraud is considered by medical practitioners to have originated in the belief which once prevailed, that calumba was the root of Bryonia epigea, which it is said to resemble, and which in India is used instead of it. Our old herbalists praise the Bryony root as an invaluable external and internal remedy, though, according to their own admission, 1b was “a furious martial plant.” Among other ways of using it, it was commonly mace into en GOURD TRIBE 17 electuary for coughs, but it must have been a most dangerous medicine, unless used, as it is by modern homeeopaths, in tiny globules. Culpepper— ** As one that on his worth and knowledge doth rely In learned physic’s use, and skilful surgery ”— after recommending it for various maladies, cautiously adds, ‘“‘ When it must be taken inwardly it needs an abler hand to correct it than most country people have, therefore it is a better way for them to leave the simple alone, and take the compound water of it mentioned in my ‘Dispensatory,’ and that is far more safe, being wisely corrected.” ‘Those, however, are most safe who leave the plant altogether out of their list of remedies ; but country people still have a strange belief that vegetable medicines are never dangerous, forgetting that hemlock, aconite, and other plants, contain most deadly poison. Villagers are often so ignorant of the nature of the plants which they use as remedies, that the author has more than once had much difficulty in dissuading persons from taking most powerful and most unsafe decoctions of wild plants. This Bryony is commonly called also Wild Vine, or Wood-vine, and in some countries, where hops are not cultivated, it is called Wild Hop. One of its old names was Tetterwort. Though so common in England, it is rare in Scotland. It grows wild in many European countries, and is called by the French Bryone, or Couleavrée ; itis the Zauriibe of the Germans; the Lryone of the Dutch; and Brionia of the Italians; the Portuguese term it Norca bianca. The goat is the only animal which feeds on its foliage; but Dr. Withering says, that a decoction of the fresh root is an excellent medi- cine for horned cattle, and that it is a common practice in Norfolk to mingle small pieces of this root with corn in order to render their coats glossy and fine. Other physicians consider that it might be used medicinally with great advantage, as several foreign species are valuable medicines of other countries. The seeds of Bryonia callosa, a common plant in India, afford an excellent oil, much used for burning in lamps. Order XXXIII. PORTULACEAX—PURSLANE TRIBE. Calyx of 2 sepals, united at the base; petals usually 5 from the base of the calyx ; stamens 4 or more inserted with the petals ; ovary 1-celled ; style 1 or 0; stigmas several ; capsule 1-celled, opening transversely, or by 3 valves ; seeds usually more than 1. ‘This order consists of herbs or shrubs with very succulent leaves and stems. The species are all innocuous, and in many cases edible. Portulaca sativa is the Common Purslane, and is cultivated an’ much liked as a vegetable in several continental countries. The Da+t-kai of Caffraria, , celebrated among the Hottentots for its edible roots, is a Purslane ; and Mr. Burchell remarks that an abundance of the Common Purslane is to be found everywhere on the Asbetos mountains, and that he ordered a quantity to be boiled for his dinner, as it rarely happened that he could convert the wild vegetation of that country to culinary uses, the heat rendering plants so tough and juiceless, that they were unfit for eating. He remarks that this Purslane is one of the few plants whose seeds have been scattered in various I1.—3 18 PORTULACEASX—PURSLANE TRIBE and very different parts of the earth. The rocky hills of St. Helena are in the rainy season rendered verdant by this plant alone. Several species of the family have large and handsome flowers ; but its only native representa- tive in Britain is an inconspicuous plant. 1. Bunks (Méntia).—Calyx of 2 sepals; corolla of 5 petals, 3 smaller than the others, and all united at the base; tube of the corolla split to the base ; capsule containing 3-dotted seeds. Name from Joseph de Monti, a botanist of Bologna. 2. SPRING BEAUTIES (Clayténia).—Sepals 2, oval, persistent. Petals 5, usually clawed, and joined at the base. Stamens, 5 attached to base of petals. Style, 3-cleft at apex. Capsule I-celled, opening by 3 valves and containing a few seeds. Name from Dr. J. J. Clayton, an American botanist. 1. Buinks (Méntia). Water Blinks (J. fontdna).—Leaves opposite, tapering at the base. Plant annual. This lowly chickweed-like plant varies much in size, but is always remarkable for its succulence. It flowers from June to August ; its small white blossoms, drooping at first, and scarcely ever expanding, acquired for it the name of Blinks. It is abundant in wet places throughout the country. Linneus, who found it in Lapland, remarks that it was a plant which had never come in his way before. ‘ In Kalhéden,” he says, “I found it particularly abundant, and I afterwards found it in West Bothnia.” The French call this plant La Montie ; the Germans, Die Quellenmonti. It is the Bronminnende montia of the Dutch. 2. SprinG Beauty (Clayténia). 1. Perfoliate Spring Beauty (C. perfolidta).—Root fibrous. Radical leaves, broad ovate, long-stalked, fleshy. Annual. The Perfoliate Claytonia is not indigenous; it is a plant of North-west America, which has been introduced to our gardens as a pot-herb, whence it has escaped and success- fully established itself in the wild condition outside. It sends up an un- branched flower stem in May, and this bears, below the cyme of small white {lowers, a basin formed by the junction of two stalkless leaves. It is to the fact that the stem passes through this basin that the specific name perfoliata refers. The plant is from six inches to a foot in height. 2. Sandwort Spring Beauty (C. alsinoides).—This species has more slender oval radical leaves, and those on the stem are round and stalkless, but not united by the bases as in C. perfoliata. The flowers are larger and more numerous. Annual. This species has no more claim than the previous one to be regarded as British, but it has firmly established itself in places. Order XXXIV. ILLECEBRACEA:—KNOT-GRASS TRIBE, Sepals usually 5; petals 5, minute, inserted between the lobes of the calyx, sometimes wanting ; stamens varying in number, opposite the petals if equalling them in number ; ovary not combined with the calyx; pistils 2—5; fruit 1-celled; opening with 3 valves, or not opening. The Knot- grass Tribe is composed of small shrubby or herbaceous plants, with minute 1 CHICKWEED SAND Montia fontana STRAPWORT Corrs giola littorahs GLABROUS RUPTURE-WoRT AHermaria slabra Pl. 82, HATRY R.W Hermaria hirsuta WHORLED KNOT- GRASS [llecebrum verticillat um FOUR-LEAVED ALL~ SEED Polycarpon tetraphylum ILLECEBRACEA—KNOT-GRASS TRIBE 19 flowers and undivided leaves. The few British genera are mostly found in the southern counties of the kingdom; and the plants of this order occur chiefly in Southern Europe or Northern Africa. 1. StrapworT (Corrigiola).—Sepals 5; petals 5, as long as the calyx ; stamens 5; stigmas 3, sessile ; fruit 1-seeded, inclosed in the calyx. Name signifying a little strap, from the form of the leaves. 2. RupTURE-worT (Hernidria).—Sepals 5; petals 5, resembling barren filaments ; stamens 5, inserted on a fleshy ring; stigmas 2, nearly sessile ; fruit 1-seeded, inclosed in the calyx. Name from the ailment which it was supposed to cure. 3. Knot-erass (lllécebrum).—Sepals 5, coloured, thickened, and termi- nating in an awl-shaped point; petals 0, or 5; stigmas 2; fruit 1-seeded, inclosed in the calyx. Name from the Latin ilécebra, an attraction. 4, ALL-SEED (Polycdrpon).—Sepals 5 ; petals 5, notched ; stamens 3—5 ; stigmas 3, nearly sessile ; fruit 1-celled, 3-valved, many-seeded. Name from the word polys, many, and karpos, fruit. 1. StRAPWORT (Corrigiola). Sand Strap-wort (C. littordlis)—Stem spreading, leafy ; flowers stalked in small clusters ; stem-leaves oblong, narrow below. Plant annual. This rare and pretty little Strapwort spreads itself over the ground, bearing, from August to December, tufts of little white flowers. It grows on Slapton Sands, and near the Start Point, in Devonshire ; and is found in great abun- dance on the banks of the Looe Pool, near Helston, in Cornwall. It is the Corrigiole of the French, the Lingenkraut of the Germans, the Aiempjis of the Dutch, and the Corrigiola of the Italians. 2. RupTURE-WorT (Hernidria). Smooth Rupture-wort (H. glabra). —Stem prostrate, clothed with minute curved hairs ; leaves oval, narrowing towards the base, more or less hairy, in some cases fringed with delicate hairs ; flowers sessile, axillary. Plant perennial. This varies very much in some of its characters. In one variety the leaves are quite smooth, and in the other the leaves have some- times hairs on the surface, with a delicate fringe around the edges, like an-. eyelash. Some botanists think the latter, which grows at the Lizard, a per- manent distinction, and describe the plant in this condition as a different species, under the name of H. ciliata. The plant is sometimes said to re- semble wild thyme in its habit, but the flowers are green. They appear from July to September, either in tufts from the axils of the leaves, or the clusters form a crowded spike interspersed with leaves. The plant is not common, occurring chiefly in Cambridge, Lincoln, Norfolk and Suffolk; and in the western parts of Kerry, in Ireland, though nowhere in any abundance. A variety of a more hairy nature is by some botanists termed H. hirsuta. Its hairs are spreading, but in other respects it resembles the ordinary form. Its only British locality is near Christchurch, in Hampshire. 3. Knot-Grass (llécebrum). Whorled Knot-grass (J. verticilldtum).—Leaves broadly egg-shaped, smooth ; stipules white, chaffy and jagged at the margin; stems slender. a 20 CRASSULACEAL Plant perennial. This little Knot-grass, doubtless, received its English name from its entangling stems. ‘These have a reddish hue, and the small white flowers which grow around them in axillary whorls, are remarkable for their thick calyxes. ‘The plant is found on boggy lands and in standing pools in Cornwall and Devonshire. In the former county it is not uncommon. It flowers from July to September. One of its old names was Whitlow-grass, from a fancied efficacy in its cure of whitlows. The Germans call it Magel- kraut, and the Spaniards Nevadilla. It is the Paronique of the French. 4, ALL-SEED (Polycdrpon). Four-leaved All-seed (P. ¢etraphijllum). —Stems prostrate and branched ; leaves oval, tapering at the base, upper leaves in pairs, lower in fours ; flowers with 3 stamens. Plant annual. This plant is neither con- spicuous nor frequent in this kingdom, occurring chiefly on the southern coast of England. It has also been found in Glamorganshire, and is a common saad | in the Isle of Jersey, growing all about St. Aubyns, on sunny banks, on hedges, and in gardens. It produces, from May to August, numerous little greenish-white flowers. It has plenty of tiny seeds in its small two-valved capsules ; but the name which it now bears was originally applied to the common Knot-grass (Polygonum aviculare), which it somewhat resembles. One of its old English names was Linum. Order XXXV. CRASSULACEAZ—STONECROP TRIBE. Sepals 3—20, more or less united at the base ; petals equal to the sepals in number, inserted in the bottom of the calyx; stamens as many, or twice as many—in the latter case, the stamens opposite the petals are shorter than the others; ovaries as many as the petals, 1-celled, tapering into stigmas, often with a gland at the base of each; fruit consisting of several erect seed- vessels, which open lengthwise ; seeds in a double row. This order is com- posed of herbs and shrubs, which have thick succulent leaves and stems, and star-shaped blossoms. They are remarkable for growing on the most arid soils, ornamenting the sandy deserts of Southern Africa with beautiful blossoms, and inhabiting, in greater or lesser number, all parts of the world. Many grow on rocks; some on walls or roofs of houses, or dry, hot, sunny slopes ; living on the nutriment derived from the atmosphere, rather than on that absorbed through the roots. Many of the plants are used medicinally, being often pungent or acrid, in several cases refrigerant, and in some astringent, or containing malic acid. 1. TiLL#A.—Sepals, petals, stamens, and carpels 3—5, one or more seeded. Name from an Italian botanist, Michael Angelo Tilli. 2. PENNyworT (Cotylédon).—Sepals 5; corolla tubular, 5-cleft ; stamens 10; carpels 5, with a scale at the base of each. Name from the Greek két wl a cup, from the form of the leaves. 3. HOUSE-LEEK (Sempervivum). — Sepals, petals, and carpels 6 — 10 ; stamens, twice as many. Name from the Latin semper, always, and vivo, to live. STONECROP TRIBE 21 4. StonEcrop (Sédum).— Sepals and petals 4—5; stamens 8—10, spreading ; carpels 4—5. Name from the Latin sedeo, to sit, from the lowly growth of the plants. 1. TILL&A. Mossy Tillza (7. muscésa).—Stems branched, and bending down at the base ; leaves opposite, oblong, concave ; flowers generally 3-cleft. Plant annual. This little Tillea, though quite distinct from the pearlworts, is much like them. The small greenish-white flowers expand in May and June, and have a reddish tinge at the tips of the petals; the calyx leaves are sharply pointed. It is a plant of sandy heaths, but of rare occurrence, its range in this country extending only from Norfolk to Devon. 2. PENNYworT (Cotylédon). Wall Pennywort (C. wmbilicus).—Leaves circular, on central stalks, and with rounded notches on their margins, generally more or less concave above ; upper bracts very small and entire. Plant perennial. This singular- looking plant has spikes of long drooping bell-shaped flowers, with the corolla cleft nearly to the middle. They are of greenish-white colour, ap- pearing from June to July. The plant owes its name of Pennywort to the round leaves ; it is also in some country places called Penny-pies, or Kidney- wort. It is Le Cotylei, or Cotylier, of the French. The glossy root-leaves are pellate—that is, the leaf-stalk is in the centre of the underside. On the upper surface they are somewhat sunk in the centre, and in some of the species cultivated in our gardens they are much more so, forming little cups or vases. The stem-leaves are spoon-shaped. The plant is very succulent, and the flowering stem is from half a foot’to a foot and a half high. This Pennywort is very common in some parts of the kingdom, especially in the western counties, but there are many districts where it is scarcely ever seen. The Rev. W. T. Bree remarks, that he scarcely remembers ever finding it in Warwickshire, except on the ruins of Maxstoke Priory, and there but sparingly ; while in Cornwall, some parts of Somersetshire, and in the county of Wicklow, as well as in North Wales, it is abundant on rocks, walls, and banks. It is rare in Kent, but the author once received a specimen of the plant from the wall of Maidstone Church. Its ordinary place of © growth is the old wall, roof, or stone dyke, and it is very luxuriant on moist rocks in mountainous countries. When its flower-spikes cover the face of a stone-built hedge, as may commonly be seen in Cornwall, its appearance is very striking. There the root-leaves often attain a diameter of four inches. A species called Cotyledon lutea is sometimes enumerated among our native flowers, but it is not a British plant. 3. HOUSE-LEEK (Sempervivum). Common House-leek (8S. tectérwm). — Leaves thick, fleshy, fringed with delicate hairs ; flowers containing 12 perfect, and 12 imperfect stamens. Plant perennial. Tufts of juicy leaves of the House-leek, forming large verdant patches on the ccttage-roof or wall-top, though not so frequent as 22 CRASSULACEA they once were, are yet common. In many a spot such scenes may be seen as one which Leyden so long remembered, and so deeply deplored :— ‘* The cottage roof fern-thatch’d, and gray, Invites the weary traveller from the way, To rest and taste the peasant’s simple cheer, Repaid by news and tales he loves to hear ; The clay-built wall with woodbine twisted o’er, The House-leek clustering green above the door ; While through the sheltering elms that round them grew, The winding smoke arose in columns blue.” The old Dutch names of this flower, Donderbaard, and Donderbloem, remind us of the notions which in former days induced the planting of the House- leek on the roof of the dwelling. It was in our own, as in other lands, deemed a preservative against thunder. This superstition seems banished from our country ; but a friend of the writer’s, when residing in Holland, seeing a roof almost covered with the plant, inquired of the owner of the house why it was cultivated there, and was told that it was a certain protec- tion from the danger of the storm. One of our old herbalists says, “It is reported by Mizaldus to preserve what it grows upon from fire and light- ning.” Another old writer, speaking of the bay-leaf as “privileged from the prejudice of thunder,” adds :—‘‘ An ancient author recited among divers experiments of Nature which he had found out, that if the herb House-leek, or Sengreen, do grow on the housetop, the same house is never stricken with thunder and lightning. Even the philosophical Sir Thomas Browne, whose work on Vulgar Errors must have done some service in the cause of truth, yet never doubted that the House-leek was, as he expresses himself, ‘a defen- sative’ from lightning.” The House-leek may easily be made to cover the whole roof of a building, whether of tiles or thatch, by setting the offsets with a little earth. It will also grow freely on the tops of walls. Linnzeus remarked that House-leek was a preservative to the coverings of houses in Smoland ; and it seems a frequent custom in the north of Europe to give to the houses a plot of some verdant plant, many roofs in Sweden being covered with green turf, which in summer is fit for mowing, presenting the singular appearance in the streets of numerous little sloping meadows. Nowhere does the House-leek, how- ever, grow to such luxuriance as at Teneriffe, where plants of this genus are often shrubs, and flourish on the steep cliffs and rocks in the neighbour- hood of the sea so as almost to cover them. Some of the old Gothic mansions in the interior of the island have their walls and roofs quite overspread with ferns and House-leek. In the flowering season they produce a most brilliant effect, for their flowers are large, and instead of the purple blossoms which deck the European species, those of Teneriffe are of a bright golden-yellow. The House-leek is often boiled with milk, and given to quench thirst in fevers. Mixed with honey it is a good application for inflammation of the throat. Old writers describe its uses, when bound about the forehead, “to ease the headache, and distempered heat of the brain in frenzies, or through want of sleep.” The juice mixed with cream is still a popular village remedy for erysipelas ; and we can ourselves testify to its uses in allaying the irrita- tion caused by the sting either of the bee or nettle. One of the species lo MOSSY TILLZA Tila muscosa WALL PENNYWORT Cotyledon umbilicus C lutea Pil. 83. 4 COMMON HOUSE LEEK Se ROSE-ROOT ORPINE mpervivam tectorum 5S TONECROP Sedum rhodiola. 3 telephiam STONECROP TRIBE 23 common in Madeira, the Sempervivum glutinosum, is of much service to fisher- men. ‘They rub their nets with the fresh leaves of this plant, and if they are subsequently dipped in any alkaline liquor they are rendered as durable as if they were tanned. Several species cultivated in our gardens and green- houses are very pretty. The Cobweb House-leek has long white hairs at the tips of its leaves, which cross, and present the appearance of a plant over which the spider has trailed its net. Our common House-leek has, in July, handsome succulent flowers of a reddish-purple colour. The plant had in earlier times the names of Sengreen, Jupiter’s beard, Jupiter’s eye, and Bullock’s eye. It is called in France, Joubarbe, and in Germany, Hauswurz ; the Italians term it Sempervivo. The House-leek must be regarded rather as a naturalized than a native plant. It is rarely, if ever, found in our country even apparently wild, being usually on walls and house-tops. Schouw, in considering plants in their relation to soils, enumerates some which grow on living or dead animals or plants, and those which grow on artificial substances. These last he divides into wall, ruin, plank, and rubbish plants. Meyen, referring to this, says : “Wall plants are those which appear on the walls of buildings, and certainly are very seldom wanting on them when old; but as they appear chiefly on very old decayed buildings, ruin plants are not properly distinct from them. As belonging to this class, I may name the lichen called wall lecanora (Lecanora muralis), the wall-moss (Dicranum murale), the fern called wall-rue (Asplenium ruta-muraria), the biting stonecrop, the livelong, and many others. But it is right to remark, that all these plants which we have considered as wall and ruin plants can grow quite as well in other situations, on the ground, or on the bark of trees, and on rocks; and a particular inclination to the artificial situation can only have been ascribed to them because in certain countries they are almost always to be found upon them. This is also the case with roof plants. Thus, the common or roof House-leek, which has a preference for such a habitat, occurs likewise in natural situations; and the numerous mosses, which in the North grow on roofs of houses, are found on the ground, on rocks, and on the bark of trees.” This German writer, following Schouw’s division, enumerates as board or plank plants those which grow on wooden palings or similar places. Such are the lichens, the wall parmelia and wall lecanora ; and these grow equally well on wood, or on stone walls, or rocks. On the garden-palings of other countries other plants prevail ; and Meyen says that in East Prussia there is seldom wanting on barn-doors a great quantity of the lichen Ramalina Jrazinea, often six inches in length. The rubbish plants are such as grow in the vicinity of dwellings, as the Good King Henry, the borage, and the henbane, which are often found on heaps about houses. 4, ORPINE AND STONECROP (Sédum). * Leaves flat. 1. Orpine, or Livelong (8. teléphium).—Leaves oval, often wedge- shaped at the base, serrated ; flowers in crowded corymbs, interspersed with leaves; stamens 10. Plant perennial. This is the largest of our British 24 CRASSULACEA species of this genus, and has a very succulent stem, terminating, in July and August, with clusters of handsome purple flowers. The stem is often two feet high, and spotted ; and the thick leaves at the upper part are in one variety rounded at the base, but in another all the leaves become narrow towards the stem. The Orpine is a generally dispersed plant, but not very abundant, occurring in field-borders, hedges, and bushy places. Its properties are slightly astringent, and the plant is boiled with milk and used medicinally. It is also sometimes pickled like samphire, but is very inferior to that vegetable. The name of Livelong well denotes a peculiarity of this plant, which Spenser describes as— ‘Cool Orpine growing still,” to) fo) ? for it not only continues fresh long after it is gathered, but if hung up in a room will continue to grow for some weeks as well as when in the earth. It seems to have been a very favourite flower of our ancestors, and we find it in the list of almost all accounts of such processions and floral ceremonies as occurred when it was in season. It was one which was named in all the accounts given of the practices of Midsummer Eve, and it has the old name of Midsummer-men. Lyte, in his translation of Dodoens’ “ Herbal,” says of the ‘““Orpyne”: ‘The people of the countrey delight much to set it in pots and shelles on Midsummer-even, or upon timber, slattes, or trenchers, daubed with clay, and so to set or hang it up in their houses, where as it remaineth greene a long season, and groweth if it be sometimes oversprinkled with water. It floureth most times in August.” Many foolish and super- stitious practices were connected with it, for it was a kind of love-charm ; and they appear to have been sometimes used even in later days, for Hannah More relates of a young country girl, that she would never go to bed on Midsummer Eve without putting up in her room a piece of the plant called Midsummer-men, as the bending the leaves to the right or to the left would indicate the constancy or faithlessness of the object of her thoughts. Sir Henry Ellis mentions that “A small gold ring was some years since found by the Rey. Dr. Bacon, of Wakefield, in a ploughed field near Cawood, in Yorkshire, which had for its device two Orpine plants joined in a true-love- knot, with this motto above, ‘Ma fiance velt’—that is, ‘My betrothed wills, or is desirous.’ The stalks of the plant inclined towards each other, inti- mating that those to whom it belonged expected to be united in marriage. The motto under the ring was, ‘Joye Pamour feu.” The Society of Antiquaries, to whom it was exhibited, judged from the form of the letters that it was a ring of the fifteenth century. 2. Rose-root Stonecrop (S. rhodiola).—Leaves oblong, flat, smooth and toothed; flowers having stamens and pistils on different plants. Plant perennial. This Rose-root Stonecrop, which much resembles the Orpine, formerly constituted the genus called I’hodiola. It is a succulent broad- leaved plant, stouter than the Orpine, but with its stem shorter, and rarely more than a foot in height. Its flowers expand in June, and are of yellow or purplish colour. The root-stock is long, thick and knotted, and has, when dried, a sweet odour, resembling that of the rose. The plant is abundant STONECROP TRIBE 25 on mountains and cliffs in Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and also at the north of England. The root is used by the Greenlanders as an esculent vegetable. * * Leaves scarcely uf at all flattened. Flowers white or reddish. 3. English Stonecrop(S. anglicum).—Leaves egg-shaped, fleshy, spurred at the base beneath, sessile ; cymes few-flowered ; petals very sharply pointed. Plant perennial. ‘This species, though small, is one of the prettiest of the genus, when, in May or June, its white star-like flowers, with reddish-purple anthers, are expanded on the rocky sandy soils. The leaves, which are chiefly placed alternately, are small and thick, of a sea-green hue, often tinged with red; and the stems, which are at first prostrate, afterwards become about three or four inches high. On the western shores of England and Scotland this Stonecrop often enlivens by its green masses and flowers the rocky banks; and in North Wales every rock and mountain seems to be adorned by it. It has much of the general appearance of the Common Biting Stonecrop, only that its flowers are not yellow, and it often grows with it, as Bishop Mant has said :— ‘*See on the inland garden’s bound Or antique battlemented mound, Which girds some castle’s steep aloof, Or lowly peasant’s peaceful roof, The Stonecrop spreads a mantle bright, Like cloth of gold, or silver white, Powder’d with spots of garnet red.” 4. White Stonecrop (S. dlbuwm).—Leaves oblong, cylindrical, blunt, scattered ; cymes much branched, and drooping when in bud. Plant perennial. This species, which is not common, does not appear to be truly wild, except perhaps on the Malvern Hills and in Somerset. It is a some- what taller and less thick plant than the last, and its white flowers, which are produced in July and August, are destitute of the bright purple colour which tinges the anthers of the English Stonecrop. The foliage has, how- ever, the same glaucous hue, often stained with red. It grows on rocks and walls in various counties of England, and is more general on garden walls and on outhouses, where it was probably cultivated, than on any other spots. 5. Thick-leaved Stonecrop (8S. dasyphiyllum).—Leaves fleshy, almost globular, and opposite, except on the flowering stems; flowers in panicles ; petals egg-shaped and blunt. Plant perennial. This is a doubtful native, found occasionally on walls and rocks in various parts of England, and in one or two places in Scotland and Ireland. It is a small plant, having leaves of pale green tinged with red, and its pink-streaked white flowers blooming in June and July. 6. Hairy Stonecrop (8S. villéswm).—Leaves scattered, oblong, flattened above, and, as well as the stems and flower-stalks, hairy. This is a small biennial species of Stonecrop, not common in all parts of the kingdom, though frequent in Scotland and the north of England. It would easily be distinguished in a family of plants remarkable for their smooth foliage, by its hairy stems and leaves, which are also clammy to the touch. Its stems are about two or three inches high, and of purplish colour ; and the flowers, which appear in June and July, are white or of a pale pink hue. 11.—4 26 CRASSULACEA * * * Leaves scarcely or not at all flattened ; flowers yellow 7. Biting Stonecrop (S. dcre).—Leaves egg-shaped, fleshy, spurred at the base, sessile ; cymes 3-cleft, leafy ; petals pointed ; sepals blunt, swollen at the base. Plant perennial. This is a very common wild flower, growing on walls and tiles of houses, as well as on dry sandy slopes and heaths. From its frequency on the cottage-roof it sometimes shares with the Sempervwwum the name of house-leek, and is apparently the plant alluded to in Clare’s lines :— ‘*O Home, however homely, thoughts of thee Can never fail to cheer the absent breast : Itow oft wild raptures have been felt by me When back returning weary and distrest ; IZow oft I’ve stood to see the chimney pour Thick clouds of smoke in columns lightly blue, And close beneath the house-leek’s yellow flower, While fast approaching to a nearer view.” The Dutch call this Stonecrop Huislook, and the Spaniards term it Uvus de gato. It well deserves, in common with most of the species, its name of Stonecrop, for it is often abundant on stony barren places, being well fitted for such soils by its succulent nature. Plants of this kind, like the aloe and the cactus, are designed to inhabit exposed and dry places, and sometimes to experience not only the heat of a scorching sun, but also a long season of drought. They are, therefore, provided by the Creator of the Universe not only with a large mass of juicy material, but the thin skin, or cuticle, which covers every part of them, is adapted to admit of ready absorption and tardy perspiration. It is this which enables the Livelong and several others of the species to live and grow when separated from the root. One of these succulent leaves, as that of an aloe, will, when partly dry, again become plump in a few hours if plunged into water. The Biting Stonecrop is very similar to some others of the yellow flower- ing species ; but, even when not in bloom, it may be known from all others by the mode in which its short thick leaves are arranged on its barren stems, where they crowd so closely as to overlap each other. Country people call it Small Houseleek, Prick Madam, Gold Chain, and Wall Pepper ; the last name being merited by its pungent flavour—indeed, it should be tasted with caution, as its juice is acrid enough to blister the tongue. It was a plant much in use among the old herbalists, both as an outward application, and also, when boiled in beer, as a remedy in pestilential fevers. They deemed it an “expeller of poisons,” and it stood pre-eminent among simples as a cure for ague. This species is the 7rique Madame of the French. 8. Tasteless Yellow Stonecrop (S. sexanguldre).—Leaves linear, blunt, rounded, and spurred at the base; cymes 3-cleft, and smooth ; sepals acute, not swollen, at the base. Plant perennial. This species is not a native, though it is found rarely on old walls in Eastern England. The leaves are much longer than in the last species, and arranged in six rows on the barren shoots. The yellow flowers appear in July. 9. Crooked Yellow Stonecrop (S. refléxum),—Leaves awl-shaped, scattered, spurred at the base, convex on both sides ; flowers in cymes ; sepals egg-shaped, rather acute. Plant perennial. A variety of this kind, which THICK-LEAVED STONECROP Sedum dasyphyllum St S. angheum . DN album. ive) villosum 9 WELSH ROCK S. S. fosterianum . on 6 STONECROP , TASTELESS YELLOW S. sexangulare S?* VINCENT'S ROCK. S STONECROP TRIBE 27 has more slender leaves, paler flowers, and is of glaucous hue, is termed by some botanists S. glaucum or S. albescens. It is described as growing on some dry hills near Mildenhall, Suffolk, and at Babbicombe in Devon ; and this is considered to be the indigenous form, that most commonly seen with brighter flowers being a garden escape. The leaves of the former are described as not spreading, whereas in the general state of the. Crooked Stonecrop they spread, and turn backwards. The flowering stems of this species are more slender and tough than those of any of the preceding kinds ; they are from six to ten inches long. In July and August, thick clusters of its bright yellow flowers are to be seen clothing many an old wall and sunny bank with golden beauty. Dr. George Johnston, remarking on its tenacity of life, says of this plant: “I pressed strongly, between dry papers, a specimen without radicles, and the flowers of which were not in the least expanded. ‘The papers were changed every three or four days; but at the end of as many weeks, so far was life from being extinct, that it had pro- truded many white root-fibres from one to two inches long, and the flowers had fully expanded themselves.” 10. St. Vincent’s Rock Stonecrop (S. rupéstre).—Leaves slightly flattened, spurred at the base, and 5 in a whorl, those of the barren branches overlapping each other ; flowers in corymbs. Plant perennial. This species opens its flowers during June and July, not only on the St. Vincent’s and Cheddar rocks, but also on walls about Darlington, and in some places in Wales and Ireland. It is very nearly allied to the last, differing chiefly in its more flattened leaves, and smaller size. 1l. Welsh Rock Stonecrop (8S. forsteriénum). — Leaves flattened, spurred at the base, those of the barren branches spreading in many rows. Plant perennial. This species flowers in June and July, on wet rocks in Wales and the adjoining English counties. The short, erect, densely leafy, barren stems, forming little rose-like tufts, are its chief characteristics ; but some botanists doubt if it is essentially distinct from the preceding, of which they regard it as a sub-species. Order XXXVI. GROSSULARIEAX—GOOSEBERRY AND CURRANT TRIBE. Calyx growing from the summit of the ovary, 4 or 5 cleft; petals 4—5, small, inserted at the mouth of the calyx-tube, and alternating with the stamens ; ovary l-celled, with the young seeds arranged in two opposite rows ; styles 2; berry crowned with the withered calyx, pulpy, containing stalked seeds among the pulp. This order consists of shrubs with or with- out thorns, and with simple lobed alternate leaves plaited while in bud. The woody stems and branches are round, or irregularly angled. The species grow only in the temperate parts of the world. CURRANT AND GOOSEBERRY (Jtébes).—Calyx 5-cleft; petals 5, inserted at the mouth of the calyx-tube ; stamens 5; berry many-seeded, crowned by the withered calyx. Names given in ancient timcs by the Arabians to a species of rhubarb. 4—2 28 GROSSULARIEA CURRANT AND GOOSEBERRY (Lébes). * Flowers 1—3 together ; branches thorny. 1. Gooseberry (R. grossuliria).—Leaves rounded and lobed ; flower- stalks short, hairy, 1—3 flowered, with a pair of small bracts; thorns either single, or two or three together. Among the many kinds of Gooseberry which are cultivated in our gardens, few are preferred for their fruits to the varieties of this common species. The plant grows in many woods and hedges, though it seems to be truly wild only in the north of England. Rough and smooth, green, red, and yellow Gooseberries may, many of them, claim this common species as their parent. From very early times the Goose- berry has been much cultivated in this country, and it was by our forefathers called Feaberry. Mr. T. Hudson Turner says: “The earliest notice of the Gooseberry which I have found is in the fourth year of Edward I, 1276, when plants of this genus were purchased for the king’s garden at West- minster ; but, as it is an indigenous fruit, we may infer that it was known at a remote time, though probably only in a wild state.” Tusser, who wrote his work on Husbandry in the time of Henry VIII., says :— ‘* The barbery, respis, and gooseberry too, Look now to be planted as other things doe ;’ and Lord Bacon, writing about fifty years after Tusser, says: ‘The earliest fruits are strawberries, cherries, gooseberries, and corrans; and after them, early apples, early pears, apricots, and rasps ; and after them, damisons, and most kind of plums, peaches, etc. ; and the latest are apples, wardens, grapes, nuts, quinces, sloes, brierberries, medlers, services, cornelians, etc.” ‘The partiality of the English for Gooseberries is commented on in the French “Encyclopédie des Sciences.” One of the writers of the work says: “A great number of gooseberries are consumed in Holland and in England ; and one sees in London, during the season of these fruits, nothing but gooseberry pies. One must admit, however, that this fruit is well adapted to ameliorate the muriatic and alkaline acrimony of the English diet. In France it is only women and children, or country people, who eat gooseberries.” One reason, however, for their being less eaten may be found in the inferiority of the fruits when cultivated in France, or, indeed, in any warm climate. Even the English Gooseberry is inferior to the fruit of Scotland; and, provided there is warmth enough for ripening, the flavour seems to increase with the cold- ness of the climate where it is grown. In the south of Europe the fruit is so small and tasteless that it is quite neglected. In England every cottage-garden can boast its Gooseberry-bush, and, as Bishop Mant has said :— ‘Tis pleasant on each hardy tree, Currant or prickly Gooseberry, Along the hawthorn’s level line, Or bush of fragrant eglantine, Bramble or pithy elder pale, Or larch or woodbine’s twisted trail, Or willow lithe, a flush of green To note, with light transparent screen At intervals the branches hide, Of vegetable gauze, till wide It spreads, and thickens to the eye, A close-wove veil of deeper dye.” 1 COMMON OR RED CURRANT BLACK CURRANT Ribes rubrum Romgrum 2 TASTELESS MOUNTAIN CURRANT 4. COMMON GOOSEBERRY R. alpinum R. grossulavia BUS Ss: GOOSEBERRY AND CURRANT TRIBE 29 The Gooseberry-leaf is, indeed, among the earliest of spring verdure. In France it is much more common in the hedges than with us; and from the beginning of March the plant may be seen winding its branches among the bushes, and enlivening the dreary season. “In the month of April,” says the French writer in “ L’Encyclopédie des Sciences,” ‘it attracts by its flowers crowds of bees; its foliage is very thick then, though other shrubs are just putting forth their leaves, so that it is an excellent plant for decking spring arbours. I have a hedge which borders one of the paths of my April bower, in front of which I have planted primroses, violets, and auriculas, which contrast agreeably with the green background, and form a most graceful coup Veil.” The leaf-stalks of the Gooseberry are beautiful objects beneath the microscope, on account of the delicate border of half-transparent hair-like fringe, which, when magnified, looks like the most brilliant needle-shaped crystals. The Lancashire Gooseberries are the best which are grown in our country, and the names of several well-known varieties indicate that they were culti- vated by working-men. All true lovers of their country must rejoice to see the hard-toiling weaver or collier resorting at the close of the day to his little garden, training his plants with care and skill, and striving to gain the prize to be given at the Gooseberry Show for the heaviest gooseberry. The Jolly Miner, Jolly Painter, Lancashire Lad, and many another good fruit, have originated thus, and were the result of industry. These Gooseberries were reared by men who loved their homes and families, men of regular and orderly habits, mostly of lowly birth, but often of elevated feeling and Christian worth; for the lovers of plants and the skilful cultivators of cottage plots are not usually found among the idle and dissipated of man- kind. Gooseberry-bushes often attain great age and considerable size. At Duffield, near Derby, there was, about twenty years since, a bush well known to be at least forty-six years old, the branches of which extended twelve yards in circumference ; and in the garden of Sir Joseph Banks, at Overton Hall, near Chesterfield, there were two very large bushes, which had been trained against a wall, and which measured each upwards of fifty feet across. A writer in the Gardener’s Chronicle remarks of a Gooseberry plant: “It is surprising what efforts some plants, or parts of plants, will make to save, as it were, their lives when diseases or serious accidents befall them. A branch of a Gooseberry, trained against a wall; became diseased near the ground, and began to die upwards gradually ; but the top of the branch made a struggle for life, and threw out roots into the wall between the joints of the bricks, and in that dry situation found means to support itself ; the dead wood was cut out, and the living part left near the top of the wall, and there it remains a living plant.” Gooseberries are of various colours—white, yellow, green, and red. Some of our richest flavoured fruits are of the yellow kind; the red goose- berries are usually more acid than the others, but there are many varieties in all the colours. We need not comment on their uses for tarts, puddings, and preserves. The fresh fruits are valuable additions to the dessert, and a sparkling wine of crystal clearness, known in country places as English champagne, is made of the gooseberry. The Pecten acid, the vegetable jelly of the older chemists, was also prepared from this fruit. 30 GROSSULARIEAG The groseille of the French, as well as our own word “ gooseberry,” has been variously accounted for by etymologists. Some think that the English name was derived from “ gorse” and “berry,” because of the prickly shrub on which the fruit grows. Professor Burnett thinks that both the French and English words are corruptions of “grois” or “gross” berry ; and Skinner considers that the plant was called gooseberry, because the fruits were used as sauce for the goose. Gerarde calls them Feaberries, and in Norfolk the fruits were called feabes. This author remarks, “The fruit is used in divers sawees for meate ; they are used in brothes instead of verjuyce, which maketh the broth not onely pleasant to the taste, but is greatly profitable to such as are troubled with a hot burning ague.” * * Flowers in clusters ; branches without thorns. 2. Red Currant (2&. rébrum).—Clusters drooping; bracts very small ; leaves with five blunt lobes. Plant perennial. Several varieties of this plant are found apparently wild, in one of which the flowering clusters are erect, but the fruit is pendulous ; and in another both flowers and fruit are upright ; but in the ordinary form of the plant both flowers and fruit hang drooping from the bough. The shrub, though found growing without culture in many parts of this kingdom, especially in hedges near houses, is hardly to be considered as truly wild, except in the north of England and the High- lands of Scotland. In Dodoens’ “ History of Plants,” translated by Lyte in 1578, it is called the red beyond-sea gooseberry ; and in France, one of the modern names for the currant is roseille @outre mer. ‘The French also call currants Groseilles en grappes, and the plant is termed in Germany Cemeine Johannisbeere. The old writers classed it with the Gooseberry ; for Gerarde says, “We have also in our London gardens another sort of Gooseberry altogether without prickes, whose fruit is verie small, lesser by much than the common kinde, but of a perfect red colour, wherein it differeth from the rest of his kinde.” Our English name, doubtless, owes its origin to the dried seedless grape of the Levant, which was called currant from Corinth ; for our plant was formerly thought to be the Corinthian grape degenerated. The white and flesh-coloured fruits, so common in gardens, are but varieties of the red species. Their pleasant acid flavour is the consequence of the malic acid found in their juice ; and, mixed with sugar, the fruit is of much value for domestic uses. The berries are refrigerant, and form a wholesome refreshment at that season of the year when juicy fruits are needed to counteract the effects produced on the system by the heat of the atmosphere. Being a hardy shrub, the Currant is valuable to the cottager; and when trained against a wall, and bearing in profusion its ruby clusters, which sparkle among the green leaves, it is as ornamental as it is useful. The red currant, besides having many other uses, is of great value for jellies; and both white and red currants were formerly used in wine, when home-made wines were more general than they now are. The wine is, however, too acid to be very wholesome. This plant was some years since grown to a great extent in Kent, Essex, and Worcestershire, the best-flavoured fruits being produced by plants which were reared in an open situation. It is wild, in more or less abundance, in all the colder countries of Europe, and is GOOSEBERRY AND CURRANT TRIBE 31 cultivated in gardens in the more southern countries. It flowers in April and May. 3. Tasteless Mountain Currant (2. alpinum).—Stamens and pistils on separate plants, branches angled, leaves shining beneath; clusters of flowers and fruit erect; bracts longer than the flowers. Plant perennial. This Currant grows in the woods and hedges of the north of England, but is scarcely wild in Scotland. Both leaves and flowers are very small. The currants are red. It is in flower in April and May. 4. Black Currant (P. nigrwm).—Clusters loose, drooping, with a single- stalked flower at the base of each ; calyx downy ; leaves sharply 3—5-lobed, dotted with glands beneath. Plant perennial. This species is found in woods and by river-sides, in various places; and though probably not a native of Britain, the time of its introduction is unknown. Hooker says it is “apparently wild in the Lake district and Yorkshire.” It is quite a dis- tinct species, and has no tendency to produce varieties. In Kent, its fruit is commonly called gazel, and we find it so termed by writers of the sixteenth century ; but Coles, writing in 1657, says the white currant was in Kent called gozill. It is a very common plant in the woods of Russia and Siberia, where wine is made of the berries only, or is fermented with honey, and sometimes with some spirituous liquor. In England, the flavour of the black currant is not liked so well as that of the red; but the jelly and lozenges made of the fruit are valuable medicines in affections of the throat. The leaves have a strong odour, unpleasant to most persons, yet well-liked by the natives of Siberia, who mingle them with a spirit, to which they are con- sidered to impart a delicious flavour. They are often mixed with green tea in country places, and they are said to be one of the substances used by those who adulterate that article, and perhaps are among the most innocent ingre- dients employed for the purpose. The fruits are considered tonic and stimulating, and the wood and leaves partake of these properties. The berry is the largest of our currants, and is black and glossy. Some very pretty currant shrubs are cultivated in gardens. The common Red-flowered Currant (ft. sanguinea), and the sweet-scented Yellow Currant (2. aurea), are among the gayest of our garden flowers in March and April. Order XXXVII. SAXIFRAGEA—SAXIFRAGE TRIBE. Calyx of 4—5 sepals united at the base; petals equalling the sepals in number, inserted between the sepals, rarely wanting ; stamens 5—10; ovary of 2 united carpels ; styles 2, usually spreading in opposite directions ; cap- sule 2-celled, opening on the inner side; seeds numerous. This order con- sists chiefly of herbaceous plants, with alternate, rarely opposite, leaves. The species contain no very important properties, though some British plants are shghtly astringent, and some foreign species are more so. The Heucheria amerwana, a plant of this order, is commonly called Alum-root, from its astringency ; and several species of /Vcimmannia are employed in the manu- facture of leather, as well as in the adulteration of Peruvian bark. The genus Sawifraga is a very extensive one. It yields some mucilage, but its 22 SAXIFRAGEAL greatest worth is the beauty of its flowers, which often adorn lofty moun- tains, or in other cases deck the barren wall or rock. ‘They are frequently the most lovely objects in Alpine wildernesses, flowering with the blue gentians in spots almost inaccessible to the traveller, and giving by their leaves an almost perpetual verdure to barren soils. Some species grow on marshes or by river-sides. 1. SAXIFRAGE (Saaéfraga).—Calyx in 5 divisions ; petals 5; stamens 10; styles 2; capsule 2-celled, 2-beaked, opening between the beaks; seeds numerous. Name from sazum, a stone, and frango, to break, probably from some species growing among the crevices of rocks. 2. GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE (Chrysosplénium).—Calyx with 4 or 5 lobes ; petals none; stamens 8, rarely 10; styles 2; capsules 2, beaked. Name from the Greek, chrysos, gold, and splen, the spleen, from some imagined virtues of the plant. 1. SAXIFRAGE (Saxifraga). Calyx veflexed, inferior ; flowers whitish, panicled. 1. Starry Saxifrage (8. stelldris).— Leaves oblong, wedge-shaped, toothed, scarcely stalked; panicles of few flowers. Plant perennial. This plant grows on mountainous places by the side of rivulets, or on wet rocks, in Scotland, England, Wales, and the north of Ireland. It is from two to five inches high, its leaves having large roundish notches at their edges. The few flowers expand in June and July. They are white, with two yellow spots at the base of each petal. 2. London Pride (S. wmbrdésa).—Leaves roundish, oval, with white cartilaginous notches, tapering at the base into a flat foot-stalk. Plant perennial. This beautiful little flower is well known as one of the few which will bear unhurt the smoke of large cities. It grows well in London, flourish- ing not only in the squares and open parts of the great city, where many hardy flowers may be found, but cheering also some of the gloomy little spots at the backs of houses in densely populated neighbourhoods. One sighs at the sight of these small plots, though glad that when even the ‘‘mournful mint” seemed injured by the sooty mist gathered about it, yet the London Pride survived all the ills of its condition, and perchance soothed some careworn heart by its cheerful flower. Bishop Mant thus alludes to this and another plant :— “Its disk of white on upland wolds The pretty Saxifrage unfolds, With lucid spots of crimson pied, Hence brought, and hail’d the City’s Pride ; And yellow rose-root yields its smell From Cambrian crag or Cumbrian fell, Or Rachlin’s lone basaltic isle.” This Saxifrage is found on the mountains of Ireland so plentifully, that it has the common name of St. Patrick’s Cabbage. It is also called None-so- pretty ; and the old name of Queen Anne’s Needlework was doubtless given from the delicate red spots traced on its white petals, and which to some of the embroiderers, who in those days practised the mysteries of ‘tent work, raised work, laid work, frost work, Irish stitch, fern stitch, Spanish stitch, SAXIFRAGE TRIBE 33 rosemary stitch,” and many another stitch, suggested the remembrance of some one of their manifold traceries and devices. Parkinson, writing of it in 1629, terms it Sedum, and says, “Some of our English gentlewomen have called it Prince’s Feather, which, although it be but a by-name, may well serve for this plant to distinguish it.” The London Pride as a wild plant is rare in England, though naturalized in woods at Wetherby and at Craven, in Yorkshire. The Rev. W. T. Bree, commenting on this plant, says, “ Mr. Lees informs us that Sazifraga umbrosa may now be found on some of the rocks at Malvern; but he very properly assigns to it a garden origin. Some years since, while touring in Yorkshire, I was at no small pains in endeavouring to meet with this plant in a truly wild state, and with this view visited the spot (Hestleton Gill) so minutely pointed out as its habitat in ‘English Botany.’ The result, however, of my examination was only an increased doubt as to the species being even in this sequestered spot really of spontaneous growth. It has been confidently asserted that the plant occurs wild in Ireland; but erroneously, I believe, ’ unless indeed the discovery has been made of late years. The London Prides which grow unquestionably wild, and so profusely adorn the rocks and mountains of Kerry, that is, the Gap of Dunloe, and the rocks near Killarney, are not Suxifraga wmbrosa, but some allied species, be they two (S. geum and hirsuta) or more, with their perplexing host of endless varieties ; and I very much doubt whether any truly wild habitat for Saxifraga umbrosa be yet known, either in Ireland, England, or even Scotland; or, indeed, whether the plant be in fact originally indigenous. Ireland is the proper country of the London Pride family of the Saxifrage genus. In some parts of that country they grow in astonishing profusion; but among all the countless varieties which are to be met with, I never could see in a wild state any one that could be mistaken by a botanist for the true S. wmbrosa.” Our best writers on British plants, as Sir William Hooker, Dr. Arnott, and Mr. Babington, all agree with the opinion that the plant is not indigenous in Britain, though it is regarded as a native of West and South-west Ireland. Besides the places named, it grows about Edinburgh and Glasgow. Several varieties occur of this species, many of which are regarded by some botanists as distinct species. Such a one is the plant called S. elegans, which grows on ° the Turk mountain, and is probably a hybrid between S. wnbrosa and S. geum. It has round, smooth, shining serrated leaves, with foot-stalks which are broad, flat, and serrated beneath. The type of the species has smooth leaves, longer than they are broad, with the teeth either blunt or short, and pointed ; and it flowers in June and July. The varieties differ much in the toothing, as well as in the form of the leaves. 3. Kidney-shaped Saxifrage (S. géwi).—Leaves roundish or kidney- shaped, sharply toothed, or having rounded notches ; foot-stalks hairy, linear, and channelled above ; leaves in one form hairy on both sides, in a second variety smooth on both sides. Plant perennial. This species is very nearly allied to S. umbrosa, of which it is probably a sub-species, but it may be dis- tinguished by its kidney-shaped leaves. It flowers in June, and is common on the mountains of Cork and Kerry. Its ordinary form has the leaves sharply toothed, but there are several varieties and hybrids found in its I.—5 34 SAXIFRAGEAL neighbourhood, which have by botanists been described as distinct species. The chief of these is a plant formerly called Hairy Saxifrage (S. hirsuta), which has slightly hairy, oval, dark green leaves, scarcely cordate at the base, and which appears to be intermediate between this and S. wmbrosa. It is common on the Gap of Dunloe, in Kerry. The Kidney-shaped Saxifrage varies not only in the amount of its hairiness, but also in respect of size, and in the degree in which the margin of the leaf is toothed. * * Calyx spreading ; leaves not divided. 4, Clustered Alpine Saxifrage (S. nivdlis).—Leaves all from the root, somewhat leathery, inversely egg-shaped, sharply crenate ; calyx half inferior ; flowers in a crowded head. Plant perennial. This alpine species is from three to six inches high, and has large white flowers growing in a compact cluster, and appearing in July and August. It is frequent among the clefts of the high mountains of Wales, Scotland, and the Lake district. Linneus stated that the Alpine Saxifrage flowered in the regions of eternal snow; and later botanists have occasionally detected a prolific vegetation existing even under the snow of Arctic regions. Dr. Hooker mentions that whilst at Tierra del Fuego he had observed a Pernettya mucronata in full bloom in a spot from which the snow had been accidentally removed. 5. Yellow Mountain Saxifrage (S. atzoides).—Leaves very narrow, fleshy, fringed, the lower ones crowded on the stem, the upper scattered ; stem branched, prostrate below; capsule half superior. Plant perennial. This beautiful Saxifrage, though absent from our lowland meadows, is very abundant on mountains, especially near streams and rills. It is found in the north of England, Wales, and Scotland, having in June and July bright yellow flowers, spotted with reddish orange. The plant is sometimes called Aizoon-like Saxifrage, or Sengreen Saxifrage. 6. Yellow Marsh Saxifrage (S. hérculus).—Stem erect ; leaves lanceo- late, those from the root tapering into a leaf-stalk ; calyx inferior, fringed at the margin ; petals obtuse, with two callous points near the base. Plant perennial. It differs from the last species in having its flowers solitary, or nearly so. These are large and handsome, of bright yellow, spotted with scarlet at the base of the petals, and are produced from August to September. The stem is from four to eight inches in height, and the upper part is downy. The species, which is very rare, is found on wet moors in Scotland, Ireland, and the north of England. 7. Purple Mountain Saxifrage (S. oppositifvlia).—Leaves egg-shaped, fringed, opposite, and closely crowded, so as to overlap each other ; flowers solitary, terminal. Plant perennial. A lovely mountain-flower is this Saxifrage, occurring in alpine situations, fearless of snow or frost, and opening its rich purple blossoms in May and June. Its habit is unlike that of our other Saxifrages, as it forms straggling tufts on the moist alpine rocks in the north of England, and on Snowdon and other Welsh mountains, though its most frequent place of growth in this kingdom is in the Highlands of Scotland. Like several other of our native Saxifrages, the northern range of S. oppositifolia extends into the Arctic circle. Accustomed, as most persons have long been, to consider the regions of the Polar Seas as drear and almost 2 oD + 6 LONDON PRIDE Scummbrosa STARRY § S. stellaris ALPINE CLUSTERED S S pival.s PURPLE MOUNTAIN S S. oppositifoha YELLOW MARSE S . Schireculos Saxifraga geum Pl. 36. 7, ¥. MOUNTAIN g 5. aizoides 8. WHITE MEADOW S 5. granolata. 9. DROOPING BULBOUS §S 5 cernua 10. ALPINE BRGOK § S.zivularis IL, RUE-LEAVED S 5. tuidactylites Te? ie Mi ; ; Ri SAXIFRAGE TRIBE 35 flowerless, one is surprised to see such a plate as that prefixed to Dr. Suther- land’s work on these lands, where large and gorgeous flowers are grouped together. True it is that there are vast dreary barren tracts, covered only with incredible quantities of lichens, making a walk over the dried and crusty surface during summer a weary labour, while the eye is rarely gladdened by seeing here and there some dark fir or dwarfed birch-tree. Yet there are seasons and spots in which wild flowers vary the scene ; nor is the green turf altogether wanting, where, as Dr. Sutherland tells us, the chubby Esquimaux takes his childish pastime, rolling on the green spots which Nature has provided for him, watching with his bow and arrows, and the cunning eye of a sportsman, the ill-fated mouse or lemming that may have lost its hole in the grassy banks, or gathering the chickweed (Cerastium alpinum) which grows among the foxtail grass. In such regions the flowers of the Purple Saxifrage must afford delight to the traveller. “The most beautiful plant that one could see in a whole day’s walking around Assistance Bay,” says Dr. Sutherland, “was the Spider plant (Sazifraga flagellaris), so called from its striking resemblance to a large spider when it first appears above the surface, before the stem begins to rise from the spherical arrangement of the leaves, or the flagella begin to creep to any distance from among them to the soil around. This plant was rather late of coming into flower, but the poppy was still later. The Ranunculus frigidus had a very beautiful little flower, but it did not bear comparison with those of the other two which have been mentioned. The Purple Saxifrage (\S. oppositifolia) vied with, and perhaps in the estimation of some exceeded, the spider plant in beauty ; its chaste purple colour assisted this very much, but I do not think that this, which is mere colour, admits of comparison with the charm which is imparted to the other by its likeness to a creature so famous for its diligence.” * * * Calyx spreading ; leaves divided. 8. White Meadow Saxifrage (S. granulita).—Root-leaves kidney- shaped, with rounded lobes, stalked; stem-leaves nearly sessile, acutely lobed ; flowers panicled; capsule partly inferior. Plant perennial. The large milk-white flowers of this species are by no means uncommon during May and June on hedge-banks, meadows, and pastures, especially where the soil is of gravel. The root gives its name to the species, being what botanists term granulated, and consisting of a number of small reddish, downy, round tubers. It is a pretty plant, with slender leafy stems, ten or twelve inches in height. A double variety is a common garden flower. 9. Drooping Bulbous Saxifrage (S. cérnua).—Root-leaves kidney- shaped on long stalks, palmate and lobed ; flowers solitary and terminal ; capsule superior. Plant perennial. This species is now almost extinct on the only recorded British habitat. Its place of growth is on rocks on the summit of Ben Lawers, at an altitude of 4,000 feet. It is remarkable for producing small reddish bulbs in the axils of its upper leaves. The white flower appears on the slender drooping stem in July, but the plant rarely blossoms in this country, being mostly propagated by its bulbs. 10. Rue-leaved Saxifrage (S. tridactylites).—Leaves wedge-shaped, 3—5 cleft ; stem much branched ; flowers terminal, each on a single stalk ; 5—2 36 SAXIFRAGEA—SAXIFRAGE TRIBE capsule inferior. Plant annual. This little Saxifrage has small snowy-white flowers from April to July, on a stem two or three inches in height. It is very common on old walls, dry barren heaths, and the roofs of cottages in England, but it is rare in the west of Scotland and in the Highlands. The petals are so small as hardly to extend beyond the calyx. The foliage is of a rich green, turning red after flowering. It is thickly set with short hairs, terminated with red globules, which render it very clammy to the touch. It is a very elegant little plant. 11. Alpine Brook Saxifrage (S. rivuldris).—Leaves 3—5 lobed, palmated, smooth, stalked; stem slender, branched, downy ; flowers few ; bracts oblong ; capsule half inferior. ‘This is a very scarce perennial species, found in Scotland on moist rocks near the summits of Ben Lawers and Ben Nevis, but not in abundance. The only spot where it is known to occur plentifully is on Loch-na-gar, Aberdeenshire. It grows in tufts; the stems, partly leaning on the ground before they rise into the air, root where they touch. The flowers are white, and appear in July and August. 12. Mossy Saxifrage (S. hypndides).—Barren shoots long, and usually prostrate ; root-leaves 3-cleft, those of the shoots either undivided or 3-cleft, bristle-pointed, and more or less fringed; segments of the calyx pointed. Plant perennial. This is an abundant and most variable species, its leaves assuming so many forms that the varieties have been described as species under several names, and as such several are figured in our Plate 87. The flowers are white, expanding from May to July, on rocky mountainous situations in England, Scotland, and Ireland. S. platypetala, S. elongella, S. hirta, and S. palmata may be considered as varieties of this species. 13. Tufted Alpine Saxifrage (S. cespitésa).—Barren shoots usually very short or wanting ; root-leaves crowded, fringed, 3—5 cleft, with obtuse lobes; calyx segments blunt. In one variety the plant is larger, and in another smaller, but both without barren shoots. In this rare species the white flowers expand from May to July. It grows on the summits of Irish, Scottish, and Welsh mountains, and is probably but an extreme form of the variable Mossy Saxifrage, and, like that, it has a perennial root-stock. 14. Mossy Alpine Saxifrage (S. muscoides).—Barren shoots very short, erect ; root-leaves linear, blunt, and 3-cleft ; stem few-flowered ; calyx superior ; petals short, scarcely longer than the sepals. Perennial. This plant, which was said by Don to have been found in the Highlands of Scotland, is not a native. It has buff-coloured petals, expanding in May. 15. Geranium Saxifrage (S. geranoides).—Barren shoots short ; leaves downy and glandular, lower ones, and those of the shoots, on very long foot- stalks, deeply 3-cleft, the segments either cut or entire; calyx superior. Plant perennial. This Saxifrage is said to have been found on the Scottish mountains many years ago, but the record has not been authenticated. 2, GOLDEN SAXIFRAGE (Chrysosplénium). 1. Common Golden Saxifrage (C. oppositifvlium).—Leaves opposite, roundish, heart-shaped, with rounded notches; flowers in small umbels. Plant perennial. This plant, which flowers from May to July, is common by the sides of rivulets, and in wet woods. It is also frequent on some of 9 MOSSY SAXIF RAGE S. hypuaides M.S TUFTED S platypetala S. elongella S horta ALPINE S S ce spitosa Pl. 87, Bese S palmata MOSSY A.S S muscoides GERANIUM S S.serancides GOLDEN SAXTFRAGE Chrysesplenoum altermfolzuim COMMON G.S (é oppositioham : hs vy ae UMBELLIFERAX—UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 37 the highest parts of the Highland mountains, near rills. Though a small plant, it often grows in large quantities, and we have seen masses of it on bogs at Tunbridge Wells, looking quite beautiful as the sun shone on its small clusters of yellow flowers and yellowish-green leaves, so that the plant was like a stream of gold among the greener mosses ; while the water-wagtails were pecking at its young buds with great delight, and the willow-wren singing a song of thankfulness for the loveliness of the heathy waste. This plant was renowned among the old herbalists for certain powers which they supposed it to possess, of removing melancholy and such maladies as were presumed to arise from a disordered spleen. It cannot, however, have any powerful medicinal properties, for it is in common use as a salad in the Vosges, where the peasant terms it Cresson de roche. Its golden hue is alluded to in several of its European names. The French call it Za Dorine. It is the Goldmilz of the German ; the Goudveil of the Dutch ; the Gylden steenbrek of the Danes; and the Gul stenbrick of the Swedes. 2. Alternate-leaved Golden Saxifrage (C. alternifélium).—Leaves alternate, lower ones somewhat kidney-shaped, upon very long foot-stalks ; flowers generally with eight stamens. Plant perennial. This species, which is frequent in Scotland, is rather rare on the boggy lands of England. Its flat umbels of flowers are of a deep golden yellow, and may be seen from April to June. The stems are usually four or five inches in height, but in some places where the plant is luxuriant they are much higher, and it there overtops its frequent companion, the commoner Golden Saxifrage. The foot-stalks of the lower leaves of this species are very long, scarcely less than half the length of the stem. The stem, which is erect at the upper part, is often prostrate at the base. Sir Wm. Hooker and Dr. Arnott describe the common species as of a paler colour than this in all its parts, and it is so usually ; but in some places, as in an alder copse on Reigate Heath, mentioned by Mr. Luxford, it appears that this is of the paler tint, and that the bright yellow-green of its upper leaves, and the pale yellow flowers, contrast there with the darker green of C. oppositifolium. Order XXXVIII. UMBELLIFERAZ—UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE. Calyx superior, 5-toothed, often reduced to a mere margin; petals 5, sometimes of very unequal size, the outer being the largest; stamens 5, alternate with the petals, curved inwards when in bud; ovary inferior, 2-celled, crowned by a fleshy disk, which bears the pistils and stamens ; styles 2; stigmas small; fruit composed of 2 carpels, or seed-vessels, which adhere by their faces to a central stalk, from which they separate below, when matured, and are attached by the upper extremity only. These carpels, or seed-vessels, are what are inaccurately termed, by persons unacquainted with botany, the seeds. They are variously shaped, and each carpel is marked by five vertical ridges, with four intermediate ones; these ridges, which are in some cases very apparent, can in others hardly be traced. They are separated by channels, beneath which are placed minute slender brown lines embedded in the skin of the seeds. These are termed witte. When 38 UMBELLIFER magnified, they are found to be tubes filled with oil, and it is the substance contained in these cells which gives the pungency to the caraway, coriander, and other strongly-flavoured umbelliferous seeds. If the carpel is cut across when ripe, the ends of these tubes, or vitte, may be seen by the aid of the microscope, looking like little openings, through which a dark oily matter is slightly oozing. Each carpel has a single seed, attached by its upper extremity, and containing a horny albumen—that is, the white farinaceous substance which constitutes the chief bulk of some seeds. The flowers of the umbelliferous tribe are usually small, and on short stalks, all proceeding from one point, like the rays of an umbrella. Hach little cluster is called an umbel. When several of these are arranged around the top of a common stalk, they form a compound umbel, the larger being called a general, the smaller a partial umbel. This large and important order is one in which there is much general resemblance in the species. It is easy enough to associate them into one large tribe, for even an unpractised botanist easily recognises a plant as umbelliferous by its most obvious features and mode of growth. ‘This general similarity, however, renders the division into genera and species very difficult, as the special distinctions are much less marked than those of other flowering plants. These distinctions are not only few in number, but their investigation requires patient and careful attention. Not only the flowers, leaves, and stems must be looked at, but the fruits, seeds, vitte, the albumen, the faces of the halves of the fruit where they touch each other (the commissure), all form important distinctions, which must be studied by those who would fully understand the order. The British Umbelliferz are all herbaceous plants, and until recently the tribe was not known to include a shrub or tree; but a shrubby plant of this order is now introduced into our gardens, called the Black Parsley. The species are natives chiefly of the northern parts of the northern hemisphere, occurring in groves, thickets, plains, marshes, meadows, and waste places. Their foliage is in general of an unwholesome character, and is very often highly poisonous, as in the Hemlock and Dropwort. Notwithstanding this the roots and stems of many, and the leaves of a few, are useful as food. Such are the roots of the Carrot and Parsnip, the leaves of Parsley, and the stems of Celery. The fruits are never noxious, and often furnish an agreeable aromatic, as the Coriander and Caraway. A stimulant gum resin exists in the stems of several species, which, as in the Asafcetida plant, is a valuable medicine. Several even of those umbelliferous plants which are poisonous afford valuable remedies to the skilful practitioner. Besides these uses of the tribe, it contributes materially, especially in early spring, to the beauty of our native vegetation. The finely-divided, elegant foliage is at this season of a most tender green hue, and even the small flowers lend a charm to the hedges and meadows where they are so numerous. ‘The clusters or umbels of blossoms are usually surrounded by a green involucre, and the petals are pink, yellow, green, or white, or rarely blue. Our native species are mostly white-flowered. About thirteen hundred species are enumerated as belonging to this extensive family in its world-wide distribution, and of these only about sixty occur in the British Isles. UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 39 * Umbels simple or imperfect ; albumen not furrowed in front ; fruit without vitte. 1. Ware Ror (Hydrocdtyle).—Fruit of two flat nearly round carpels, each with five slender ridges ; calyx-teeth obsolete ; petals egg-shaped, entire, acute. Name from the Greek, hydor, water, and kotyle, a cup, from the place of growth, and form of the leaves. 2. SANICLE (Sanicula).—Flowers in panicled tufts, the outer without stamens, the inner without pistils ; fruit egg-shaped, thickly covered with hooked prickles ; petals inversely egg-shaped. Name from the Latin, sano, to heal, from the supposed virtues of the plant. 3. Erynco (Hryngium).—Flowers in a dense prickly head ; fruit egg- shaped, covered with chaffy scales. Name from the eryngion of Dioscorides. ** Umbels usually compound ; fruit of two flattened lobes, not prickly or beaked ; with or without vitte ; albumen solid. 4, WATER HEMLOCK (Ciciita).—Fruit of two almost globose carpels, with five broad, flattened ridges ; general involucre of very narrow leaves, often wanting ; partial involucre of many leaves. Name from the Latin, cicuta, a hemlock stalk. 5. Cetery (Apivm).—Fruit roundish, egg-shaped, of two almost distinct carpels, with five slender ridges; involucre none. Name from the Latin of this or some allied plant. 6. ParsLEy (Petroselinum).—-Fruit egg-shaped; carpels each with five slender ridges; general involucre of few, partial of many leaves. Name from the Greek, petros, a rock, and selinon, parsley. 7. HonewortT (Trinia).—Fruit egg-shaped ; carpels with five prominent ribs ; flowers having stamens and pistils on different plants. Named from Dr. Trinius, a Russian botanist. 8. MarsH-wort (Heloscididiwm).—Fruit egg-shaped, or oblong ; carpels each with five slender prominent ridges; general involucre none ; partial of many leaves. Name from the Greek, /elos, a marsh, and skiadion, an umbel. 9. STONE PARSLEY (Sison).—Fruit egg-shaped ; carpels with five slender ridges ; petals broad, deeply notched, with an inflexed point ; involucres of many leaves. 10. GOUT-WEED (A%gopédium).—Fruit oblong; carpels with five slender’ ridges ; involucre none. Name in Greek signifying goat’s-foot, from some fancied similarity of the leaves. 11. Caraway (Carum).—Fruit oblong; carpels of five slender ridges ; general involucre none, or rarely of one leaf, partial none. Name from Caria, a country of Asia Minor. 12. EARTH-NUT (Linium).—Fruit oblong, crowned with the conical base of the erect styles ; carpels with five slender, blunt ridges; general involucre none, partial of few leaves. Name from the Greek, bownos, a hill, from its chief place of growth. 13. BURNET SAXIFRAGE (Pimpinélla).—Fruit oblong, crowned with the swollen base of the reflexed styles; carpels with five slender ridges, and furrows between ; general involucre wanting, or rarely of one leaf; partial involucre none. Name of doubtful origin. 14. WaTER PARSNIP (Siwm).—Fruit nearly globose; carpels with five 40 . UMBELLIFERZ® slender, blunt ridges ; involucres of several leaves. Name from the Celtic, Siw, water. 15. Hare’s Ear (Bupledrum).—Fruit oblong, crowned with the flat base of the styles; carpels with five prominent ridges; partial involucre very large. Name from the Greek, bows, an ox, and pleuron, a rib, from the ribbed leaves of some of the species. ** * Umbels compound ; fruit not prickly, nor beaked, nor. flattened ; vittee between the ribs, 16. WATER Dropwort ((Hndnthe).—F ruit egg-shaped, cylindrical, crowned with the long straight styles; carpels with five blunt corky ridges ; flowers somewhat rayed, those of the centre only being fertile. Name from the Greek, oinos, wine, and anthos, a flower, from the scent of the blossom. 17. Foou’s PARSLEY (4thiisa).—Fruit nearly globose ; carpels with five thick-keeled ridges, and crowned with the reflexed styles ; partial involucre of three leaves, all on one side, usually drooping. Name from the Greek, aitho, to burn, from its acridity. 18. FENNEL (Feniculum).—Fruit oblong ; carpels with five bluntly-keeled ridges ; involucre none. Name from the Latin, fenwm, hay, from its odour. 19. MEADOW SAXIFRAGE (Séseli).—Fruit oval or oblong, crowned with the reflexed styles ; carpels with five prominent blunt ribs ; partial involucre of many leaves. Name given by the Greeks to some allied plant. 20. LovaGE (Ligisticum).—Fruit elliptical ; carpels with five sharp, some- what winged ridges ; involucres, both general and partial, of several leaves. Name from Liguria, where the cultivated species abounds. 21. PEPPER SAXIFRAGE (Sildus).—Fruit oval; carpels with five sharp, somewhat winged ribs; petals scarcely notched ; general involucre of one or two leaves, partial of several. Name of doubtful origin. 22. SpPIGNEL (Méum).—Fruit elliptical; carpels with five sharp winged ridges ; petals tapering at both ends; general involucre of few, partial of many leaves. Name given by the Greeks to this or some similar plant. 23. SAMPHIRE (Crithmum).—Fruit elliptical; carpels spongy, with five sharp winged ridges ; leaves of both general and partial involucres numerous. Name from the Greek, krithé, barley, which grain the fruit was thought to resemble. ** ** Umbels compound ; fruit of two flattened carpels, which are united by their faces, not prickly or beaked ; with or without vitte. 24, ANGELICA.—Fruit with three sharp ridges at the back of each carpel, and two at the sides, expanding into an even border; general involucre of few, partial of many leaves. Named angelic, from its medicinal qualities. 25. Hoa’s FENNEL (Peucédanum). —Fruit flat, with broad border ; carpels with three elevated ribs on the back, and two side ones spreading into broad wings ; partial involucre of many leaves. Name from peuce, a pine-tree, and dono, a gift, on account of the resin which exudes from some of the species. 26. Parsnip (Pastindcw).—Fruit very flat, with a broad border ; carpels with three slender ridges on the back, and two near the outer edge of the margin ; general and partial involucré usually of one leaf. Name from pastus, pasture. UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 41 27. Cow Parsnip (Herdcleum).—Fruit very flat, with a broad border ; carpels with three ribs on the back, and two distant marginal ones ; general involucre falling early, partial of many leaves. Named from Hercules, who is said to have used this or some similar plant medicinally. 28. Hart-wort (Tordijlium).—Fruit flat, with a broad thick border, either waved or notched ; carpels with three faintly-marked ribs, and two distant marginal ones. Name given by the Greeks, and thought to signify “lathe” and “turn,” because the seeds look as if turned in a lathe. *** * * Uimbels compound ; fruit globose, not prickly ; carpels scarcely separating, scarcely ribbed, and without vitte ; albumen solid. 29. CoRIANDER (Coridndrum).—Fruit globose ; carpels cohering ; general involucre none ; partial on one side. Named from Greek, koris, a bug, from the unpleasant odour. ** ** * * Umbels compound, fruit short and thick, not prickly nor beaked ; some- what flattened, with or without vitte, albumen furrowed. 30. HEMLOCK (Conéum).—Fruit broadly egg-shaped ; carpels with five prominent waved ridges; general involucre of few leaves, partial of three leaves on one side. Name, the Greek word for the plant. 31. BLADDER-SEED (Physospérmum).—Fruit of two globose kidney-shaped carpels, with five slender ridges ; involucres both general and partial, of 1—5 leaves. Name from the Greek physa, a bladder, and sperma, a seed. 32. ALEXANDERS (Smyrnium).—Fruit of two kidney-shaped carpels, each having five prominent ridges. Name from the Greek smyrna, myrrh, from the scent of some of the species. +e * ** * Umbels compound ; fruit oblong ; usually more or less beaked ; with or without vitte. 33, SHEPHERD’S-NEEDLE (Scdndix).—Fruit contracted at the sides, with a very long beak; carpels with five blunt ridges ; general involucre none, or of one leaf ; partial of several leaves, longer than the flowers. Name, the Greek name of the Chervil. 34. BEAKED PARSLEY (Anthriscus).— Fruit narrowed below the short beak; carpels without ridges; beak with five ridges; general involucre none ; partial of several leaves. Name, the Greek name for this or some allied plant. 35. CHERVIL (Cherophyllum).—Fruit contracted at the sides, with a short beak ; carpels with five blunt ridges; partial involucre of several leaves. Name, in Greek, signifying a pleasant leaf, from the perfume of some species. 36. CIcELY (Myrrhis).—Fruit contracted at the sides, with a deep furrow between the carpels; carpels with five sharply-keeled ridges; general in- volucre wanting, partial of many leaves. Name from the Greek myrrha, on account of its fragrance. — kee EE * Fruit not beaked, clothed with prickles, or with a prickly involucre, vittee two or more together. 37. CARROT (Daiicus).—Fruit slightly flattened ; carpels united by their faces, oblong, with bristly primary ridges, secondary ridges equal, winged 11.—6 49 UMBELLIFERA with a close row of spines; general involucre very long, often pinnatifid. Name, the Greek name of the plant. 38. Bur ParsLey (Cazicalis).—Fruit slightly flattened; carpels united by thin narrow edges, ridges bristly with 1—3 rows of hooked prickles between. Name, the Greek name of the plant. 39. HEDGE PARSLEY (Torilis).—Fruit slightly contracted at the sides ; ridges of the carpels bristly, with numerous prickles; general involucre wanting; partial of many leaves. Name of doubtful origin. 40. PrickLy SAMPHIRE (Echindphora).—Fruit egg-shaped in a prickly receptacle, and with a prickly involucre ; carpels with five ribs. Name from the Greek echinos, a hedgehog, and phero, to bear, from the prickly nature of the fruit. * Umbels simple or irregular 1. WurrTE-rot (Hydrocétyle) Common White-rot (//. vulgdris).—Leaves circular, with central stalk, somewhat lobed and crenated; heads of about five flowers; root perennial. The large leaves of this plant are often to be seen lying on their creeping stems covering large spots on the surface of the mossy bog. ‘They are bright green, smooth and glossy ; and sometimes an inch and a half across. This plant flowers in May and June, but the blossoms are so small that it is better known by its leaves than by the pinkish-green petals of the little corollas. Sometimes the cluster consists of but two or three flowers, and indeed they are not sufficiently numerous at any time to suggest the idea of an umbel. The plants in this first division of the umbelliferous plants, comprehending this and the two following genera, are very unlike, in their general appearance, all those which follow. They are scarcely umbelliferous, but as the structure of the individual flower and fruit agrees with that of plants of that character, they are classed with them. The Common White-rot was in former days considered very prejudicial to sheep, and several of the names by which it is known in country places convey this opinion. It is called Sheep-killing Penny-grass, Sheep’s Bane, Marsh Penny-wort, and Flowk-wort. Sheep are now well known to leave it untouched, but as the liver-fluke (Distoma hepatica), often so injurious to these animals, is found on marshy lands, where this and some other acrid plants abound, the malady was erroneously ascribed to the vegetation. The French call the White-rot Hydrocotylé, the Germans Vassernahel, and the Spaniards term it Sombrera de aqua, probably from the form of its leaves, which is something like that of the Sombreros, which they wear on their heads to shade them from the sun. To its round leaf, slightly depressed in the centre, the plant owes its old name of Water-can. An Eastern species, H. asuitica, is commonly used in India as a culinary vegetable, as well as a medicine ; and the juice of H. wmbelldta is also administered in small doses. The flavour is said to be agreeable, and the odour aromatic. Lamarck describes a species of White-rot, called the Gum-bearer, now termed Bolaa glebaria. A quantity of semi-transparent gum oozes from its stem, like that produced by some fruit-trees. te >A, | 2 a |\ CD oer \ g WHITE -ROT +. FIELD ERYNGO Hydrocotyle vuléaris . 2 9 1B; WOOD SANICLE . Samicnla europea . SEA HOLLY Eryngéum maritimum oO campestre 5 WATER HEMLOCK Cicuta virosa 6. WILD CELERY Apimm graveolens. j Gs 7 re Sis Diss ay a UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 43 2. SANICLE (Sanécula). Wood Sanicle (S. ewropea).—Leaves mostly from the root, palmate, with the lobes three-cleft and cut; fertile flowers sessile; root perennial. The flowers of this plant form rather a panicle than an umbel, not having that regular arrangement around the top of the stem which is one of the usual characteristics of the umbelliferous tribe ; and some of the flower-stalks are long, and others short. The stem is about a foot, or a foot and a half high, and the large leaves of deep dull green. Nor is there any brightness of hue on any part of the plant, though its form is exceedingly elegant. It is frequent in woods, especially near streams, or in very moist places ; and is in flower during May and June. The blossoms are small, of dull white when expanded, but while young, tinted more or less with chocolate colour or pink. Its name, Sanicula, significant of its healing virtues, has its synonym in most of the countries of Europe, and may indicate that the old English proverb, “He that hath Sanicle, needeth no surgeon,” would have found as ready a credence in other countries as in ours. Gerarde says of it, “It is used in potions which are called vulnerarie potions, or wound drinks, which make whole and sound all inward wounds and outward hurts.” There is some slight bitterness and astringency in the leaves, as well as some degree of acridity ; and it is probable that its application to wounds would do more harm than good. Sir J. E. Smith says that it partakes of that virose acrimony which is found in most umbelliferous plants growing on moist fat soils. Its flavour is not only disagreeable, but leaves a burning sensation on the tongue. The French call this plant La Sanicle, and the Germans Der Sanikel. It is the Sanicola of the Italians, and the Sanzkel of the Dutch. 3. ERYNGO (Eryngium). 1. Sea Eryngo, or Sea Holly (£. maritimum).—Root-leaves roundish, plaited, spiny, stalked, upper ones palmate, lobed, clasping the stalk ; leaves of the involucre 3-lobed; scales of the receptacle 3-cleft ; root perennial. This plant is well called Sea Holly. Noone could look at its thick, rigid, spiny leaves without thinking of those of our well-known evergreen. Their colour, however, is very different ; for it is not dark and glossy, but of sea- green glaucous hue, beautifully veined with white. The flowers look some- thing like thistles ; and it is well described by the poet— ‘“* Kryngo, to the threat’ning storm, With dauntless pride uprears His azure crest and warrior form, And points his spears.” The small blue blossoms grow in a dense head, on a scaly receptacle. They are produced in July and August. The stem is about two feet high, and the seeds are aromatic. This handsome plant is not unfrequent on the sandy shores of England ; and is often sold among the shells and other marine curiosities brought by boys to the beach. It is by no means a fragile flower, and preserves its form and appearance so well throughout the winter, that a good bouquet for that season may be made of this plant, mingled with carline thistle, sea lavender, and sea-side grasses. It is very tough in texture, and difficult to gather ; 6—2 44 UMBELLIFERA and the large, fleshy, somewhat bitter roots penetrate the hot sand to some depth. These roots were formerly much prized as a sweetmeat, and believed to have many tonic properties. The oldest writers on plants, like Dioscorides, praised their restorative virtues; and in Queen Elizabeth’s time, when prepared with sugar, they were called Kissing Comfits. Shakspere represents Falstaff as referring to them by this name. Boerhaave considered them highly tonic, and they are still prized by the Arabs. The candied roots were introduced into general use by Robert Buxton, an apothecary ; and the town of Colchester was long famous for this sweetmeat. Even as lately as the year 1836, an immense quantity was sold, in consequence of the inhabitants of that town having presented a box of the Eryngo roots to a member of the Royal Family who passed through the place. The root is little used now, but is still recommended in some cases, by respectable authorities, as a good medicine. The young tops of the Sea Holly are eaten in Sweden like asparagus ; and Belon says in his “Singularities,” that the people of Crete eat them as food. In the United States, the roots of an aquatic species, H. aqudticum, are very much used medicinally ; and those of EF. fetidum are in Jamaica esteemed a febrifuge. Our seaside species is not common on the shores of Scotland generally, though more frequent on the Western coast. It occurs in Ireland and the Channel Islands, and is a common plant on the shores of several European countries. It is called in France Panicaut ; in Germany, Krausdistel ; and in Holland, Kruisdistel. It is the Hringio of the Italians, and the Cardo corredor of the Spaniards. 2. Field Eryngo (£. campéstre).—Root-leaves somewhat ternate, lobes pinnatifid ; stem-leaves clasping, twice pinnatifid, all with spiny teeth ; leaves of the involucre spinous ; scales of the receptacle entire. Plant perennial. This rare species much resembles the Sea Holly, but is more bushy, taller, and more slender. It formerly grew in sandy fields at Stonehouse, in Devonshire ; but is now extinct there, as it also is on a spot near Daventry, where it once grew. It is believed to be truly wild only in Kent, and to have been so formerly in Suffolk ; in the other stations it is thought to have been introduced with ballast. The petals are purplish, or white, and may be seen on the chaffy receptacle in July and August. Its roots, when dried and powdered, are said to form the chief ingredient of a medicine celebrated in Spain as a remedy against the bites of serpents. Gerarde said of our seaside species that it was “good for such as were bitten by any venomous animal.” * * Umbels compound ; fruit of two flattened lobes, neither prickly nor beaked. 4, WATER-HEMLOCK (Ciciita). Cowbane, or Water-Hemlock (C. virésa).—Stem hollow, branched ; lower leaves on long stalks, pinnate; upper ones twice ternate ; umbels stalked. Plant perennial. Like many of our umbelliferous plants which grow in the water, this herb is highly poisonous, and various instances of its fatal effects are on record. Some animals, as sheep, goats, and horses, eat it with impunity, but to cows it proves deleterious. Cattle are usually guided by their instincts to the selection of plants which afford them wholesome and nutritious food ; and when this Water-Hemlock is fully developed, and has UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 45 its strong and peculiar odour, they will not touch it. In the early spring, however, the scent is faint, and kine will sometimes eat it among the green herbage of the pasture, and suffer much from doing so. In the moist meadows of Sweden, where it is abundant, the horned cattle were subject every spring to a sickness and mortality, of which the cause was long un- known. Linneus, with his usual sagacity, detected it, and recommended the owners of these animals to keep them on the upland pastures during the spring, bringing them, when the Cowbane was fully matured, into the low- land meadows. The advice was taken, and a great annual loss to the grazier thus prevented by the science and observation of the botanist. The flat- topped umbels of minute white flowers appear in July and August. The Spotted Cowbane of North America (C. maculdta) is said to possess the medicinal properties of Hemlock, and is used in that country for the same purposes. The French call the Water-Hemlock, La Cicutaire ; the Germans, Die Wiitherick. It is termed in Holland Water Scheerling. 5. CELERY (Apium). Smallage, or Wild Celery (4. gravéolens).—Stem furrowed and branched ; leaves shining, pinnate or ternate, lower leaves on long stalks ; flowers in terminal or axillary umbels. Plant biennial. Difficult of deter- mination as plants of the Umbelliferous tribes usually are, the Wild Celery is immediately recognised, whether in its fresh or dried state, by its strong odour, so exactly resembling that of the well-known garden vegetable. It is the origin of that useful edible plant, but when growing wild, is not only acrid and disagreeable, but is believed to be, if near fresh waters, highly deleterious. Climate and soil, however, often affect the wholesomeness of plants, and Wild Celery is eaten in some countries. In the melancholy ad- ventures of the missionaries, who with Captain Gardiner perished from want at Tierra del Fuego, the generous men who risked their lives that they might carry the Truth to the natives were glad to feed on the Wild Celery which they found, and which the surgeon who accompanied the expedition did not seem to find unwholesome. Our Wild Celery grows commonly about the ditches or rivers, or moist marshy lands, of England, especially near the sea. The stem is usually one or two feet high, and the clusters of small white flowers are in blossom from June to September. ‘The umbels are often sessile ; the glossy leaves are of bright green. The Garden Celery is rendered wholesome by blanching. This must be done by shielding the plant from light. The office of the leaves of plants is to expose the sap, which they derive from the stem, to the light and air, and these enable them to develop their green colour. The necessity for light and air in colouring plants is apparent from the circumstance that plants turn towards the sun, seeking light, as well as from the fact, which every observing person must have noticed, that leaves which grow in comparative darkness are of paler green. It is thus that we see the green plant in some crowded court of London looking paler than its compeer in the country would do; and thus, that when some stray branch of ivy finds its way into the tower or belfry, and grows there, it is less green and glossy than the verdant ivy which encircles the outer wall. Professor Lindley has explained 46 UMBELLIFERA the effect of blanching so well, that we cannot do better than present his words to our readers. “If,” he says, “you cause a plant, or any part of a plant, to grow in total darkness, it will be entirely destitute of greenness ; or, in other words, the substance of the plant will remain of its original yellowish white, because no green matter can be formed but by the action of light ; and if a part already green is kept for a long time in darkness it will become yellowish-white, in consequence of all its green being destroyed by the peculiar action of the atmosphere upon plants in darkness. This is the explanation of blanching. But mere loss of colour is not the only conse- quence of plants being kept in the dark. Poisons, when it is the nature of the plants to yield poisons, are all formed in leaves by the action of light ; the absence of this wonderful agent will therefore prevent the formation of poisons, as well as the formation of green colour; and hence blanching renders poisonous plants harmless. Thus in the Celery, but a small portion only of the leaves is exposed to the light ; the whole of the stem and of the lower part of the leaves is buried in the earth ; the small quantity of noxious matter that might be formed by the few leaves which are allowed to bask in the sun, has to pass down the buried stalks of the leaves before it can reach the stem, where it would be laid up; but the leaf-stalk of the Celery is very long, and anything which has to filter from the upper part of such a leaf to its bottom, has to take a long journey, in the course of which it is constantly under the destroying influence of darkness ; so that before it can reach the stem it will all have perished.” The cultivated Celery often attains a very large size; and a head of this plant, which was reared in the neighbourhood of Manchester, is stated to have weighed nine pounds, inclusive of the roots and leaves, and to have measured four feet and a half in height. There are several varieties in the kitchen-garden, as the red and white upright kinds, and the more hardy turnip-rooted Celery, or Celeriac, of which the root is the only edible part. This is much prized in Germany, either as a boiled vegetable, or sliced and eaten cold with vinegar, when it makes an excellent salad. Though rarely cultivated in this country, it is imported occasionally from Hamburgh. The blanched footstalks of the leaves are the portions of the Celery usually seen at our tables; but the Italians use the unblanched leaves in soups ; and the seed is so strongly flavoured, that it is sometimes substituted in cooking for the succulent stalks. 6. ParsLEy (Petroselinum). 1. Common Parsley (P. sativwm).