Fig. 133. CLASS IX.-ENNEANDRIA. Order Monogynia. This is also a very small class. In the first Order we find the genus Laurus, which includes the cinnamon, bay, sassafras, camphor, spice-bush, &c. The bay (Laurus nobilis) is a native of Italy; the Romans considered it a favourite of the Muses. The emperor Tiberius wore it not only as a triumphal crown, but as a protection against thunder; it being thought that Jupiter had a particular regard for the plant. The laurel, as well as the olive, was considered as an emblem of peace; it was sometimes called laurus pacifera, the peace-bearing laurel. Branches of laurel carried among contending armies, were considered as a signal for the cessation of arms. Poets crowned with laurel, were called laureates. Camphor is the produce of the LAURUS camphora, a large tree which grows in Japan. "The LAURUS cinnamomum is a tree which grows to the height of twenty feet; it sends out numerous oranches crowned with a smooth bark. The leaves are of a bright green, standing in opposite pairs. The petals are six, of a greenish white colour. The fruit is a pulpy pericarp enclosing a nut. This tree is a native of Ceylon, where it grows very common in woods and hedges. The imported cinnamon is the inner bark (liber) of the tree; it is remarkable that the leaves, fruit, and root, all yield oil of very different qualities. That produced from the leaves is called the oil of cloves; that obtained from the fruit is of a thick consistence, very fragrant, and is made into candles for the use of the king; the bark of the roots affords an aromatic oil, called the oil of camphor. The Sassafras-tree (LAURUS sassafras) is a native American plant; when first introduced into Europe, it sold for a great price, the oil being highly valued for medicinal uses. It grows on the borders of streams and in woods; it is often no larger than a shrub; its flowers are yellow; its fruit, blue-berries. The LAURUS benzoin, called Spice-bush, has scarlet berries, and is an aromatic plant."* Fig. 133, a, represents a flower of the Butomas, (flowering rush ;) the petals are six; they are ovate. The umbellatus is the only species known; the flowers grow in rose-coloured umbels. It is found in wet grounds, and near the margin of lakes and ponds. Order Trigynia. The third Order presents us with but one genus; but this renders the order important; it is the Rhubarb, (Rheum.) In one species, the RHEUM tartaricum, the leaves are acid, and on this account, when young, they are used for making pies. This plant is a native of Tartary, but now common in our gardens. The RHEUM palmatum is the plant which produces the medicinal rhubarb; this is obtained from the roots, which are thick, fleshy, and yellow. This plant is cultivated in England, and is remarkable for the rapidity of its growth. An English writer, asserts that its stem has been known to grow more than eleven feet in three months; its leaves are five feet in circum* Woodville. + See also Appendix, Plate viii. Fig. 4. + Woodville. Class Enneandria-Different species of the genus Laurus--Describe the different Wecies of Laurus--Butomas-What genus is found in the order Trigynia? ference; the root grows to a great size; some roots have been inported from Turkey which weighed more than seventy pounds. At Fig. 133, b, is a flower of the genus Rheum. We have dwelt somewhat at length upon exotics, because they are seldom described in botanical works in common use. If you be come interested in the study of plants, you will naturally wish to know something about those which you are in the habit of using for food, or medicine, or to which, as in the laurel of the ancients, allusions are often made in the books which you read. But you cannot become practical botanists without much observation of our native plants. You must seek them in their own homes, in the clefts of rocks, by the side of brooks, and in the shady woods; it is there you will find nature in her unvitiated simplicity. We do not go to the crowded city to find men exhibiting, undisguisedly, the feelings of the heart. The flower transplanted from its rural abodes, exhibits in the splendid green-house, a physical metamorphosis, not less remarkable than the moral change which luxury too often produces upon the character of man. LECTURE XXIX. CLASS X.-DECANDRIA. PLANTS of this class have ten stamens, but this circumstance alone would not distinguish them from some of the other classes; the number of stamens must not only be ten, but these must be distinct from each other; that is, neither united by their filaments below, nor by their anthers above. Other classes, Monadelphia, Diadelphia, Gynandria, and the two classes with the stamens and pistils on separate flowers, may also have ten stamens; but circumstances respecting the situation of these organs distinguish these classes from each other. Order Monogynia. In the first Order of the tenth class, we find some plants with papilionaceous corollas; these, because their filaments are not united, are separated from the natural family to which they belong, and which are mostly in the class Diadelphia. Among those which are thus removed from the class where from their general appearance they might have been looked for, is the wild indigo, (Baptisia,) a handsome plant with yellow flowers, two or three feet in height, and very branching: the stem and leaves are of a bluish green. This is found in dry sandy woods; it was used as a substitute for indigo during the time of the American revolution. The Cassia fistula, a native of the Indies contains in its legume a pulp which is much valued in medicine, and known by the name of Cassia. The CASSIA senna furnishes the senna used in medicine; this species grows in Egypt and Arabia. One species, the CASSIA marylandica is called American senna, on account of its medicinal Concluding remarks Are there any classes except the tenth, in which the flowers ave ter stamens ?