CODLE!

30 OCT 1959

LIBRARY

Class XII. Polyandria. Order VI. Polygynia.

GENUS 419.

FRAGARIA. Strawberry.

(From FRAGRO, L. to smell sweet-the English from the Saxon word, STRAW, herb, and berry.)

THE NATURAL CHARACTERS.

I. CALYX. Perianth one-leaved, flat, ten-cleft; alternate segments outer, narrower.

II. COROLLA. Petals five, roundish, spreading, inserted in the calyx. III. STAMINA. Filaments twenty, awl-shaped, shorter than the corol, inserted in the calyx. Anthers half-moon-shaped.

IV. PISTILLUM, Stigmas simple. Styles simple, inserted in the sides of the germens. Germens numerous, very small, collected into a head.

V. PERICARP, none. A Berry, is the common Receptacle of the seeds, round-ovate, pulpy, soft, large, coloured, truncated at the base, deciduous.

VI. SEEDS, numerous, very small, acuminate, scattered over the surface of the receptacle.

Note. The common receptacle is generally esteemed a berry.

THE SECONDARY CHARACTERS

I. STEм, scaped, many-flowered.

II. LEAVES, radical, petioled, ternate; leaflets sessile, intire.
III. FLOWERS, radical, peduncled, white.

IV. HABITATION, woods, barren pastures.

VOL. IV.

Of this Genus there are two Specics

Class XII. Polyandria. Order VI. Polygynia.

GENUS 420.

GEUM. Geum,

(From GEUO, G. to taste, its roots being supposed to resolve a bad taste from the stomach. Pl. 1. 26. c. 7. The same is called benoite, in French (Herba benedicta), from its salutary qualities.)

THE NATURAL CHARACTERS.

J. CALYX. Perianth one-leaved, ten-cleft, rather erect; alternate segments very small, acute.

II. COROLLA. Petals five, rounded; claws as long as the calyx, nar row, inserted in the calyx.

III. STAMINA. Filaments numerous, awl-shaped, the length of the calyx, in which they are inserted. Anthers short, broadish, obtuse.

IV. PISTILLUM. Stigmas simple. Styles inserted in the sides of the germens, hairy, long. Germens numerous, collected into a head.

V. PERICARP, none. Common Receptacle of the seeds oblong, hirsute, placed upon the reflexed calyx.

VI. SEEDS, numerous, compressed, hispid, awned with a long genicu. culate style.

THE SECONDARY CHARACTERS.

I. STEM, herbaceous, round, ramous.

II. LEAVES, inferior lyrate-pinnate, superior digitate-pinnate; leaflets simple.

III. FLOWERS, peduncled, axillary, terminal, and single, yellow,
IV. HABITATION, woods, moist meadows.

Of this Genus there are two Species.

Order IV. Monacia.

LEMNA MINOR. Less Duck's-meat. It produces its flowers in the Dog-days, which together with the seeds, afford a nourishment to that wonderful animalcule called the Hydra Polypus. Lin. Ducks are well known to be fond of this plant, and the Phalaena Lemnata of Linnæus, breeds upon it.

Order V. Diœcia.

SALIX PENTANDRIA. Sweet Buy-leaved Willow. The catkins are very sweet scented. The down of the seeds, mixed with a third part of cotton, has been proved to be a very good substitute for cotton itself. Goldfinches, and some other birds, line their nests with the down of this and other species of the genus. The Swedes in Scania dye a yellow colour with the leaves.

AMYGDALINA. Almond-leaved Willow. The twigs of this kind are used for making baskets.

FRAGILIS. Crack-willow. This tree is sometimes planted by
the sides of walks. The males grow up speedily, and soon
form a shade. Bees are fond of the male flowers of this, and
other species.

LAPONUM. Woolly Lapland Willow. This willow, and the
Betula nana, are the constant summer fuel of the Laplanders,
while they attend their rein-deer dairy on the Alps of the
North.

CAPREA. Common Sallow. The inhabitants of the Highlands
and Hebrides frequently use the bark of these to tan their
leather. The wood is smooth, soft, white, and flexible.
It
is often used to make handles for hatchets, prongs, spades,
&c. and to furnish shoemakers with cutting-boards, and whet-
ting-boards, to smooth the edges of their knives upon. The
caterpillars of numerous Phalana, and other insects, feed
upon the leaves of this and the other species of the genus.
VIMINALIS. The Osier. The twigs are much used for making
baskets, bird-cages, and for hooping wooden bottles, &c.
ALBA. Common White Willow. This is a good tree to plant
in avenues, being very speedy of growth, and affording an
agreeable shade, and beautiful silvery appearance.

The wood and young branches are pliant, the old ones brittle.

The bark will tan leather, and dye yarn of a cinnamon colour,
and is of a quality so very astringent, that in a scruple to a
dose, it has been found of great service in intermittent fevers.
Haller affirms from his own experience, that a bath made
of the decoction of it, proved very beneficial to children
troubled with rickets.

The inner bark has afforded a miserable substitute for bread to

the necessitous inhabitants of Kamtschatka.

The wood is used to make poles, stakes, hoops for casks, &c.
and for fuel.

Cattle will feed on the leaves; and the Arabs distil their cele
brated Calaf water from the catkins of the S. Ægyptiaca Lin.
or any other species that has fragrant catkins. This water
they use as a cooling liquor, or as a febrifuge.

In the Summer season the leaves have been observed to distil a
clear liquor, which Scopoli affirms to be owing to the liquefac-
tion of the spume which envelops an insect called Cicada
spumaria. Scop. Entomolog. 331. & Flor. Carniol. 1212.

Order. VI. Polygamia, Diacia.

FRAXINUS EXCELSIOR.

The Ash Tree.

The wood is much used

by the wheel-wright for ploughs, and also for carts, and by the
cooper for hoops. Horses and sheep are fond of the leaves.

The bark and seeds are reckoned a diuretic.

In warm climates a kind of sweet gum, called manna, distils
from this tree, two ounces of which is a gentle cathartic.
It is a hardy tree, that endures well the sea-winds, and may
therefore be planted upon the shores where few others will
grow.

In

many parts of the highlands, at the birth of a child, the nurse
or midwife, from what motive I know not, puts one end of
a green stick of this tree into the fire, and, while it is burn-
ing, receives into a spoon the sap or juice which oozes out at
the other end, and administers this as the first spoonful of
liquor to the new-born babe,

Class III. Triandria.

Order I. Monogynia.

VALERIANA OFFICINALIS, Great Wild Valerian. The roots pow.