—Leaves thrice pinnate, shining ; lower leaflets egg-shaped, somewhat wedge-shaped, 3-cleft, and toothed ; upper ones lanceolate, nearly entire ; partial involucre threadlike. Plant biennial. This well-known garden herb is not truly wild, but is naturalized on rocks and old walls in many parts of the kingdom, especially in the south- west of England. It is worthy of note that the Parsley is nowhere known as an indigenous plant, but only as a cultivated herb, or a naturalized escape from cultivation. This fact appears to show that it has been grown by man for so long a period that it has become widely different from the wild form and the relationship is no longer recognisable. Besides being used as a fx be RU/Z We TAT Alp 1 . COMMON PAR SLEY Petrosehnom sativum - -CORN PARSLEY 5.LEAST MARSHWORT . P, segetman Hf intmdatimn . .HONEWORT 6. STONE PARSLEY. Tima vulgaris Saison amomnm PROCUMBENT MARSHWORT 7. GOUT WEED Helosciadium nodiflormn 2 gopodiam podagr aria Pl. 39 UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 47 seasoning plant, it is often sown among pasture grasses, to prevent maladies incidental to sheep. Some years since it was extensively planted in fields in Hampshire, for this purpose, with success ; and Mortimer, in his work on “ Husbandry,” mentions the cultivation of this plant in Buckinghamshire, as a preventive to disease in these animals. It is said, when eaten by sheep, to impart an agreeable flavour to their flesh. Hares and rabbits are very fond of its foliage, and will be attracted from a great distance by a large quantity of Parsley. In places where these animals are numerous it is almost impossible to preserve the herb from their depre- dations. In our country the different varieties of Parsley are used very generally for flavouring dishes, and it has been suggested that the curled variety only should be sown in gardens, because the ordinary form of the plant is so similar to that dangerous weed, the Fool’s Parsley (Athisa cyndpium), that mistakes have been made between the two plants, and melancholy consequences have ensued. ‘This noxious plant often infests gardens, and, when growing with the cultivated herb, a careless person might gather the one for the other. The leaves, however, are differently formed, and of darker, duller green hue; and if bruised they emit an odour very different from that of the Parsley. When in flower the plants are easily distinguished, the Fool’s Parsley having an involucre of three long, narrow, sharp-pointed leaflets, hanging down on one side, under each partial umbel ; while in the Common Parsley, there is usually only one leaflet in the general umbel, and in the partial umbel the few leaflets are as fine as hairs. Professor Burnett remarks, “ Parsley affords one, among many proofs, of the impossibility of dividing esculent from poisonous plants, for although eatable and innocuous to man, it is said to be a deadly poison to parrots.” The old herbalists regarded this plant as a valuable remedy against several diseases, and said that its seed was “effectual against the venom of any poisonous creature, and the danger that cometh to them that have the lethargy.” The time of its introduction into England is uncertain. It has been said to have been brought into this country about the middle of the six- teenth century, from Sardinia, where it is wild. It received from Dioscorides its name of Petroselinum, and the plant was given to him who overcame in the Grecian games. “Sometimes,” says an old writer, ‘“ Victours had- garlondes of it, as Isodore saith Hercules made him fyrste garlondes of this hearbe.” Another old author speaks of one in his day, who “would in a braverie wear Parsley in his hat.” The French call the plant Le Persil ; it is Die Petersille of the Germans ; and the Petroselino of the Italians. An anecdote related some years since shows a use for which Parsley-seed was employed during the Middle Ages. It was customary in those times to flavour cheese with various herbs, as thyme and fennel. It is said of Charlemagne, that travelling once without any retinue, he arrived at a Bishop’s palace on a fast day. The Bishop had no fare fitted to regale a monarch, but placed before him some bread and some choice cheese. The King did not appear to relish the appearance of the cheese, and from time to time picked out, with his knife, several small specks which he supposed to be detects in the food, but which were in fact the seeds of Parsley, which had been placed in the cheese to give it flavour. The Bishop ventured to hint 48 UMBELLIFERAL to the King that he was depriving the cheese of its greatest excellence. On this the monarch ate it freely, and liked it so well that he ended by asking the prelate to send him annually a supply of the curd so flavoured ; and, lest the merchants should accidentally pack cheeses which were without the parsley seeds, he directed that the cheeses should always be cut in two pieces, in order that the seeds might be seen, while the halves were after- wards to be fastened together with a skewer. 2. Corn Parsley (P. ségetwm).—Lower leaves pinnate ; leaflets nearly sessile, egg-shaped, lobed, and serrated; upper leaves entire or 3-cleft ; umbels very irregular ; fruit strongly ribbed. Plant biennial. This is the truly Wild Parsley, easily distinguished by its slender, branched, tough, and wiry stem, which is from one to two feet high, and by its small pinnated leaves. In August and September it has umbels of little whitish flowers, the rays of the umbel being few and unequal in length. The few small stem- leaves are all that are to be seen in autumn, as those ef the root soon wither away. The schoolboy gathers this, with various other somewhat similar plants, all of which he calls Wild Parsley, for the food of his tame rabbits ; but its scanty foliage does not furnish a large supply. 7. HoNEwort (7rinia). Common Honewort (7. wulgdris).—Leaves thrice pinnate and shining ; leaflets very narrow, often threadlike ; involucre none, or of one leaf ; ribs of the fruit blunt; root perennial. This is a rare plant, inhabiting dry lime- stone hills, and is found on St. Vincent’s Rocks, near Bristol, and a few other spots in this kingdom. The white flowers appear in May and June, and have their stamens and pistils in different blossoms, and on separate plants. The stem is branched and erect, about six or eight inches high ; the root is spindle-shaped, and crowned with the remnants of former leaves. The herbage is glaucous green. 8 Marsuwort (fHelosciddium). -]. Procumbent Marshwort (H. nodiflérwm).—Stem procumbent at the base and rooting; leaves pinnate; leaflets egg-shaped, unequally and bluntly serrated ; umbels opposite to the leaves. Plant perennial. Varieties occur of this herb, in one of which the umbels are longer than the flower- stalks, or nearly sessile, and the leaflets bluntly serrate; and in the other the umbels are shorter than the flower-stalks, the leaflets smaller, and more sharply serrated. The streams and rivulets which wander through our green meadows or woods, or lie beneath the shadowing hedgerows, have usually a wealth of vegetation all their own. This is a plant which he who well knows these spots always expects to find there ; its branches overtopping the plants which lie on the flat surface of the shallow waters, or growing on the moist soil of their margin. Country people call it Fool’s Water-cress, and doubtless it may be sometimes gathered carelessly instead of that whole- some salad herb; for although when in flower it is quite unlike the Water- cress, yet when out of bloom it has some slight resemblance to it. Its pointed and serrated leaves are a good distinction ; and it has its distinct features in the umbelliferous growth of its flowers, its hollow stem, and its UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 49 leafstalk sheathing around. These latter distinctions never characterize cruciferous plants. The flowers are small and white, appearing in July and August ; and the stem is sometimes two feet long. Though generally regarded as a plant containing poisonous properties, yet it was recommended by Dr. Withering to be taken, either alone or with milk, as an alterative medicine. The French call the plant Berle; the Germans, Wassermeek ; the Dutch, Vatereppe ; the Italians, Sto. 2. Least Marshwort (fH. inunddtum).—Stem creeping ; lower leaves finely divided into hair-like segments ; upper ones pinnatifid. Root peren- nial. This plant, which occurs in ponds that are left dry during summer, has stems but a few inches long, and umbels with only two rays of very small white flowers, which are produced in June and July. These and the upper leaves are the only parts of the plant seen above the shallow waters. 9. BASTARD STONE-PARSLEY (ison). Hedge Bastard Stone-Parsley (S. amdémum).—Stem erect ; lower leaves pinnate ; leaflets oblong, cut, and serrated; upper leaflets cut into narrow segments. This Parsley, though rare in Scotland, is found not unfrequently in England, in damp chalky places, on borders of woods, or under hedges. ‘The little cream-coloured flowers expand in August. The umbels of flowers are very small. The whole plant has a very offensive odour, especially if bruised. The fruit, which is egg-shaped, is pungent and aromatic. This plant is the Berle aromatique of the French; the Germans eall it Amomlein. 10. GOUT-WEED (Aigopdédium). Common Gout-weed, or Bishop’s-weed (4. podagrdria).—Stem erect, furrowed; leaves two or three times ternate ; leaflets egg-shaped, pointed, and acutely serrated, unequal at the base. Plant perennial. The gardener who has shady or damp places in his garden is cften much troubled with this plant ; for its creeping root will take such hold of the soil, that it is very difficult of eradication. It has large dark-green leaves and white flowers, and soon grows, if left untouched, to a foot or a foot and a half high. It is common in damp spots and waste places throughout the ccuntry, although it is not found far from human habitations. Though a disagreeable weed, it was doubtless introduced by the monks, and had an old repute as a cure for gout, for which malady the German physicians are said still to prescribe it. The creeping root is pungent and aromatic, with some acrimony, and this is the portion of the plant employed. Culpepper says, “Neither is it to be supposed Goutweed hath its name for nothing ; but upon experiment to heal the gout and sciatica; as also joint-aches and other cold griefs. The very bearing of it about one easeth the pain of the gout, and defends him that bears it from the disease.” The plant also was called Herb Gerrard and Asheweed. The small white flowers should be sought from June to August. 1]. CARAWAY (Cdrum). 1. Common Caraway (C. cérwi).—Partial involucre none; general none, or one-leaved ; leaves twice pinnate ; leaflets cut into slender segments. 11.—7 50 UMBELLIFERA Plant biennial. This is a rare plant in our meadows and pastures ; nor is it indigenous, though found in various parts of England and Scotland. The flowers, which are white, grow in rather large umbels, on a stem one or two feet high, in June. The aromatic carpels, known by the name of caraway- seeds, are too often used in cookery, confectionery, liqueurs, and medicines, to need any description, and the plant is often cultivated on their account. The slightly pungent leaves are sometimes used as ingredients in salads, or, like those of parsley, for seasoning dishes ; and the root, which is spindle- shaped, is sometimes eaten like the parsnip, but it partakes slightly of the peculiar flavour of the carpels, which would render it unpleasant to some palates, when eaten with cooked meat. According to the old writers, this root is “ pleasant and comfortable, and helpeth digestion ;’ one of them says that the root, “eaten as men eat parsneps, strengthens the stomachs of ancient people exceedingly, and they need not make a whole meal of them neither.” He adds that the Caraway should be planted in every garden. The Caraway comfits were also considered as an excellent stomachic when eaten fasting, and were at least a more agreeable one than many others recommended by these “simplers.” They were believed, too, to sharpen the eyesight. The French call the Caraway plant, Carw ; the Germans term it, Kiimmel ; and the Italians, Carwi. 2. Tuberous Caraway (C. bullocistanum).—Leaves thrice pinnate, with very slender leaflets; general and partial involucres of many thread- like leaves ; root tuberous and perennial. This is a rare plant in most parts of this kingdom, and is found chiefly in chalky fields of Hertfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Buckingham and Bedfordshire, though occurring on some of these in great abundance. The white flowers appear in June and July. 3. Whorled Caraway (C. verticilldtwm).—Leaves mostly from the root, pinnate, and cut into slender thread-like segments; umbels few, terminal ; general and partial involucres very small. Root perennial. The foliage of this plant is not truly whorled, but the segments of the leaflets surround the leaf-stalk in a spreading direction, so as to look like a whorl. The slender stem is about a foot high ; and the small white flowers appear in July and August. It is a local plant, and occurs chiefly along the western counties from Argyll southward. It is also found in the Channel Islands, and about Killarney, in Ireland. 12. EARTH-NUT (Binium). Common Earth-nut (B. flexuésum).—Leaves of the stem few, nearly sessile, with linear segments ; general involucre of 1—3 leaves, partial more numerous ; both involucres sometimes wanting ; styles erect. Plant perennial, This is a pretty and common plant, bearing its terminal umbels of white flowers in May and June. There is something elegant and graceful in its form, and the slight stem is a foot or more high, having a few leaves cut into slender segments. The tubers of the Earth-nut are sweet and esculent ; they fatten pigs exceedingly, and being eagerly sought after and rooted up by these animals, the plant is in many country places called Pig-nut. A large amount of farinaceous and nutritive matter exists in these roots; and in time of famine they have been useful in furnishing food for man. Though = Ww COMMON CARAWAY Carum carni TUBEROUS c C bnlbocastamnm . WHORLED c. C.verticillatum . Pl. 90, EARTH NUT Bonrom flexuosum . BURNET SAXIFRAGE Poupinella saxifraga . GREATER B. §. Pmagna . UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 51 we cannot praise their flavcur very highly, yet they are much liked by country children, who eat them in their uncooked condition as they would a chestnut, which fruit they are not unlike in flavour. The Italians and Spaniards both call the plant Castagno di terra ; and it is the Terre noix of the French, the ELrdnuss of the Germans, and the Ardnoot of the Dutch. The old writers recommended the powdered root as a remedy for cough. They called the tubers Ground-nuts and Kipper-nuts. 13. BURNET SAXIFRAGE (Pimpinélla). 1. Common Burnet Saxifrage (P. swxifraga).—Root-leaves pinnate ; leaflets roundish, sharply serrate or cut; stem-leaves twice pinnate, with lmear segments. Plant perennial. ‘The lower leaves of this herb are so like those of the Common Burnet, as to deserve the allusion to that plant con- tained in its name; those of the root are on long stalks, and those of the stem are often very much divided. ‘The stem is round, one or two feet high, the flower-stalks usually smocth, though occasionally downy. The small greenish-white flowers appear in July and August. The Burnet Saxifrage is common on dry pastures, and is often to be seen among the turf of those rounded hills which so often occur in our chalk districts. It is remarkable for varying much in the shape of its foliage, owing to some circumstances of soil or season ; hence the earlier botanists classed as distinct species forms now known to be mere varieties ; and we had formerly P. major, P. minor, and P. dissectum. The root, which is of an astringent nature, is very pungent and even acrid in flavour. Country people consider it a cure for the toothache ; and a decoction of the plant has also been long in use as a cosmetic, and probably would not be altogether useless in the removal of freckles and sunburn. This root is much infested by a species of coccus, from which a red colouring matter may be procured. The French call the plant Le Boucage ; it is the Pimpinella blanca of the Spaniards, and is termed by the Germans Kleine bibernel. 2. Greater Burnet Saxifrage (P. mdgna).—Leaves all pinnate ; leaflets egg-shaped, serrate, somewhat cut, the terminal one 3-lobed; fruit smooth. Plant perennial. This species is much larger than the last, and has an angled stem marked with lines. It occurs in bushy wastes on chalky and limestone soils, but is not so frequent as the Common Burnet Saxifrage. Its white flowers appear in July and August. The well-known anise used in medicine is often procured from a species of the Pimpinella, which is cultivated in Malta and Spain, whence the seeds are imported into this country. These are also used in flavouring liqueurs, in some sorts of digestive bread, and various articles of confectionery ; and the leaves are employed in garnishing dishes, and are put into soups and sauces. 14. WaTER Parsnip (Siwn), 1. Broad-leaved Water Parsnip (8. latifélivm).—Stem erect; leaflets unequally lobed, and serrated ; umbels stalked, at the summit of the stem ; bracts of involucres narrow, and pointed. Plant perennial. This is a large, stout, conspicuous plant, standing up three, four, or even five feet in height ld ¢ i—2 52 UMBELLIFERA& by the water’s edge, its flat umbels of white flowers appearing in July and August. The stems are furrowed, and the pinnate leaves are large, and composed of from five to nine distant leaflets. 2. Narrow-leaved Water Parsnip (S. angustifélium). — Leaves pinnate ; leaflets unequally cut, egg-shaped, the upper ones narrower ; umbels opposite the leaves, stalked. Plant perennial. This species, though rare in Scotland, is not unfrequent in England. It is a much smaller plant than the last, and very much resembles the procumbent marshwort. It may be dis- tinguished from it by its stalked umbels, and by its having general and partial bracts. Its white umbels appear in July and August. Though our Water Parsnip is not fitted for food, yet a species of this genus furnished the Skirret of our ancestors. This is the Stwm sisarwm, and it is still occasionally cultivated for its tubers, which are very wholesome when eaten boiled with butter. Our old gardeners and herbalists make much mention of the Skirret; and many old poets, as Michael Drayton, have praised this root. It once found a place in all the best kitchen gardens, but it is now rarely found in England except in cottage gardens ; though the Scottish peasant still cultivates it under the name of Crummack. This Skirret is so full of saccharine matter, that a chemist extracted from half a pound of the roots one ounce and a half of pure sugar. The Skirret is indigenous to China, but was introduced into this country about the middle of the sixteenth century. Worlidge, commenting on it in his work on “Husbandry,” written at the latter end of the seventeenth century, calls it “the sweetest, whitest, and most wholesome of roots ;” and it is believed to be the plant which the Emperor Tiberius valued so highly as to send for it to the banks of the Rhine. It is too sweet to be generally pleasing to modern palates. 15, HARE’S-EAR (Dupleirum). 1. Narrow-leaved Hare’s-ear (B. aristdtum). —Stem branched ; leaves linear-lanceolate, sharply pointed, and 3-nerved ; leaves of the partial involucres longer than the umbels, lanceolate, and suddenly tapering to a point, somewhat awned ; flower-stalks short, equal. Plant annual. This is a sinall species, from three to six inches in height, with stiff leaves of a pale yellow green, and marked with lines. They have a pungent flavour. The leaves of all this genus are remarkable among umbelliferous plants as being undivided, the foliage of nearly all the other genera being cut into various divisions and subdivisions. The greenish-yellow flowers appear in July. The plant is rare, and is found on rocks 208M Torquay, also in Sussex and the Channel Islands. 2. Common Hare’s-ear, or Thorow-wax (B. rotundifélium).—Stem branched above ; general involucre wanting, partial ones large, bristle-pointed, thrice as long as the flowers; leaves perfoliate, roundish, oval ; root annual. This is a singular plant, readily distinguished by its perfoliate leaves of a glaucous green hue, and in July by its large greenish-yellow partial involucres, which are far more conspicuous than the small greenish-yellow flowers which are to be seen on the plant at that season. The root is said to be astringent, and the plant was formerly much used as a vulnerary. The English name al: WATER-PARSNIP Sium latifolinm . 4. COMMON H.E ; B. rotandifolinm &. SLENDER H. & B. tenmissimum . S. FALCATE-LEAVED H. F&F B.faleatum . 2 NARROW-LEAVED W.P S. angustifolium NARROW-LEAVED HARES EAR Bipletrum aristatumn . Pl, 91. UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 53 of Thorow-wax is from the circumstance of a stalk going through, or thorow the leaf, wax being an old word for grow. The French call it Le Bupleore, and the Germans Das Hufenohrchen ; it is the Buplewro of the Italians, and the Haazenoor of the Dutch. Though locally plentiful in cornfields on chalky soils, it is confined to the eastern and southern parts of England, and must be regarded as a rare plant, in spite of its name. It is not found farther north than Yorkshire, nor beyond Somerset in a westerly direction. Several species of Hare’s-ear have been brought from Switzerland, Southern Europe, and Africa, into our gardens, but they are rather singular than ornamental. Thunberg, when in Japan, found a very curious plant of this genus, the Bupleirum gigantéwm. He says that the inhabitants of Roode Zand all assured him, with one voice, that there was a bush to be found on the mountain on which grew wonderful products, such as caps, gloves, worsted stockings, ete., of a substance resembling a fine plush. “I impor- tuned,” says this traveller, “almost everybody in the neighbourhood to procure me, if possible, some of the marvellous products, and I resolved not to leave the place till I should have unriddled the mystery. In the course of a few days, I had several of the leaves brought me down from the mountains, which were covered with a thick down, and very much resembled white velvet. The girls, who were used to the management of these leaves, began immediately, with singular dexterity and nicety, to strip off this downy coat, whole and entire as it was, without rending it. After it had been taken off in this manner, it was turned inside cutwards, when the green veins of the leaf appeared on one side. Accordingly as the leaf was more round or oval, divers of the above-mentioned articles were formed out of it, the shape being now and then assisted a little by the scissors. The stalks of the leaves furnished stockings and ladies’ fingered gloves, the smaller leaves caps; so that the matter was not quite so wonderful as it was wonder- fully related.” Our traveller, resolving to ascertain the exact plant which produced this downy substance, climbed to the highest summits of the mountains, and there found this singular Bupleurum. 3. Slender Hare’s-ear (B. tenutssimum).— Stem branched ; leaves linear, very sharply pointed ; umbels very minute, and few-flowered ; partial. umbels usually overtopped by their involucres ; carpels granulated between the ridges. Plant annual. This is a tall slender species, differing from all the others by the little grain-like substances between the ribs of its carpels. It has a wiry solid stem, about a foot high, and produces its umbels of tiny yellowish-green flowers in August and September. It grows on salt marshes, on the south and east coasts of England, extending as far north as Durham, and is of very local occurrence. 4, Falcate-leaved Hare’s-ear (B. falcdétwm).—Stem hollow, branched above only ; lower leaves oblong, or egg-shaped, on long stalks ; upper sessile, narrowly lanceolate, partially clasping the stem; partial involucre of five lanceolate, pointed leaves, as long as the flowers. Plant perennial. This species, which produces its minute greenish flowers in July, has a slender stem from one to four feet in height, often unbranched. Its claims to be reckoned as a British plant are not very strong, and it occurs only about fields in Surrey and Essex. 54 UMBELLIFER Ai * * * Umbels compound ; fruit not prickly, nor beaked, nor flattened, 16. WATER Dropwort (“ndnthe). ‘1. Common Water Dropwort ((W. /istuldsa).—Stem sending out runners from its base ; stem-leaves pinnate, shorter than their tubular stalks ; umbels of very few rays ; universal involucre wanting ; fruit tipped with the long rigid styles. Plant perennial. This Dropwort, though rare in Scotland, is a very common English plant. It grows in ditches and rivulets to the height of two or three feet, and is easily distinguished from its allies by its remarkably tubular habit. The lower leaves are entirely beneath the water, and the leaflets of these are flat, but all the rest of the plant is com- posed of tubes. The flowers, which are greenish-white, expand from July to September, and the angled corky fruits form dense globular heads, each as large as a small marble. Like several other species, this is a poisonous plant. It is, with many similar plants, called by country people Wild Parsley. The French term the Dropwort /’Gnanthé, the Germans Die Rebendolide ; it is the Druivebloem of the Dutch, and the Enante of the Italians. The plant was said, by Pliny, to smell like the vine in flower. 2. Callous-fruited Water Dropwort (H. pimpinelldides).—Root of long fibres, studded with round or oval knobs ; root-leaves twice pinnate, with leaflets acutely cut, or 3-cleft ; stem-leaves simply pinnate, shorter than their stalks ; fruit cylindrical, with an enlarged corky base. Plant perennial. This species has a compact umbel of white flowers, the partial umbels being all crowded together. It is from half a foot to three feet in height, and its general involucre has from-one to six leaves, but is sometimes wanting ; the partial involucres consist of many leaves. Though in its wild state the root is poisonous, yet when the plant is cultivated it loses its noxious proper- ties, and is eaten as food. The knobs then contain a mild farinaceous substance, and have somewhat the flavour of filberts. The plant is grown about Angers, and the roots sold in the neighbouring markets. This species blossoms from June to August, and is tolerably abundant on the pastures of many counties, as in Gloucester, Worcester, Dorset, and Devon, growing occasionally in salt marshes. It is more slender in form than most of the species, and must be considered as a rare plant. 3. Parsley Water Dropwort (. lachenilii).—Stem erect; root- leaves twice pinnate ; leaflets oblong, entire, or wedge-shaped, and bluntly 2—3-lobed ; lower stem-leaves 2—3-pinnate, upper simply pinnate ; leaflets linear, acute ; general involucre of many leaves, sometimes wanting ; root perennial, and composed of thick fibres, or spindle-shaped kncbs. This plant is not unfrequent on salt marshes, and occurs, though more rarely, in fresh water. The stem is from one to three feet high, and slightly branched ; and its flower, which consists of many distinct spherical partial umbels, may be seen from July to September. The root-leaves are very evanescent, but the root and the fruit distinguish the plant. The latter is top-shaped, narrowing gradually at the base, and crowned with the calyx, which bends inwards. It is less common in Scotland than in England. 4. Sulphur-wort Water Dropwort (MH. silaifélia).—Root of oblong knobs ; radical-leaves twice pinnate; stem-leaves pinnate, all the leaflets ses VATS Ps TOI nel? SUES i] nF 1 COMMON WATER -DROPWORT. geeks SER avis OMCs SWE. a) (Enanthe fistulosa . cracata 2 PARSLEY .W.D. a FINE -LEAVED W. D (EB. lachenalia . @. phellandrinm. 3. SULPHUR WORT W. D. 6 RIVER. W. D @. sulaifolia . (2. fiuviatibs , Pl. 92. UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 55 linear and acute; fruit nearly cylindrical, with a corky base. Plant perennial. This is a species of restricted range, growing in fresh-water marshes and meadows from Notts, Worcester, and Norfolk southwards. Its branches are tubular, and its branched stem two or three feet high. It flowers in June, and its partial involucres are of many leaves, shorter than the flowers. * It has no general involucre. This is the . pewedanifolia of some authors. 5. Hemlock Water Dropwort ((. crocdta).— Root perennial, the fibres with large spindle-shaped tubers ; root-leaves 2—3-pinnate ; stem- leaves pinnatifid ; leaflets stalked, variously cut, those of the upper leaves narrower than the more rounded ones of the lower leaves; fruit cylindrical, oblong, without a callous base, and longer than its stalk. This plant is pretty generally known by those who are accustomed to observe wild flowers. It is too tall and large to escape notice, being sometimes five feet, and very commonly three feet in height, and much branched. It has large broad glossy leaflets, various in number and shape, and its large umbels of white flowers appear in July. The juice of its stems, when exposed to the air, often turns yellow, and like most yellow juices in plants indicates noxious properties. Many fatal disasters have been caused by this plant; cows have been poisoned by eating the roots, and persons unacquainted with plants have eaten it under the impression that it was wild celery, and have died in con- sequence. Some years since, a number of convicts, working on an embank- ment near Woolwich, dug up these roots, and as there is nothing in their odour which would give the idea that they were deleterious, they impru- dently ate them with their dinner. Seventeen men partook of the repast, all of whom were rendered more or less ill, while to four it proved fatal. John Ray asserted, in one of his works, the poisonous nature of this Drop- wort, but his assertion was at that time doubted, though its accuracy was confirmed by some accounts sent him by his friend, ‘a learned physician,” Dr. Francis Vaughan. A case came under the notice of this gentleman, in which seven young men, while fishing in a river, saw and ate the root of the Dropwort; four or five hours after eating it, one of them fell back- wards, foaming at the mouth, and he died next morning. Four more * were seized soon after, and died on the following morning, without having spoken a word from the time in which the poison had attained its full power in the system; only one escaped uninjured. Dr. Vaughan also mentions that a Dutchman in his neighbourhood was poisoned by boiling and eating the tops of this plant shred into his pottage; he was soon after found dead in his boat. A little Irish boy had forewarned him of the danger of eating it, but the Dutchman asserted that it was good salad in his country; so that, as Dr. Vaughan observes, he doubtless took it for celery, which its fone much saeco Dr. Pickells read to the British Association a paper on the Enanthe crocata, in which he observed, that it was one of the most virulent poisons of the British Flora, adding that it grows in great abundance, particularly in Cork. He had collected records of nearly thirty cases of death caused by eating the root, the quantity taken in one instance being exceedingly 56 UMBELLIFERA small. The symptoms which preceded death were very appalling, and he thought that this, and not the hemlock, might possibly be the plant used to destroy Socrates, while, from the symptoms of derangement which ac- companied its effects, he considered it probable that it was “the insane root which takes the reason prisoner,” referred to by Shakspere. Dr. Pickells stated the Dropwort to be as injurious to black cattle and horses as to man, No direct and certain antidote was known; but melted butter, which is popularly deemed efficacious against its effects, had been given in some of the cases which had recovered. Notwithstanding the poisonous properties of the plant, it has been used with success by medical practitioners. Gerarde says : ‘Beware and take good heed of this and such like simples, for there is no physition that will give it, because there be many excellent good simples which God has bestowed upon us for the preventing and curing of diseases.” Dr. Johnson, in his “Flora of Berwick,” commenting on this, says, ‘‘ Despite the advice of the pious Gerarde, modern physicians have given an infusion of the leaves, or the juice of the roots, in leprosy, with success.” Goats can eat this virulently poisonous plant with impunity, but it destroys rats and mice, and the roots are used by country people for that purpose. The bruised rootis also sometimes applied as a poultice to painful joints. 6. Fine-leaved Water Dropwort (@. phelléndrium).—Root fibrous, and biennial ; stem erect; leaves thrice pinnate ; leaflets egg-shaped, pin- natifid, cut, spreading ; those of the submersed ones wedge-shaped, pellucid, cut ; umbels lateral, opposite to the leaves ; fruit egg-shaped. Not only do. the fibrous roots of this plant distinguish it from the preceding, but the leaves, cut into slender pointed segments, are very different from the broad leaves of the Hemlock Dropwort. The upper part of the foliage is of a pale yellowish-green, but the submersed ieaves are of a deep, dark, rich green colour. The stem is two or three feet high, very thick at the lower part, and sending out runners; and the flowers are produced from July to September. The plant is not uncommon in ditches and ponds in England, but is rare in Scotland. This species is also poisonous. 7, River Water Dropwort (4. fluvidtilis).—Stem floating; leaves twice pinnate ; leaflets simple, and pinnatifid; leaflets of the submersed leaves pellucid, wedge-shaped, deeply cut at the end; umbels opposite to the leaves. Plant perennial. This plant, which is commonly found in streams in the middle and south-east of England, is considered by some botanists a sub-species of the preceding. It flowers from July to September. 17. Foou’s PARSLEY (dithisa). Common Fool’s Parsley (4. cyniépium).—Leaves twice pinnate ; leaflets wedge-shaped, pinnatifid, running down the stalk; partial involucre of one leaf longer than the umbel ; general involucre none. Annual. This plant, which is also called Lesser Hemlock, is sometimes mistaken for parsley ; and as it grows everywhere on cultivated lands, it is sometimes eaten by children, and has proved fatal to them. Some years ago two ladies in Somersetshire, who ate of it in salad, suffered very seriously, though both ultimately recovered. Its deleterious principles are said to depend on the presence in its juices of a peculiar alkaline principle termed cynapia, The ee Y Ethusa cynaprom PARSLE 1. FOOLS B.: ilaus pratensis —~™ G R- SAXTFRA! MEADOW PEPPE 3D. FENNEL. 2 5 . MEU OR BALD gare ADOW-SAXTFRAGE. Seseli libanotis . Feniculum vol SCOTTISH TLOVAGE . ME NEY Meum sthamanticum SAMPHTRE G MOUNTAIN a. SEA 7 =n Taamin. maritima Git Ligusticum seoticum Pl, 98. UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 57 plant has an unpleasant odour, and its much darker green colour, and its more finely-divided leaves, distinguish it at all times from true parsley ; and during July and August, when its umbels of white flowers are to be seen, it is well characterized by the involucres of the partial umbels, consisting of three long-‘leaves, which hang drooping all on one side. 18. FENNEL (Feniculum). Common Fennel (f. vulgdre).—Leaves twice ternate; leaflets pin- natifid ; segments thread-shaped, or awl-shaped. Plant perennial. Most persons accustomed to roam by the sea-side, especially if they often wander among cliffs, know the dark yet bright green Fennel, which so often over- shadows the thrift and sea lavender, or the sandworts of the sandy soil at the base of the cliffs. The plant grows also sometimes in places a little way inland, near houses and villages, and is found in profusion in many salt marshes, both of the sea and river. Plentiful as it is, and wholly wild as it would seem to be, many botanists consider that it is not truly indigenous ; Sir Joseph Hooker is of opinion that it may be native so far as the district between North Wales and Norfolk to Cornwall and Kent is concerned, “ but not north of it, nor in Ireland.” When we remember how much the plant was prized in former days, and how often still we see the Fennel growing in the cottage or kitchen garden, it is likely that it is rather naturalized than native. Asan old herbalist said, ‘Every garden affordeth this so plentifully, that it needs no description :” he also rejoices that ‘one good old fashion is not yet left off, viz., to boil Fennel with fish,” a custom still preserved in the eastern part of England, where it is served up with boiled mackerel. Some very slight differences exist between the wild and garden plant ; the latter is called Feniculum dulce, but it is scarcely distinct, and probably is but a variety. Parkinson, who wrote his celebrated “Garden of Flowers” in 1629, added to it a treatise on ‘‘divers physicall herbes, fit to be planted in gardens to serve for the especial use of a familie.” He says of the Fennel: “ It is sowne of seede, and abideth many yeeres, yielding seede; the roots also are used in broths, and the leaves more seldome, yet they serve to trimme up many fish meates.” He adds elsewhere, that “Fennel is useful to strowe upon fish, as also to boyle and put among fish of divers sortes.” He tells us, too, that “ Cowcumbers and other fruits are pickled” with it; and that the “seedes are much used to be put in Pippin pies, and divers other such baked fruits, as also unto bread, to give it a better relish.” Of its general use as a fish-sauce we have plenty of record in old books. Thus, in “Piers Ploughman,” one speaks of “a ferthing’s worth of fynkel-sede for fastynge daies.” LHyen yet some remains of its old use are seen in many parts of Kent, where, when mackerel is purchased, the fishmonger sends home with it a branch of Fennel, to be used as sauce. To few modern palates, however, is the Fennel agreeable. A sweet flavour in food seems to have been liked by our ancestors, and this plant has a strong and to us unpleasant sweetness. Iennel, however, was evidently much liked, and its odour was considered II1.—8 58 UMBELLIFER an addition to that of the nosegay. ‘There’s Fennel for you, and columbines,” said Ophelia; and Milton also says :— ‘* A savoury odour blown more pleased my sense Than smell of sweetest Fennel.” In those days when herbs were commonly strewed over the pathway of the newly-married persons, the Fennel seems to have been one that was usually chosen. Thus we have Michael Drayton saying :— ‘* Whilst some still busied are in decking of the bride, Some others were again as seriously employ’d In strewing of those herbs at bridals used that be, Which everywhere they throw, with bounteous hands and free : The healthful balm and mint from their full laps do fly, The scentful camomile, the verdrous costmary. The hot muscado oil, with milder maudlin cast, Strong tansy, Fendel cool, they prodigally waste ; Clear hyssop, and therewith the comfortable thyme, Germander with the rest, each thing then in her prime, As well of wholesome herbe as every pleasant flower, Which Nature has produced to fit that happy hour ; Amongst these strewing kinds some others wild that grow, As burnet, all abroad, and meadow-wort they throw.” The Fennel was esteemed of great medicinal use, and its seeds are carminative. ‘They were much recommended by old writers, when boiled in wine, to relieve those who had eaten poisonous mushrooms, or other herbs; or had been bitten by those terrific creatures, the scorpions and serpents, which our fathers seemed to think lurked in every hedge. Pliny has recorded the uses of Fennel by the ancients. ‘As for Fennel,” he says, in the words of his translator, Dr. Holland, “the serpents have won it much credit, and brought it into name in this regard, that by tasting thereof they cast their old skin, and by the juyce that it yieldeth doe clear their eyes: whereby we also are come to know that this hearbe hath a singular propertie to mundifie our sight and take away the filme or web that overruleth and dimmeth our eyes.” Later herbalists and physicians recommended the Fennel root, boiled in milk, as tonic and carminative ; and gout and cramp, and yellow jaundice, were directed to be treated by “physic drinks,” made in various ways, of roots, leaves, and seeds; while a broth, made of Fennel, was advised for people who were growing too fat, and desired to be made lean. The notion that the use of it gave strength to the constitution is very old. The ancients regarded Fennel as highly restorative, but it is very doubtful whether they intended by that our wild Fennel, or whether the dill or even wild celery was indicated. The name of Fennel, as well as its older name of Finckle, and also the Anglo-Saxon fenol or fenouil, and the old German fenekel, were all derived from the Latin feniculum. The plant is usually three or four feet in height, but in places where it grows luxuriantly, as on the hills near the sea at Sandgate, in Kent, it is often six feet high, and its beautiful rich dark-green foliage is very airy and graceful. Its umbels of yellow flowers appear in July and August. Besides the variety termed dulce, there is a cultivated or dwarf variety called Finochio, which is eaten as a salad with oil, vinegar, and pepper. This variety has sometimes very thick stalks, which are blanched UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 59 by placing earth around them, and they then form a very pleasant vegetable. This kind is much cultivated in Italy. Mr. F. A. Paley informs the author that he considers that the plant which the Greeks and Romans used as crowns was certainly celery (dpium), the translation Fennel being quite arbitrary. Longfellow, in his little poem called “The Goblet of Life,” apparently alludes to our Fennel as the plant in question :— ** Above the lowly plants it towers, The Fennel with its yellow flowers ; And in an earlier age than ours Was gifted with the wondrous powers Lost vision to restore. “Tt gave new strength and fearless mood, And gladiators fierce and rude Mingled it in their daily food ; And he who battled and subdued, The wreath of Fennel bore.” 19. MEADOW SAXIFRAGE (Séscli). Mountain Meadow Saxifrage (8. libandtis).—Stem furrowed ; leaves doubly pinnate, cut ; segments lanceolate, very acute, the lowermost leaflets crossing; general involucre of many leaves; fruit hairy ; root spindle- shaped, and perennial. This is a very rare plant of chalky pastures, with a stem of from one to three feet in height. It has been found on the Gogma- gog Hills in Cambridgeshire, and on the chalk hills of Herts and Sussex. It is by some writers termed Libandtis montdéna. It bears terminal umbels of small white flowers in July and August. 20. LovacE (Ligisticum). Scottish Lovage (L. scéticuwm).—Leaves twice ternate ; leaflets egg- shaped, somewhat rhomboidal, toothed, and serrated ; involucre of 5—7 linear lanceolate leaves ; calyx five-toothed. Plant perennial, The Lovage is frequent, though local, on the rocky sea-coasts of Scotland and Northumber- land. Its leaves grow mostly from the root, and are dull green, opaque, and somewhat succulent, with very large lobed and cut leaflets. The umbels of white flowers appear in July. When bruised the plant emits a strong odour of parsley. The herb is eaten freshly gathered, or prepared as a salad, and the natives of the Shetland Islands, who eat it thus, as well as boiled, call it Siimas. It has an aromatic flavour, but it is somewhat nauseous to palates unused to it, though a Highland gentleman assured the writer, that having from childhood been accustomed to eat it, he regarded it as a great delicacy. Dr. Walker, who remarks that Ray, in his “Synopsis,” mentions Highlanders who used to eat it before anything in the morning to preserve them from infection through the day, adds, “and indeed its strong and grateful aromatic taste would plead that in this practice they judged not amiss.” ‘The spindle-shaped root is carminative, and the people on the shores where it is plentiful have from time immemorial prized it for its medicinal qualities. Its flavour is very hot and disagreeable, but as in former days it was reputed to be a cure for ague, it was much planted in English gardens, where, as an old writer says, “it groweth huge and great.” In its wild state 8—2 60 UMBELLIFERA the stem is about a foot or a foot and a half high, nearly without branches, marked with lines, and often tinged with red. The Highlanders, who call it also Sea Parsley, sometimes chew it as tobacco. The French term it Langélique w feuilles @ache. It is the Liebstickel of the Germans, the Lavas Kruid of the Dutch, and the Ligustico of the Italians and Spaniards. The Danes call it Loestilh. 21. PEPPER SAXIFRAGE (Sildus). Meadow Pepper Saxifrage (S. praténsis).—Leaves thrice pinnate ; leaflets lanceolate, entire, or twice cleft, opposite; general involucre of one or two leaves. Root perennial. This is a conspicuous plant, growing to one or two feet in height, its leaves being chiefly at the root, and its dull pale yellow flowers placed at the top of its stem. It is not very frequent, but is found on some damp pastures both in England and Scotland, flower- ing from May to September. It has a very disagreeable odour, and is apparently not liked by cattle. Sir J. E. Smith remarks: “The whole plant, being fetid when bruised, is supposed, in some parts of Norfolk, to give a bad flavour to milk and butter; but cattle do not eat it, except perhaps accidentally, or in small quantities, though sufficient, it may be, to have the effect in question.” Its general appearance is very similar to that of the Lovage. 22. SPIGNEL (Méum). Meu, or Bald-money (J. athamdnticum).—Leaves long, twice pinnate ; leaflets divided into many hair-like segments; general involucre of two or three leaves; partial of many leaves. Plant perennial. The Spignel is pleasantly and powerfully aromatic, the root being especially so. This is shaped like a carrot, and prized for its carminative virtues. It has a sweetish flavour, reminding one of the Melilot ; and it is said to communicate this to milk and butter, if, during spring, the cows feed upon it. Sir W. Hooker says that the common name of Bald, or Bald-money is a corruption of Balder, the Apollo of the North, to whom the plant was dedicated. The French eall it L’Ethuse a feuilles capillaires ; the Germans term it Biéirwurz ; and it is the Meu both of the Spaniards and Italians. Its Dutch name of Beerwortel would indicate that it is sometimes used to flavour malt liquor, which is not improbable. The plant is frequent in the Highlands on dry pastures, and the root is eaten there as an aromatic. It is not rare on mountainous lands in the north of England. It is easily known by its dark thread-like leaves, and its strong odour. It bears yellowish-green flowers in June and July. 23. SAMPHIRE (Crithmum). Sea Samphire (C. maritimum).—Leaves fleshy, 2—3 pinnate ; leaflets lanceolate, few, narrowed at both ends. Plant perennial. From May to August the greenish-white flowers of this Samphire may be found in thick clusters, but they are not very showy. Clumps of the plant, however, by their foliage, enliven the sea-cliffs on many parts of our coast. On the chalky heights of Dover the plant is abundant, now and then growing within the reach of him who wanders at their base, but more generally springing from rocky crevices at so great a height that he cannot clearly distinguish the UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 61 form of leaf or blossom. Thousands of these are seen only by the sea-bird which wings its way above them, or by the adventurous gatherers of samphire. It is not often we could say now of these cliffs :— **Half-way down Hangs one that gathers samphire ; dreadful trade ! Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.” And it is well that samphire-gathering, both from the Shakspere cliff and the cliffs at the eastern part of the old town of Dover, is pretty well discor.- tinued. The plant was formerly gathered by suspending a rope from the summit of the cliff, on which a man descended. In the year 1823 a man was thus occupied, when the rope suddenly gave way, and he was dashed to the earth and died immediately. This man had pursued his dangerous occu- pation during the summers of forty years, and would often talk to visitors of Shakspere and King Lear, jocosely saying that he himself was king in that little domain, for none ventured to gather his samphire. Now and then some adventurous young sailor clambers up the lofty steeps to gather some tufts half-way up, just when those cliffs are looking most beautiful in their summer flowers, and when, in the words of Agnes Strickland :— “The burnet there securely blows, ‘« And there the emerald Samphire oft And seems to turn away Appears a tempting sight, When o’er her hardy bosom blows And lures the venturous boy aloft The drifting spray. To scale the height : ‘*Unbidden there the borage springs, ‘“The bugloss buds of crimson hue Grey lichens creep beneath, To azure flowers expand, And graceful persicaria flings Like changeful banner, bright to view, Her rosy wreath : By wild winds fanu’d.” Not one of our native plants can at all be compared in flavour with this when pickled with vinegar and spices. It is very pleasantly aromatic, both in odour and taste, and very succulent. It is not, however, prized as it was some years since, for it was formerly not only pickled, but eaten raw as a salad, or boiled for the table. Evelyn, in his treatise on “Sallet Herbs,” praises it very highly. It has been cultivated on inland spots with success, in sheltered situations where the soil has been sprinkled with powdered barilla. The name of Samphire appears to be a corruption of its old French name Herbe de St. Pierre ; the French now call it Crete marine. The plant is the Meerfenchel of the Germans, and the Finichio marina of the Italians. Its stems are usually about half a foot high, and much branched. Both stems and foliage are of a pale green tint. It is a social plant, often forming large masses a yard in diameter on the surface of the cliffs, often but a little above tide-mark. ‘The general notion that it only grows high up the cliffs is a mis- taken one. It is a rare plant on the Scottish coasts. ** * * Fruit not prickly nor beaked ; much flattened. 24. ANGELICA (Angélica). 1. Garden Angelica (4. archangélica).—Leaflets narrowly egg-shaped, all sessile, some running so closely together as to form a wing on the stem, terminal one 3-cleft. Plant biennial. This plant, which is the Angélica officinalis of many writers, is not truly wild, though usually enumerated in our British Flora, because it has long been naturalized here in consequence 62 UMBELLIFERA& of its frequent culture in gardens in earlier times. It cannot be overlooked, for it is a tall and handsome plant, about three or four feet high, with a remarkably smooth stem. The leaves are of bright glossy green, and it bears umbels of white flowers in July. Our ancestors prized this Angelica very highly, and its leaf-stalks were very commonly blanched and eaten with bread and butter as celery, or they were dried and preserved with sugar to form the sweetmeat called candied angelica. In Iceland, Siberia, Norway, and Lapland, this plant is still greatly valued as an article of food, and it is very abundant in the north of Kurope. The Laplanders, who eat it in various ways, and season dishes with it, give it so many names as quite to perplex the stranger; and in some countries it 1s frequently called by a name signifying the Holy Ghost. Its names throughout Europe show the high opinion entertained of this aromatic plant, and the belief in its “ Angelic” virtues. It is the Angélique of the French ; the Angelica, or Engelwurz, of the Germans ; the Hngelwortel of the Dutch ; and the Angelica of the Spaniards, Portuguese, Italians, and Russians. It is not only as food but as medicine that the Angelica was and still is valued. It is doubtless carminative and stimulant. The Laplanders believe of this plant, as the Highlanders do of the lovage, that the use of it will lengthen life, and they therefore chew it as they would tobacco. They also mix it with their bread, both because they like its flavour, and consider it a preventive of disease. In our own country it was believed to have wonderful efficacy against pestilence and a variety of disorders. Parkinson says of it, ‘ Having showed you all the herbes that are most usually planted in kitchen gardens for ordinarie uses, let me now adde some others that are also noursed up by many in their gardens to preserve health, to cure such small diseases as are often within the compasse of the gentlewomen’s skill, who to helpe their own family and their poor neighbours that are farre re- mote from Physitions and Chirurgeons, take much pains both to doe goode unto them, and to plant those herbes that are conducing to their desires. Angelica, the garden kinde, is so goode an herbe that there is no part thereof but is of much use, and all cordiall and preservatives from infectious or contagious diseases, whether you will distill the water of the herbe, or preserve or candie the greene stalkes or rootes, or use the seedes in powder or distillations or decoctions with other things.” In France, even of late years, the root of Angelica has been prescribed by good authorities as a remedy in diseases of the chest and of sore throat ; it was also popularly believed to avert hydrophobia, as well as to remove the effects of intoxica- tion. A plant so universally esteemed of course became allied to some superstitious practices. Thus we find Coles, in his “ Art of Simpling,” re- marks, “that if one hang Miseltoe about his neck the witches can have no power of him. The roots of Angelica doe likewise availe much in the same case, if a man carry them about him, as Fuchsius saith.” 2. Wild Archangel (/. syivéstris).—Stem furrowed ; leaves twice pin-’ nate; leaflets egg-shaped, often somewhat heart-shaped at the base, and serrated ; umbels large. Plant perennial. This is a large and noble plant, commonly attaining, in wet places, the height of three or four feet, and in some places rising to that of eight or ten feet. Its stem is of a purplish NCS i wD U NW\ SOY 1 GARDEN ANGELICA ~ 4. MARSH H.F Angehea archanpelica P. palustre te WILD ANGELICA 5, BROAD-LEAVED #H.F. A. sylvestris P ostrnthrumn 3 SEA- HOGS -FENNET. 6 COMMON WILD PARSNIP fencedanmm of Gicimale Pastinaca sativa Pi. 9h. UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 63 colour, one or two inches in diameter, and covered with a whitish down, which may be easily rubbed off with the finger. Its flowers appear in July, and are white tinged with pink. It is aromatic, but less so than the garden species. It is frequent in moist bogs and marshy places. After the stem is withered a very elegant little fungus often grows on this as well as other umbelliferous plants of damp places. This is the yellow hairy sessile Peziza. It is of a yellowish cottony surface externally, but inside it is grey, and nearly smooth. In dry weather it closes up its tiny cup, and does not look like a Peziza. It is often very pretty in the month of April, on the dead stems of the plant, and on dry sticks in damp woods. 25, HoG’s-FENNEL (Peucédanum). 1. Sea Hog’s-fennel, or Sulphur-weed (P. officindle).—Stem round ; leaves five times 3-parted ; leaflets linear, acute ; general involucre 3-leaved, falling early ; leaflets very long and narrow. Root perennial. This is a very rare plant of the sea-shore, growing in the salt marshes of Kent and Essex, and conspicuous from July to September by its large umbels of yellow flowers, and its long narrow flaccid leaflets. It has a strong odour of brim- stone, which is still more powerful in the roots than in the foliage or flower, though the scent of the roots of some foreign species has far greater strength. Our Hog’s-Fennel does not appear to yield much resin, but in warm climates the resin of some kinds is abundant. The plant was in former days considered a good remedy for hypochondriasis. Professor Balfour, remarking on the salubrious qualities of many umbelli- ferous plants found on the sea-shore, mentions this as one possessing such qualities. He quotes Dr. Walker’s remark on this subject: “Though,” says that writer, “I would not propose it as a rule to be depended upon in so dangerous a case as poisons, yet I think it highly probable that all the maritime plants of this class are salutary and excellent. This I am certain of, that none of the umbelliferous plants known to be poisonous are stationed on the sea-shore, all the maritime plants of this class whose qualities are known are innocent; and it is further remarkable that this is not to be ascribed to their dry situation among the maritime rocks, or on the sandy shore, for the celery and sulphur-wort grow on the salt marshes, on as watery a soil as any of the umbelliferous aquatics which are poisonous. Here, I imagine, lies an essential difference between plants that inhabit salt water and fresh.” Professor Balfour remarks, that Dr. Walker’s conclusions may be too general, though there is certainly much truth in his statements, but further information is necessary before all umbelliferous plants of salt marshes can be regarded as wholesome. We should hardly like to partake of the wild celery gathered from the salt marsh, though it has certainly been eaten with impunity: and Sir Wm. Hooker and Dr. Arnott remark of the root of this Sulphur-wort, that it is reckoned stimulant, but is of dangerous internal use. It is quite certain, as Dr. Walker has observed, that certain plants lose some of their noxious properties when growing on salt marshes, nor is the remark true of the umbelliferous class only. The writer of these pages, when at Pegwell Bay, near Ramsgate, in the course of the summer, found a quantity of the Ranunculus sceleratus growing near a salt 64 UMBELLIFER& pool. While pointing out to some friends this well-known acrid herb, she rubbed her hands with its juices, in order to show its irritating effects, having always produced this very readily in former experiments with the plant. In this instance, however, the juice proved harmless, not even the slightest redness was perceptible on the skin, nor could its application to the skin of any of the party cause any irritation, though several specimens of the ranunculus gathered from various parts of the salt marsh were applied repeatedly. The Hog’s-fennel was well known to the herbalists in Queen Elizabeth’s time. They described it as growing plentifully in the low salt marshes near Faversham, in Kent, and recommended both its external and internal use for cramp, palsy, headache, and leprosy. They called the plant also Brimstone- wort. It is in France termed Peucedane ; in Germany Haarstrang ; and the Italians and Spaniards call it Peucedano. 2. Marsh Hog’s-fennel, or Milk Parsley (P. paliis're).—Leaves thrice pinnate ; leaflets pinnatifid, the segments narrow and pointed ; involu- cres of many leaves; stem furrowed. Plant perennial. This is a very rare plant, found only in a few salt marshes in Kent and Essex. It is milky, and every part abounds with a bitter juice of a most unpleasant odour, as thick as cream, which soon dries into a brown resin. Its properties in our climate are doubtful, and probably dangerous ; but the root is said to be used by the Russians for giving a flavour to various articles of cookery, in the same way that we should use ginger. This plant is about four or five feet in height, and bears white flowers in July and August. 3. Broad-leaved Hog’s-fennel, or Master-wort (P. ostruthiwm).— Leaves twice ternate ; leaflets broadly egg-shaped, cut, and serrated ; general involucre none. Plant perennial. This plant was called Master-wort by the old writers on plants, because of its supposed sovereign power over manifold diseases, and could it effect relief in half the cases for which they prescribed it, it would indeed be a plant of power. Its properties, however, though thus greatly overrated, were not merely imaginary. Its bitter biting root is still prized by country people as a cure for the toothache, and probably not without reason, as, like many other pungent substances, it would afford at least temporary relief. Some good writers on medical botany consider it an excellent febrifuge, and Lango says that agues have been cured by its use when Peruvian bark was ineffectual. ‘The root of Master-wort,” says an old herbalist, ‘is hotter than pepper, and is available in cold griefs and diseases. Used as a decoction with wine it is good against all sorts of cold poison, and against all wounds, especially those that come of envenomed weapons.” This is not a truly wild plant, though often found in moist meadows in Scotland ; but it was formerly frequently planted in the garden, and was boiled for the table. Its stem is one or two feet high, and its white flowers expand in June. Its large sheaths are very conspicuous, and it has several narrow leaves in the involucres of the partial umbels. 26. PARSNIP (Pastindca). Common Wild Parsnip (P. sativa).—Stem furrowed; leaves pin- nate, downy beneath ; leaflets egg-shaped, cut and serrated, terminal one UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 65 3-lobed ; involucres none. Plant biennial. The Parsnip is very frequent on chalky or gravelly soils, and is abundant in many parts of the country, growing on field borders, hedge banks, meadows, and sea cliffs. Its leaves are of bright green, and in July, August, and September, it produces its convex umbels of yellow flowers, which are succeeded by oval fruits. It has, when bruised, a strongly aromatic scent; and its fruits, which seem full of oil, will, if tasted, leave a pungent flavour on the tongue ; the oil has been expressed and used with success, in cases of intermittent fever. If we draw from the soil its long spindle-shaped roots, we can have no doubt, from its odour, that our plant has some affinity with the well-known edible Parsnip ; and tough as it is in its wild state, that culinary vegetable is but the cultivated variety of our native root. In its improved condition the root is full of a pleasant farinaceous substance, too sweet in flavour to be uni- versally relished, though highly nutritious. An old custom prevails of eating this vegetable during Lent, and in the north of Scotland it forms the daily meal of many a group of peasant children, who eat it with much satis- faction when beaten up with milk, and whose sturdy frames and rosy cheeks fully attest the wholesomeness of the diet. Gerarde says that, in his day, good bread was made of the root; and when this is slowly roasted in turf ashes, it forms almost as pleasant a food as the roasted potato. The Parsnip seems to have been more eaten in England in former years than now, and it would still, doubtless, be much cultivated, but that the soil on which it grows is well fitted for the more productive potato, which is more generally liked as food. In the north of Ireland, an agreeable beverage is made from Parsnip roots, brewed with hops, and a very fine spirit has been obtained by distillation from this root. Parsnip wine too was some years ago made in country places, but the writer, who drank of this beverage in early days, is inclined to think that the wine owed much of the excellence of its flavour to the other ingredients which mingled with the root in its composition. This wine is still made in some other countries. Parsnips are sometimes converted into a marmalade. The variety known as Coquaine Parsnip is very large, its root sometimes running three or four feet into the soil, and attaining three or four inches in diameter, while its mass of foliage looks at a distance almost like a shrub, .. and proceeds from the whole crown of the root. This kind is extensively planted in the Channel Isles as fodder for cattle ; but the smaller-rooted Siam Parsnip is more tender, and better fitted than the others for human food. It has been suggested that the excellence of the Alderney cow, for the purposes of the dairy, may be in great measure owing to its feeding so much on Parsnips. A light, deep soil, free from stones, is requisite for the growth of this root, and when in October the leaves at its summit are turning dull yellow, and beginning to decay, then the roots are fit for use. It is not, however, absolutely necessary to withdraw them at that season from the soil, as they are not, like the carrot, injured by the frost, and may safely remain in the ground during winter. The French term the Parsnip Le Panis, the Germans Die Pastinake. It is the Pinsternakel of the Dutch, the Pusternak of the Russians, and the Pastinaca of the Spaniards and Italians. .—9 66 UMBELLIFERA 27. Cow-Parsnip (Herdcleum). Common Cow-Parsnip (H. sphondjlium).—Leaves pinnated and hairy; leaflets pinnatifid and cut, terminal one somewhat palmated ; fruit nearly round and smooth. Plant biennial. Everyone used to the country has seen this large rough-looking plant, standing upon a stem four or five feet in height, among the meadow grass, or growing amidst the bushes of the hedge-bank or copse. The large thick umbels of white or pinkish white flowers appear in July, and the swelling pale green sheaths, which envelop the leaf-stalk, are very conspicuous. It is, as one might infer from its name, a nutritive and valuable herb for cattle, and Mr. Cobbett stated that he had fed six or eight horses for weeks together on this plant. In Sussex it is gathered for rabbits, sheep, and swine, and it is commonly known in that county, as in Kent, by the name of Hog-weed. Horses eat it when on their pasture, but they are not so fond of it as cows are. An attempt has been made in this kingdom to manufacture sugar from the dried stalks of this plant, but it required forty pounds of the stalks to yield one quarter of a pound of sugar, hence the amount of labour required rendered the process too expensive. This plant is very abundant in some of the colder countries of Europe. The grass plains at the west of Kamtschatka are in September rendered of most singular appearance, by the astonishing height of two withering umbel- liferous plants, which give a peculiar character to these wide tracts. They are described as having strong stems, more than fifteen feet high ; and they grow in great numbers, and project far beyond the grasses and other herbaceous plants. Dr. Griesbach thinks that they must belong to Angelica, and to this genus Heracleum. The Kamtschatdales commonly call the latter plant Ratsch, sweet herb, and many are the uses to which they apply it; large bundles of the stout stems are collected, and after being peeled, are laid in the sun. During the process of drying they become covered with a sweet white powder, which is esteemed a delicacy. It would be well if these poor people confined themselves to this use of the plant, or to their practice of boiling and eating the young shoots, which taste like asparagus ; but they have unfortunately discovered that a fermented spirit may be made from its juices, and they are said to drink a quantity of this liquor, in order to pre- pare, by a violent excitement, for a dedication of themselves to their deities, Travellers relate that these rude people become, when under this influence, most violently irascible, and that the use of the liquor so affects the mind that they are seized with a violent desire for self-destruction. Dr. George Moore, referring to this and similar usages among those on whom the glorious light of Revelation has never dawned, remarks, ‘The Thracians used to intoxicate themselves, by casting the seeds of certain poisonous plants into a fire made for the purpose, around which they sat and inspired the narcotic fumes. There can be no doubt that the incantations of witch- craft and magic were generally attended with the practice of burning herbs of a similar kind, that by the aid of poisonous fumigations, the imaginations of those who were subjected to them might be more easily deluded ; for when the nervous system is under such influences, perception is confused, and the UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 67 mind becomes delirious, and the soul beholds what it either hopes or fears. Hence we see that the transition from intoxication to that kind of inspiration known to belong to the mysteries of heathen priestcraft is most natural.” “Such artificial modes of assisting mental abstraction have,” adds Dr. Moore, “been at all periods resorted to. Thus Pliny informs us that the soothsayers were accustomed to chew roots, supposed to be of a certain species of henbane. The Hindoos employ the Indian hemp for the sama purpose; and in St. Domingo the supposed prophets chew a plant called Cohaba, that they may be better able to look into the unseen world and per- ceive the shadow of coming events. Sophocles calls the priestesses of Delphos laurel-eaters, because they were in the habit of chewing the leaves of that plant before they mounted the tripod. The natives of Kamtschatka are said to use the plant Herdcleum sphondylium, with a view to prepare themselves for dedication to their gods.” A kind of beer for ordinary purposes is also made of this plant, both in Siberia and the neighbouring countries, and it is said by Gmelin, in his ‘Flora Siberica ” to be better than that made of corn. The Cow Parsnip was formerly called JMadnep ; the French term it Berce, the Germans Heilkraut, and the Dutch Heilkruid. It is the Spondillo of the Italians, the Hspondillo of the Spaniards ; and in Russia it is termed Pufschh. The word Heracleum is derived from Hercules, who is said to have brought the plant into some medicinal use, as Achilles is said first to have apphed the Yarrow to the healing of wounds. A modern French author has conjectured that Hercules was not only a great hero, but also a superior botanist and doctor ; and though this might be difficult of proof, yet it cannot be denied. We know that in later days, towards the end of the seventeenth century, the pilgrims to the Holy Land were tended during sickness in the hospitals prepared for them at Jerusalem, and that knights and soldiers, in imitation of Hercules, Achilles, and other warriors, became physicians to the best of their power, and carefully nursed the sick. The old, tedious histories of knights of the middle ages show how the warriors strove to obtain the best balsamic mixtures, and the celebrated composition called Baume de com- mandeur was made by these knights. True it is that, like Achilles and Hercules, whom they copied, their botanic science was somewhat uncertain, but they won the faith of the patient in their skill, and thus beneficially acted on his body by means of his mind. Doubtless, too, their natural sagacity, aided by that earnest will, which marvellously quickens the human intellect, enabled them often to select appropriate plants for “physic drinks.” The soldier would, in the early ages of the world, be likely to practise the art of healing, and to study the nature of the vegetable remedies, for the sake of the companion who might have suffered from the sword of the com- mon enemy. 28. Hartwort (Zordglium). 1. Small Hartwort (7. officinile). — Outermost petals of the flower with two unequal lobes ; partial involucres lanceolate, about as long as the umbels ; fruit rough, and the thickened margin distinctly notched. Plant annual. This Hartwort, which has pinkish-white flowers, on a hairy stem, 9—2 68 UMBELLIFERAt about a foot high, was described by our early botanists as growing in the neighbourhood of London. Its flowers, which expand in June and July, are very beautiful. Most botanists doubt if it was ever truly wild in this country, and consider the record to be due to confusion with the next species. 2. Great Hartwort (7. mdximum).—Outermost petals with two equal lobes ; involucres shorter than the umbels ; fruit scarcely notched, but having a thick rim at its margin, and rough with bristles. Root annual. This is a rare plant, found on waste grounds near London, Oxford, and one or two other places. Its flowers are small, and of a pinkish colour, appearing in June and July, and the stem is from two to four feet high. The French call the Hartwort Le Seseli de Crete. It is the Drehkraut of the Germans, and the Gemein Kriczlaad of the Dutch. A very singular genus of plants, named by Linneus Hasselquista, after his friend Dr. Frederick Hasselquist, is supposed to be but a monstrous form of the Hartwort. *** * * Fruit globose, without prickles ; carpels scarcely separating. 29. CORIANDER (Coridéndrum). Common Coriander (C. sativwm).— Stem erect, leafy, round, and marked with lines ; lower leaves twice pinnate and cut; upper ones with segments more numerous, the segments of the upper leaves being hair-like and rigid. Plant annual. The Coriander has so long been found growing without culture in several places of this kingdom, that it is enumerated among wild plants, though it has doubtless escaped from cultivation. It occurs on waste places and fields, but chiefly near towns, and seems more frequent in the south and east of England, having been much grown there. Its stem is about a foot or a foot and a half high, and its white blossoms may be seen in June. The plant may be known by its very singular and pleasantly aromatic fruit, which, when fully grown, is a little ball, marked with a few ribs. The foliage has a strong and offensive odour, which has suggested the name. In the cottage garden there linger yet ‘* Sweet chervil’s cottage-valued weed, And Coriander’s spicy seed.” These seeds are used to disguise the flavour of medicines, and form an in- gredient in curry powder, and when covered with a coating of sugar, consti- tute the well-known Coriander comfits. To render their flavour milder, the seeds were formerly steeped first in wine, and afterwards in vinegar. The flavour of the aromatic seeds is better liked in some other countries than in ours, and Feuillée says that in Peru they are used to so great an extent in the cookery, that an insupportable odour arises from some of the dishes brought there to table. Coriander is used as a spice by the Arabs, and is much relished in Egypt and India. It was among the ancients both a condi- ment and medicine ; and from a passage in the Book of Numbers, where the manna is said to be like Coriander seed, it would appear to have been in common use among the Hebrews. It is frequently mentioned also by the Talmudical writers. The French term the plant Coriandre; the Germans call it Koriander ; the Dutch and Russians Coriandro ; and the Spaniards Cilantro. 1 COW- PARSN¥? Heracleum sphondylium SMALL HART -WoRT Tordylum officmale ny 3. GREAT HART - WORT T. maxim 4. CORTANDER Coriandrum sativam HEMLOCK Commum macnlatum FELP MD : = ny) ; UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 69 *** * * * Kryit short and thick, not prickly nor beaked ; somewhat flatlened. 30. Hemiock (Conium). Common Hemlock (C. maculdtum).—Stem smooth, spotted ; leaves thrice pinnate; leaflets lanceolate, pinnatifid, with acute, sometimes cleft, segments. Plant biennial. The tall dark-leaved Hemlock, with its stem of purplish-brown, spotted and striped with purple, is not uncommon on waste places, and about ruins and walls. The hollow stem is two or three feet high, much branched at the upper part, and bearing its umbels of white flowers in June and July. Although the foliage is of a dull green, yet it is remarkably elegant in form; and in some places the plant grows to a great size. When summer is over, its dead stalks rattle in the wind. Country people call them Kecksies ; and the Hemlock had the old name of Kex. In an old writer, we find one saying, “Ill make these withered Kexes bear my body.” The word Kick or Kex seems now entirely applied to the dried stalks. It is so in Kent; and Clare, who well knew all the common names of flowers in Northamptonshire, describing the summer scene by a river's side, says— ‘Some went searching by the wood, As the cart-rut rippled down Peeping ‘neath the waving thorn, With the burden of the rain, Where the pouch-lipp’d cuckoo-bud Boys came drabbling from the town, From its snug retreat was torn ; Glad to meet their sports again ; Whiere the ragged-robin stood Stopping up their mimic rills With its piped stem streak’d with jet ; Till they forced their watery bound And the crow flowers, golden-hued, Then the Keck-made water-mills Careless plenty easier met. In the current whisk’d around.” Sheep are said to be the only domestic animals which will feed on the Hemlock ; nor do many insects choose its foliage for their food, though the song-thrush will make a meal of its seeds. To the skilful physician the plant affords a valuable means of alleviating human suffering; and the extract made from it is a sedative and alterative medicine. Considerable care is requisite in the preparation of the Hemlock for medicinal purpuses ; and, like all plants used as remedial agents, it is important that it should be gathered at the proper season. Vegetable physiologists have fully’ ascertained that during the growth of a plant remarkable changes occur in succession, both in its chemical composition and sensible qualities. The meadow saffron (Célchicum autumnile) may be instanced as a plant in which the properties are entirely changed during the progress of its development. The roots of valerian are of little worth unless taken from the ground in the autumnal season ; and the foxglove needs, in order that it may retain its properties, to be gathered just as it is coming into flower. The many who seek relief from the medicine afforded by the root of the dandelion would do well to lay in their store during the spring, as it is believed to be stronger in April than in any succeeding month, though at no season of the year are the properties of this root wholly inert. The root of henbane has scarcely any of its powers developed in spring, and if gathered just as the young shoots were emerging from the soil would be almost useless in medicine, though it 70 UMBELLIFERA affords, when gathered in autumn, a powerful and valuable drug. Dr. Fother- gill remarked of the Hemlock: “I know from repeated experiments that the extract which has been prepared from this plant before it had arrived at maturity is much inferior to that which is made when the plant has acquired its full vigour, and is rather on the verge of decline; just when the flowers fade, the rudiments of the seeds (fruit) become observable, and the habit of the plant inclines to yellow, is the proper time for collecting the Hemlock.” The Hemlock has attained a general celebrity, from the belief that the poison drunk by Socrates was made from its juices. The Koneton of the ancients was evidently a powerful poison. It was given to him whom the Areopagus had condemned to death. It was swallowed by ancient philoso- phers who had grown weary of life and its cares and infirmities—by men who knew not the solemn truth that our lives are not our own, and who had never learned from Revelation that no life need be useless, since God may be honoured by patient suffering as much as by active service, by a resigned and thankful old age, as surely as by a fervid and vigorous youth. They came to their last repast as to a banquet, and, crowning themselves with garlands, drank the fatal Koneion, and surviving men praised the courage and fortitude which inspired them. Both Linneus and Lamarck believed that the juices of the Hemlock furnished the poison, though recent writers have assigned other plants as more probable, and the Dropwort Hemlock (the “nanthe crocata) has, as well as several other highly-poisonous herbs, been deemed the poison of the ancients. Professor Burnett remarks on this subject: ‘‘Theramenes and Phocion, as well as Socrates, were poisoned by the Konezon, and though the effects recorded in the ‘Phzdo’ are not exactly in correspondence with those which we should look for from the common Hemlock, it must be remembered, in the first place, that the difference of a more southern climate will affect the energy of the plant; and secondly, that the historian is not a physician from whom an exact detail of symptoms could be expected. That the modern Conium was the Koneion of the Greeks is rendered probable by its being very common in Peloponnesus—‘ most abundant,’ says Sibthorpe, ‘between Athens and Megara’—and that the Cicuta virosa, inanthe phellan- drium, and Wthusa cynipium, which have been occasionally referred to, are not found in any part of that country.” The Hemlock is rarely eaten by mistake, but the old botanists recom- mended to such as had taken it inadvertently a draught of vinegar, ‘“ where- with Tragus doth affirm, that he cured a woman that had eaten the root”— a remedy still approved in cases where persons have eaten the berries of the deadly nightshade. The Hemlock is mentioned in Scripture ; thus the prophet Hosea says: “Judgment springeth up as Hemlock in the furrows of the field.” As the Hemlock, so common in our fields, is somewhat rare in those of the Holy Land, many commentators believe that some other plant is intended, and a species of nightshade has been supposed to be the Hem- lock of Scripture. It is, however, now quite impossible to determine with exactness what was the plant which formed the comparison of the prophet. The most learned of the Rabbins considered it to be the Conium maculdtum. UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 71 31. BLADDER-SEED (Physospérmum). Cornish Bladder-seed (P. cornubiénse).—Root-leaves thrice ternate ; leaflets wedge-shaped, cut, or deeply three-lobed, with acute segments ; stem- leaves ternate, few, the segments long and narrow. Plant perennial. This rare plant is found in Cornwall and on the borders of the neighbouring county of Devonshire. It has a stem a foot and a half high, and bears its terminal umbel of white flowers in July and August. The coat of the carpel is so loose that the seed may be shaken about in it. 32. ALEXANDERS (Simijrnium). Common Alexanders (S. olusdtrwm).—Stem round; stem-leaves ter- nate, stalked, serrate. Root biennial. The word olusatrwm—derived from olus, pot-herb, and atrum, black, must refer rather to the colour of the ripened fruit than to the foliage or stems of this plant. It is truly remarkable for its bright, glossy, green foliage, and during February the young sprays of leaflets give the hedge-bank a degree of rich verdure afforded at that season by no other plant. The Alexanders grows on waste places, among ruins, but most especially near salt rivers or the sea; often abounding in great quantity on the sea cliffs, as it does on those of Dover, and looking in early spring the brightest thing there, save the clumps of yellow wallflowers. By April the dense rounded clusters of greenish-yellow flowers are very numerous, and the broad membranous bases of the leaf-stalks are swollen out into very con- spicuous sheaths. A month later, and the dark aromatic fruits succeed the flowers, and by September the pale withered stalks seem the skeletons of the departed plant. Many persons think the odour of this herb agreeable, and that it resembles that of celery ; and although we may not agree with them, yet it is quite certain that the flavour of the Alexanders was liked, and the plant cultivated by our forefathers. Parkinson, in describing the “ ordering of the kitchen-garden ” in his time (1629), says: ‘ Alisanders are to be sowne of seede, the tops of the rootes with the greene leaves are used in Lent espe- cially” ; and the plant was eaten, both boiled and as a salad, before the use of celery had become general. The Italians introduced the culture of the latter vegetable in the seventeenth century ; and after that time, not only the Alexanders, but several other herbs then in common culture became less’ used. It was the young shoots principally which were dressed for the tables of the olden times, and these, quite early in the spring, have an odour not altogether unpleasant, reminding us a little of what Pliny said of the plant—that it had the flavour of myrrh. The modern taste for vegetables may be said to be more cultivated than that of earlier days, when the kitchen- garden was scantily supplied. What Parkinson says of the habits of people in his time, with regard to vegetables, was doubtless true to an even greater extent two or three centuries sooner. In treating of “the manner of order- ing of many sortes of herbes and rootes for sallets,” he says, “if I should set downe all the sortes of herbes that are usually gathered for sallets, I should not onely speake of garden herbes, but of many herbes which grow wilde in the fields, or else be but weedes in a garden ; for the usuall manner with manie is to take the yong buds and leaves of everything, almost, that groweth, as (ee UMBELLIFERA well in the garden as in the fields, and put them all together, that the taste of the one may amende the relishe of the other.” It must be remembered that most of the writers of this period used their word “sallet” in a wider sense than we do our “salad.” They included in the description of sallets such plants as the asparagus, which were used only in a cooked condition ; and our word “edible” expresses what they meant. They were content with such plants as grew wild, because they knew few others; yet there are but a small number of our native vegetables which afford, even when cultivated, a good and wholesome food ; for most of those seen at our tables are, like our potatoes, French beans, peas, lettuces, onions, and radishes, the product of distant soils. The frequent wars of the earlier times prevented men from cultivating the land for anything, save such produce as was necessary to sus- tain life, though during periods of peace horticulture made some little pro- gress. Doubtless, the description of Harrison is true: “Such herbes and fruits,” he says, ‘as grow yeerlie out of the ground of seed, have been verie plentiful in this land in the time of the first Edward, and after his daies ; but in processe of time they grew also to be neglected, so that from Henrie the Fourth, till the latter end of Henrie the Seventh, and beginning of Henrie the Kighth, there was little or no use of them in England, but they remained either unknowne, or supposed as food more meet for hogs and savage beasts to feed upon than mankind ; whereas in my time their use is not onely resumed among the poore commons, I mean of melons, pompions, gourds, cucumbers, radishes, skerrits, parsneps, carrets, cabbages, navews, turneps, and all kindes of salad herbes ; but also fed upon in daintie dishes, at the tables of delicate merchants, gentlemen, and the nobilitie, who make their provision yearlie for new seeds out of strange countries, from whence they have them aboun- dantlie.” Hume tells us, that when Catharine of Arragon wanted a salad she had to despatch a person to Flanders to procure one. Some kind of salad might, however, have been doubtless procured for the Queen in England, though it was probably so inferior to that to which in her earlier days she had been accustomed, that she might not choose such a dish to appear at her table. It is likely that it would have been mainly composed of some herbs which, as Evelyn says of mushrooms, “ Nature affords her vagabonds under every hedge” ; but winter-cresses, water-cresses, lamb’s-lettuce, Alexanders, sam- phire, chervil, rampions, and rockets, were even then commonly used as salads ; and the goosefoots and oraches were boiled for the tables of those who could not procure the more expensive carrots, parsnips, and skirrets. Doubtless, many a one provided himself like a character in Albion’s England :— ** A sheeve of bread as brown as nut. And cheese as white as snowe, And wildings of the season’s fruite He did in scrip bestowe.” The stem of the Alexanders is very stout, furrowed, and often three or four feet in height. The name Smyrniwm is synonymous with myrrh. The plant is called Smyrnerkraut by the Germans ; Muceron by the French; and Macerone by the Italians. The young shoots, when boiled, are said to resemble asparagus in flavour. Pennant mentions that they were boiled and A WILD BEAKED - PARSLEY Amthriscaus sylvestris CORNISH BLADDER- SEED Physosperuram Cornubiense l GARDEN 3B .P A. cerefolum on 2 COMMON ALEXANDERS Siayrmmm ohisatromn. SHEPHERDS WEEDLE 6 COMMON B.P A. vnlgaris Scandrx pecten-veneris Pl. 96. UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 73 eaten by sailors, who, in returning from long voyages, happened to land on the south-west coast of the Isle of Anglesey, where the plant is abundant. *#***¥* * * Bruit oblong, usually more or less beaked. 33. SHEPHERD’S-NEEDLE (Scdndiz). Common Shepherd’s-needle (S. pécten-veneris).—Beak much longer than the roughish fruit, compressed and fringed with fine stiff hairs ; leaves thrice pinnate, segments short and slender. Plant annual. A common and a troublesome weed is this plant, for it is found in almost every corn-field, from May to September, and in some fields seems almost as abundant as the corn itself. Those who are at all observant of wild flowers recognise it at once by the shape of its beaked fruits. The flowers grow in small umbels, and are white ; and one would not suppose, from their size, that they could produce the bunches of long, sharp-pointed fruits, which we may often see at the same time on another part of the plant. These fruits are bright green, some of them two or three inches long, and sharp enough to merit the names applied to the plant, of Shepherd’s-needle, Pucker-needle, and Venus'’s- comb. The plant is from three or four inches to a foot high, of uniform bright green colour. It is quite wholesome, and was formerly used as a pot-herb. It is supposed to be the same species as that which the ancient Greeks used as food. 34. BEAKED PARSLEY (Anthriscus). 1. Wild Beaked Parsley (4. sylvéstris).—Stem hairy below, smooth above, swelling a little below each joint; leaves twice pinnate ; leaflets pinnatifid ; fruit linear, beaked, and smooth. Plant perennial. This is the first of all our umbelliferous plants to lend its white umbels to grace the hedges or field-borders. As early as the end of March, the flowers appear, their clusters drooping at first, but afterwards becoming erect. The stem is three or four feet high, furrowed and branched, and having many leaves, The whole plant is somewhat aromatic, and is eaten in some parts of the kingdom, where it is called Wild Chervil; but being a favourite food of rabbits, it is more frequently gathered for their use than for that of man. It is not unfrequent, and it continues in flower till June, when its oblong fruits with very short beaks may be seen, and the foliage has assumed the. dark, somewhat dull green which the plant has when fully grown. It affords good herbage for cattle, and is a favourite food of kine. Though the foliage is wholesome for man, yet the roots are poisonous, and, when they have been eaten as parsnips, have in some cases proved fatal. Professor Burnett remarks, that it is a plant of good omen; for, as it will grow only on rich ground, it is an index of the nature and condition of the soil. The flowers give a good yellow dye, and the leaves afford a bright green tint. 2. Garden Beaked Parsley, or Chervil (A. cerefélium).—Stem hairy above the joints only; umbels lateral and sessile; leaves thrice pinnate ; leaflets pinnatifid; fruit large, linear, smooth, with a beak about half its length. Plant annual. The white flowers of this plant appear from May to June. It is not truly wild, though growing in many hedges in this kingdom, and in the neighbourhood of gardens. It was once much esteemed as a pot- 11.—10 74 UMBELLIFERA: herb, and was also used for salads, and to give flavour to soups. The stem of the Chervil is slender, about a foot or a foot and a half high; and the whole plant is very delicate and graceful, and of pale yellowish-green. It is the Cerfeuil of the French ; the Kalberkropf of the Germans ; the Kervel of the Dutch ; the Cerfoglio of the Italians. 3. Common Beaked Parsley (4. vulgdris).—Umbels stalked, opposite the leaves , stem smooth; leaves thrice pinnate; leaflets pinnatifid; fruit rather large, egg-shaped, and bristly, with a short smooth beak. Plant annual. This wild Chervil has some general resemblance to the Sweet Chervil of the garden, though its stem is taller and thicker, and swollen beneath each joint. It is more often found near towns and villages than elsewhere, and is not uncommon on waste places and by road-sides. The small white flowers expand in May and June. The foliage is considered unwholesome, and is said, by its resemblance to the garden Chervil, to have misled some Dutch sailors who were in England in 1745, and who, having put it into soups, were rendered ill by its use, while to some of their number it proved fatal. Yet Hooker jils says it was formerly cultivated as a pot- herb. 35. CHERVIL (Cherophyllum). 1. Rough Chervil (C. ¢emuléntum).—Stem round, rough, and spotted, swelling below each joint; leaves broadly oblong, pinnatifid, with spine- tipped segments. Plant biennial. The tall stems of this plant, often attain- ing the height of three feet, render it very conspicuous in hedges and among bushes during June and July. The umbels of the flowers are white, and at first drooping ; and the short beaks of the fruit, in this as well as the other species, procured for it its French name of Cerfewil & fruits courts. The Germans call the plant Ranke Kerbel, and it is the /Vilde Kervel of the Dutch. This herb is said to possess very dangerous properties, and, when eaten, to produce giddiness. A species of this Chervil (C. bulbésum), which we are accustomed to consider deleterious, but which is sometimes found in our gardens, is, however, used with safety in cookery by the Kalmucks, and the root is eaten in its uncooked state. These people consider the plant as affording a nutritious and excellent food ; but it is likely that climate affects its properties. 2. Tawny-fruited Chervil (C. mirewm).—Stem swelling below the joints, rough; leaves thrice pinnate; leaflets pinnatifid. Plant perennial. Sir William Hooker and Dr. Arnott remark of this plant: “ Leaflets peculiarly attenuated, at least on the upper leaves (for the radical ones are more obtuse), a character which distinguishes this from every other British species.” The stem is from three to four feet high, angular and spotted, and the umbels of white flowers appear in June. It has an aromatic odour. George Don reported that he had found it in fields near Montrose, and at Corstorphine, Edinburgh, but though these localities have been repeatedly searched, no one has succeeded in substantiating his record. 3. Broad-leaved Chervil (C. aromédticum).—Leaves twice pinnate ; leaflets undivided, serrated, and tapering to a sharp point; root perennial. This plant, which grows to the height of about two or three feet, was UMBELLIFEROUS TRIBE 75 reported by Mr. Don as occurring at the side of the river Lunan, near Guthrie, in Forfarshire, but no other botanist has ever recorded it as grow- ing in this country—a peculiarity of so many of Don’s records of rarities. 36. CiceLy (Myrrhis). Sweet Cicely (J/. odordta).—Leaves somewhat downy beneath, very large, and thrice pinnate, with pinnatifid leaflets ; bracts of the partial invo- lucres long and pointed. Plant perennial. This is, perhaps, not a truly wild plant, for it is usually found near houses, where it may have grown in gardens. It was called also Sweet Chervil, and praised because it had, “besides its pleasantness in salads, great physicall virtues.” The old herbalists describe it as “so harmless, that you cannot use it amiss ;” and told that its roots was held as “effectual as that of Angelica to preserve from infection in the time of the Plague.” These roots, boiled and eaten with oil and vinegar, were regarded as tonic. The whole plant is aromatic, and the root very powerfully so. Parkinson remarks: “This herbe is much used both by the French and Dutch, who doe much more delight in herbes of stronger taste than the English doe. It is sowne early, and used but a little while, because it quickly runneth up to seede. Sweete Chervil, or as some call it, Sweete Cis, is so like in the taste unto anise seede, that it much delighteth the taste among other herbes as a sallet. The rootes likewise are not onely cordiall, but also held to be preservative against the Plague, either when greene, dryed, or preserved with sugar.” The odour of the foliage of this plant is certainly very agreeable, though we doubt if the root “made into tarts ” would please modern palates. The (termans yet use the seeds very generally in cookery ; and in the north of England they were, some years since, used to polish oaken floors and furni- ture ; but oaken floors are gradually disappearing now, and hence the plant is altogether in less request. The large fruits are sometimes nearly an inch long, dark brown, and extremely fragrant. The Sweet Cicely occurs frequently in pastures at the north of England, and in the Lowlands of Scotland. The stem is two or three feet high, the umbels terminal, and composed of numerous white flowers, which are pro- duced in May and June; the upper surfaces of the leaves are bright and glossy. **¥ ee ee * * Hyrwit not beaked, clothed with prickles, or with a prickly involucre. 37, CARROT (Daiicus). 1. Wild Carrot (D. caréta).—Leaves thrice pinnate ; leaflets pinnatifid, segments narrow and acute; prickles of fruit slender, mostly distinct and spreading. Plant biennial. Scarcely one of the umbelliferous tribe, common as some of them are, is more frequent than this plant in our hedges, field- borders, and meadows. Its beautifully cut leaves, which in spring are of a most tender green, are very elegant as they unfold in May on the sunny bank, and in autumn are tinted with a golden hue, or reddened into purple or crimson. The umbels of the flowers stand, during June and July, on a stem a foot or more in height. They are white, more or less tinted with 10—2 76 UMBELLIFER At pink, but often having one peculiarity which renders the Wild Carrot’s blossom easy of recognition. The central flower of the umbel is of dark purplish-red ; and though this often falls early, yet in the first stage of the flower it is in most cases present. The umbel, when in fruit, is usually remarkably concave, and naturally enough suggested one of the familiar country names of the flower, Bird’s-nest. A bird’s-nest literally we know it cannot be, yet it is often the nightly dormitory of a species of bee, that folds its weary wings, and slumbers in the well-sheltered hollow afforded by the long stalks of the umbel, which, especially in damp weather and during night, coil inwards at the top, and would well exclude the shower or dews. The root is pale yellow, and we have never seen it of the bright orange hue of the garden Carrot, though its odour is so like that of the well-known vegetable, as to leave no doubt of its affinity with it. ‘Tough as this root is in its wild state, it is by most botanists believed to be the origin of the culti- vated Carrot; and the latter may be cited as one of the many instances of the singular improvement wrought by care and skill on a wild and apparently useless root. Miller and some other horticulturists, it is true, have planted the Wild Carrot, and after taking much pains to change it into the esculent root, have been unable to do so; but, on the other hand, Professor Buckman says he has had reports of success from friends who have experimented in cultivating it. The Carrot is supposed to be the Staphylinos of Dioscorides, and, like other plants named by the ancients, has been the subject of some learned discus- sions. The description of the plant given by the Greek physician corresponds in every respect with the Carrot, and he remarks that the root not only grew wild, but was cultivated as an esculent. He describes it, too, as bearing umbels of white flowers, which are in the middle of a purple-red, or almost saffron-red colour. The Greeks call it also Daucus, and that earliest writer on cookery, Apicius, terms the plant Carota, but many writers think that the Pastinaca of the Greeks was the Carrot. It was from the ancient name of Carota that the French Carrotte, the Italian Carota, and the English Carrot were derived. The Spaniards call the plant Zanahoria ; the Dutch Peen ; and Mohre is a common name for the plant in Germany. Beckmann is of opinion that though the Greeks and Romans were certainly acquainted with our Carrot, they used it far less, both in cookery and as fodder for cattle than the moderns do, which would account for its not very frequent mention in their works. We owe to the Flemings chiefly the use of the Carrot as an addition to our vegetable diet, and in early periods they seem to have been among the best of European horticulturists. When the tyranny of Philip II. drove many of his subjects from their homes, in the time of our Queen Elizabeth, a large number of the Flemish refugees came and resided in England. Some of them finding the soil about Sandwich, in Kent, well suited for the growth of the Carrot, soon cultivated the vegetable, which had been introduced a few years earlier, and the new edible at once recommended itself by its flavour and nutriment, and became a general plant of the kitchen-garden ; while many varieties, produced by climate and culture, soon became well known to gardeners. The long and horn Carrots, the two kinds generally erat ic Oh aR 0 ly 9% rte Cc BROAD- LEAVED 3 GH CHERVIL Cherophyllum temnlentam TAWNY FRUITED.c ; \ ROU’ 1 SWEET CICELY A 2 Myrrhis odorata C. aurenm WILD. CARROT 5 Daucus carota Wa |: Act rp) hn ath, , me Bax Lay DS) Le ih, es Ay) 4 2 in " P wy = C. swecica &. MISTLETOE Viscum album Pl. 99. IVY TRIBE si Foremost to deck the sun-warm’d soil, ““The whitethorn branches overhead, ' The arum shows her speckled coil ; Their showers of tiny petals shed ; Or glossy leaves of blue-bell rose A second snow, when snows are past, Impatient from their long repose. And balmy airs are come at last. Trim mercury might there be seen With undevelop’d spikelets green ; ‘*Through all the vale, above, around, The skies with merry notes resound ; The wren and robin, roving free, Sing to the sunshine cheerily, No longer hid beneath the thorn, Nor crouching in the lanes forlorn. ‘© Or gaily glittering from afar The spangled pilewort’s burnish’d star ; Now, tempted by the warmer glow, The tender starwort dares to blow ; Anemone with pensive bell, And tufts of scented Moschatel ; Veronica, whose eye of blue ‘* So spend an hour, and you shall prove Mingles with coltsfoot’s golden hue ; That ’tis an easy thing to love, — And daisy,* with expanded ray, Love birds, love flowers, love nature gay, Fit emblem of the opening day. Love Him who made the April day.” 2. Ivy (Hédera). Common Ivy (H. hélix).—Leaves egg-shaped, or heart-shaped, with from 3 to 5 angular lobes; umbel simple, erect, downy. Plant perennial. The large masses of green ivy on some of our old walls or lofty trees are among the most picturesque objects of the landscape, and afford continually to the artist and poet some grace of form or colour, or some interesting association. There are few of us who cannot recall some ancient church or castle, or mouldering arch, or patriarchal tree, covered more or less with its beautiful verdure ; and many have seen old trunks of ivy which must have been the growth of centuries. Such is the Ivy which grows around an old ash-tree near the ruins of Fountains Abbey, with its trunk three feet two inches in girth ; such is that Ivy which grows against a broken wall of the ancient Richborough Castle, in Kent. Amid these decayed remnants of grandeur the old Ivy is still verdant, and while its aged trunk seems almost imbedded in the masonry, its branches spread far and wide, and with their bright though dark-green canopy shelter the song-birds, which sing as gladly now as they did in the time of that old castle’s pride. Of many an ancient abbey we may say, in the words of Robert Nicholls: ‘The Ivy clings about the ruin’d walls Of cell and chapel, and refectory ; An oak-tree’s shadow, cloud-like, ever falls Upon the spot where stood the altar high ; The chambers all are open to the sky ; A goat is feeding where the praying knelt ; The daisy rears its ever open eye Where the proud Abbot in his grandeur dwelt : These signs of Time and Change the hardest heart might melt.” It is likely that the Ivy often, by its shelter, and by the strong frame- work of its branches, supports the ancient edifice, and prevents its entire destruction. To it we doubtless owe all that now remains of those strong walls reared by our forefathers in their fortresses and monastic institutions. Both Mr. Loudon and Dr. Lindley considered that its growth by the side of a well-built house is rather beneficial than otherwise, as it keeps the walls dry. “Ivy,” said the latter writer, ‘may render a house damp by retaining * Day’s eye. 1.—11 82 ARALIACEA snow in winter, which changes to water, trickles down the walls, and never thoroughly evaporates. But this is of rare occurrence, and may be prevented by beating the ivy after snowstorms, and will only be found an inconvenience when houses are built with mud. No doubt, when walls are not of sound brickwork, or of some other hard materials, the Ivy may introduce its roots into the masonry, and thus do mischief, allowing water to run down its branches, and to follow them into the crevices where they have insinuated themselves; but in all cases of well-built houses we are convinced that Ivy is beneficial, so far as keeping the walls dry.” Assuredly the Ivy, with its glossy verdure, never falling into the sere and yellow leaf, is a great addition to the beauty of a building. Those, too, who love the songs of early birds, of the cheerful robin or wren, of merry thrush or whistling blackbird, may rejoice in thinking how that well-clad bough shelters the young nestlings before their wings are fitted for flight, or their voices for song. Thrushes, fieldfares, blackbirds, and wood-pigeons prize the chocolate berries, which are fresh and juicy when haws and hips, blackberries, and fruits of the mountain-ash, have passed away. ‘True it is that the Ivy-bough sometimes shelters the owls, which may scare away our sleep by their strange and mournful tones ; true it is that the spider weaves its tracery among it, and sometimes finds its way into the open windows ; but, on the other hand, what a store of honey do its flowers supply to bees and butterflies, when all flowers save themselves are dying or dead, and when the insect world will soon perish by cold or hunger, or wait, under other forms, the reviving influence of spring! Late in the year myriads of flies resort to the ivy cluster, and hovering about these blossoms, on brilliant wings, may be seen the Red Admiral butterfly, and the Painted Lady, and many a less showy, but not less beautifully formed and tinted insect, from the sober and busy bee to the golden hornet or the gauzy fly. But beautiful as the Ivy may be over ancient chapel or modern dwelling, yet its own picturesque grace is more distinctly seen when the plant climbs to the summit of the aged tree, sending out its sprays to garland every bough. Few objects can be more beautiful than an Ivy so situated, especially if some more light and delicate green foliage, belonging to the tree around which it twines, falls down among its dark festoons. When time has stripped the tree of its own leaves, or winter winds have scattered them, then, too, the dark, white-veined leaves are very beautiful, and no lover of scenery can fail to mark this decoration. The leaves vary much in form at different periods of the growth of the plant. When young, they are three or five lobed, strongly veined with white, while a degree of redness often tinges both leaf and stem. As the plant grows older, the shape of the leaf differs, often becoming less lobed ; and the green hue is brighter, and more glossy. The plant creeps along, and sends out tufts of roots quite different from the line of pegs by which it clings to a wall or trunk of a tree. The Ivy does not merit the charge of being a parasite. It is not— ‘«The Ivy which had hid the princely trunk, And suck’d the verdure out on’t.” Its pegs are not true roots; they are not like the roots of the mistletoe ; IVY TRIBE 83 they take no nourishment from the plant on which they hang; it only supports its weakness by clinging to its stronger neighbour. Many timber trees covered with Ivy attain a large size, yet we cannot say of the plant that it is not injurious to some of the trees which sustain it. There are many cases in which the ivy-band clasps too closely, and both prevents the further growth of the tree and injures it by indenting its bark. The Rev. W. T. Bree communicated, some years since, to a scientific journal some facts relating to the fall of an aged ash, which sufficiently proved the power of the Ivy to injure living trees. This tree had, apparently, at some period been pollarded early, or lopped at about eighteen feet from the ground ; and at that time the trunk had for many years been partially hollow, and in a state of decay. It retained its hold in the earth by one large branch only of its roots, aided by the stem of the Ivy, which was nearly a foot in diameter, and which, springing up directly on the opposite side, clasped the trunk, and acted as a prop to keep it in an erect position. “‘ Moreover,” says Mr. Bree, “the Ivy towards the very top of the tree formed so large a head of massive and persistent foliage as to occasion the wind to have additional power against it, and cause the vessel, as it were, to carry too great a press of sail. In order to give some idea of the magnificence of this individual specimen of Ivy, the finest perhaps, on the whole, out of many extraordinary fine ones on the premises, | may mention that the men employed to cut up and clear away the windfall calculated that there was at least enough of the evergreen to form a good waggon-load or more, which now, alas! served no better purpose than to feed the sheep, to whom the shrub affords a favourite and wholesome repast.” This tree afforded incontestable proof of the injurious effects of the close pressure of the Ivy ; for its stems were tightly laced and plaited together, and in some places literally tied in hard knots around the smaller branches of its foster-parent. The effects were to be seen in the deep weals or indentures imprinted on various parts, not merely of the trunk, but of the solid wood of the tree itself; and the foliage had in consequence become very scanty, though portions hung still among the sable mass of Ivy in light and airy festoons. Mr. Bree adds that he has seen such palpable injury produced by Ivy upon timber trees, that even putting aside the a priori probability of the case, as well as the testimony of antiquity, he cannot but. be greatly surprised that a contrary opinion should ever have been seriously entertained. Though the Ivy takes no nutriment from the tree by its peg- like supports, yet the root at its base must impoverish the soil by imbibing its moisture ; and the dense covering, though affording some winter shelter, yet would serve to deprive the tree of some of that light and air which one would suppose must be beneficial to it. Few have noticed the aspects of nature and vegetation more accurately, few have loved them better, or written of them more pleasantly, than Bishop Mant. His beautiful volumes on the Months commend themselves to all naturalists and botanists by their truth; while the generous and tender sentiment, and the tone of elevated piety which breathes throughout, must make them interesting to a large class of readers. Referring to the subject of our present remarks, Bishop Mant says— 11—2 R4 ARALIACEA: ‘Its verdure trails the Ivy shoot The little birds’ afflicted host ; Along the ground from root to root ; The Ivy, fairest plant to seize, Or climbing high, with random maze, And promptest, on the neighbouring trees, O’er elm, and ash, and alder strays ; O’er bole and branch, with leaves that And round each trunk a network weaves shine Fantastic, and each bough with leaves All glossy bright, tenacious twine, Of countless shapes entwines, and studs And the else naked woodland scene With pale green blooms and half-form’d Clothe with a raiment fresh and green, buds. Fair is that Ivy twine to see ! The Ivy, of our native flowers But as ye love the goodly tree, That now among the latest pours O rend away the clasping wreath, — Its pale green bloom, and ripes its seed ‘Twill pay the kind support with death. Of black and shining balls to feed, Ah, that beneath such semblance fair Impervious to the winter’s trost, Should lurk conceal’d such deadly snare |” The Ivy was regarded by Pliny as very injurious. He remarks that it injures plants wherever it clings to them, that it breaks sepulchres of stone, and undermines city walls. The Ivy is truly a climbing plant, sending its shoots upwards so long as they can find a place to which they can attach themselves. When, however, it can find no further support, it then forms tufts of foliage at the summit, and becomes a roundish mass of verdure, putting forth neither rooting fibres nor creeping stems ; and its very leaves, changing their usual form of lobed edges, become either broad or narrow, with almost entire margins. Ivy bushes, about four or five feet high, may thus often be seen in the hedge, deriving little or no support from the plants near ; and though beautiful for their evergreen hue, yet the plant seems to lose all its graceful form under these circumstances. The small yellowish-green flowers of the Ivy, with their minute calyx-teeth, may be seen in clusters on the plant from September to November. The leaves, though so well liked by sheep, and fed on by deer, have a bitter flavour. Old physicians recommended a decoction made from them as a sudorific ; and an infusion of the berries in vinegar was one of the numerous medicines recommended to be taken against those severe epidemic diseases which have disappeared since cleanliness and ventilation have received more attention in great cities. An old writer says—“ The berries are a singular remedy to prevent the plague, and also to free them that have got it, by drinking the berries thereof, made into powder, for two or three days together ; the leaves, applied with rose-water and oil of roses to the temple and forehead, easeth the headache, though it be of long continuance.” He adds, too, that those who are troubled with the spleen, shall find much ease by the continual drinking out of a cup made of Ivy, so as the drink may stand some time therein before it be drunk. He gives for this one of those reasons which seem to have been more convincing to the men of those genera- tions than to modern judgments. “Cato,” he says, “saith that wine put into the Ivy cup will soak through it, by reason of the antipathy that is between them ; this antipathy being, as he says, very great between wine and Ivy, for that one who hath a surfeit by drinking wine will find his speediest cure if he drink a draught of the same wine wherein a handful of Ivy leaves has been steeped.” The chief worth of this potion, we should imagine, would be that the bitterness of the Ivy might serve to give a disgust for wine, and prevent a speedy return to the wine-cup. IVY TRIBE 85 Pliny had said, many centuries earlier, that Ivy berries taken before wine prevented its intoxicating effects ; and the bacchanalian fillet of ancient times, as well as the later use of the Ivy bough as the sign of a tavern, were both doubtless founded on some of these notions respecting the effect of the plant. Sir Henry Ellis, in his notes to “ Brand’s Antiquities,” brings several passages from old writers to prove that, a few centuries since, Ivy hung over a door signified that wine was sold within. An allusion to this old custom is pleasantly made by Braithwaite, in his ‘“‘England’s Parnassus,” published in 1600— ‘*T hang no Ivy out to sell my wine.” And in Vaughan’s “Golden Grove” the following passage occurs: “Like as an Ivy bush put forth at a vintrie is not the cause of wine, but a signe that wine is to be sold there ; so likewise if we see smoke in a chimney, we know that fire is there, albeit the smoke is not the cause of the fire.” Coles, in his “Introduction to the Knowledge of Plants,” says, “Box and Ivy last long green, and therefore vintners make their garlands thereof ; though, perhaps, Ivy is the rather used because of the antipathy between it and wine.” The Ivy is still used, because of its evergreen nature, in dressing churches and houses at Christmas ; and that it has long been so employed is certain from an old Christmas carol in the British Museum, in which the respective merits of this plant and the holly are compared. ‘‘Ivy hath berys as black as any slo; There come the owle, and ete hem as she goo: Holy hath byrdys, a full fayre flok, The nightingale, the poppyngy, the gayntyle lavyrok.” The ancients generally had so great an esteem for the Ivy, that we wonder not at the disappointment of Alexander the Great, because he could not make the Ivy of Greece grow near Babylon ; it was consecrated to Apollo ; Bacchus had his brows and spears decked with its leaves ; and the people of Thrace wore it garlanded about their armour. The Ivy crown was the meed of the poet, and wreaths of Ivy were presented by the priests of Greece to the newly-married couple—meet emblem as it was of undying love, amid the ravages of time and the blasts of adversity. Modern physicians recognise in the plant none of those properties which it was believed to possess, but = consider the berries as emetic. In the south of Europe and north of Africa, an exudation is found on the old trunks of the Ivy, called ivy gum, which is found to be stimulant, and is sometimes substituted for Gum Bassora. It is used as a remedy for toothache, and contains more resin and lignum than gum. Walker says of the resin which exudes from some of our old Ivy stems when wounded, that it renders bait attractive to fish. Thin slices of Ivy wood are used in filtering liquids, and the roots are employed by leather-cutters for sharpening their knives. The Ivy is confined to temperate regions, and is more or less common in all the countries of Europe. The French call it Lierre ; the Germans, Epheu ; and the Dutch have for it the amusingly expressive name of Klimop. The Italians call it Edera ; the Spaniards, Hiedra. It is not indigenous to Russia, but is called there Bljustsch. Mr. KE. P. Thompson, in his “Life in Russia,” 86 ARALIACEA.—IVY TRIBE speaking of the love of the people of that nation for flowers, says, “They decorate their houses with them, and nurse them throughout the winter with the greatest solicitude. Ivy is made to serve a pretty and ornamental pur- pose in their drawing-rooms. They contrive a little frame of light lattice- work on wheels, over which the Ivy is made to twine, forming a pleasant and refreshing-looking arbour, under which the lady of the house ensconces her- self in a kind of rural retirement.” But it is in Germany chiefly that the Ivy is used as a most lovely and graceful decoration to dwellings. In England, we consider it enough to let its wreaths hang about our walls ; but in Germany, where in its wild state it is far less luxuriant than in our country, it is trained also about the walls of the interior of the house. Anna Mary Howitt, in her “ Art-Student in Munich,” mentions that, from the palace to the cottage, there is scarcely a room to be found which does not possess its Ivy-tree, and hardly a window to be seen in the street which is not rendered a bower by the festoons of Ivy. It trails around the bars of the window, makes a verdant background to bouquets of flowers placed in vases or flower-pots, and often wreaths its picturesque leaves around a small statue of the Madonna. ““A very pleasant little paper, I have often thought,” says this writer, ‘might be written descriptive of the windows in a German street; and the mode in which the cherished Ivy was trained would play a conspicuous part in it. You may read much of the character of the inmates of the dwelling by the Ivy. Sometimes its leaves are dusty, and its growth is ungraceful, and its sprays untastefully trained ; sometimes it grows ina gaudy flower-pot, or swings from the centre of a window in a hideously-shaped Blumen-lamp— flower-lamp, as it is called—a kind of swinging-vessel for plants, very much in vogue here; but, as a rule, the Ivy is gracefully, nay, most poetically trained ; its Blumen-lamp, if it be planted in one, is often of a graceful rustic character, perhaps of red terra-cotta, with delicately moulded foliage of yellowish-white clay meandering over it. “But it is not alone in windows that you see the Ivy trained. Ivy often forms a green and fresh screen across a room, being planted in boxes, and its sprays trained over rustic framework. Ivy often casts its pleasant shadows over a piano, so that the musician may sit before his instrument as within a little bower. Ivy may be seen adorning the shrine which hangs upon the wall, or dropping its sprays above the lady’s work-table. “The staircase in the house of a great painter here is a complete little bit of fairy-land, thanks to his love of Ivy, which festoons the balustrade of the polished oak stairs, and strews forth its kindly leaves among the rarer beauties of palms and myrtles, which rise grove-like upon the landings! I know an apothecary’s shop which is rather like a bit of wild wood, from its growth of Ivy, than a shop of physic. I was told the other day of a studio here equally sylvan; and I know an old cobbler who could not mend his shoes without seeing his Ivy-bush daily before him as he works.” The Ivy does not grow wild either in America or Australia, though common in some parts of Asia. In the Channel Islands it is an exceedingly luxuriant and beautiful plant, the trunks of the trees in Jersey being, almost without exception, covered with its wreaths, which not only add to their CORNEAZ—CORNEL TRIBE 87 summer beauty, but soften the sterile aspect of the winter landscape, and give to the island a perpetual greenness. Nor is the luxuriance of the plant to be seen on the trees only: wayside walls, and even sea-rocks, are enriched by its verdure ; and a mile or two out of the town of St. Heliers there are cliffs against whose bases the waves dash wildly, yet.whose slopes and sum- mits are decked with evergreen masses of leaves, and which seem to a casual observer to be some ancient ruins, clad in the mantle which so often hides the time-rent wall. Sometimes our Ivy wreath twines into the darkness of some chasm in a building, becoming paler tinted as it recedes further from the light of day. We have seen an Ivy branch so situated, in which all the leaves were of so yellow a tint, that the classic reader might have been reminded by it of the Hedera pallens—the golden Ivy of Virgil. This plant appears, however, to have been the yellow-berried Ivy, the Hedera chrysocarpa, which is probably a variety of our common Ivy, with brighter and more yellow leaves. Mr. Dodwell, in his “Travels in Greece,’ mentions having found a fragment of a vase near Athens, which was ornamented with the Ivy plant in relief, gilt. Most classical botanists consider that the Ivy mentioned in the Idylls of Theocritus was the Hédera hélix. 'The Giant or Irish Ivy, H. canariensis, is by some writers considered a distinct species, but most regard it but as a variety. It is a native of Madeira, and not of Ireland. An Ivy of Amboyna (H. wmbellifera) is said to furnish a wood scented like rosemary or lavender. Miss Strickland relates that when last the coffin of Queen Catherine Parr was opened, a wreath of Ivy was found entwining the temples of the royal corpse. A berry which had fallen there and taken root at the time of a previous exhumation had silently, from day to day, woven itself into this green sepulchral coronal, and had wound about the brow where the rich golden hair had once clustered, and where noble thoughts had gathered, and our first Protestant queen lay thus adorned in her lone resting-place. Order XL. CORNEA‘—CORNEL TRIBE. Sepals 4, attached to the ovary; petals 4, oblong, broad at the base, inserted into the top of the calyx; stamens 4, inserted with the petals ;_ ovary 2-celled ; style thread-like ; stigma simple; fruit a berry-like drupe, with a 2-celled nut; seeds solitary. This is a small order, consisting chiefly of trees and shrubs inhabiting the temperate regions of Europe, Asia, Africa, and America. It offers little to our gardens besides some of the Cornels, and the Spotted Laurel (4ucuba japdnica), which is a common evergreen plant in Japan. The leaves form the chief beauty of this shrub, as the flowers, which are green without, and purplish-red within, are small and inconspicuous. CORNEL (Cérnus).—Calyx of 4 teeth; petals 4, superior; stamens 4; nut of the fruit with 2 cells and 2 seeds. Name from cornu, a horn, from its hard wood. CoRNEL (Cérnus). 1. Wild Cornel, or Dogwood (C. sanguinea).—Branches straight ; leaves opposite, egg-shaped ; flowers in flat cymes, without involucre. Plant 88 CORNEA perennial. When wandering along the country lanes, very early in the year, while the trees of the wood and the bushes of the hedge are yet leafless, the twigs and branches of this plant are often very conspicuous. ‘They are almost sure to be plentiful if the soil is of chalk or limestone; and we have some- times seen the Cornel so abundant in Kent that a wild hedge was, for a mile together, half composed of these boughs. Many of the branches were so red, so like twigs of coral, that its scientific specific name, and its name of Bloody Twig, by which it is still called, and which Pliny termed it, seemed appropriate, though unpleasing. It is also commonly called Dogwood, this name having been given, it is said, because the berries were not fit even for a dog; but it probably had some other origin, since Dog-berry and Hound’s- tree were other of its old names, and it was also called Gaten-tree, both by old herbalists and poets. The more probable derivation of the name is from the dags or sharp-pointed skewers used by butchers, and made from the shoots of the Cornel. The name Hound’s-tree is said to have reference to a former use of its bark in preparing a wash for mangy dogs. Chaucer calls it Gaten-tree. In France the Cornel is called Le Cornowiller ; the Germans term it Kornelbaum ; the Dutch, Korneljeboom ; the Italians, Corniola ; and the Spaniards, Corniro. The plant is known in Russia as the Kuroslejepnik. Our wild Cornel is rather a bush than a tree, though by training it may be made to acquire the height of twenty feet. Its foliage is of somewhat dull green, the leaves strongly veined, and, in autumn, more or less tinged with dark purple or red. The white flowers are produced in June and July, and are succeeded by small berries, at first purple, but gradually becoming black. These berries are bitter and astringent, and abound in an oil which in several parts of the Continent is expressed or extracted by boiling, and used both for burning in lamps and for cookery. They yield about a third of their own weight in oil; and M. Granier, in a paper addressed some years since to the Institute of France, stated that the cost of its extraction did not exceed four sous for a pound. The hard wood was once valued for pikes and javelins, though the “good and beautiful Cornus” of Virgil is by most writers thought to be another species, the Cornelian Cherry (Cérnus mascula). There is some degree of astringency in the bark of our wild Dogwood, but it is not equal to that of several North American species, which yield some of the best tonic medicines used in that country, and scarcely inferior to Peruvian bark. The compact wood of our tree is used for the manufacture of small articles, as arrows, skewers, toothpicks, and lace-bobbins ; and the larger wood of some of the species found in other countries is serviceable for more important pur- poses. The burnt ashes of Cornel wood afford a good charcoal for gunpowder. Our Cornel is well suited for plantations, thriving well under the dripping of trees; and several of the species are very ornamental to gardens and shrubberies. The White-fruited Dee-wood (C. alba) is often to be seen there ; and the Cornelian Cherry is a well-known and favourite tree. The twigs of this latter species have not the usual red tint of the Cornels, but are ash- coloured ; and in early spring, when the little starry yellow flowers appear on the leafless boughs, the plant is very conspicuous. The fruit is like a small plum, but of red colour. Its flavour is harsh till it has hung some time on the tree, when it is pleasantly acid. It was once much more valued in the CORNEL TRIBE 89 English garden than now, for ladies of olden times not only made the fruit into tarts, but prepared various articles of confectionery with it, and used it at dessert. Tusser, who wrote in Queen Mary’s time, calls the fruit Cornet plum; and Lord Bacon termed it Cornelian. Gerarde says: “The male Cornell-tree groweth in most places in Germanie without manuring; it groweth not wilde in Englande, but yet there be sundrie trees of them grow- ing in the gardens of such as love rare and daintie plants, whereof I have a tree or two in my garden.” The Turks still use these fruits in sherbet. It is more likely to be this tree than the Red Cornel of which Virgil says in his “Georgics ”— ‘*The war from stubborn myrtle shafts receives, From Cornels jav’lins, and the tougher yew Receives the bending figure of a bow.” The berries of the Chilian Cornel are a favourite fruit with the natives of Chili, who make of them a sort of beverage which they term Theca. It isa remarkable fact that the bark of the young twigs of Cornus florida, if rubbed upon the teeth, renders them extremely white; and the Indians extract a good scarlet dye from the bark of its fibrous roots. Sir Charles Lyell remarks of this plant: “ When I arrived in Virginia, in April, I found the woods everywhere enlivened by the dazzling white flowers of the Dogwood (C. florida), the average height of which somewhat exceeds that of our white- thorn ; and when, as often happens, there is a background of cedars or pine, the mass of flowers is almost as conspicuous as if a shower of snow had fallen upon the boughs. As we sometimes see a pink variety of the wild thorn in England, so there occurs here, now and then, though rarely, a pink Dogwood. Having never remarked this splendid tree in any English shrubbery or park, I had some fine young plants sent home from a nursery to several English friends, and among others to Sir William Hooker, at Kew, who was not a little diverted at my zeal for the introduction of a tree which had been well established for many years in the British Arboretum. But now that I have since seen the dwarfed and shrubby representatives of this species in our British shrubberies, I am ready to maintain that it is still unknown in our island. No Virginian who was not a botanist could ever recognise it in England as the same plant as the Dogwood of his native land; yet it is. capable of enduring frosts as severe and protracted as are ever experienced in the south of England ; and the cause of its flowers not attaining their full size in our climate is probably a want of sufficient intensity of light and heat.” 2. Dwarf Cornel (C. swécica).—Leaves egg-shaped, smooth, sessile, and opposite ; flowers few ; involucre of four leaves. Plant perennial. This is a very different plant from the Cornel of our shrubbery, or that of our hedges, being a herb, and not a shrub or tree. It has subterranean and creeping woody stems, from which arise the flowering stems, about six inches in height. The flowers are produced in July and August, and are dark purple, with yellow stamens. At the base of the umbel are four egg-shaped yellow bracts, tinged with purple. The red berries are considered to have tonic properties, The Highlanders, who believe that they increase the appetite, give to the plant the name of Lwus-a-chrasis, plant of gluttony. The Dwarf Cornel grows on most Alpine pastures in Scotland and the north of England, from York- 11.—12 90 LORANTHEA® shire to Sutherland. Mr. Loudon says it is very difficult to cultivate in a garden, though planted in a bed of peat in a shady situation. Sub-class III. COROLLIFLOR&. Petals united, bearing the stamens. Order XLI. LORANTHEA—MISTLETOE TRIBE. Stamens and pistils often on different plants ; calyx attached to the ovary, with 2 bracts at the base, sometimes almost wanting ; petals 4—8, united at the base, expanding in a valve-like manner ; stamens equalling the petals in number, and opposite to them; ovary 1-celled ; style 1 or 0; stigma simple ; fruit succulent, 1-celled, 1-seeded. This order consists of shrubby plants, which are mostly true parasites, their seeds not germinating on the earth, but only on some other plant. MISTLETOE (V’/scwm).—Stamens and pistils on separate plants. Barren flower without calyx ; petals 4, fleshy, united at the base, each bearing an anther. Fertile flower, calyx a mere rim ; petals 4, very small ; stigma sessile ; berry 1-seeded, crowned by the calyx. Name, the Latin name of the plant. MISTLETOE (Viscum). Common Mistletoe (/. dlbwm).—Stem branched, repeatedly forked ; leaves egg-shaped and lanceolate, blunt ; flowers sessile in the forks of the stem. Plant perennial. The Mistletoe-bough, with its pale yellow-green leaves and clear white berries, is not an unfrequent object in the winter woods, or on the trees of gardens or orchards in the southern counties of England. It is found growing on several trees, but is more common on the apple than any other, and is very rarely to be found on the oak. Ray mentions the oak, hazel, and apple as the trees on which this parasite chiefly fixes; but adds, that it may be found also on the pear, hawthorn, common maple, ash, lime, elm, and service-tree. Sir William Hooker and Dr. Arnott mention that it occurs in Gloucestershire on the common maple (Acer campéstre), and on lime trees and locust trees (fobinia pseud-acacia) in Bedfordshire. It also grows on cherry laurels in gardens. Mr. Dovaston planted the Mistletoe on twenty- three trees ; but most of the young plants died early, particularly when planted on the resinous or gum-bearing trees ; and he found it to thrive well only on the oak, the apple, and the hawthorn. Some poplar and lime trees, however, in Surrey have been completely destroyed by the quantity of Mistletoe which grew upon them. Mr. Dovaston remarks that he never saw the plant grow- ing well on the oak but once, and that, singular to say, was in Anglesey, in the park of Lord Uxbridge ; and it was the more remarkable as hanging almost over a very grand Druidical Cromlech. It is usually in the south of England a bush of about three feet in length, with a smooth and green stem, separating at the joints when dead ; the leaves are thick and leathery ; the small yellow flowers, which may be seen from March to May, grow in the axils of the upper leaves, and are very thick and succulent. The berries ripen in December, and the yellowish-green plant is then very conspicuous, for no MISTLETOE TRIBE ol verdure is in the woods save that of the holly or fir, or some other evergreen tree. There is little reason to doubt that our Mistletoe was the plant reverenced by the Druids; but as an allied parasitic plant (Loranthus ewropeus) is very commonly found in the south of Europe to grow on the oak, and as our Mistletoe rarely occurs on that tree, some botanists have supposed the Loranthus to be the ancient plant. Those who hold this opinion consider that as this latter plant is not now wild in Britain, it was eradicated entirely when Druidism was suppressed, in order that every vestige of the wonderful superstition might be removed. Professor Burnett, who does not at all agree with this theory, remarks: “The Mistletoe, although seldom found on the oak, is not exclusively a parasite of other trees, and its rarity on the former not improbably led to the preference which the old botanists, as well as the Druids, gave to Viscus quercus, the Mistletoe of the oak, over the Viscus oayacanthi, the Mistletoe of the hawthorn, when these plants were held in much repute in medicine. Hence the very circumstance of a search being made for quercine Mistletoe, in an age when these islands were covered with forests of oak, is opposed to the idea of the Loranthus being the plant in question. Had it then been indigenous here, the oak would have been its common if not exclusive habitat ; and this confirms the belief that the Viscum was the branch which the Druids went with such solemnity to cut.” To our own minds, the fact that the Mistletoe can be planted, and will thrive, on the oak, renders it much more likely that it should have been the chosen plant, than that in times when forests were so numerous, and the means of access to distant parts of the country so difficult, the Druids could have succeeded m wholly extirpating the Loranthus, even had they wished to do so, The Mistletoe which Mr. Dovaston saw in Anglesey might have grown on the oak without artificial help, as it still does in some parts of England. The Society of Arts many years since offered a premium for the discovery of the Mistletoe on the oak, and had a specimen sent them from an oak in Gloucester- shire ; and Mr. Jesse mentions having received a piece of Mistletoe from an oak near Godalming, in Surrey. The latter writer remarks that this question of the Mistletoe and Loranthus is not one merely of our times. It excited attention three hundred years ago ; for Belon, when travelling in Macedonia, speaks of a Mistletoe which grew on the oaks there, and observed that there was not a single oak-tree on the road between Mount Athos and Tricala on which the plant did not grow, though he says it was different from that which attaches itself to the apple, pear, and other trees. In all probability it was the Loranthus europeus that the traveller saw. The connection of the Mistletoe with the most ancient traditions of Scandinavia and other European countries must ever invest the plant with an interest derived from association. We know, indeed, little of the Druids or their worship, though their vast monuments, their cairns and cromlechs, are scattered over our country, and are remnants of its worship ere its history began. It is from Pliny, chiefly, that we gather the little which is known of the use made by the Druids of the Mistletoe. This ancient naturalist, in the words of his translator, Dr. Philemon Holland, says: ‘“ And forasmuch as we 12—2 92 LORANTHEA are entred into a discourse touching miselto, I cannot overpasse one strange thing thereof used in France. ‘The Druid (for so they call their Divinours, Wise Men, and the State of their clergie) esteeme nothing in the world more sacred than miselto, and the tree whereon it breedeth, so it be on the oke. Now you must take this by the way. These priests or clergiemen chose of purpose such groves for their Divine service as stood onely upon okes: nay they solemnise no sacrifice, nor perform any sacred ceremonies without branches and leaves thereof, so that they may serve well enugh to be named thereupon Dryid in Greek, which signifieth as much as the oke priests. Certes to say, whatsoever they find growing upon that tree over and besides its own fruite, be it Miselto, or any thing else, they esteeme it as a gift sent from Heaven, as a sure signe that the God whom they serve giveth them to understand that he hath chosen that peculiar tree. And no marveile, for in verie deed Miselto is passing geason (scarce), and hard to be found on the oke.” This naturalist further describes how the Druids with many devout ceremonies cut down the Mistletoe, as Drayton, many years after, relates in his “ Poly-olbion ”:— ‘‘The fearless British priests, under the aged oak, Taking a milk-white bull, unstained with the yoke, And with an axe of gold, from that Jove-sacred tree The Mistleto cut down.” Pliny also adds that the Mistletoe in some sort kills trees. He says, too, that the Druids call it All-heal. Full as his own great work is of super- stitions connected with plants, yet this old writer closes his account by quaintly moralizing on these practices: “So vain and superstitious,” he says, “are many nations in the world, doing oftentimes such foolish things as these.” The Celtic name for the oak was gwid, gue or guy, meaning the shrub, par excellence ; and the name by which the Mistletoe is still called in France, Le gui, is evidently but a slight alteration of this. Borlase, in his “ Antiquities of Cornwall,” says that the Druids gathered the plant with great solemnity near the close of the year, saying, ‘‘The new year is at hand—gather the Mistletoe ;” and even yet, in some parts of France, the peasant boys go about asking largesse, and crying, “A guy Van neuf ;’ while in the upper part of Germany, the people, about Christmas time, run from door to door in the villages, shouting, “ Guthyl, Guthyl ;? which, he adds, are plainly the remains of the Druidical custom. The name by which the plant is known in most parts of Germany is Der Mistel. The people of Holstein call it Marentakken, which means literally “the branch of the spectres,” from the belief that holding a branch of the Mistletoe in the hand would not only enable a man to see ghosts, but also to speak to them. It is in Italy called Vischio, the Spaniards term it Liga, the Poles Jemiel, and the Russians Omela. The Druids, probably, considered the Mistletoe of the oak efficacious in all sorts of illness. In many parts of Germany it is yet valued for its healing virtues, and supposed to cure wounds ; but it is evidently relied upon rather as a charm than from any remedial properties in the plant itself; for the peasants believe, too, that if the huntsman carries it in his hand it will ensure success. The herbalists in Queen Elizabeth’s time, however, enumerated various preparations of Mistletoe both as external and internal MISTLETOE TRIBE 93 remedies; and one of them remarks: “Why that should have most virtues that grows upon oaks, I know not, unless because it is rarest and hardest to come by; and our college’s opinion is in this contrary to Scrip- ture, which saith, ‘God’s tender mercies are over all His works; and so it is, let the College of Physicians walk as contrary to Him as they please, and that is as contrary as the east to the west. Clusius affirms that which grows upon pear-trees to be as prevalent, and gives order, that it should not touch the ground after it is gathered ; and also saith, that being hung about the neck, it remedies witchcraft.” The herbalists of those days all praise its efficacy as a remedy for epilepsy, as did the Italian physician Matthiolus. Even as lately as the reign of George I., the plant was extolled for its use in this malady ; and Sir George Colbatch, a physician, published, in 1719, a “Dissertation concerning Mistletoe,” recommending it as a_ specific in epilepsy. The berries are slightly astringent, and a preparation of these was recommended in later years; but in earlier times a branch of the Mistletoe was merely hung about the neck. At one time it was actually called lignum sancte. crucis—wood of the holy cross ; and the praises bestowed upon it only serve to prove how, in those days of oral tradition, legends gradually adapted themselves to the form of religious belief, till that “more sure word of prophecy” had shed its pure light on the heart and under- standing, and driven away superstition. The Mistletoe is almost the only British truly parasitical plant which bears green leaves, though we have several brown and leafless parasites, like the Broom-rapes. At no time of its existence is this plant nourished by the soil, but derives its sole food from the substance of the tree. Mosses, ferns, and lichens, are often, in popular language, termed parasitic; but they are nourished entirely by the moisture of the atmosphere, or by the soil lying in the crevices of the bark. The insertion of the roots of Mistletoe into the very substance of living vegetables, and the mode of germination of the plant, have occupied considerable attention among botanists, and are sources of great physiological interest. Dutrochet, as well as other men of science, made numerous experiments on the plant, with a view to ascertain its exact mode of growth. Everyone is aware of the fact, that when a seed is planted in the ground, whatever may be its position in the soil, it will send its leaves .. and branches upwards, and its roots downwards. Dr. Erasmus Darwin ingeni- ously accounted for this on the principle that the leaf-bud was stimulated by air, and the roots by moisture, and that, therefore, each elongates itself where it is most excited. The experiments made on the Mistletoe confirmed the opinion derived from observations on various plants, that the tendency of the root is always towards the centre of the object on which it grows, and that the young shoots take invariably the opposite direction. Let us plant the seed of the Mistletoe wherever we choose, under a bough, or upon it, or on either side, the root strikes inwards to the centre of the branch, and grows horizontally or laterally, or even shoots upwards, while the stem is produced in the opposite direction. The Mistletoe is found, when parasitic on the apple, to contain twice as much potash and five times as much phosphoric acid as the tree itself; and when growing on the oak, its bark is astringent. It has, however, lost its 94 LORANTHEA —MISTLETOE TRIBE old renown as a medicine, and the magical properties mentioned by Virgil and other ancient poets are remembered, in our country, at least, but as old superstitions. The clear white berries have been made into bird-lime, but recent inventions are superseding that use of the plant, and these fruits will, probably, soon be left to feed the missel-thrush or “storm-cock,” as he is called in country places, whose harsh notes from the apple-tree sometimes sound a suitable prelude to the raving of winds and the pelting rains and snows which they are thought to predict. The fruits look very beautiful, however, when mingled with the red berries and glossy leaves of the holly in the winter bouquet. The plant is very properly excluded from the boughs which deck the churches at that season ; not, however, for the reason which that orthodox old antiquary, Brand, supposes, because of its heathenish associations, for these are so little remembered now that they need not inter- fere with modern practices, but because it is so often in rustic places associated with Christmas merriment, that it might awaken remembrances less favourable to thought and devotion. The playful customs beneath the Mistletoe-bough in the country-house are of old antiquity in our land, and are supposed to have originated in the circumstance that the plant was dedicated to the goddess Friga, the Venus of the Saxons. In the feudal ages, the bough was gathered with much ceremony on the evening before Christmas Day, and hung up in hall or kitchen with loud shouts and rejoicing :— ‘*On Christmas Eve the bells were rung ; On Christmas Eve the mass was sung ; That only night in all the year Saw the stoled priest the chalice rear ; The damsel donn’d her kirtle sheen ; The hall was dress’d with holly green ; Forth to the woods did merry-men go To gather in the Mistletoe ; Then open’d wide the baron’s hall, To vassal, tenant, serf, and all.” From Herrick’s “ Hesperides,” we find that this plant, and its companions, retained their places as ornaments in the house till Candlemas Day, at which time the poet says— “Down with the rosemary and bayes, Down with the Mistletoe : Instead of holly now upraise The greener box for show : The holly hitherto did sway, Let box now domineer ; Until the dancing Easter Day, Or Easter’s Eve appear.” The “crooked yew” was to succeed the ‘“ youthful box,” and the “birch, and many flowers beside,” were to yield to the “green rushes and scented bents,” till the close of the year, when Mistletoe and holly should resume their reign. The Mistletoe is pretty general in Europe, and in some other portions of the globe attains a larger size than with us, and is more frequent. Thunberg says that the parasitic Cape Mistletoe, Viscwm capénse, was disseminated every- where on the branches of the trees by means of the birds, which ate plenti- CAPRIFOLIACEAiA—WOODBINE TRIBE 95 fully of its berries ; and Kalm mentions a fibrous Mistletoe (Viscum jilaments- sum), found in abundance in Carolina, which he says the inhabitants make use of as straw in their beds, and also to adorn their houses. They pack brittle goods with it as with straw, and also use it as fodder for cattle. Our common Mistletoe, he says, grows on the tupelo, or sweet gum-tree, and on the oak and lime, so as to render their summits quite green in the winter. Colonel Munday often mentions the Mistletoe of Australia, which, he tells us, hung upon the trees, and, like vampires, seemed to exhaust the life-blood of the plants on which they fixed their fatal affections. He, too, names the gum-tree asa plant on which the parasite grew in great abundance. This writer says : “Early in the morning, when the dew is yet on the leaf, a peculiarly aromatic odour arises from the gum forest. Sometimes I have fancied the scent resembles that of mace, cloves, or pepper, but that of camphor is very general. These balmy and spicy exhalations from the ‘medicinal gum,’ so different from those of other hot climates where the soil is richer and the vegetation rankly abundant, must be a healthful ingredient of the air we breathe. Depending from some of the larger gum-trees were the most enormous Mistletoes I ever saw. One or two of the clusters of this parasite were so uniform in shape as to look like a huge chandelier of bronze, for that was their colour, hanging plumb down from some slender twig.” Order XLII. CAPRIFOLIACE A _WOODBINE TRIBE. Calyx attached to the ovary, and usually having bracts at its base ; corolla regular or irregular, 4—5 cleft ; stamens equal in number to the lobes of the corolla, and alternate with them; ovary 3—5 celled ; stigmas 1—3 ; fruit usually fleshy, crowned by the calyx. This order contains many plants of great beauty, differing much from each other. It consists of shrubs or bushes, and herbaceous plants, with opposite leaves. Many very lovely species ornament our gardens, and some, like the Honeysuckle, adorn our native landscape. Excepting some astringency in the bark, however, the plants of this order have no remarkable properties. 1. ELpER (Sambdcus).—Calyx 5-cleft; corolla wheel-shaped, 5-lobed ; stamens 5; stigmas 3, sessile ; berry 3—-4 seeded. Name from the Greek sambuke, a musical instrument, in making which its wood is said to have been used. 2. GUELDER Rose (Vibiirnwm).—Calyx , 5-cleft; corolla funnel-shaped, 5-lobed ; stamens 5; stigmas 3, sessile; berry l-seeded. Name, the Latin name of the plant. 3. HONEYSUCKLE (Lonicera).—Calyx small, 5-toothed ; corolla tubular, irregularly 5-cleft ; stamens 5; style thread-shaped ; stigma knobbed ; berry 1—3 celled, with several seeds. Named in honour of the German botanist, Adam Lonicer. 4. Linnaia.—Calyx 5-cleft ; corolla bell-shaped, 5-cleft, regular ; stamens 4, two long and toothed ; fruit dry, 3-celled, 1 cell only bearing a perfect seed. Named after Linnzus. ~ 96 CAPRIFOLIACEAL 1. ELDER (Sambicus). 1. Common Elder (8. nigra).—Leaves pinnate ; leaflets egg-shaped or roundish, and serrated or jagged; stem woody; flowers in cymes. The Elder, which is sometimes a bush, sometimes a small tree, is well known to all dwellers in the country as being the very first bush in the spring hedge to put forth its pale:green, strongly-scented leaves. As early as February we may see it sprouting, even when snows are whirling over the landscape. Clare mentions it in his description of Nature on ‘the last of March :’— ‘* Here ‘neath the shelving bank’s retreat, The horse-blob swells its golden ball, Nor fear the lady-smocks to meet The snows that round their bosom fall ; Here, by the arch’s ancient wall, The antique Elder buds anew ; Again the bulrush, sprouting tall, The water wrinkles, rippling through.’ b) In June, the white clusters, tinged with greenish-yellow, form a con- spicuous mass in the hedge. The plant grows well on exposed places, and even near the sea. It is usually seven or eight feet, but is occasionally eighteen or twenty feet in height, the branches having a greyish bark, and the main stem being usually rugged. The younger branches are full of pith, which the schoolboy pushes out, leaving a hollow pipe fitted for his toys ; and the pith has been used in electrical experiments. In olden times the cylinders thus formed were used for pipes ; hence the plant had in England the old name of Pipe-tree, or Bour-tree, and in Scotland was called Bore-tree. Pliny says: “The shepherds are thoroughly persuaded that the Elder-tree, growing in a by-place out of the way, and where the crowing of cocks from any town cannot be heard, makes more shrill pipes and louder trumpets than any other.” The wood of the older branches, which is hard and firm, is used for skewers. The autumnal berries are usually purplish-black, but are some- times white. They are very mawkish and disagreeable, but the pleasant spiced wine made of them is often drunk around the winter fire in country- houses, and is considered cordial and wholesome, though unfit to be taken in large quantities, as it is very cloying. A syrup, very good for soreness of the throat, may also be made of the berries ; and these have been extensively used to adulterate port wine, to which they give a rich colour, though, if not well regulated, they will impart to it a most unpleasing flavour. A good blue dye is also made from these fruits. They are sometimes eaten by poultry which stray beneath the boughs, but they are said to be injurious to them, and especially to turkeys. It seems that in ancient times the appear- ance of this fruit indicated the season for sowing wheat :— ** With purple fruit when Elder branches bend, And their bright hues the hips and cornels lend, Ere yet chill hoar-frost comes, or sleety rain, Sow with choice wheat the neatly furrow’d plain.” The unfolded flower-buds of this tree make, when pickled, one of the best substitutes for capers, and though the scent of the blossoms is not pleasing, yet a fragrant water is made from them by distillation, and they Ee 42 va! ant" isfy ii ae ff ih DWARF ELDFR a Sambucus ebulns COMMON ELDER migra. Ss Pl. 100, WOODBINE TRIBE 97 are used to flavour vinegar. [lder-flower wine is said also to be very good, and to have.a flavour like Frontignac. The French seem to like the odour of these flowers, for they place layers of them in store-rooms between their apples, or pack them in baskets with this fruit, to communicate to it an agreeable scent. In this country the chief use made of the blossoms is in the preparation of a useful and common salve, and in country places they are steeped in boiling ~water, and thus afford a cosmetic, which we have applied often during our childhood with good success, for removing the effects of long exposure to the sun. Few of our native plants have had and still retain more renown for their medicinal virtues than the Elder. Indeed, as Sir J. E. Smith said, this tree is, as it were, a whole magazine of physic to rustic practitioners. Boerhaave is said sometimes to have taken off his hat when he passed the tree, so useful did he deem it in the alleviation of human maladies. The early shoots, boiled as asparagus, were supposed greatly to strengthen the vital powers; the berries and juices of the roots were also prescribed, though with some cautions as to their use, on account of their powerful properties ; and the distilled water, besides making the skin “faire and beautifull,” was thought to cure headache. Gerarde praised the Elder highly, as did John Evelyn, who recounted its virtues at some length, though he says he cannot commend its scent, which is noxious to the air, nor has he a word to say in favour of its beauty. “If,” he says, “the medicinal properties of the leaves, bark, berries, etc., were thoroughly known, I cannot tell what our countryman could ail for which he might not find a remedy from every hedge, either for sickness or wound. The inner bark of Elder applied to any burning takes out the fire immediately ; that, or in season the buds, boiled in water-gruel for a breakfast, has effected wonders in a fever ; and the decoction is admirable to assuage inflammation. But an extract may be composed of the berries, which is not only greatly efficacious to assist longevity, but is a kind of Catholicon against all infirmi- ties whatever; and of the same berries is made an incomparable spirit, which, drunk by itself or mingled with wine, is not only an excellent drink, but admirable in the dropsy. The ointment made with the young buds and leaves in May, with butter, is most sovereign for aches and shrunk sinews, and the flowers macerated in vinegar are not only of a grateful relish, but good to attenuate and cut raw and gross humours. And less than this could I not (with the leave of the charitable physician) to gratify our poor wood- man.” It seems never to have occurred to Evelyn, any more than to modern believers in “infallible specifics,” that He who gave life and health was not likely to give also to fallen man any certain preventative against that Death which came upon all men when Adam sinned in Eden. As Milton said— ‘*Dwelt in herbs and drugs a power To avert man’s destined hour ; Learn’d Machaon should have known Doubtless to avert his own.” Other good writers of those days held similar opinions to Evelyn of the efficacy of the Elder; yet a line in Lyly’s “Epilogue,” written in Queen Elizabeth’s time, would lead to the inference that it was in some disrepute. u1.—13 98 CAPRIFOLIACEA “Laurel for a garland, Elder for a disgrace,” says this old writer ; and in an elegiac verse of Spenser we find it included with the cypress as an emblem of woe :— | ‘‘Now bringen bitter Elder branches sere.”’ Piers Ploughman had, before this, said in his “ Vision ”— ‘“‘Tmpe on an Elderne, and if thy apple be swete, Muchel marvaile me thynketh :” “Imp” being the old word for graft. The Elder-tree is often said, especially when in blossom, to exhale impure air. Its scent is certainly unpleasant, yet we doubt its unwholesomeness, having spent many a day beneath its shadow. Pliny says that the leaves when boiled are as good as other potherbs ; but we cannot recommend them, though they may prove of much use when laid among mole-hills, as they appear to drive moles from their haunts in garden or park. Country people also gather branches of Elder, and strike with them their flowering shrubs or fruit-trees, and say that no insects will afterwards touch them, For the same purpose they pour an infusion of the leaves over the plant. There is a cultivated variety of the Elder with variegated leaves in shrubberies, and others with yellow, green, or white berries. Like our common Elder, they grow with singular rapidity, but never arrive at any great size. In the northern part of Scotland the berries seldom ripen, though the tree thrives well in other respects. The name of Elder seems to be derived from the Dutch Holder. The Germans call the plant Hohlunder, and it is also known in Holland as the Vlierboom. The Italians call the tree Sambuco ; the French, Swreau ; the Spaniards, Sauco ; and the Russians, busia. It was a fancy in former times that Judas hanged himself upon an Elder- tree, and not only Gerarde and other herbalists, but several poets, as Ben Jonson, refer to the idea then prevalent. The well-known purplish-brown fungus which grows in clusters on the bark of this tree, the Hirneola auricula- jude, is shaped very much like an ear, and is to this day called Jew’s-ear, but from the incidental mention of the plant in connection with the traitorous disciple, it is probable that the modern name is a corruption of Judas’ Ear. Coles, in his work on the “Knowledge of Plants,” says of this fungus, ‘“‘ Jewes Hare is called in Latin Fungus Sambucinus, and Auricula Jude.” He adds, that these mushrooms are said to have grown on the tree ever since the catastrophe referred to. This plant was supposed to have wondrous virtues, and we find an old remedy for a cough in the following lines :— “For a cough take Judas’ Eare With the paring of a peare : And drinke this without feare If you will have remedie.” One of the old names for the Elder was Ellan—still extant in this country —or Ellhorn. Arnkiel says: “Our forefathers also held the Ellhorn holy, wherefore, whosoever need to hew it down (or cut its branches) has first to make request, ‘ Lady Ellhorn, give me some of thy wood, and I will give thee some of mine when it grows in the forest’—the which with partly bended knees, bare head and folded arms was ordinarily done, as I myself have often WOODBINE TRIBE 99 seen and heard in my younger years.” An objection to burning Ellan-wood will be found to survive in some parts of this country. 2. Dwarf Elder, or Danewort (S. ébulus).—Stem herbaceous, furrowed ; stipules egg-shaped, serrated ; leaves pinnate ; leaflets serrated ; flowers in terminal cymes ; root perennial. This plant has, during June and July, when it is in flower, a general resemblance to the Common Elder, and its scent is also similar. It is, however, a herb and not a tree, and its angular stem is not more than two or three feet high. The blossoms are white, tinged on the outside with red, and the anthers are conspicuous by their purple colour. The berries are reddish-black, and have violent emetic properties, though they were prescribed by old physicians, and praised by herbalists for their efficacy in many disorders ; a confection made of the fruit is said to be eaten with safety in small quantities, and is sometimes used medicinally. The berries afford a violet juice, which gives a good blue dye. They are strewed in granaries, that their strong odour may drive mice from the corn; and the Silesian farmers commonly place them among their pigs, believing them to cure some maladies to which these animals are liable. No cattle will touch the foliage, but the leaves, dried and powdered, are said to furnish a good material for cleaning metal. The Dwarf Elder is not common, but is found occasionally by waysides and in waste places. Sir J. EK. Smith thus accounted for the name Danewort :—“ Our ancestors evinced a just hatred of their brutal enemies the Danes, in supposing the nauseous, foetid, and noxious plant before us to have sprung from their blood.” Sir J. D. Hooker says the plant is supposed to have been introduced by the Danes. 2. GUELDER Rose (Vibirnum). 1. Mealy Guelder Rose, or Wayfaring Tree (V. lantéina).—Leaves elliptic, heart-shaped at the base, serrated, downy beneath ; flowers in ter- minal cymes ; root perennial. Those who are used to parts of England in which chalk and limestone prevail are mostly familiar with this shrub, for it grows frequently in the woods and hedges of such dry soils south of Yorkshire. One of its common names is Cotton Tree, doubtless from the cottony appear- ance of its young shoots. As early as February these attract the attention of the country rambler, for they stand up above the branches of the leafless thorn and other plants, each surmounted by.a small close button-like tuft of grey-green hue, which in time displays the greyish-green strongly-veined leaves and the opening buds of the cluster. As the foliage gradually unfolds its downy covering gives it the appearance of being covered with dust, and by May the large compact clusters of white flowers are fully expanded. Though a sober-looking plant, yet it is bright enough in autumn, when its bunches of glossy fruits are of a most brilliant scarlet, gradually changing as they ripen into purplish-black, and distinguishing themselves from all our other wild-wood berries by growing in flat compact clusters, as well as by having some fruits in the cluster of glowing scarlet, while others are dark as jet. Their flavour is very austere, and they seem to be left untouched by the birds, which probably only feed on them when other berries are not to be had. They are also astringent in property ; but in 13—2 100 CAPRIFOLIACEA North America they are, after fermentation, made into a sort of cake by the Indians ; and Sir Joseph Hooker, who found the berries of one species abun- dant on some parts of the Himalaya, says that they are called Nalum by the people there, and are eatable and agreeable. In Switzerland they are used in making ink. The bark of the tree is made into bird-lime, but seems to be inferior for this purpose to that of the holly. Evelyn says that the inner bark is so acrid that it is included by some writers among those plants used in raising blisters on the skin, and it is said that a decoction of the leaves will dye the hair black. The young shoots are very tough; so much so that the gatherer of the wild nosegay must use a knife in severing the twig and its flowers. They are in some countries used in making baskets, and for the stems of tobacco pipes. In Kent they are often bound around faggots to keep them together. William Howitt has a pleasing poem on this shrub, and thus addresses it :— ‘‘ Wayfaring Tree, what ancient claim Hast thou to that right pleasant name ? Was it that some faint pilgrim came Unhopedly to thee, In the brown desert’s weary way, *Mid toil and thirst’s consuming sway, And there, as ’neath thy shade he lay, Bless’d the Wayfaring Tree ?” Such a name will indeed awaken the imagination to ponder on its origin, and to wonder to what weary wanderer the wayside tree proved so welcome as to win his regard. 2. Common Guelder Rose (V/.. épulus).—Leaves broad and somewhat heart-shaped, with from three to five pointed and serrated lobes ; flowers in large cymes. Plant perennial. This is not an uncommon tree in the English or Scottish woodlands, being more ornamental to them by the varied autumnal tints of its foliage, and by its glistening berries, than even by its summer flowers. The leaves at this season are of red, purple, and green hues, and we know of no native berries so beautiful as those of the Guelder Rose. They hang in drooping clusters, and are smooth, and clear, and bright as rubies. They remain on the boughs long after the foliage has dropped from them leaf by leaf, and they often contrast most vividly with the silken tufts left by the clematis flower which is winding near them. The shrub bears its blossoms in June and July. These are creamy white, and far inferior in beauty and snow-like hue to those of the Guelder Rose, which adorns the shrubbery, as Cowper says— ‘Throwing up into the darkest gloom Of neighbouring cypress, or more sable yew, Her silver globes, light as the foaming surf That the wind severs from the broken wave.” This, however, is but a cultivated variety of the woodland shrub. The flowers in their wild form are not densely crowded, but form a loose flat cluster, the inner blossoms being small, bell-shaped, and perfect, and the outer ones consisting of a large flat five-lobed corolla, destitute of stamens and pistils. As in the Umbelliferse and the Composit large numbers of minute flowers are massed together for the sake of rendering them more noticeable to bees and other honey and pollen-seeking insects, so in elder and Guelder Nm MEALY GUELDER ROSE Viburnum Jantana COMMON GUELDER ROSE V. opulms ey 100, co ' ’ ol *? : iy" rts er ye ru ¥ * ; va i s . ! { / ' ; : d ] a ‘Fee ‘ tao j ‘ i oUF ed - ‘ / < ‘ lap 4 ‘ : { , | c ; : J ’ ‘ 1 * , a an 4 - a " i X > . moh ¥ i oe ~ BP ite) - Vi WAt : ) e 4 iv iti eh 2 1 iil hi WOODBINE TRIBE 101 Rose a similar plan is adopted. In Guelder Rose the ordinary flowers, that produce honey, stamens, and style, are only one-third of an inch across, but for the sake of advertisement the outer row of flowers are enlarged to three diameters, though to attain this size they have to give up their organs, and become mere banners for the attraction of insect patrons. The perfect flowers secrete honey, but are scarcely fragrant. The wood of this shrub is used for making skewers, and the berries, though not well flavoured in our country, and if crushed emitting a most dis- agreeable odour, yet are eaten in Siberia, mingled with honey and flour. Gerarde calls this plant the Rose Elder and Gelder Rose. He says the Dutch call it Gheldersche Roose. These names probably all came from Guelderland, where the plant is said to grow freely. The French call it Boule de neige and Viorne, and it is also commonly called by the latter name in Holland. In Germany it is termed Schneeball and Schlingbaum, and in Italy and Spain, Viburno. The Turks call it Germeschek, and the Russians, Gordowina. Its name of Opulus is supposed to have been originally populus. One of our most ornamental and frequent garden evergreens, the laurustinus, is the Viburnum tinus of the south of Europe, and its branches mingle with the bay and sweet myrtle in the rich and fragrant hedges of Italy. 3. HONEYSUCKLE (Lonicera). 1. Pale Perfoliate Honeysuckle (L. cuprifdlium).—Flowers in sessile terminal whorls ; leaves smooth, blunt, upper ones joined in pairs by their bases (connate), the rest distinct ; root perennial. This is a very rare Honey- suckle, but it is found in some thickets in Oxfordshire and Cambridgeshire, as well as in woods near Edinburgh. It thrives among the trees and bushes, producing in May and June its white or purplish flowers, which are succeeded by bright orange-coloured berries. It is not a native species, but one that has been introduced from the Continent and naturalized in places. 2. Common Honeysuckle, or Woodbine (L. periclimenum).—Flowers in terminal heads; leaves all distinct, oval, sometimes downy beneath. Perennial. It merits well its old name of Woodbine, or Woodbind. Some- times, indeed, it binds the tree too closely, as we may see from the indenta- tions which it leaves on the bark, and the ridges which rise up between its coils. At first, while its branches are tender, the Honeysuckle does no harm to the stem or bough which it encircles ; but soon that stem or bough in- creases in size, while the twining plant does not lengthen with proportionate rapidity ; till at last the coil becomes closer and tighter, and is as Cowper described it :— ‘* As Woodbine weds the plant within her reach, Rough elm, or smooth-grain’d ash, or glossy beech, In spiral rings ascends the trunk, and lays Her golden tassels on the leafy sprays : But does a mischief while she lends a grace, Slackening its growth by such a strict embrace.” There is scarcely any plant more prized by the lover of the country than the Honeysuckle, which from June to September is covered with its beauti- ful blossoms of red and yellow, sending sweet odours far and wide, and forming garlands of grace and beauty. 102 CAPRIFOLIACEAt The Honeysuckle is one of our earliest leafing plants, and we have seen it on the last day of February, with reddish-green leaves an inch long, in hedges where, except on the pale green elder shoots and an occasional ever- green, not another leaf was to be seen. Bishop Mant has alluded to this :— ‘* And first behold we twine Content to wait for May to spread The runners of the lithe Woodbine, Its yellow tubes o’erlaid with red : The first of wilding race that weaves Alas! ere May arrives, with grief In nature’s loom its downy leaves, "Twill feel, now green, the blacken’d leaf And hangs in green festoons, that creep Thrown prematurely forth to bear O’er thorny brake or craggy steep ; The nipping frost, the blighting air.” At such a season the landscape is looking dreary: the thorns with bronzed stems hang dripping with rain-drops ; the black berries of the dark-leayed privet glisten near the red twigs of the cornel, while perchance some bough of the yellow osier seems like a golden rod, or some catkin of willow or hazel gives a little brightness to the scene. Brown leaves with an occasional yellow spray hang on the youngling oaks, and the rich crimson-tinted leaf or stem of the bramble winds among them. But the Honeysuckle leaf has about it the hopes and associations of spring-time. It is the herald of thousands of green leaves which shall quiver on the stem and resound to the pattering rain-drops of April, and be brightened by April rainbows—its spray is to the foliage like the daisy to the flowers and the robin to the birds, the first, and there- fore the fairest of its clan. The sweet odour of the Honeysuckle, and its frequency in the hedge, has endeared the plant to all lovers of Nature; and the poets, whose vocation it is to express the thoughts and feelings which have filled the hearts of the thousands who could never give them utterance —the poets, from Chaucer downwards, have all praised the Honeysuckle. Chaucer tells how those that— ‘* Wore chapelets on hir hede Of fresh Wodebind, be such as never were To love untrue, in word, ne thought. ne dede ; But ay stedfast: ne for plesance ne fere, Tho’ that they shoulde hir hertes all to tere, Would never flit, but ever were stedfast Till that hir lives thei asunder brust.”’ The poet drew his image of constant affection doubtless from the clinging nature of the Woodbine, and its enduring hold on the tree. Spenser, Michael Drayton and Shakspere all call it Woodbine, Honeysuckle, or Caprifoly ; but Milton evidently intends this flower by the “twisted Kglantine,” a name, however, which all others of the older poets, Chaucer included, had given to the Sweet Briar. ' Besides the blooms which the Honeysuckle bears in summer, it flowers again, though far less luxuriantly, in October. The dull red berries are clammy, and would not tempt any one by their flavour to pluck them, for they are sweetish and insipid, though the berries of the Blue Honeysuckle (L. certilea) are a very favourite food with the Kamtschatdales. Dr. Gries- bach says: “The pine-forests of Kamtschatka have an underwood of roses and honeysuckles. Among the edible fruits the Arctic bramble has the most agreeable taste ; the elongated dark blue berries of a Lonicera come next ; PALE PERFOLIATE HONEYSUCKLE 3 UPRIGHT FLY HONEYSUCKLE Lomicera capritohnm L_ xvlosteum 2 COMMON HONEYSUCKLE 1 TWO FLOWERED LINNEA L. periclymenum Liamzwa borealis Hl, 102. “thal Us ae ‘ nw 7 ee A) nity, WOODBINE TRIBE 103 their taste is not inferior to the finest cherries ; they are prepared with milk, or Sarannah, and form a favourite article of food.” The fruits of several species are, however, said to be emetic. The foliage of our Woodbine is very agreeable to goats, hence our plant is sometimes called Goat’s-leaf, or Caprifoly ; and the same allusion is to be traced in the specific name of the botanist, and the French name of the plant, which is the Chévre-feuille, as well as in some others of those by which it is known on the continent of Europe. It is the Caprifoglio, or the Madre- salva, of the Italian and Spaniard; the Geisblatt, or the Bauwmlilie, of the Germans ; and the Kamperfolie of the Dutch. The genus now called Lonicera is a section of the older genus Caprifolium. The Honeysuckle in its windings follows the sun from east to west. The plant bears pruning well, for, as Professor Martyn observes, those plants which in a state of nature cannot ascend without the assistance of others, are often liable to lose large branches; they have therefore a proportionate vigour of growth adapted to restore accidental injuries. The leaves are very hable to the attacks of aphides, and the sphinx hawk-moths with their long tongues extract the honey from the flowers. The flowers have, in fact, become specially adapted for the visits of butterflies and moths, whose tongues alone are sufficiently long to reach the honey, and who alone are able to fertilize the ovules. But certain humble-bees, evidently annoyed by the long narrow tube, have devised a plan for getting over the difficulty of access to the honey —they bite through the tube near the base, and so reach the honey without conferring any benefit upon the flower. Fragrant essences and waters are made by perfumers of the flowers of the Honeysuckle; and the plant is often treated as Wordsworth de- scribes :— ‘* Brought from the woods the Honeysuckle twines, Around the porch, and seems in that trim place A plant no longer wild.” 3. Upright Fly Honeysuckle (L. ayléstewm).—Stalks 2-flowered, downy ; berries distinct, except at the base ; leaves egg-shaped, entire, downy. Plant perennial. This shrub, which is another naturalized alien, occurs in woods in some parts of England, as in Hertfordshire and Northumberland, Tt has in May and June small twin flowers of a pale yellow colour and: without fragrance, and its fruits are small and crimson. 4. LINNA&A (Linnea). 1. Two-flowered Linnea (L. boredlis).—Stem trailing ; leaves broadly egg-shaped, their margins with rounded notches, leathery and evergreen ; flower-stalks long, erect, and 2-flowered ; calyx, flower-stalks, bracts, and involucre covered with glandular hairs; root perennial. This elegant plant is found in woods in Kast and Mid-Scotland, especially among fir-trees, in the counties of Perth, Forfar, Inverness, and Aberdeen ; and in English fir-woods as far South as Yorkshire. The delicate thread-like stems are branched, and the pink or flesh-coloured bells droop gracefully, expanding in June and July. Gronovius gave this plant its name at the request of Linneus, who con- sidered that its lowly, depressed condition, and the fact of its having been long 104 CAPRIFOLIACEAX—_WOODBINE TRIBE unnoticed, rendered it a meet emblem of his own early life. In all subsequent time the flower has had and will ever possess an interest to the botanist, for Carl Linné was a great reformer of Natural History, and the father of several of the modern physical sciences. Dr. E. D. Clarke found the Linnea very common in almost all the large Northern fir-forests, but he remarks that it might be easily overlooked, because it only grows in any abundance in the thickest parts of the woods, where its delicate twin-blossoms are almost hidden among the moss, through which its slender stems run along to the length of nine or ten feet. The flowers are in West Bothnia gathered for making some remedy for cold and rheumatism ; and the people of Tronyen make an infusion of the plant, which they use for various disorders. Linnzus considered that it possessed medicinal properties ; the odour of the blossom is much like that of our meadow-sweet (Spirwa ulmdria), and Dr. Clarke found it so powerful during night-time as to enable him to discover the plant at a considerable distance. He remarks, “There may be other varieties of it than those which we noticed, but the representations given of it by Linnzus in his ‘ Flora Suecica’ are not correct. No person from these representations would be able to comprehend why it received the appellation of Nummu- laria, before Gronovius, in honour of Linneus, changed its generic name, its leaves being all there represented as ovate and serrated, whereas, some of them, sometimes all, are perfectly orbicular, like little pieces of money.” The plant is now, in all European countries where it grows, known by the name of Linnea ; but the Norwegians call it also Norisle, Norétte, and Nariosle grass ; the Danes commonly term it Muarislegries ; and the Swedish peasants call it Vindgris. The latter people, however, prize it for its association with their great botanist. Mr. E. P. Thompson remarks: ‘To have pro- duced one man whose reputation has become the property of the Universe is to this day their boast and pride ; and as if to prove what the force of the example of one great mind can effect, the love of Botany among the Swedes is a ruling passion. The Linnwa boredlis, a little creeping plant of delicious fragrance, growing wild in the woods, and named from Linneus, and with which they have crowned his bust, is perfectly venerated. In one of my rambles in the country some schoolboys, who were following the same path, came running to me, stranger as I was, exclaiming, ‘See, sir, I have found some of the Linnea boredlis.’” Nor is this interesting plant confined to Europe. Sir Charles Lyell, in one of his excursions to see the falls of the river Amsonosue, was shown bya botanist who accompanied him several places in which the Linnzea grew, and it was at that time in fruit. This traveller had seen it in July, 1842, in flower in Nova Scotia, but was not prepared to find it extending so much farther southward, having first known it as a characteristic of Norway and of great Alpine heights in Europe. But he was still more surprised when he was assured by his friend that it descends even into the wooded plains of New Hampshire, under favour of a long winter and summer fogs, near the sea. He adds, ‘‘ What is most singular, between Manchester and Cape Anne, in lat. 42° 30’ N., it inhabits the same swamp with Magnolia glauca. The Arctic Linnea trailing along the ground, and protected by a magnolia, affords a common example of two plants of genera characteristic of very RUBIACE—MADDER TRIBE 105 different latitudes, each on the extreme limits of the Northern and Southern range.” The Swedish Government granted the Linnea boredlis to Linnzus as a crest for his coat of arms ; and letters are yet extant sealed with the seal which the botanist had caused to be engraved with this flower. Order XLIII. ,RUBIACEAX—MADDER TRIBE. Calyx 4 or 6-lobed, or wanting ; corolla 4—6-lobed, wheel-shaped, bell- shaped, or tubular, regular, the number of its divisions equal to those of the calyx ; stamens 3 to 5, alternate with the lobes of the corolla ; ovary 2-celled ; styles 2; stigmas 2; fruit a pericarp, with 2 cells and 2 seeds. This is a very important and a very large order, but all the European species are comprised in the group called Stellate, or Rubiacee proper. These are natives of the northern hemisphere, and many of them are weeds—the most valuable plant is the Madder, the roots of the Rubia tinctoria being one of the most useful dyes yet known. Several species possess in a greater or less degree roots which might be used in dyeing. Some species, like the Squinancy- wort, are somewhat astringent ; but it is to the plants of warm climates, contained in the order in its more extended form, that we owe so many valuable articles of food and medicine. Coffee, Peruvian Bark, Quinine, and many other important products, are derived from species of Rubiacez. 1. Mapper (ubia).—Corolla wheel-shaped or bell-shaped, 5-lobed ; stamens 4; fruit, a2-lobed berry. Name from the Latin ruber, red, from the red dye afforded by some species. 2, Brp-sTRAW (Gdlium).—Corolla wheel-shaped, usually 4-lobed ; stamens 4; fruit dry, 2-lobed, 2-seeded, not crowned by the calyx. Name from the Greek gala, milk, some species being used for curdling milk. 3. WooprRuFF (Aspérula).—Corolla funnel-shaped, 4-lobed ; stamens 4 ; fruit dry, 2-lobed, 2-seeded, not crowned with the calyx. Name from asper, rough, in allusion to the hispid character of some species. 4, Frmup MADDER (Sherdrdia).—Corollafunnel-shaped, 4-lobed; stamens 4 ; fruit dry, 2-lobed, 2-seeded, crowned by the calyx. Named from James Sherard, an English botanist. 1. MADDER (Lzbia). Wild Madder (R. peregrina).—Leaves 4—6 in a whorl, oval, or lanceo- late, and glossy, the margins and midrib prickly; corolla wheel-shaped, 5-cleft; root perennial. This plant grows locally throughout the extreme southern counties of England, in stony and sandy thickets, especially near the sea; also in Wales and Herefordshire, East and South Ireland, and the Channel Islands. It has long straggling stems, with whorls of stiff evergreen leaves, very glossy on their upper surface, and bending under at the margins. The stems are very rough, and the plant in an early stage much resembles the common goose-grass. The small flowers appear from June to August ; they grow in panicles, and are of a yellowish or greenish white hue. On one or two spots of the sea-cliffs at the east of Dover, the plant forms large 11.—14 106 RUBIACEZ patches, which in winter: still wear their leaves and fruits, the foliage looking as if cut out of thin sheets of copper, and the black berries being about the size of currants. In the neighbourhood of Bristol it used to be so abun- dant as to take the place of the common goose-grass among the bushes. Mr. Peter Inchbald thought that it attains its northern limit at Llandudno in North Wales. The larger stems of the plant are round, but when young they are square. The root contains some of that colouring matter which renders the true Madder so valuable both to dyers and colour-makers. 2. BEDSTRAW (Gdlium). * Root perennial ; flowers yellow. 1. Yellow Bedstraw ((. vérwm).—Leaves 8 to 12 in a whorl, linear ; flowers in dense panicles. During the summer, from June to September, many of our dry sunny banks and green sloping pastures, especially near the sea, are gay with the golden blooms of this plant, contrasting with the rich dark green tint of the slender leaves. Although the flowers are small, yet, growing in large and dense clusters, they are very conspicuous, and they have a sweet honey-like scent. As this species is by far the most attractive of the genus, it probably gained for it the name of Lady’s Bedstraw, which was doubtless, in the old time, Our Lady’s Bedstraw. ‘The French call the plant Gaillet, and Petit Muquet ; the Germans term it Labkraut ; the Dutch, Walstro ; the Italians, Gaglio ; and the Spaniards, Cuaja leche. It was formerly used in Cheshire for coagulating the milk for making cheese, and hence had the old name of Cheese-rennet. Matthiolus says that it produces a very agree- able flavour, and makes the cheese eat sweeter ; but the author of these pages considers that the milk in which it has been placed retains, in consequence, a very disagreeable taste. A slight and subtle acid exists in the plant, and vinegar has been made from its juices. Dr. Lister, writing to the great naturalist, John Ray, says that he obtained vinegar from the Yellow Bed- straw ; adding, “It is a rare experiment, and is owing, for aught I know, to Borrichius : you will see a further account of it in the ‘ Danish Transactions.’ ” The whole plant boiled in alum affords a good yellow dye, and the roots» yield a red colour, equal or superior to that of the true madder. They have long been used for dyeing in the Scottish islands, and were, some years since, recommended for general culture by the Committee of the Council of Trade; but, though the colour is rich, the roots are too small to render the plant a profitable crop. As in the case of the true Madder, and of several allied species, the bones of animals are turned red by feeding on the plant. This colouring takes place sooner in young than in fully grown animals, and is deepest in those whose bones are hardest and thickest. This property of the madder and its allies is the more remarkable, because it is not shared by other plants which, like the woad and saffron, are used in dyeing. It was first noted by John Belchier, an English surgeon, who, having dined with a cotton-printer, observed that the bones of some pork on the table were of a bright red hue. On expressing his surprise, his host explained to him that this was in consequence of the swine having been fed on bran and water in which cloth had been previously boiled, and which was coloured by the WILD MADDER Ruta peregrina YELLOW BEDSTRAW Gaburs verum CROSS-WORT B. C. ermciatom Pil, 103, SMOOTH HEATH B. G. saxatile LEAST MOUNTAIN B G. pusillum ROUGH MARSH B G, nligmosum a Pin ake i iw \ MADDER TRIBE 107 Ribia tinctéria. Mr. Belchier, after making various experiments on the subject, communicated the results to the Royal Society. Singular prepara- tions were afterwards made, by which animals were fed alternately on madder and on their customary food: by these means the constant deposition of osseous matter, and its constant removal, were clearly marked by the white or red colours, while the entire withdrawal of the plant for some days caused the total disappearance of the red hue in the bones of the animals. The French formerly considered the Yellow Bedstraw of much medicinal efficacy in hysteria and epilepsy. The plant is common throughout Europe, enlivening everywhere the fields of Siberia, as it does ours, with its bright blossoms. It is thought that the name of Bedstraw is derived from the old English word, to straw or strow, and that these plants were used for strewing over floors. ‘Thus we find in churchwardens’ accounts of former days various items for “strawenge of yerbes ;’ but a more direct origin is found in the fact, that straw, as well as herbs, was formerly used for beds, and that some imaginative monk or nun thought that this plant, from its beauty and sweetness, should form “Our Lady’s Bedstraw.” The old historian Fitz-Stephen, who was secretary to Thomas a Becket, tells of one who held a manor in Aylesbury, on condition of finding litter for the king’s bed; namely, grass or herb in summer, and straw in winter, three times in the year, on the king’s visit to Aylesbury. In as late a period as the reign of Henry VIIL, the beds were filled with straw, even the king’s bed being of that material. 2. Cross-wort Bedstraw (4G. crucidétum).—Leaves 4 in a whorl, egg- shaped, hairy ; flowers in small axillary cymes ; fruit-stalks bending down- wards. ‘This species is often called Mugweed, and is a common plant of our hedge-banks and thickets, its hairy or downy stem being about two feet in height. Its dull yellow blossoms appear in May and June, and form little clusters of about eight flowers, which are seated in the axils of the leaves, the upper blossoms having pistils only, the lower ones only stamens. It is well distinguished by having its leaves arranged four together in the form of a cross. It was formerly considered, when bruised, a good remedy for wounds. * * Flowers white ; root perennial. 3. Smooth Heath Bedstraw (G4. saxdtile).—Leaves about 6 in a whorl, inversely egg-shaped, pointed ; stem much branched, smooth, prostrate below. This species, as its name imports, is to be found on open sunny places, as heaths, hill-sides, and mountains, and it is a common plant. Its stem is much branched, and its numerous and dense panicles of flowers, often from June to August, whiten the grassy spots by their profusion. The greater number of the white-flowered species have their blossoms in few and scattered panicles, so as to make no great show; but this species, with its milk-white clusters, is, like the Yellow Bedstraw, rendered ornamental by their numbers. The edges of the leaves are sometimes fringed by a few prickles, pointing forwards. It is usually a low-growing plant, but in moist places is sometimes a foot high. It turns black in drying. 14—2 108 RUBIACEZ# 4. Least Mountain Bedstraw (G. pusillum).—Leaves about 8 in a whorl, narrow, lanceolate, and hair-pointed, lower ones somewhat hairy ; panicles terminal, few-flowered ; fruit slightly granulated. This species is very similar to the last, and chiefly distinguished from it by its more narrow, stiff pointed leaves and its more erect habit. It is, however, a rare plant, occurring on dry soils in several of the more western parts of England, Scot- land, and Ireland. It is not found in Wales, neither in the west of Scotland nor in the east of England. It flowers in July and August. Also known as G. sylvestre. 5. Rough Marsh Bedstraw (G4. wligindsum).—Leaves 6—8 in a whorl, narrow, tapering at both ends, bristle-pointed, their edges as well as the angles of the stem rough with prickles, which point backwards. This species is very frequent by the sides of rivers and on wet meadows. It has much similarity to the following kind, and both plants are often found growing together. It is chiefly distinguished from it by its narrow, sharply-pointed leaves. Its slender and brittle stem is rarely more than a foot high, and its panicles of few flowers appear in July and August. It does not turn black in drying. It is to this or a nearly allied species that Charlotte Smith refers, when describing the course of some water nymph down the quiet river. ‘*O’er her light skiff, of woven bulrush made, The water-lily lends a polish’d shade ; White Galium there, in pale and silver hue, And epilobium on the bank that grew, Form her soft couch ; and as the sylphs divide With pliant arms the still increasing tide, A thousand leaves along the stream unfold ; Amidst its waving swords, in flaming gold, The iris towers ; and here the arrowhead, And water-crowfoot, more profusely spread, Spangle the quiet current ; higher there, As conscious of her claims, in beauty rare, Her rosy umbels rears the flow’ring rush ; While with reflected charms the waters blush.” 6. White Water Bedstraw ((7. palistre). — Leaves from 4 to 6 in a whorl, oblong, blunt, tapering at the base; stem weak, straggling, branched, more or less rough. This common plant flowers in July and August, bearing its blossoms in loose panicles. It is usually larger than the foregoing species, with which alone it could be confounded, but it varies greatly in different soils and circumstances. In one variety the stem and leaves are almost smooth; and in a second, the nerves at the back and margins of the leaves, and the angles of the stem, are most distinctly beset with prickles, which chiefly bend downwards. The latter form is the G. witheringit of some botanists. 7. Upright Bedstraw (4. eréctwm).—Leaves from 6 to 8 in a whorl, lanceolate, and tipped with a spine, the margins having prickles which point forwards ; stem weak, segments of the corolla somewhat pointed. This is a rare species, flowering in June, and found in some hedges of England and Scotland. It has in some cases narrower leaves, when it is described by some botanists as G. diffusum. In other conditions it has been termed G. aristatum, and G. elatum. It appears to be really a sub-species of G. mollugo. WHITE WATER BED STRAW Gahom palostre UPRIGHT B G erectum . GREAT HEDGE B G mollngo SMOOTH FRUITED CROSS LEAVED B WALL B G. boreale G. parisiense WARTY FRUITED B B G. spurum G. saccharatmm MADDER TRIBE 109 8. Great Hedge Bedstraw (G. molligo).—Leaves 8 in a whorl, oblong, tapering at both ends, having a bristly point and roughish margins. This species, though not frequent in Scotland, is among the common flowers of England, bearing its blossoms in loose spreading panicles, and having long, soft slender stems three or four feet in length. It presents some resemblance to the goose-grass ; its prickles, however, point forwards, while those of that plant point backwards. A variety has been found by Dr. Bromfield in the Isle of Wight, with greenish flowers. The plant was, some years since, highly eulogized by M. Jourdain, the Director of the Hospital at Tain in Dauphiny, as a valuable remedy for epilepsy, and marvellous cases have been related of its efficacy, though very little reliance is placed by other medical men on its powers. The roots afford a good red dye, and colour the bones of birds. 9. Cross-leaved Bedstraw (G. boredle).— Leaves 4 in a whorl, lanceolate, 3-nerved, smooth; stems erect. This species, which is not uncommon on moist rocky places, is easily distinguished by its four leaves placed crosswise, and its fruit rough with hooked bristles. It has straggling stems about eighteen inches long, with many leafy branches, and it bears in June and July its compact terminal panicles of flowers. This plant is, by the North American Indians, termed Sawayan, and the roots are used to dye the porcupine quills with which they embroider the boxes, baskets, and other ornamented articles made of birch-bark, so often brought to this country. The roots, after being carefully washed, are boiled gently, and a quantity of the juice of the mooseberry, cranberry, or strawberry, is added. The quills are placed in the liquor before it becomes cold, and in most cases quickly acquire a rich scarlet tint, though occasionally the dye fails, and only a dingy brown colour is produced. This is probably the conse- quence of too much acid having been mingled with the dye. The Crees use several plants in tinting the quills, taking indiscriminately either this or an allied species for the scarlet hue, and giving the black colour with elder bark, the yellow with a juice obtained from the Dutch myrtle, and various other tints by means of lichens which abound on the barren rocks. Both the quills and the skins which the Indians prepare for their dresses are also dyed yellow with a colour derived from a species of hellebore, growing commonly * in the woods throughout Canada, and called by the French Z%ssavoyaune jaune. ‘The Cross-leaved Bedstraw must not be sought south of a line drawn from Brecon to York. North of that and in Ireland it may be looked for creeping among moist elevated rocks. ** * Roots annual ; flowers white or greenish. 10. Wall Bedstraw (G. parisiénse).— Leaves about 6 in a whorl, lanceolate, bristle-pointed, prickles on the margins pointing forwards ; flower- stalks axillary ; stem slender, rough, with prickles bending backwards ; fruit in one variety bristly, in another smooth. This is a plant inhabiting dry sandy soils and walls, and flowering in June and July. It is found, though rarely, in Kent, and other parts of the east and south-east of England. It is also known as G. anglicum. 1l. Warty-fruited Bedstraw (G. sacchardtuwm).—Leaves 6 in a whorl, ‘110 RUBIACEA lanceolate, the prickles on their margins pointing forward ; flower-stalks 3-flowered ; fruit large, rough, with raised tubercles. The stems are trail- ing, and the flowers, which expand from June to August, are small and of a pale yellow colour. It cannot be considered a native, for its addition to the list of British plants rests on the unsupported testimony of G. Don. 12. Smooth-fruited Corn Bedstraw (G. spiirium).—Leaves from 6 to 8 in a whorl, narrowly lanceolate, with prickles on the margin, and mid-rib pointing backwards ; flower-stalks axillary, with from 3 to 9 flowers ; fruit smooth or rough, on straight, forked stalks. This rare species is found only in cultivated fields, and has probably been introduced with flax-seed. It has, in its rough-fruited variety, been found in Essex and Cambridgeshire, and closely resembles the goose-grass (G. aparine), but is distinguished by its more numerous green flowers, its floral leaves being solitary or in pairs, and its much smaller fruit. 13. Rough-fruited Corn Bedstraw (G4. tricérne).—Leaves from 6 to 8 in a whorl, narrow, lanceolate, with marginal prickles turning back- wards; stem with prickles turning backwards; flower-stalks axillary, 3-flowered ; flowers small; fruit large and covered with small granulations. This species flowers from June to August, on dry chalky fields, from Cumber- land southward. 14. Goose-grass or Cleavers (G. aparine).—Leaves from 6 to 8 in a whorl, narrowly lanceolate, their margins as well as the angles of the stem rough, with prickles pointing backwards; flower-stalks axillary, about 3-flowered ; fruit covered with short hooked bristles. Those who know any- thing about wild flowers will hardly need a description of this common plant; for there is scarcely a hedge-bank on which its stems and starry leaves may not be seen straggling among the grass, or climbing by the help of the bushes, and it often intrudes itself into the garden. Leaves, stems, and globular fruits are all bristly, and the latter often cling to the clothing of the country rambler, and so get distributed far and wide, as they do more naturally by sticking to the fur or feathers of the birds and mammals that haunt the hedgerow. Several of our popular names indicate this habit of the plant; thus it is called Cleavers, Scratchweed, and Catchweed. The Greeks termed it Philanthrépon, fancifully attributing its clinging habit to a love of mankind, though, of course, the cause is purely mechanical. Dioscorides tells us that it was used in his time as a kind of filter for straining milk, and Linnzus says it is commonly so used in Sweden. In our own country places it is occasionally thus employed, when a sieve is not at hand, and answers the purpose exceedingly well, by the roughness of its leaves and stalks. In former days, when country dwellings were less plentifully supplied with household conveniences, this and other rustic contrivances were probably in much more frequent use than in modern times, and the direction of the poet was then more applicable than now : ‘¢ For first an osier colender provide Of twigs thick wrought: such toiling peasants twine, When through streight passages they strein their wine.” This plant is said to have its name of Goose-grass from the fondness of that bird for its herbage. Its expressed juice has long been justly praised a ROUGH FRUITED CORN BEDSTRAW 4 SWEET WOODRUFT Gahum tricorne Asperuila odorata GOOSE GRASS 5 SMALL W G. eparine A. cynanchica BLUE FIELD MADDER 6 FIELD W Sherardia arvensis A. arvensis Bt. 106; tie ; ing ¥ 7 Dri MADDER TRIBE 111 as a purifier of the blood. The plant is cut in small pieces, also, and boiled in broth as a spring drink, or it is pounded in a mortar, and the juice taken while fresh. Its outward application has, even in modern days, been advised by eminent surgeons, and its use in this form was once very general ; and, besides being prescribed as a remedy for those “bitten by serpents,” it was deemed a certain cure for wounds. An old writer tells us that it was “familiarly taken,” in his day, “as a broth, to keep them lank and lean that were apt to grow fat ;” though what particular advantage either to health or beauty was gained by being lank and lean our good herbalist does not specify. The interior of the seeds is somewhat horny, and they form, when roasted, a good substitute for coffee. From some slightly stimulating powers which the beverage made from them is thought to possess, it has been suggested that they contain the principle of caffeine, which renders the Arabian berry so refreshing in its influences. Our Goose-grass is found throughout Europe and North America, as well as in the north of Asia. A tuberous-rooted species of Galium (G4. tuberdésum) is cultivated in China as a dietetic vegetable, and the tubers, either ground or cooked whole, are described as forming a wholesome and agreeable dish. 3. WoOoDRUFF (Aspérula). 1. Sweet Woodruff (4. odordta).—Leaves from 6 to 8 in a whorl, lanceolate ; fruit bristly ; root perennial. Plentiful as this fragrant plant is in many of our woods, yet in others it is altogether unknown. We have seen it in Kent and Surrey, covering large extents of wooded land, its bright green stems surrounded by coronals of richly verdant leaves, and surmounted in May and June by its beautiful little clusters of blossoms. The small flowers, white, or slightly tinged with pink, seem firm and compact as if cut out of wax. The leaves are deliciously fragrant with the odour of newly- mown hay, but this is scarcely perceptible while the plant is growing. When gathered, the warmth of the hand soon brings forth the aroma, and the dried plant will retain its odour for many years. The name of Woodruff, or, as it was formerly spelt, Wooderoofe, or Woodrowe, is a corruption of Woodrowel, and was given, according to Turner, because ‘its leaves represent certain rowelles of spoorres.” One of the old modes of spelling the word is still commemorated in the country rhyme yet handed down from generation to generation by cottage children :— ‘* Double U double O double D E, R O double U double F E.” Gerarde observes of this plant, ‘“‘ Woodrooffe hath manie square stalkes full of joynts, and at everie knot or joynt, seven or eight long narrow leaves, set round about like a starre, or the rowelle of a spurre. The flowers growe at the top of the stemmes, of a white colour, and a very sweete smell, as is the rest of the herbe, which being made up into garlandes and bundles, hanging up in houses in the heat of summer, doth very well attemper the aire, coole and make freshe the place, to the delight and comfort of such as are therein. Woodroofte is named of divers Aspergula odorata, of others Cordialis and Stellaria ; in English, Wooderooffe, Woodrowe, and Woodrowell.. 112 RUBIACEA—MADDER TRIBE It is reported to be put into wine to make a man merrie, and to be good for the heart and liver.” We know, too, from churchwardens’ accounts of the reign of Edward IV., that “Rose garlandis and Woodrowe garlandis” were hung in churches. The Woodruff generally grows very closely around the roots of trees, and on a soil so completely formed of vegetable mould, that, as some writer has remarked, it might almost be thought a parasite. The foliage imparts a very pleasant flavour to wine, but in our days and country it is seldom mingled with it, except in villages. It is often, however, laid in drawers among linen or clothes, to which it not only imparts a sweet odour, but is thought to serve as a preservative from moth. Ladies often use it for the contents of ornamental scent-bags. In Germany the plant is much employed in flavour- ing liqueurs. The Germans also gather it in May for the purpose of making a delicious beverage, which they call May-drink. A gentleman, known to the author, was travelling with a friend in Germany, when, stopping at a hotel, this May-drink was brought as a refreshment to the travellers They inquired of what the pleasant beverage was composed, and were informed that sugar, Rhine wine, and Sweet Woodruff, were the ingredients. Next morning, at breakfast, the gentleman missed his companion, and was, some hours after, amused to see him returning to the hotel, accompanied by a peasant laden with a basket of the roots of the Sweet Woodruff, which he had patriotically determined to transplant to the woods of his native land, that Englishmen might henceforth enjoy the delicious May-drink. It was not without some disappointment that he heard from his friend that his early morning labour was wasted, and that he had only need to walk into some woods within a mile of his own home, to find the plant as plentiful as in those of Germany. The Sweet Woodruff is eaten by cattle and horses. It contains an acid principle, with much fixed alkaline salt ; and its odour, like the similar one of the Meadow-grass (Anthoudinthum odordtum), is owing to the benzoic acid which it contains. Its power of “making the heart merrie,” which our fathers ascribed to it, must, if not altogether imaginary, be owing to the slightly exhilarating principle of theine, to which we owe the refreshing powers of tea, that, as Cowper says, “cheers, but not inebriates,” and a smaller portion of which is possessed by the foliage of the Woodruff. 2. Small Woodruff, or Squinancy-wort (4. cyndnchica).—Leaves very slender, 4 in a whorl, uppermost whorls very unequal ; fruit granular and rough; root perennial. The general appearance of this plant differs very much from that of the fragrant species. Its leaves are smaller and narrower, and its dense clusters of white flowers, with pink exteriors, are much handsomer. It grows on warm sunny banks, on open downs, or chalk cliffs, and is a common plant on limestone soils ; but it is far more local than A. odorata, and it is not found north of Westmoreland and Yorkshire. It occurs also in the south and west of Ireland. The stems rarely exceed four inches in height, and the flowers expand in June and July. The odour of this herb is truly disagreeable, but its large patches, when in flower, are very ornamental to the short pasture grasses among which it grows. Its specific name, taken from the Greek, and signifying to choke, as well as its English VALERIANEAW—VALERIAN TRIBE 113 name of Quinsey-wort or Quinancy-wort, refers to its ancient uses in disorders of the throat. 3. Field Woodruff (4. arvénsis).—Leaves from 6 to 10 in a whorl, very slender, lanceolate, and blunt ; flowers in a terminal cluster, surrounded by long bracts, fringed with delicate hairs; stem erect, square. This plant was probably never truly wild in this country, though Gerarde says that in his time it grew in “many places of Essex and divers other parts, in sandie ground.” It still occurs occasionally in corn-fields, but no doubt introduced with the farmer’s seeds. The flowers are bright blue, expanding in June ; the fruit large and smooth. 4, SHERARDIA, OR FreELD MADDER (Sherdrdia). Blue Sherardia (S. arvénsis).—Leaves about 6 in a whorl, lanceolate, acute, their margins rough ; flowers in small umbels, seated amid the terminal leaves ; stems branching and spreading ; root annual. Many persons, while wandering in the country, pass by this small plant; but the lover of wild flowers regards with interest its pretty little cluster of pale lilac blossoms ; and the botanist looks with favour on a plant destined to commemorate one of our greatest botanical collectors. The valuable Herbarium of James Sherard is still preserved at Oxford ; while the noble garden of Sherard, at Eltham, in Kent, has been immortalized by having given rise to the “ Hortus Elthamensis” of Dillenius. The plant is so small, that one would fain have commemorated a good botanist by a finer flower; but that is unimportant, seeing that the work of Dillenius is an enduring monument to his fame. The plant abounds in the ridges of corn-fields, and on dry banks, especially where the soil is of gravel, flowering from April to October. Order XLIV. VALERIANE—VALERIAN TRIBE. Calyx superior, finally becoming a border or pappus to the fruit ; corolla tubular, 3—6-lobed, sometimes irregular and spurred at the base; stamens from 1 to 5, inserted into the tube of the corolla; ovary with from 1 to 3 cells ; fruit dry, crowned with the calyx, not bursting, 1-seeded, two of the cells bemg empty. This order consists of herbaceous plants with opposite leaves, without stipules, having, in most cases, a powerful odour, and a bitter and tonic principle. Many plants of other countries contained in this order possess important properties. The true Spikenard of the ancients is a plant of this family. They are mostly natives of temperate climates, often growing on mountains. Though the species are rare in Africa and North America, they abound in South America, the north of India, and Europe. 1. Spur VALERIAN (Centrdnthus).—Corolla 5-cleft, spurred at the base , stamen 1; fruit crowned with a feathery pappus. Named from kentron, a spur, and anthos, a flower. 2. VALERIAN (Valeridna).—Corolla 5-cleft, bulged at the base ; stamens 3 ; fruit crowned with a pappus. Name from the Latin valere, to heal, from its medicinal properties. 3. CORN-SALAD (/édia).—Corolla 5-cleft, bulged at the base; stamens 2-—8 ; fruit crowned with the calyx. Name of uncertain origin. 11.—15 114 VALERIANE 1. SpuR VALERIAN (Centrdnthus). Red Spur Valerian (C0. riber).—Leaves egg-shaped, pointed ; spur much shorter than the tube of the corolla ; root perennial. This plant, with its large handsome clusters, varying from delicate pink to rich deep red, is a very common garden flower. It is not a truly British species, but is naturalized in many chalk-pits and limestone quarries ; and it often grows on old walls, where it is the outcast of the flower-bed, or sometimes on castle- steep or church-tower. The gardener calls it by various familiar names, as Pretty Betty, but of old it was called Setewall. From several sources, we know it was a plant of some renown. ‘The old writers seem to include the great wild Valerian in the same name, but as the red species grows on walls, it originally, doubtless, belonged to this. The stem of this species is from one to two feet high, and its flowers appear from April to September, a variety with white blossoms sometimes occurring. The practical effect of the spur is to increase the length of the long flower tube and render the honey accessible only to insects with long tongues. The leaves are smooth, and covered with a sea-green powder. The French term the plant Valeriana, the Germans call it Baldrian, and the Russians Balderian. Its native country is the south of Europe, and in Sicily the leaves are commonly eaten as a salad; the seeds of some species were formerly used in embalming the dead. It is interesting to note the simple method by which cross-fertilization is assured, provided that insect visits are made to the flowers. The solitary stamen first stands erectly at the mouth of the flower and sheds its pollen ; afterwards the style rises to the same position and matures its stigmas, so that a bee that has visited an older flower and got dusted with pollen is likely to bring the same part of its body in contact with the stigma and so fertilize it. 2. VALERIAN (Valeridna). 1. Small Marsh Valerian (/”. didica).—Stamens and pistils on different plants ; root-leaves egg-shaped, stalked ; stem-leaves pinnatifid, with a large terminal lobe, serrated ; root perennial. This small species is common in moist meadows, its erect and unbranched stem being about a foot high, and surmounted, in May, by its corymb of pale pink flowers, of which the stamen- bearing corollas are larger than the others. There are really four forms of flowers to be found on as many plants : 1, the largest of all, contains stamens but no pistil; 2, the next largest, contains stamens and a rudimentary pistil ; 3, smaller, contains a fully developed pistil, but the anthers are only rudimentary and produce no pollen ; 4, the smallest of all, contains a pistil but no anthers. By this arrangement cross-fertilization is certain, through the agency of insects that seek the honey with which the flowers are provided. The presence of the rudimentary organs points to the probability that the flowers formerly contained both stamens and pistil, as in /’. officinalis. 2. Great Wild Valerian (J. officindlis).—Leaves all pinnatifid ; leaflets lanceolate, nearly uniform ; root with short subterranean shoots. A form of = $; | | ee = OP __ a z B, a CW =z ‘ an v5 VALERIAN officinalis GREAT WILD RED SPUDUR-VALERIAN u Vv Centranthus ruber IAN LEAVED VALER HEART 4 VALERIAN SMALL MARSH 1ca Valeriana dic Pl. 106. VALERIAN TRIBE 115 this plant, having from six to ten pairs of leaflets, either entire or toothed at the margins, and with spreading leaf-stalks, is described by some writers as V, mikani ; while another form of the plant, having the lower and middle leaf-stalks erect and closely pressed, and its toothed and serrated leaves of four or five pairs of leaflets, has been termed /”. sambucifolia. The former is more generally met, the latter being very local. It is pleasant, during June, to wander by the river bank, watching the gauzy-winged insects as they dance in the sunbeams, and the swallows which skim over the pool, or the scarcely less graceful water-wagtails hovering above the water. Few spots of our landscape are at this season more attractive to the lover of Nature than such a one as Chaucer seems to have loved so well :— ‘* A river in a greene mede, There as sweetnesse evirmore inough is, With flowre white and blewe, yellowe and rede.” And few of the flowers gathering there among grass and sedge are more conspicuous than the tall Valerian, which grows on the river’s brink, or just within the water. It is commonly three feet high, and sometimes, when the river runs over a chalky soil, it is four, or even five feet in height. In such cases, as the eye follows the windings of the waters, we may see the plant giving its hue to the margin by its delicately-tinted clusters of pale pink, becoming almost white when fully developed, and mingling, perhaps, with other specimens from which the flowers have passed away, leaving behind the clusters of feathery down so soon to be widely scattered by autumnal winds. To many of us, the powerful scent of the Valerian is unpleasing ; but this odour, still stronger in the roots, is much prized in the East, some of the most valued perfumes being made from the roots of various species. The celebrated Celtic Spikenard (V/V. celtica) is much used in Eastern perfumery, and in baths; the V. jatamansi is believed to be the Spikenard of the Scripture writers and the Nardus of the ancients ; and it is still used in the unguents of the East, as it was when Mary poured it on the Saviour from the costly box of alabaster. Sir William Jones, by his knowledge of the Sanscrit and Hindoo names of the plant, identified it with the ancient Spikenard; but he had no access to the Himalayan Mountains, where it grew. Dr. Royle, however, who was, several years later, in charge of the East India Company’s garden at Seharumpore, not far from the foot of the Himalayas, made further inquiries into the subject. He then learnt that Jatamansi, better known in India by the name of Balchur, was yearly brought down in con- siderable quantities, as an article of commerce, to the plains of India; and haying procured fresh roots, he planted them in the Botanic garden. He then found the plant to be a Valerian. It was called Nardostachys jatamansi by M. de Candolle, and there seems no reason to doubt that this was the nard or nerd of the ancients. The Arabs compare the root to the tail of an ermine, which it much resembles ; this appearance being produced by the circumstance that the woody fibres of the leaf and its footstalk are not decomposed in the cold and comparatively dry climate where they are pro- duced, but remain, and thus form a protection for the plant from the severity of the weather. Dr. Joseph Hooker, when in the Himalayan Mountains, received this plant with the eggs and rice brought to him as a gift. He says 15—2 116 VALERIANEZ—VALERIAN TRIBE that it smells strongly of patchouli. Gerarde says of our wild Valerian, “ It hath been had, and is to this day among poore people of our northern parts, in such veneration, that no brothe, pottage, or physicall meates are worth anything if Setewall were not at an end; wherefore some woman poet or other hath made these verses :— «¢* They that would have their heale Must put Setewall in their keale.’ ” But before the woman poet wrote this, Chaucer had alluded to “Canell and Setewal of pris,” and had elsewhere used this comparison :— ‘*But he himselfe was swete as any roote Of licoris, or any Setewall.”’ Country people of our days commonly use the leaves as an application to wounds ; hence it is often called All-heal. Several old writers, as Michael Drayton, refer to its healing virtues. Its odour is peculiarly agreeable to cats ; they chew the roots and leaves eagerly, and appear to be intoxicated by the effects. Hence it is also known as Cat’s Valerian. 3. Heart-leaved Valerian (/. pyrendica).—Leaves heart-shaped, toothed, and serrated, stalked ; upper ones with 1 or 2 pairs of small lan- ceolate leaflets ; root perennial. This plant is apparently naturalized in some of the Scottish woods. It is a native of the Pyrenees, and, being cultivated in gardens, has established itself in some of our woods and plantations. 3. CORN-SALAD (édia). 1. Common Corn-salad (/. olitéria).—Leaves long and narrow, wider towards the end, and somewhat toothed near the base ; flowers in leafy heads; capsule inflated, crowned by the three calyx teeth; root annual. This plant, common in corn-fields and on dry banks, is not very attractive. Its flowers are very small, white, and are more or less tinted with blue or lilac, appearing in April. The stems are from four to eight inches high, repeatedly two-forked, and the leaves are of a pale delicate green. The French call the plant Mdche, Salade de préire, and Salade de chanoine. It was formerly called, in England, White Pot-herb, and Lamb’s Lettuce. Its young leaves taste like lettuce, and are still sometimes cultivated for salad ; but the far larger size of the garden lettuce renders it a more desirable plant for the kitchen-garden, though the wild herb yields an earlier salad, for the leaves are fit to be gathered by March. There is no doubt, from its old French names, that it was one of the vegetables reared in the kitchen-garden of the monastery. Gerarde says of it, “In winter, and the first months of spring, it serves for a salad-herbe, and is with pleasure eaten with vinegar, salt, and oile, as other sallades be, among which it is none of the worst.” 2. Carinated Corn-salad (/. carindta).—Fruit oblong, boat-shaped, crowned with a straight tooth; the two empty cells thin, and curving inwards at the edge; flowers in dense cymes; root-leaves tapering at the base; stem-leaves oblong ; root annual. ‘This very rare plant is found on some hedge-banks of England, bearing its pale-blue flowers from April to June. It is not regarded as a true native, and may be only a variety of F. olitoria. a COMMON CORN SALAD 3 SHARP- FRUITED €C Ss Fedia oltoria E. auricula 2. CARINATED Cc Ss 4 SMOOTH NARROW - FRUITED Cc S F. carinata F. dentata Pl 107. f nis vo wf _ ‘ aE: oe ’ a hy iy i uta ek ( ae ie ; van me ne ay ue : ay tid a Len 2} " ¢ DIPSACEA.X—TEASEL TRIBE 1a We 3. Sharp-fruited Corn-salad (Ff. auricula),— Fruit sub-globose, crowned with the single entire or three-toothed limb of the calyx; empty cells rounded on the back, larger than the fertile one, inflated ; flowers in lax cymes. Plant annual. This species is very similar to the last, differing from it chiefly in its broader and more inflated fruit and large empty cells. It occurs occasionally on cultivated lands, flowering from June to August. 4. Smooth Narrow-fruited Corn-salad (I. dentdta).—Capsule egg- shaped, somewhat flat, 2-ribbed in front, and sharply pointed, crowned with the small, unequally-toothed calyx; root annual. This plant has a great number of varieties, which, differing as to the form, or in the smoothness or hairiness of the capsule, have been described by some botanists as so many species. It occurs in corn-fields and on hedge-banks, but is not a common plant, except in the west of England. Its flowers are of a pale flesh-colour, usually in corymbs, with a solitary blossom seated in the forks of the stem. It is a less tender plant than the Corn-salads usually are, and its flowers appear in June and July. 5. Hairy-headed Corn-salad (F. eriocarpa).—This species, which was formerly regarded as a variety of F. dentata, much resembles it, but the cymes are more crowded, the fruit generally clothed with short, spreading curved hairs. The chief difference, however, is found in the large, slightly oblique calyx, which is bell-shaped. It flowers in June and July, and has been recorded from Cornwall, Dorset, and Worcester. Order XLV. DIPSACEA!—TEASEL TRIBE. Calyx superior, surrounded by several more or less rigid involucral bracts ; corolla tubular, with 4—5 unequal lobes; stamens 4, the anthers not united; style 1; stigma not cleft; fruit dry, 1-seeded, often crowned by the pappus-like calyx; flowers in heads. The plants of this order are all herbaceous or under-shrubs. They are chiefly natives of the south of Europe, Barbary, the Levant, and the Cape of Good Hope, rarely growing on mountains. Their properties are not remarkable, and the Fuller's Teasel.. is the only plant of any great importance, though some species of Scabious possess a small degree of astringency. 1. TEASEL (Dipsacus).—Heads with numerous general bracts at the base ; outer calyx (involucel) forming a thickened margin to the fruit ; inner cup- shaped, entire ; receptacle with rigid awns; fruit with four sides. Name from the Greek dipsao, to thirst, because the leaves hold water. 2. SCcABLOUS (Scalidsa).—Heads with numerous general bracts at the base ; outer calyx membranaceous, and plaited, inner of 5 bristles ; receptacle scaly ; fruit nearly cylindrical. Name from the Latin scabies, the leprosy, because some of the species were used as a remedy for that disease. 3. KNAUTIA (Knaitia).—Heads with numerous general bracts at the base ; outer calyx minute, with 4 small teeth, inner cup-shaped ; receptacle hairy ; fruit 4-sided. Name in honour of Christopher Knaut, a German botanist. 118 DIPSACEAL 1. TEASEL (Lipsacus). 1. Wild Teasel (D. sylvéstris).—Leaves opposite, united at the base, undivided ; scales of the receptacle straight at the extremity. Plant biennial. In many of our woods, during the winter months, there is scarcely an object more conspicuous than the chaffy bristly heads of this Wild Teasel. Hundreds of them, standing up on stout prickly stems nearly six feet high, may be seen, looking so like the brooms used in cleansing ceilings, that we wonder not to hear the cottager call the plant Wood-broom; while another country name, Shepherd’s Staff, is not inappropriate. The large leaves, united at their base around the stem, form a hollow, which serves to hold the rain or dews, and sometimes we have found as much as half a pint of clear liquid deposited in this leafy cup, in which many a luckless insect lay drowning. To some lover of classic lore, this circumstance suggested the names by which it is still often called, Venus’s Bath, or Venus’s Cup. The thirsty traveller, during July, might be glad to avail himself of the refresh- ment of this liquid but for the presence of these insect carcases, and in early times it was collected to serve as a cosmetic, and as a cure for inflamed eyes. It may be well to point out that this arrangement of the leaves, whereby the stem is surrounded by water, is designed to protect the flowers from ants and other creeping honey-robbers, who would otherwise climb the stem and spoil the flowers without rendering the plant any service. It has recently been found that the plant renders this water slightly digestive, and that certain cells of the leaf send out hair-like processes into it through which the digested insect-matter is absorbed to nourish the plant. The larva of a small insect which infests the head of the Teasel is said, by Lemery, to be of much use in the cure of intermittent fevers. This insect was long considered to “charm” away agues ; and Gerarde tells us of charms used for the cure of this malady, which may make us thankful for the improvement of medical science. ‘It is needlesse,” he says, “here to alledge those things that are added touching the little wormes found in the head of the Teazel, and which are to be hanged about the neck, for they are nothing else but most vaine and trifling toies, as myselfe have proved a little before the impression hereof, having a most grievous ague, and of long continuance. Notwithstanding physick charmes, these wormes hanged about my necke, spiders put into a walnut-shell, and divers such foolish toies that I was con- strained to take by fantasticke people’s procurement ; notwithstanding, I say, my helpe came from God Himselfe, for these medicines, and all other such things, did me no good at all.” Even in our own days, some of these practices have been used; for Kirby and Spence relate that nine of these larve, inclosed in a goose-quill or reed, are commonly worn for agues. The flowers of the Teasel are to be seen in July, growing on the large conical heads. They are of purplish lilac colour, not expanding all at once, but in rings. 2. Fuller’s Teasel (D. fullénwm).—Leaves sessile, undivided ; scales of the receptacle hooked at the extremity; involucres spreading, or turning downwards; root biennial. The chief difference between this and the fore- going species consists in the hooked bristles, but the flowers are also generally L Yep ies A ; ’ rq \ \@ aVey | V9 OO ® \: cM l FULLERS TEASEL 2. WILD TEASEL Dipgacus fFullonum D. sylvestris 3 SMALL TEASEL , D. pilosus Pl. 108. TEASEL TRIBE 119 paler in colour. As the hooks disappear when the plant is grown on poor soils, there is much reason to believe that it is but a variety of D. sylvéstris. Though occurring occasionally in waste places and on hedge-banks, the Fuller’s Teasel cannot be regarded as truly wild; having been long cultivated for the use of the cloth manufacturers, it is often found apparently wild near the Teasel fields. In some of our northern counties, as well as in Wiltshire, Essex, Somer- setshire, and Gloucestershire, large quantities of the Fuller’s Teasel are planted that their chaffy heads may be used in carding wool. No mechanical contrivance answers this purpose so well as to supersede this primitive method of dressing woollen cloth ; and each piece of cloth is found to con- sume from 1,500 to 2,000 Teasel heads. The heads are fixed round a large wheel, which is made to revolve in such a way that the awns may, as it is termed, “tease” the nap of the cloth. Dyer, in his poem, “The Fleece,” alludes to the treatment which the cloth receives after having been thoroughly wetted :— ** Then up-hung on rugged tenters to the fervid sun, Its level surface reeking, it expands, -And brightening in each rigid discipline, And gathering worth, as human life, in pains, Conflicts and troubles. Soon the clothier’s shears And burler’s thistle skims the surface sheen.”’ The Teasel is usually grown by small farmers or cottagers, and its produce is very uncertain, being much affected by the season. There is also consider- able trouble in drying the heads so as to preserve the hooks from breaking off. The large heads are technically termed “Kings,” and the smaller “Princes”; the latter are better adapted for the finer cloths, while the larger are used for coarse thick fabrics. In Essex it was some years since customary to sow caraway along with the Teasel. The Teasel-gatherers during July or August collect the heads into bundles for the market. Manufacturers rather give the preference to the Teasels reared in Gloucestershire, in which county they are said to have been earliest planted. They are believed to have been cultivated first in this country about the latter part of the reign of Edward III. The French call this plant Chardon & Foulon ; the Germans, Kardendistel ; the Italians, Dissaco ; the Dutch, Vollers Kaarden; and the Spaniards, Car- deucha ; most of the European names, like our own, referring to its use. This is very ancient, and either this or some similar plant seems to have been used by the celebrated Roman fullers, whose occupation gave employment to so large a number of people. Beckmann says that the fullers received the cloth as it came from the loom, that it might be ‘scoured, walked, and smoothed.” ‘This “walking ” was effected by stamping it with the feet. The rough wool raised by this operation was combed off partly by the skin of a hedge-hog, and partly by some plant of the thistle kind, in order to give the cloth a nap. Though the Teasel is not a thistle, yet it was probably con- sidered one in former days, and its old English as well as German name still hints at its connection with the thistle tribe. It is remarkable that the pile or nap of the cloth should in India be drawn out by means of a plant, for Sir Joseph Hooker says that in the Himalaya the 120 DIPSACEA blankets were made of goats’-wool, teased into a satiny surface by little Teasel-like brushes of bamboo. Old writers recommend Teasel-heads for hygrometrical purposes. “ Tezils, or Fuller’s thistle,” says Wilsford, “being gathered and hung up in the house when the aire may come freely to it, upon the alteration of cold and windy weather will grow smoother, and against rain will close up his prickles.” 3. Small Teasel (D. pildésus).—Leaves stalked, with a small leaflet at the base on each side; stem angular, rough, with small prickles turning down- wards ; flower-stalks bristly ; leaves egg-shaped, pointed, and serrated ; root biennial. The Teasels hitherto described could not be mistaken for any other plants. This species has, however, at first sight much the appearance of a scabious. It is not a common plant, but grows here and there in moist hedges south of Yorkshire. The author has found it about Wouldham, in Kent, and it occurs in various parts of Norfolk, Suffolk, Sussex, Berkshire, and Surrey. The heads of flowers are nearly globose, rarely so large as a walnut, the bristly receptacle being studded, in August and September, with whitish corollas, having remarkably protruding anthers. ‘The stem is three or four feet high, branched, and leafy ; the whole plant is very rough. It has been commended as affording a sudorific medicine. 2. SCABIOUS (Scabidsa). 1. Devil’s-bit Scabious (S. swcisw).—Corolla 4-cleft, nearly regular, hairy ; heads of flowers nearly globose ; bracts of the involucre in two or three rows; root-leaves numerous ; stem-leaves usually few ; root perennial. The rich purplish-blue flowers of this Scabious, with their reddish anthers, may be seen from July to October growing among the short grasses of the dry pasture-lands of our hillsides, and standing on a stem a foot or more in height. It is particularly abundant on chalky lands, but is found on other soils, and adorns heaths and meadows. The short blackish root of the plant terminates abruptly, being what the botanist terms premorse, and looking exactly as if bitten off, though this condition is rarely, if ever, apparent during the first year of growth. The notion once prevailed very generally that, to use the words of an old writer, ‘‘ The Divile for envie that he beareth to mankind, bit it off, because that otherwise it would be good for manie uses.” Now that all can read the Scriptures, and trace there all that has ever been revealed concerning the Spirit of Darkness, the Great Enemy of man, these notions of our fathers are seen plainly enough to be absurd; yet learned men of those times gravely declared them, and ignorant men received them with unquestioning faith. Another old herbalist (Culpepper) says: “The herb or the root (all that the devil hath left of it), being boiled in wine and drank, is very powerful against the plague and all pestilential diseases or fevers, poisons also, and the bitings of venomous beasts. It helpeth also those that are inwardly bruised by any casualty or outwardly by falls or blows.” He states that “This root was longer, until the devil (as the friars say) bit away the rest of it from spite, envying its usefulness to mankind ; for sure he was not troubled with any disease for which it is proper.” Gerarde, however, very properly describes these opinions as the sayings of ‘‘old fantasticke charmers,” but he places great faith in the efficacy of the > 1 DEVILS-BIT SCABIOUS a SMALL SCABIOUS Scabiosa succisa S. columbaria FIELD KNAUTIA Knautia arvensis Pl. 109. TEASEL TRIBE 121 herb. The strange and, as it appears to us, profane notion seems to have been also shared on the Continent, for one of the French names of the plant is still Mors de Diable, and the Dutch call it Duvelles bit. It is, however, more generally in France now called La Scabieuse, and in Holland Schurftkruid. It is the Scabiosa of the Italians; the Hscabiosa of the Spanish ; and the Skabzose of the Germans, these names all referring to its general use in cutaneous dis- orders, for which it is highly extolled by Etmiiller. The root is slightly bitter and astringent. Linneus says that the dried leaves are used to dye wool of a yellow or greencolour. The beautiful and fragrant Scabious of our gardens (S. atro-purpirea), the Mourning Bride, as the flower is often called, affords an excellent green dye, and it has been suggested that it might yield a good ingredient for tanning leather. 2. Small Scabious (8. columbdria).—Corolla 5-cleft, downy, the outer flowers longest; heads nearly globose; root-leaves oblong, variously cut, upper leaves pinnatifid; root perennial. This species is common on grassy lands, especially on those of the east coast of England. Its purplish-lilac flowers, with yellow anthers, have a more radiant form, as if more fully expanded, than those of the premorse kind. Its leaves, too, are of a lighter hue, the flowers much paler, and the whole plant stouter. Its stem is about a foot high, and it flowers in July and August. 3. KNAUTIA (Knaitza). Field Knautia (K. arvénsis).—Lower leaves simple, slightly serrated, and hairy ; stem-leaves pinnatifid ; stem not much branched, bristly ; inner calyx with a fringe of 8—16 awned teeth ; root perennial. This tall and handsome plant often overtops the ripening corn in June and July, or is levelled with it by the reaper a month later. The flowers are so much like those of the scabious, that the plant was long retained in that genus, and called Scabidsa arvensis. It grows, too, very commonly in meadows in all parts of the kingdom, and we might say with the American poet, Lowell, as we look at some gathered or stray blossom— ‘*Then think I of deep shadows in the grass, Of meadows where in sun the cattle graze ; Where as the breezes pass, The gleaming rushes bend a thousand ways :— Of leaves that slumber in a cloudy mass, Or whiter in the wind :—of waters blue, That from the distance sparkle through Some woodland gap :—-and of a sky above, Where one light cloud, like a stray lamb, doth move.” The flowers of the Knautia are large and convex, the outer florets being larger and bluer than the inner ones, and cut into usequal segments. It forms a beautiful addition to the wild nosegay gathered at this season, and it is amusing to see how, under the influence of tobacco smoke, the petals gradually assume a rich light-green colour, and seem at first uninjured by the process, though they wither soon after. Several bluish-lilac flowers are affected in a similar way by the influence of this smoke ; and a purple violet, if placed in a bottle containing smelling-salts, soon assumes a most singular and beautiful green tint. IL—16 122 COMPOSIT AA Order XLVI. COMPOSITAZ—COMPOUND FLOWERS. Calyx tube adhering strictly to the ovary, the limb mostly becoming a pappus that is either a chaffy margin of the fruit, or a tuft, or a ring of bristles, hairs, or silky feathers; corolla regular or irregular, tubular or strap-shaped ; stamens 4 or 5, united by their anthers ; ovary inferior, 1 to each style, 1-celled ; style simple, with a simple or 2-cleft stigma, sheathed by the tube of the anthers ; fruit a solitary erect seed, crowned by the pappus, which usually consists of a plume of simple or serrated feathery hairs, some- times elevated on a stalk, but which is in other cases merely a chaffy margin. The blossoms of this order are called compound because they consist of a number of small flowers (florets), inclosed within a calyx-like involucre, composed of a number of bracts. These florets are inserted upon the dilated top of the flower-stalk (receptacle) which is either furnished with chaffy scales or naked. This order is divided into three sub-orders. Sub-order 1. THe Cuicory TRIBE (Cichoracec). In this the florets are all strap-shaped and perfect ; that is, each contains 5 stamens and a pistil, which is not swollen beneath its fork. The plants mostly abound in milky juice. Some are slightly astringent, others bitter, but they are chiefly remarkable for their narcotic properties. They are generally innocuous plants, and their bitterness being lessened by culture, they form in some cases wholesome vegetables. The prevailing colour of the British species of this division is yellow, as in the Dandelion, Goat’s- beard, and Hawkweeds ; but the Alpine Sow-thistle and the Salsafy have purple, and the Chicory bright blue flowers. Sub-order I]. Toe THIstLE TRIBE (Cynarocephale). In this division the florets form a convex head, and are all tubular and perfect, except in Centauwréa, in which the outer florets are larger than the inner, and are destitute of stamens and pistils. The style is swollen below its branches. The flowers are usually purple, often varying to white ; the Carline-thistle appears to be yellow, owing to the greater size of the bracts, but the florets are purple ; the Corn-flower is bright blue. Their properties are bitter and tonic. Sub-order III. CoRYMBIFER. This sub-order is composed of two groups. In the first the florets are all tubular, 5-cleft, having stamens and pistils, and forming a flat head, the style not swollen below the stigma. These form the group 7ubiflore. In the second division, termed Radiatw, the central florets are tubular, 5-cleft, having stamens and pistils ; the outer florets are strap-shaped, forming a ray, and furnished with pistils only: the style not swollen below the stigma. Senecio vulgaris, the Common Groundsel, has no rays. The flowers of the first division of this sub-order are mostly yellow; but some, like the Hemp- agrimony and Butter-bur, have flesh-coloured or purple flowers. A power- fully bitter principle resides in many of the plants, as in the Wormwood. In the Radiate the prevailing colour of the disk is yellow, and of the ray COMPOUND FLOWERS 123 white or yellow. Of the former, the Daisy is an example; the latter may be seen in the Golden Rod and Corn-marigold. In one instance, the Yarrow, both disk and ray are white; and in some, as the Michaelmas Daisy, the petals of the ray are purple. Several tonic and bitter plants, like the Chamomile, are found in this group. The order of compound flowers is very extensive. The number of genera is given by Hooker as 768, and of species as 10,000 ; the Compositz com- prehend about one-tenth of all known plants, their proportions varying in different parts of the world. In temperate regions they are mostly herbaceous plants, but near the equator they are shrubs or trees. It should be noted that in the conspicuous grouping of otherwise insignifi- cant flowers the Composite show a considerable advance upon the Umbellifere. The success of this form of inflorescence is largely due in the Hadiate to the plan of enlarging the outer series of florets in order to make the flower-head more attractive—a development of the method adopted by guelder-rose and scabious. Most of the flowers in this order produce honey, and the anthers shed their pollen before the stigmas are mature. Owing to the union of the anthers a tube is formed into which the pollen is shed on top of the pistil. Later the pistil divides at the top into two branches, the stigmas, but at first these have their sensitive faces pressed together, and as the pistil lengthens they act as a brush to push the pollen out of the anther-tube against the bodies of insects that walk over the flower-head in search of honey. Insects that visit Composites are therefore always more or less covered with pollen, part of which they leave on the stigmas of older heads. Plants that mature their anthers first are termed proterandrous or protandrous, whilst those in which the stigmas are developed first are known as proterogynous or protogynous. Sub-order 1. Cutcory TRIBE (Cichoracec). All the florets strap-shaped, having stamens and pistils. 1. GoAT’s-BEARD (7’ragopégon).—Involucre simple, of 8—10 long bracts in one series, united at the base ; receptacle dotted ; fruit rough, with longi- tudinal ridges tapering into a beak ; pappus feathery. Name in Greek signi- fying a goat’s-beard, from the bearded fruit. 2. OX-TONGUE (Helminthia).—Involucre of about 8 equal bracts, surrounded by 3—5 heart-shaped leaf-like bracts; receptacle dotted ; fruit rough, with transverse wrinkles, rounded at the end and beaked; pappus feathery. Name from the Greek, helminthos, a small worm, from the form of the fruit. 3. Picris.—Involucre of many compact and upright equal bracts, with several small narrow ones spreading at the base ; fruit rcugh, with transverse ridges, not beaked ; pappus of two rows, the inner one only feathery. Name from the Greek pikros, bitter. 4. Hawxk-pit (Apdrgia).—Involucre with the bracts imbricated* unequally, the outer scales smaller, black and hairy, in several rows ; receptacle slightly dotted ; fruit tapering to a point; pappus of one row, feathery. Origin of name uncertain. 5. Turincta (Zhrincia).—Involucre of several rows, the outer smaller , * TImbricated, laid one over the other, like tiles on a house. 16—2 124 COMPOSIT Ai receptacle slightly dotted ; fruit of the outer florets forming a short scaly cup, of the rest long and feathery. Name from the Greek, thrinkos, a battle- ment, from the turret-like form of the seed-crown of the marginal florets. 6. Cat’s-EAR (Hypocheris).—Involucre oblong, bracts numerous, imbri- cated ; receptacle chaffy ; fruit rough, often beaked ; pappus feathery, having” often a row of short bristles outside. Name in Greek denoting its fitness for hogs. 7. Lerruce (Lactica).—Involucre oblong, its bracts membranous at the margin and imbricated, containing but few flowers ; receptacle naked ; fruit flattened, beaked ; pappus hairy. Name from lac, milk, from its milky juice. 8. BLUE Sow-THISTLE (Mulgédiwm).—Involucre double, many-flowered, inner of one row of equal bracts, outer of short lax ones overlapping each other ; receptacle naked ; pappus brittle. Named from mulgeo, to milk, from its milky juice. 9. SoW-THISTLE (Sénchus).—Involucre with 2 or 3 rows of unequal imbricated bracts, swollen at the base, and few-flowered ; receptacle naked ; fruit flattened, transversely wrinkled, not beaked ; pappus hairy. Name in Greek, alluding to its hollow stems. 10. HAWRK’S-BEARD (Crépis).—Involucre double, inner of one row, outer of short loose bracts ; receptacle naked ; fruit not flattened, furrowed, tapering upwards ; pappus soft and feathery, usually white, abundant. Name in Greek signifying a sandal, but the reason for this name is unknown. 11. BorkHaAts1A.—Inyolucre oval, with awl-shaped bracts which soon fall off; receptacle naked ; fruit rounded, transversely wrinkled, and having a long beak. Name in honour of Moritz Borkhausen, a German botanist. 12. DANDELION (Ledniodon).—Involucre imbricated with numerous bracts, the outer ones loose, and often turned downwards; receptacle dotted ; fruit slightly flattened, rough, with a long and slender beak. Name from the Greek, leon, a lion, and odous, a tooth, from the tooth-like edges of the leaves. 13. HAWKWEED (Hierdcium).—Involucre imbricated with numerous oblong bracts ; receptacle dotted ; fruit angular, furrowed, with an entire or toothed margin at the top, without a beak. Name from the Greek, dieraz, a hawk, because it was supposed that birds of prey used the plant to strengthen their powers of vision. 14. NIpPLE-worT (Ldpsana).—Involucre a single row of erect bracts, with 4 —5 small ones at the base, few-flowered ; receptacle naked ; fruit flattened, furrowed ; pappus none. An old Latin name. 15. Succory (Cichdérium).—Involucre in two rows, inner of 8 bracts, which bend back after flowering, outer of 5 smaller loose scales ; receptacle naked, or slightly hairy ; fruit thick above, tapering downwards ; pappus a double row of chaffy scales. Name from the Arabic, chikoiych. Sub-order II. 'THISTLE-TRIBE (Cynarocephale). Florets all tubular. 16. Burpock (Arctiwm).—Involucre globose, leathery bracts ending in hooked points ; receptacle chaffy ; fruit oblong, 4-sided ; pappus short. Name from the Greek, arctos, a bear, from the roughness of the involucres, COMPOUND FLOWERS 125 17. Saw-worrt (Serrdtula).—Stamens and pistils often on different plants ; involucre imbricated, bracts not prickly ; receptacle chaffy or bristly ; fruit flattened, not beaked ; pappus hairy. Name from the Latin, serrula, a little saw, the leaves being finely serrated. 18. SaussUREA.—Involucre imbricated, bracts not prickly ; anthers bristly at the base ; receptacle chaffy ; pappus double, outer bristly, inner longer, feathery. Named in honour of the two De Saussures, Swiss botanists. 19. THISTLE (Cédrduus).—Involucre swollen below, imbricated with spinous bracts; receptacle bristly ; pappus hairy, united by a ring at the base, and soon falling off. The Latin name of the plant. 20. PLUME-THISTLE (Cnécus).—Involucre swollen below, imbricated with spinous scales; pappus equal and feathery. Name from the Greek for a thistle—knekos. 21. COTTON-THISTLE (Onopérdum).—Involucre swollen below, imbricated, the leathery bracts spreading and spinous ; receptacle honeycombed by little pits with toothed edges; fruit 4-angled; pappus hairy, rough. Name of Greek origin. 22. CARLINE-THISTLE (Carlina).—Involucre imbricated, swollen at the base, the outer bracts loose, with numerous spines, the inner coloured, spread- ing, and resembling a ray ; receptacle chaffy. Name the same as Carolina, from a tradition that an angel showed the root of one of the species to Charlemagne, as a remedy for the plague. 23. KNAPWEED, CoRN BLUEBOTTLE, ETC. (Centawréa).—Involucre imbri- cated ; receptacle bristly ; pappus hairy or none ; outer florets large, irregular, destitute of stamens and pistils. Name from the Centaur Chiron, who is said to have used it for healing wounds. Sub-order III. CORYMBIFER 2. Florets of the disk tubular ; marginal florets often strap-shaped. 1. THE Tansy Group (Tubiflore). 24. Bur-MARIGOLD (Bidens).—Involucre of many bracts, the outer ones often leafy ; pappus of 2—5 awns, which are rough, with minute teeth point- ing downwards. Name from the Latin, dis, double, and dens, a tooth, from - the pappus bristles. 25. GALINSOGA (Galinsoga).—Flower-heads small, with yellow ray-florets. Involucre of 1 row of bracts with chaffy margins; receptacle conical, with lance-shaped scales ; pappus of fringed scales in one series. Named after De Galinsoga, the Spanish botanist. 26. COTTON-WEED (Didétis).—Involucre hemispherical, bracts oblong, im- bricated ; pappus none ; corolla with two ears at the base, which remain and crown the fruit. Name from the Greek, dis, double, ous, dtos, an ear, from the form of the fruit. 27. Tansy (Lanacétum).—Inyolucre cup-shaped, imbricated ; receptacle naked ; fruit crowned with a chaffy border. Name altered from the Greek athinatos, not dying. 28. Wormwoop (A7temésia).—Involucre roundish, imbricated, containing but few flowers. Name from Artemis, the Diana of the Greeks. 126 COMPOSIT At 29. Hemp-AGRIMONY (Hupatérium).—Heads few-flowered ; involucre im- bricated, oblong; receptacle naked; styles much longer than the florets. Name from Mithridates Eupator, King of Pontus, who is said to have first used it. 30. Gotpy-Locks (Linosyris).—Involucre of one row of bracts, surrounded by several longer ones, or imbricated ; receptacle honeycombed ; pappus in a double row, feathery, rough. Name from linum, flax, and osyris, a name given by Pliny to some flexible plant. 31. EVERLASTING (Antenndria).—Stamens and pistils in separate flowers, and on different plants; involucre imbricated, the inner ones coloured or chaffy at the ends ; receptacle naked ; pappus hairy. Name from the hairs of the male pappus, which resemble the antenne of insects. 32. CUDWEED (Gnaphdlium).—Involucre roundish, dry, imbricated, often coloured ; receptacle naked ; pappus hairy. Name from the Greek, gnaphdlion, soft down, with which the leaves are covered. 33. FrtAco.—Involucre tapering upwards, imbricated, of a few long, pointed bracts ; receptacle chafty in the circumference ; pappus hairy ; florets few, the outer ones bearing pistils only. Name from the Latin, jilum, a thread, from the thread-like down which invests the plant. 34. Burrer-BuR (Petasites).—Involucre a single row of narrow bracts ; receptacle naked ; stamens and pistils usually on different plants. Name from the Greek, pétasos, a covering for the head, from the large size of the leaves. 2. Daisy Group (Ladiate). 35. Coxt’s-roor (Twussilégo).—Involucre a single row of narrow bracts, with a few outer shorter ones; receptacle naked ; florets of the ray narrow, in several rows; of the disk few ; all yellow. Name from the Latin, tussis, a cough, from its use in that malady. 36. FLEA-BANE (Erégeron).—Involucre imbricated with narrow scales ; receptacle naked ; florets of the ray in many rows, very narrow, different in colour from those of the disk. Name in Greek signifying growing old early, from the early appearance of the grey seed-down. 37. Srarwort (Aster).—Involucre imbricated, a few scales on the flower- stalk ; receptacle naked, honeycombed ; florets of the ray in one row, white or purple; of the disk, yellow ; pappus hairy, in many rows. Name from the Greek, aster, a star. 38. GoLDEN-ROD (Soliddgo).—Involucre imbricated ; receptacle naked ; florets all yellow ; pappus hairy, in one or two rows. Name from the Latin, solidare, to unite, from its supposed property of healing wounds. °39, GROUNDSEL AND RaGwort (Senécio).—Involucre imbricated and oblong, the bracts often tipped with brown, a few smaller ones at the base ; florets all yellow, the outer sometimes wanting. Name from the Latin, sener, an old man, from the white seed-down. 40. LEOPARD’S-BANE (Dorénicum).—Involucre cup-shaped, bracts in two rows, equal ; florets all yellow ; pappus hairy, wanting in the florets of the ray. Name of uncertain origin. 41, ELECAMPANE, ETC. (Jnula).—Involucre imbricated in many rows; receptacle naked ; florets all yellow ; anthers with two bristles at the base. ‘ COMPOUND FLOWERS 127 Name, the old Latin designation, probably a corruption of Helénula, Little Helen. 42, FLEA-BANE (Pulicdria).—Involucre loosely imbricated, in few rows ; pappus in two rows, outer one short, membranous, cup-shaped, and toothed. inner hairy ; receptacle naked ; anthers with bristles at their base. Name from pulex, a flea, to which insect the plant is said to be obnoxious. 43. Daisy (Béllis).—Involucre of two rows of equal blunt bracts ; receptacle conical ; outer florets white, inner yellow; pappus none. Name from the Latin, bellus, pretty. 44, Ox-BYE (Chrysanthemum).—Involucre nearly flat, the bracts membran- aceous at the margin; receptacle naked; pappus none. Name from the Greek, chrysos, gold, and anthos, a flower. 45. WiLtp CHAMOMILE (Matricdria).—Involucre conical, hemispherical, or nearly flat, the scales imbricated, and usually membranaceous at their margins ; pappus a membranaceous border, or wanting; receptacle naked. Name from its former use in affections of the matrix. 46. CHAMOMILE (Anthemis).—Involucre cup-shaped, or nearly flat, the scales imbricated, membranaceous at their margins; receptacle chaffy ; pappus none, or a membranaceous border. Name from the Greek, anthos, a flower, from its numerous blossoms. 47. YArRow, Miron (Achilléa).—Involucre egg-shaped, or oblong, imbricated ; receptacle flat, chaffy ; florets of the ray broad, 5—10; pappus none. Name from Achilles, who is said to have first used it as a healing herb. ANOMALOUS GENUS. 48. BUR-WEED (Xdnthiwm).—Stamens and pistils in separate flowers on the same plant. Stamen-bearing flowers with an involucre of few scales, and many small heads of flowers upon a common receptacle ; calyx none ; corolla sessile. Pistil-bearing flower with its involucre single, prickly, with two beaks, inclosing two flowers; calyx none; corolla none; the two stigmas alone protruded from the beaks. Fruit one-seeded. Name from zanthos, yellow or fair, because an infusion is said to have been used for staining the hair yellow. Sub-order I. CuHtcory TRIBE (Cichoracee). 1. GOAT’S-BEARD (77 agopégon). * Florets all strap-shaped ; having stamens and pistils. 1. Yellow Goat’s-beard (7. praténsis).—Involucre about the same length as the corolla, or rather longer ; leaves broad at the base, clasping the stem, very long, tapering, channelled, and undivided ; flower-stalks slightly thickened above ; root biennial. This plant, which is not uncommon, is one of easy recognition ; for the long leaves, almost as slender as those of the young wheat, distinguish it at once from the other species of compound flowers, with their variously cut foliage. The stem is about two feet high, with sea-green bloom upon its surface, and the flower is yellow, with either yellow or dark-brown anthers. The blossom forms one of the best floral 128 COMPOSIT indices of the hour of the day, opening at sunrise, and closing at noon. It flowers from May to July. Bishop Mant says of it :— ** And goodly now the noontide hour, When from his high meridian tower The sun looks down in majesty, What time about the grassy Jea The Goat’s-beard, prompt his rise to hail With broad expanded disk, in veil Close mantling wraps its yellow head, And goes, as peasants say, to bed.” This plant in country places is called Noonday Flower, Jack-go-to-bed-at- noon, and Star of Jerusalem. After flowering, the round ball of pappus is very conspicuous, being larger than that of any other wild flower, concave above, and interwoven; not white, like that of the dandelion, but of a light brownish colour, and each little shuttlecock-like plume placed on a long stalk. It is to this ball that the plant owes its rustic name of Goat’s-beard, which has its synonym in several European countries. Thus the Germans call it Bocksbart ; the Dutch, Loksbaard ; the Italians, Barba di becco ; the Spaniards, Barba cabruna ; and the French, Sersi/i. Gerarde says of the Goat’s-beard: “The rootes boyled in water until they be tender, and buttered as parsneps and carrots, are a most pleasing and wholesome meate, in delicate taste farre surpassing either parsneps or carrots; which meate procures appetite, warmeth the stomacke, prevaileth greatly in consumptions, and strengtheneth those that have been sicke of a long linger- ing disease.” Our species includes the 7. minor and the 7. grandiflora of some botanists ; the var. minor, which is the more plentiful in this country, has the involucral bracts twice the length of the rays. The plant grows in meadows and pastures, and sometimes in hedges. 2. Purple Goat’s-beard, or Salsafy (7. porrifélius).—Involucre longer than the florets; flower-stalks thickened upwards ; leaves tapering, slightly broader just above the base, then gradually narrowing to an acute point ; root perennial. This pretty purple species is often seen in gardens, and in the moist meadows of some parts of the kingdom; but it is local. It is rather a naturalized than a truly wild flower, and is very similar, save in the colour of its blossom, to the common Goat’s-beard. The long tapering roots may be much improved by culture; they are mild and sweet, and resemble asparagus in flavour. The plant is still cultivated in France and Germany for these edible roots, and was so in England previously to the introduction into our kitchen-gardens of the Spanish Salsafy (Scorzonera hispanica), which occurred soon after the skirret had been first planted here. The roots of the common Goat’s-beard are equally sweet and nutritious, and some old writers preferred them to those of the purple kind. Like the other species, it closes at noonday. 2. OX-TONGUE (Helminthia). Bristly Ox-tongue (H. echioides).—Outer scales of the involucre five in number, large, heart-shaped, with rounded notches at the margin ; stem rough, with stiff hairs seated on tubercles; lower leaves lanceolate, upper clasping 1 YELLOW GOAT $-BEARD 3 BRISFLY OX-TONGUE Tragopogon pratensis Holminthia echioides Z PURPLE G 4 HAWK*WEED PICRIS T. parrifolmus Pieris bieracioides Pl, 110, COMPOUND FLOWERS 129 the stem, and heart-shaped ; root perennial. This plant is clearly distinguished by its large heart-shaped involucre. Its leaves are glossy green, their surface, like the stem, being dotted over with many white warty protuberances, from which the prickles spring. The juice is milky, and the leaves, when young, form a good vegetable, being either boiled, or, in some countries, pickled. The French call the plant Langue de Bewf. The shining seeds are a beautiful object for the microscope. Its English range is from Durham southward. Dr. George Johnston remarks, that he found the Ox-tongue at Berwick, by the Pier Road, and it extends thence to Haddington. It occurs but rarely in Ireland, about Dublin. ‘The stem of this plant is two or three feet high, and much branched. Its small yellow heads appear from June to September. It grows chiefly on dry banks and field borders, and is not very generally distributed, though by no means uncommon in Kent, Devonshire, and some other counties. Sir J. D. Hooker retains this in the Linnean genus Pieris. 3. Proris (Péris). Hawkweed Picris (P. hieracioides).—Stem branched, and, as well as the leaves, rough with forked and hooked bristles ; upper leaves somewhat clasping, lance-shaped, and toothed ; flower-stalks with numerous scale-like bracts ; flower-heads corymbose, outer bracts of the involucre narrow and lax ; root perennial. This is rather a slender plant, two or three feet in height, its handsome yellow flowers expanding in Juneand July. It is very common on the borders of fields, road-sides, and sea-cliffs as far north as Roxburgh ; also in the Channel Islands. It is very bitter, hence its name of Picris. The French also call it Picride ; the Germans, Bitterkraut ; and the Dutch, Bitter- kruid. 4. HAWK-BIT (Apdrgia). 1. Rough Hawk-bit (4. Aispida).—Leaves all from the root, pinnatifid, with the lobes pointing backward, rough with forked bristles ; stalk swollen at top, bearing a single head; pappus with an outer row of bristles ; root perennial. This plant, which opens its yellow flowers from June to September, is very common on pastures and meadows, and spangles over the short grasses of the gravelly soils— ‘¢ Where the furze has leave to wreathe Its dark prickles o’er the heath ; Where the grey-grown hawthorns spread Foliaged houses o’er one’s head, By the sporting axe untouch’d ; Where the oak-tree gnarl’d and notch’d Lifts its deep-moss’d furrow’d side In Nature’s grandeur—Nature’s pride.” 2. Autumnal Hawk-bit (4. autumnilis).—Root-leaves linear, lan- ceolate, toothed, or pinnatifid, nearly smooth ; stalk branched, scaly, and thickened above ; involucre smooth or hairy: a variety occurs with smooth leaves, stalk mostly simple, and the involucre shaggy, with greenish-black hairs; and another with hairy leaves, branched stalk, and involucre with dark hairs; root perennial. This plant is not unfrequent in meadows and pastures, its deep yellow flowers expanding in August and September. They / IL—17 130 COMPOSIT Ai are succeeded by brownish-white pappus. The plant is tall and slender, the many-flowered stalk slightly hairy, two or three feet high, and swollen beneath the flowers. The two species of Apargia were included with Thrincia in the Linnean genus Leontodon. 5. THRINCIA (Zhrincia). Hairy Thrincia (7. hirta).—Leaves all from the root, lanceolate, entire, or deeply toothed, bristly, or hairy, with forked or simple hairs ; stalks simple, hairy below ; root perennial. This plant is very frequent, from July to September, on heaths and downs, bearing a yellow flower head on each of its purplish, somewhat hairy stalks. It is from four to six inches high, with spreading rough leaves, more or less lobed. Mr. Babington mentions that its root is premorse—that is, it appears to have been bitten short. 6. Cat’s-EAR (Hypochéris). 1. Smooth Cat’s-ear (H. glabra).—Stem branched, leafy, smooth ; root- leaves oblong, lobed ; involucre smooth, equalling the florets ; root annual. The small yellow heads of this plant, scarcely longer than the involucre, are to be seen, from June to October, in gravelly soils; but the species is not frequent. The stem, which is a foot or more in height, is branched, and bears a few leaves. A variety (H. balbisii) is described with beaked fruits. 2. Long-rooted Cat’s-ear (H. radicdia).—Leaves all from the root, pinnatifid, with the lobes pointing backwards, bristly ; stalks branched, smooth, with a few scales below the flowers. This plant sends its perennial roots so far down into the earth, that it is difficult of eradication. It isa common and troublesome plant on some soils, both on this account, and because its leaves, which spread horizontally, are so closely pressed to the earth as to prevent the growth of the grass. It is, however, more common on hedge-banks and waste places than on meadow lands. Swine are said to be very fond of its roots, and not only does this circumstance account for the name of the genus, but it is alluded to in some of the familiar names of various countries of Europe. The French call it Porcelle ; the Dutch Biggen- kruid ; the Germans, Saukraut ; the Spaniards, Hierba del alcon ; the Danes, Kongpeune. The large yellow flower-heads may be seen on their long branched flower-stalks during July and August. 3. Spotted Cat’s-ear (H. maculdta).—Stem almost leafless, solitary, nearly smooth; leaves oblong, undivided, toothed, spotted on the upper surface ; involucres slightly bristly ; root perennial. This is a rare plant, occurring on some open downs of chalky or limestone districts in Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, and other counties. The stem is about a foot high, stout, and haying at its summit two or three large deep yellow heads, with two or three small scale-like bracts beneath them. The leaves are all from the root, and the plant blossoms in July and August. 7. Letruce (Lactica). * Beak long, white ; keel of leaves prickly. 1. Strong-scented or Acrid Lettuce (L. virdésw).—Leaves spreading, oblong, toothed, two-eared, and clasping the stem; stem leafy, branched 1 ROUGH HAWKBIT Apargia hispida Z AUTUMNAL H 4 SMOOTH CATS-EAR Hypocheris glabra LONG-ROOTED ¢c H radicata 6 SPOTTED c A. autumnalis 3 HAIRY THRINCIA : Thrintia hirta H.imacnlata PU tuk COMPOUND FLOWERS 131 above ; heads in panicles ; beak as long as the black fruit ; root biennial. On some chalky soils this Lettuce may be seen putting forth its yellow heads from May to August. They are in loose panicles, and are very small in comparison with the large and numerous leaves. The stem is prickly, from two to four feet high, branched at the upper part, and having a few leaves scattered over it. The leaves about the root are oblong, or inversely egg- shaped, and very numerous. This Lettuce can hardly be called a common plant in England, and in Scotland it is very rare. It is not rendered attractive by any odour, grace, or beauty, and would by any but a botanist be passed by as an uninteresting weed. On some chalk cliffs it attains a gigantic size, as on those around Lydden Spout, near Dover. It grows there in such luxuriance as to give a peculiar feature to those steep precipices, being sometimes eight feet high. This Lettuce is found throughout Europe on hedges, walls, and _field- borders, and is also cultivated to a large extent for the milky juice which it yields, which, when dried, has the name of Lactucarium, and which, 2s Gerarde says, “hath a very strong and grievous smell of opium.” All our wild Lettuces, as well as the garden species, possess this bitter and narcotic juice in greater or less degree, and it has when dried a considerable resemblance to opium. If we make an incision in the stem either of this weed or of the garden Lettuce, just when it is beginning to flower, a milky juice exudes, which gradually becomes brown, and hardens into this substance. It may be used in cases in which the poppy is inadmissible ; and the Lactica virdsa has been largely grown at Brechin, in Forfar, as well as at some other places, for the pharmaceutical preparation. It is very important to select a soil well suited to the growth of this Lettuce. At Brechin the plants were reared in a valley opening to the south, where they sent up large and juicy stems. The milky juice which exudes on incision is suffered to harden in the sun until it becomes a thin cake, and when this is removed another incision is made in the stem, and often, when the plant is luxuriant, a third incision may safely be ventured on. Our climate is less favourable than some others for the growth of the plant, which, nevertheless, in many cases proves very pro- ductive. This narcotic juice may be obtained, also, from other species of the Lettuce, and the garden Lettuce (Lactica sativa) is the plant recognised by the London Pharmacopceia for supplying the substance. Dr. Christison remarks: ‘The London College, however, and many cultivators are wrong in restricting themselves to the garden Lettuce for the preparation of lactucariwm. From information communicated to me several years ago by Mr. Duncan, chemist and druggist, of Edinburgh, who has often made lactucarium on a large scale, it appears that the Lactiica virdsa yields a much larger quantity, and that the produce is of a superior quality. Nor is there any reason for dreading the narcotic properties of the wild Lettuce, the scientific name of which has given rise to an exaggerated notion of its activity. The results obtained by Mr. Duncan have since been confirmed by those of Schultz, in Germany, who found that a single plant of the garden Lettuce yields only seventeen grains of lactucarium on an average, while a plant of wild Lettuce yields no less than fifty-six grains. Mr. Duncan has made this observation also : 17—2 132 COMPOSIT At ‘Although the milkiness of the juice increases till the very close of the time of flowering, viz. in the wild Lettuce, till the month of October in this climate, the value of the Jactucarium is deteriorated after the middle of the period of inflorescence ; for subsequently, while the juice becomes thicker, a material decrease takes place in the proportion of bitter extract contained in it.’” 2. Prickly Lettuce (ZL. scaridla).—Leaves upright, arrow-shaped at the base, and clasping, deeply cut ; panicle leafy ; beak as long as the pale fruit ; root perennial. This species is rarely found in this country, but it grows on dry banks in some parts of Cambridgeshire and other counties. Its stem is leafy, from two to five feet high, bearing yellow flower-heads, with numerous heart-shaped bracts, in July and August. The plant is of paler colour than the last species, and the milky juice with which it abounds is of a somewhat less acrid nature. Many botanists believe that our garden Lettuce (L. sativa) is but an ameliorated form of this species, while other writers think that the Acrid Lettuce (L. virdsa) is the origin of our garden Lettuces. These plants have been now so long under culture that it is impossible to trace whence they were derived ; and it is remarkable that the Lettuce can be grown to as great per- fection in a warm as in a temperate climate, provided the soil is rich and well supplied with water. Hence the Lettuces of Paris and Rome are as good as ours, and the Hindoo dines from as sweet and large a vegetable as that which supplies our salad. One of the cultivated Lettuces doubtless was introduced from the Greek islands, as it retains its old name of Cos lettuce. The wild Prickly Lettuce, though a rare English plant, is plentiful in many parts of Europe. It is found on the hilly districts of Greece, and is probably the species referred to by Dioscorides. The ancients were well aware of the narcotic principles of this genus; for the Romans used the Lettuce both for salads and medicine, and the old poets prescribed a bed of Lettuce for the sleepless. Pliny, as translated by Dr. Holland, says: ‘“ Yet is there another distincte kinde of the black Lettuce, which for the plentie that it yieldeth of a milkie white juice, procuring drowsinesse, is termed meconis ; although all of them are thought to cause sleepe. In old times, our ancestors knew no other lettuce in Italy but this alone, and therefore it took the name of the Latins, Lactica.” Anyone who observes his own sensations after eating plentifully of a lettuce salad will find that it disposes him to sleep if night is advancing ; while, if taken at a part of the day when we are unaccustomed to sleep, it soothes and calms the mind, and allays nervous irritability. As Pope says, “If your wish be rest, Lettuce and cowslip wine, probatwm est.” When we indulge freely, indeed, in a lettuce salad, we might be told that we were incipient opium-eaters ; but, happily, we are not likely at one meal to take so large a portion of the lactucarium as would affect the brain to anything like intoxication. Sir John Lubbock states that, when growing in sunny situations, the leaves of this species have a tendency to point north and south. The Lettuce appears to have been planted in our garden early, but it was long before its growth became frequent. ‘Turner mentions it in 1652 asa vegetable which was well known; but in the account of the Privy Purse 1 STRONG SCENTED LETTUCE 3 LEAST LETTUCE Lactuca virosa L. salifna 2 PRICKLY L + TVY LEAVED IL L. scariola L murals Pl, 112, dies Hay) COMPOUND FLOWERS 133 expenses of Henry VIII. in 1530 we find that the gardener at York Place received a reward for “bringing luttuze and cherries to Hampton Court.” Gerarde in 1597 mentions eight varieties as being then in cultivation. Spenser speaks of “Cold lettuce and refreshing rosmarine.” Our wild Lettuces are never now cultivated for food, and it would need a long course of culture ere their acrid principles could be removed. The varieties, L. sativa, crispa, perénnis, quercina, and a few others, are those commonly reared in the kitchen garden. 3. Least Lettuce (L. saligna).—Upper leaves narrow, entire, pointed, arrow-shaped at the base ; lower leaves pinnatifid ; beak twice as long as the fruit; root biennial. This rare plant is found chiefly in the south-eastern parts of England, on chalky places near the sea, or in salt marshes. It has a slender wavy stem, slightly branched, and about two feet high; and the plant has at first sight somewhat the appearance of a small osier: hence its name. It bears, in July and August, small heads of yellow flowers in alter- nate tufts, forming long clusters, which are so dense as to resemble spikes. * * Beak short ; keel of leaves smooth. 4. Ivy-leaved Lettuce (L. murdlis).—Leaves pinnatifid, somewhat lyre- shaped, and toothed; the terminal lobe largest and angled; beak much shorter than the fruit ; root perennial. This is the most common of our wild Lettuces, and is not unfrequent in woods or on old walls. It is a slender plant, having a stem one or two feet high, with small yellow heads, each of which has five regular florets, so that it resembles a simple flower of five petals. It is in blossom from June to August. The stalks of the clusters grow in a very angular direction, and the fruit is black. It has less narcotic principle in its juices than either of the other species. The French call the Lettuce La Laitue, the Germans Der Salat. It is the Salade of the Dutch, the Lattuga of the Italians, and the Lechuga of the Spaniards. The greater number of the Lettuce family grow wild in Europe, a lesser number in Asia and Africa, very few in America, and none in the southern hemisphere. 8. BLUE SOW-THISTLE (Mulgédium). Alpine Blue Sow-thistle (JZ. alpinum).—Leaves lyre-shaped, arrow- shaped at the base ; terminal lobe very large, triangular, halberd-shaped, and acute ; stem unbranched ; heads of flowers in racemes; bracts, flower-stalks, and involucres with glandular hairs ; fruit ribbed. Few of our native lovers of flowers ever look upon this beautiful plant, save in the herbarium of one who has wandered among the rare and lovely blossoms which grow on the highland heights of North Britain. A few spots near rivulets in Forfar and Aberdeen are its only British localities ; but in some countries at the north of Europe it is a frequent plant. In Lapland, where it grows among the trees on the slopes of mountains, it is called Terja, and its milky stem is peeled off and eaten raw by the people of those regions. It is intensely bitter, but the Laplanders, accustomed to eat it from childhood, relish it exceedingly. Some of them, however, told Linnzus, that when first they 134 COMPOSIT Ai began using it as food, they found its bitterness very unpleasant. It is only while young that the plant can be eaten, for as soon as the flowers expand, the stalk becomes hard and woody. It is about three feet high, and the flowers, which appear in July and August, are rich purplish-blue. Some writers term it Sonchus alpinus, or S. ceruleus ; others Lactuca alpina. 9. SOW-THISTLE (Sénchus). 1. Tall Marsh Sow-thistle (S. palistris).—Leaves narrow, lanccolate, clasping the stem with arrow-shaped ears, lower ones pinnatifid with few segments, upper ones entire; stem without branches; root perennial. This large Sow-thistle is very rare. It has been found in marshes in Cambridge, Essex, Huntingdonshire, Kent, Norfolk and Suffolk, but it is now almost extinct in this country. It bears, in August and September, pale yellow heads, and as its stem is often six feet high, the plant is very conspicuous on the flat green lands where it grows. The involucre of the flower is covered with glandular hairs which serve to entrap small creeping insects that seek to rob the flowers of their honey and pollen, without rendering service in return. 2. Corn Sow-thistle, Milk-thistle (S. arvénsis).—Leaves oblong, more or less pinnatifid or entire, toothed, often prickly, the upper ones clasping | the stem ; heads somewhat corymbose, usually covered, as are the flowering stems, with glandular bristles ; involucres smooth ; root creeping. Those who stray into the harvest fields of August can hardly have failed to observe among the brown corn the large yellow, star-like blossoms of this handsome plant. Each flower is as large as a half-crown piece, and grows on a slender stem which overtops the wheat, and is sometimes even four feet high, adding much to the beauty of the field. ‘*Stars they are wherein we read our history, As astrologers and seers of eld ; Yet not wrapp’d about with awful mystery, Like the burning stars which they beheld. *¢ Wondrous truths, and manifold as wondrous, God hath written in the stars above ; But not less in the bright flow’rets under us Stands the revelation of His love. “ Bright and glorious is that revelation Written over this great world of ours ! Making evident our own creation, In these stars of earth, these golden flowers.” This flower well deserves its name of arvénsis, as it grows much on culti- vated lands, but it is also found on field borders and other waste places, where it sometimes attains a great size. 3. Common Annual Sow-thistle (S. olerdccus).— Leaves undivided or pinnatifid, toothed, clasping, with two spreading arrow-shaped ears, lower ones stalked ; stem branched ; fruit ribbed lengthwise and wrinkled ; heads of flowers somewhat umbellate ; involucres smooth ; root annual. ‘This plant is well known to the cultivator-of a garden, for it is a frequent intruder on his beds. It has bright glossy, often prickly leaves, their edges in one variety divided, in the other entire, and all, as well as the stem, so full of milky | BLUE SOW-THISTLE 3 CORN S$ Mul gedinm alpinum . S. arvensis 2 SOW THISTLE “F COMMON ANNUAL 5S Ab Sonchus palustris S, oleraceus 7 SHARP FRINGED ANNUAL Ss: T S.asper Pats, COMPOUND FLOWERS 135 juice, that its name of Milk-thistle is not inappropriate. Many a ramble by field border and sunny bank does the schoolboy take to gather a basket of soft juicy “ Milkies” for his rabbit ; while the timid wild hare will creep through garden hedge, before its owner has waked up to the dawn, and will there take a breakfast on the Sow-thistle. Horses are not fond of the plant ; but it is eaten by sheep and goats, and is so favourite a food with swine, that their preference is indicated not alone by our familiar name, but by that of some other European lands. The Germans call it Saudistel, and also Hasenkohl ; the French term the plant Le Laiteron; the Italians, Sonco ; the Spaniards, Cerraja ; the Dutch, Haazenlatuw ; and it is known by the Russian peasant as the Tschistotel. It is common not only in Europe, but in some parts of Africa ; and Kalm says it grows wild near every farmhouse at the Cape of Good Hope, and is used by the people there in making salves. It has also become a very frequent plant in New Zealand, either this or the Corn species flourish- ing in abundance, with docks and poppies, among the fields of waving corn —little welcomed by the farmer who is intent on cultivating that fertile soil, though doubtless often, as Colonel Mundy says, reminding the traveller very pleasantly of “weedy, seedy Old England.” Remarking on the luxuriant growth of several British weeds, as the docks and chickweeds, which adorn the roadsides, this author says: “I rather think Cook found the Sow- thistle here. At any rate, this humble weed is in New Zealand pro- moted to an esculent, the Maoris making of it a sort of salad.” He adds that it is invaluable to the birds, especially to the parrot tribes, hundreds of which, “of beauteous dyes but odious accents,” he saw fluttering and feeding on its filmy tops. This Sow-thistle has similar properties to the succory and dandelion. Its leaves are much eaten by the peasantry of France and Germany, as salad, and are in many countries of Europe boiled for the table. It is said that, prepared in the way of spinach, they furnish a dish of vegetables superior to any green plant in common use. 4, Sharp-fringed Annual Sow-thistle (S. dsper).—Leaves undivided or pinnatifid, sharply toothed, clasping, with rounded ears; fruit ribbed lengthwise, smooth ; stem branched ; heads of flowers somewhat umbellate ; involucres smooth ; root annual. This plant is probably a variety or sub- . species of the common Sow-thistle, which it much resembles in its general appearance. It differs chiefly in having more crisped leaves, and in its fruit being destitute of wrinkles. Its stem is two or three feet high, and its flowers, which expand during the summer months, are yellow. It occurs, also, in gardens, fields, and waste places. 10. HAWKk’S-BEARD (Crépis). /] 1. Smooth Hawk’s-beard (C. virens).—Leaves smooth, pinnatifid, with the lobes pointing backwards, the upper ones narrow, arrow-shaped at the base, and clasping the stem, remotely toothed, and with flat margins ; fruit shorter than the pappus, oblong, with smooth ribs; root annual. ‘This plant bears numerous little yellow heads, about half an inch across, from July to September, and is very common on waste ground or the cottage roof. It 136 COMPOSIT At varies very much in height, being in some cases but a few inches, in others more than two feet high. 2. Rough Hawk’s-beard (C. biénnis).—Leaves rough, pinnatifid, with the lobes pointing backwards, uppermost lanceolate, clasping and. toothed ; involucre downy, outer scales very narrow and lax ; fruit oblong, with smooth ribs, longer than the pappus; root biennial. This plant is very rare, but it occurs on dry pastures in the mid and eastern counties of England, as well as in the neighbourhood of Aberdeen and Dublin. The flowers are larger than those of the last species, and the pappus which succeeds them is white as snow. ‘The stems are from two to four feet high, and furrowed, and the plant blossoms in June and July. 3. Small-flowered Hawk’s-beard (C. piilchra).—Leaves downy, toothed, those from the root oblong, and tapering into a foot-stalk, the rest arrow-shaped and clasping; panicle spreading; fruit about as long as the pappus, faintly marked with lines. This plant has small yellow flowers on an erect and downy stem. It was said to have been discovered by G. Don, on the Hills of Turin and Pitsandy, near Forfar, but no other botanist has ever found it there. 4. Succory-leaved Hawk’s-beard (C. swucisefélia).—Leaves oblong, blunt, nearly entire and smooth, lower ones narrowing into a foot-stalk, upper ones sessile and somewhat clasping ; flower-stalks and involucres glandular and hairy; fruit as long as the pappus, distinctly marked with lines ; root perennial. This is a rare plant of mountain woods, found only in Scotland and the north of England: it bears its few and small yellow flowers in July and August. 5. Marsh Hawk’s-beard (C. paluddésa).—Leaves smooth, lower ones pinnatifid, with the lobes pointing backwards, tapering into a stalk, upper ones narrow, heart-shaped at the base, and clasping the stem; fruit marked with lines; root perennial. This is not an unfrequent species in damp woods in the northern half of the kingdom, flowering from July to September. Though an undoubted Crepis, it has the pappus of a Hieraciwm. 11. BorxuausiA (Borkhaisia). 1. Stinking Borkhausia (B. feétida).—Leaves hairy, upper ones lanceo- late, lower ones pinnatifid, their segments turning backwards ; unexpanded heads drooping ; involucres hairy and downy ; root biennial. This is a rare plant of dry chalky lands from Cambridgeshire and Norfolk to Kent and Sussex. Its name is not undeserved ; for although, when at a distance, the plant has a faint odour of bitter almonds, yet, when held in the hand for a minute, the scent is most disgusting. The leaves are milky and very bitter. The stem is spreading, and has long stalks, each bearing a solitary yellow flower head, which is reddish externally. 2. Smaller Rough Borkhausia (B. tarazxacifélia).—Leaves pinnatifid, mostly with their segments pointing backwards, sessile or stalked ; heads of flowers erect ; involucre bristly and downy, outer scales membranaceous ; bracts narrow ; root biennial. This is not a common plant, being found in chalky pastures, chiefly south of Yorkshire. The yellow flowers expand in June and July. 1 SMOOTH HAWK BEARD a) SMALL FLOWEREI Ei Crepis vireus pulchra Z ROUGH H 4 SUCCORY LEAVEI H C. biemms C. snecisefolia MARSH H Cc paludo sa A Th ae, Wy Pn ? COMPOUND FLOWERS 137 3. Bristly Borkhausia (B. sefosa).—This plant, found sometimes in clover-fields, has no claim to be considered British. It is a native of Middle and Southern Europe, somewhat similar to B. taraxacifolia, but the branched stem is furnished with clasping leaves. 12. DANDELION (Leédntodon). Common Dandelion (L. tardxacum).—Leaves all from the root, pin- natifid, with the lobes pointing backwards ; flower-stalks hollow, smooth, leafless, and bearing a single head; outer scales of the involucre turning downwards ; pappus stalked and white; root perennial. If there are some plants which we value for their rareness, because we have sought them long or fetched them from afar, so there are others which delight us by their very commonness, and which gladden us by their gleaming thousands. Often they recall some touching scene of childhood—of early homes or friends. Such are the daisy and Dandelion, which have these associated charms, inde- pendently of that which belongs to their own beauty of form or hue. Many of us would, under similar circumstances, feel as the author of ‘Our Antipodes” did when in the Botanic Garden of Sydney. ‘Some of the producers,” he says, “evince their fealty to their native land by exhibiting specimens of her weeds, or, more properly, field flowers, strangers to the colony, and difficult to rear in this climate. I found myself adoring a butter- cup, idolising a daisy, and ardently coveting the possession of a glorious Dandelion, which, classically labelled ‘ Leontodon tardxacum,’ occupied one of the high places of the exhibition, and was treated as an illustrious foreigner.” A lowly plant it is with us, trodden over by the countryman as he passes through the field, or pressed down by the feet of little gladsome children, on pasture land or sunny bank; a treasure yet to them—a treasure to all who truly love flowers. It scorns no grassy spot as unworthy of its beauty, from church tower or garden wall, to the shadowy woods or the river’s brink—to the pebbly beach, or the crevice of the pavement. It is often the earliest flower of the green mead, sending out a stray blossom even in February, and assembling in multitudes by April and May. ‘*¥’en when old Winter leaves his plashy slough, The Dandelions, like to suns, will bloom, Beside some bank or hillock creeping low, Though each too often meets an early doom.” What a wealth to country children are the Dandelions with their hollow stalks, linked into chains day after day with untiring eagerness, and with the white downy balls, ‘The schoolboy’s clock in every town,” which come as the flowers fall away, and which sometimes whiten the meadow by their profusion, till a strong gust arises and scatters them far and wide! Away they float, each white plume bearing onwards the seed at its base, so beautifully balanced that its motion is most graceful, and its destined place in the soil most surely reached. All who notice the exquisite arrangement of IL—18 138 COMPOSIT A this downy plume and seed, might learn the pious lesson taught by Martin Tupper :— ‘* And doubtless the sailing of a cloud hath Providence to its pilot, Doubtless the root of an oak is gnarl’d for a special purpose ; The foreknown station of a rush is as fixed as the station of a king, And chaff from the hand of the winnower steer’d as the stars in their courses.” Besides the uses of the Dandelion to child, bee, and butterfly, besides the pleasant thoughts which it may bring to the philosopher, the Dandelion has various important economic uses. ‘The leaves are grown in some Continental countries, and, after being blanched, are eaten in salads ; nor is the bitterness which exists in the green leaf, and which even blanching cannot wholly remove, disagreeable to all palates. The peasants about Gottingen, besides mingling the leaves with their dish of lettuce and sorrel, have long been accustomed to roast the roots as a substitute for coffee ; and when on one occasion a swarm of locusts had destroyed the harvest in the Island of Minorca, many of the inhabitants were supported for a time by the roots and foliage of this plant. In some parts of Germany the roots are boiled for the table, and the French eat them, when sliced, in salads. Many writers think that the substitution of this root for coffee is rather advantageous than otherwise. A physician of Edinburgh said of the Dandelion: ‘It possesses all the fine flavour and exhilarating properties of coffee, without any of its deleterious effects. The plant being of a soporific nature, coffee made from it, when drunk at night, produces a tendency to sleep, instead of exciting wakefulness, and may be safely used as a cheap and wholesome substitute for the Arabian berry, being equal in substance and flavour to the best Mocha coffee.” Mrs. Moodie, in her work on Canadian life, remarks that she had read this opinion previously to leaving England ; and that one day, observing a large number of Dandelion roots in some land which belonged to their farm, she was reminded of it, and resolved to make the experiment. She therefore carefully washed the roots, without depriving them of the fine brown skin which covers them, and in which the aromatic flavour exists. She observed, while roasting them, that the odour so nearly resembled that of roasted coffee, that it might have been taken for it. When, by this process, the pieces of Dandelion-root had acquired the brownness of coffee, they were ground and prepared in the usual way for the morning meal, and proved very superior to the coffee which she had been able to procure from the stores in the neighbourhood. “For years,” adds Mrs. Moodie, “we used no other article; and my Indian friends who frequented the house gladly adopted the root, and made me show them the whole process of manufac- turing it into coffee. Experience has taught me that the root of the Dandelion is not so good when applied to this purpose in spring as it is in the fall. I tried it in the spring; but the juice of the plant having con- tributed to the production of leaves and flowers, was weak, and destitute of the fine bitter flavour of coffee.” She adds, that the roots dried in the sun will keep for years, and also that the plant cultivated in trenches may be, by being covered with straw, blanched to a beautiful cream-colour, and will make a salad equal to endive. In many parts of the United States, particu- larly in new districts where vegetables are scarce, it is used, early in the 1 STINKING BORKHAUSTA Borkhansia foetida B. taraxaeifolia COMMON DANDELION Leontodon taraxacuimm 2 SMALL ROTTGH' B PUSS: COMPOUND FLOWERS 139 spring, as a boiled vegetable ; and in some of the townships the settlers boil the young leaves and mingle them with hops, and thus produce a good home- brewed beer. Of the medicinal virtues of the Dandelion there can be no doubt, for it is a good tonic. Whether, as the old writers said, he who was “ drawing to a consumption ” would find a “ wonderful help” from its use, we cannot tell, nor has the distilled water, which they directed to be drunk in pestilential fevers, received any confirmation of its value among modern physicians. It is still, however, recommended for those who have affections of the liver; and many persons who have suffered in health from a long residence in hot climates have experienced great relief by taking its decoction. We have seen the complexion wonderfully improved by dandelion tea; but though its use could not be attended with any danger, yet some knowledge of disease is desirable in the use of any medicine, whether vegetable or mineral. The Dandelion is a troublesome plant of the pasture, both because of its profusion of seeds, and because every inch of its root-stock forms buds and fibres, and thus constitutes a new plant, while both sheep and cows seem to dislike its foliage. The English name for the plant is a corruption of the French Dent-de-lion, and was given because of its leaves, the lobes of which were fancied to resemble the tooth of the lion. It is general in the pastures of Europe, and throughout the temperate and cold regions of the earth. James Russell Lowell’s verses to it have probably caused many to examine the flower who had formerly passed it as unworthy of attention. ‘** Dear common flower that grow’st beside the way, Fringing the dusty road with harmless gold— First pledge of blithesome May Which children pluck, and full of pride uphold, High-hearted buccaneers, o’erjoy’d that they An Eldorado in the grass have found, Which not the rich earth’s ample round May match in wealth—thou art more dear to me Than all the prouder summer blooms may be. ‘* Gold such as thine ne’er drew the Spanish prow Through the primeval hush of Indian seas, Nor wrinkled the lean brow Of age to rob the lover’s heart of ease ; ‘Tis the spring’s largess which she scatters now To rich and poor alike with lavish hand, Though most hearts never understand To take it at God’s value, and pass by The open’d wealth with unrewarded eye.” 13. HAWKWEED (Hierdcium). This genus is one of a most perplexing character, our most skilful botanists differing as to the exact number of species which it contains. The species here described are, however, probably all which can be considered as truly indigenous to this country. Many others are either doubtful natives, or are likely to prove varieties of the species enumerated in this list. The student, however, intent on closely investigating the minute characteristics of all the plants of this troublesome genus, will find the Hawkweeds, with all their varieties, and with reference to the synonyms and opinions of various British 18—2 149 COMPOSIT At and foreign botanists, fully described and stated in Backhouse’s “ Monograph of the British Hieracia ” (1856), ‘‘The British Flora” of Sir William Jackson Hooker and Dr. Arnott (1860), and ‘‘The Manual of Botany” of Mr. Babington (1881). Hooker and Arnott describe thirty-three species of Hawkweed, and Mr. Babington enumerates thirty species. But Sir J. D. Hooker (‘‘Student’s Flora”), assisted by Mr. J. G. Baker, of Kew, has reduced this number to ten, and expresses the belief of nine of these “ that there are no characters whereby the nine forms ... can be more than approximately defined.” The eight forms described in this work, though not based upon Hooker and Baker, largely agree with them. * Plants producing scions. 1. Common Mouse-ear Hawkweed (JZ. pilosélla)—Leaves oblong or lanceolate, hairy on both sides, white with down beneath; stem single- headed, leafless ; scions creeping ; leaves entire, hairy ; root perennial. This Hawkweed is easily distinguished from all the other native species by its uncut leaves, together with its creeping scions. It is a common and very pretty flower, of a much paler yellow than most of the species, and truly lemon-coloured ; the florets of the ray have usually red lines on the outside, and the young unfolded or half-blown flowers look very beautiful in their rich crimson tint. The scions are mostly slender and rooting, lying close to the surface of the soil ; and the leaves, often of a greyish-green colour, are paler beneath. The plant g grows on sunny banks, dry heaths, and pastures, often studding the short grass of the sea-cliff or that of the garden lawn with its blossoms, which are ee than a shilling-piece, and appear from May to August. The herb was fmt in much repute for its supposed medicinal properties. ‘The juice thereof taken in wine,” says an old writer, ‘‘or the decoction drank, helpeth the jaundice, although of long continuance, if drank night and morning ;” but the herbalist adds, that all other liquid must be abstained from for some hours after. It appears, too, to be one of the plants used by the alchemists in their preparations; for this author says, “The moon owns this herbe also, and though authors cry out upon alchemists for attempting to fix quicksilver by this herbe and moonwort, a Roman would not have judged a thing by success ; if it be fixed at all, it is fixed by lunar influence.” There is another Hawkweed, quite distinct from all other species, but which, though often found on hills and in woods, both in England and Scot- land, is not a truly wild plant, having been wafted to these spots from some neighbouring garden. It is the Orange Hawkweed (H. aurantidcum). 'The hairs on the stem and involucre are black at the base, and intermingled with black gland-tipped hairs. These suggested the familiar name of Grim the Collier, by which the species is often called ; and it is not improbable that this name alluded to a character in an old play, once very popular in England. The plant blossoms in June and July, and the flower is very handsome, often cultivated in gardens, and varying very much in depth of colour in different situations, some flowers being red or deep orange, or more rarely of a pale yellow colour, with dark-brown styles. The plant is sometimes called by gardeners Golden Mouse-ear. It sends out creeping scions, and the flower- \ DS WN, 4 BLACK HEADED A HH. nigrescens i COMMON MOUSE-EAR HAWKWEED Hieracrum pilosella Zz ORANGE H Bey JEAToes: EE H. aurantiacum H. palhdvo 3 ALPINE EH, 6 WALI H H. alpinum A. mourornmm 7 woop H. H. sylvaticum Pi. 116. COMPOUND FLOWERS 141 stalk is one or two feet high. It grows wild in France, Switzerland, Austria, and Silesia. * * Plants without scions. 2. Alpine Hawkweed (ZH. alpinum).—Stem leafless or with a few leaves, hairy; leaves hairy, sometimes with glands; lower leaves mostly stalked, upper mostly sessile; flowers one or two, terminal, and drooping before expansion ; involucre much but loosely imbricated, and covered with long brownish or grey silky hairs, the scales mostly spreading, flowers droop- ing before expansion ; root perennial. This plant grows on lofty cliffs of our mountainous regions, in North Wales and Westmoreland to Sutherland. Its stem is from four inches to a foot high, sometimes branched ; and the large bright yellow flower is to be seen in July and August. The leaves are some- times oval, and sometimes very long and narrow, tapering at the base ; in the latter case they are sometimes six or seven inches in length.