-Order Monogynia-Wild Indigo-Cassia. qualities. Another species, nictitans, has small yellow flowers, and beautiful pinnate leaves, which remain folded at night; it shrinks back from the touch, for which reason it is called the American sensitive plant. A plant, called by the Ind ans, Red-bud, (CERCIS canadensis,) belongs to this class. It is a large tree, appearing as early as April, loaded with clusters of fine crimson flowers; the leaves, which are large and heart-shaped, do not appear as early as the blossoms. The beautiful aspect of the tree attracts to it many insects, particularly humblebees. A botanist* says, "I have often observed hundreds of the common humblebees ying dead under these trees while in flower." This is not the only example of fatal consequences which result from trusting too much to external appearances! This tree is not improperly called Judas' tree. The three genera of plants which we have now noticed, bear fruit in that kind of pod called a legume; this is the case in general with the papilionaceous flowers. The rue (Ruta) is an exotic, which gives name to one of Jussieu's natural orders called Rutacea; these plants have a monosepalous calyx; five petals, alternating with the lobes of the calyx; the germ is large and superior, (See Fig. 134, a.) At b, Fig. 134, is a representation of a flower of the Saxifraga, a very extensive genus; one species of which, an exotic, sometimes called beefsteak geranium, is much cultivated as a green-house plant; it is very hardy; its leaves are roundish and hairy; it sends forth creeping shoots. This class and order presents us with the Wintergreen tribe; plants which are more or less shrubby, with monopetalous, bell-form corollas and evergreen leaves. In shady woods, where the soil is loose and rich, we find, in June and July, the spicy wintergreen, (Gaultheria,) a perennial plant which grows to the height of eight or ten inches; the pleasant taste of the leaves and fruit of this plant, is well known to the children of this country; the drooping blossom is very delicate and beautiful, consisting of a bell-form corolla, (not unlike the lily of the valley,) the colour of which is tinged with pink. Though you may have often enjoyed eating the fruit and leaves of the wintergreen, you will experience a delight which this mere pleasure of sense could not have afforded, when in your botanical rambles in the woods you chance to meet with this plant in blossom, with its little flowers just peeping out from a bed of dry leaves; you may then have the pleasure of a beautiful object of sight, with the intellectual gratification of tracing those characters which give it a definite place in scientific arrangement. Among the wintergreen tribe are two genera, Pyrola and Chimaphila, which by some botanists have been included under one; but they appear to be sufficiently distinct from each other to constitute a separate genus. These plants were classed by Linnæus in the natural or der Bicornes, or two horns, alluding to the two protuberances, like straight horns, which appear on their anthers. A great proportion of the plants in the first order of the tentn class are to be found in shady woods in June and July. We can here enumerate but few of them. We will, however, mention the Monotropa, a most curious little plant;-several stems of a few inches in height, form a cluster; each stem supports a single flower, W. P. C. Barton. Cercis-Natural order Rutacea-Saxifraga-Wintergreen tribe-Monotropa, or Indian pine. resembling a tobacco pipe. The stems are scaly, but without leaves, the whole plant is perfectly white, and looks as if made of wax; it is sometimes called Indian-pipe. You must look for this in shady woods near the roots of old trees, in June or July. Rhododendron, or, as it is sometimes called, mountain laurel or rose-bay, an evergreen with large and beautiful oval leaves, is found growing on the sides of mountains, or in wet swamps of cedar; it flourishes beneath the shade of trees; the pink and white flowers appear in large showy clusters, and continue in bloom for a long period; they have a 5-toothed calyx, a 5-cleft, funnel-form, somewhat irregular corolla, stamens 10, sometimes half the number, capsule 5-celled, 5-valved. At Fig. 134, c, is a flower of the genus Ledum, which is found in the same family as the Rhododendron; it has a very small calyx, and a flat, five-parted corolla. Connected by natural relations to the two genera above mentioned, is the American laurel, (Kalmia,) a splendid shrub, sometimes found ten or thirteen feet high. On the Catskill mountains, it is said to have been seen twenty feet in height; the flowers grow in that kind of cluster called a corymb; they are either white or red; but this fair and beautiful shrub is of a poisonous nature, particularly fatal to sheep who are attracted towards it; one species of the Kalmia is on this account called sheep-laurel. Among the plants which have a place in this part of the artificial system, is the DIONEA muscipula*, or Venus' fly-trap. This is a native of North Carolina; the leaves spring from the roots; each leaf has, at its extremity, a kind of appendage like a small leaf doubled; this is bordered on its edges by glands resembling hairs, and containing a liquid that attracts insects; but no sooner does the unfortunate insect alight upon the leaf, than with a sudden spring, it closes, and the little prisoner is crushed to death in the midst of the sweets it had imprudently attempted to seize; after the insect, overcome by the closeness of the grasp, has expired, the leaf again unfolds itself. Although we may account for this phenomenon b attributing it to the irritability of the plant, we have only remove J the difficulty by adducing a cause which itself remains to be explained. We shall in a future lecture make some remarks upon the irritability, or, as it is sometimes called, sensibility of plants. Order Digynia. This order contains the Hydrangea, an elegant East Indian exotic; a species of this plant, a shrub with white flowers, is said to have been found on the banks of the Schuylkill river. The Pink tribe, of the natural order Caryophyllea, is composed of plants belonging to this class, some of which have three styles, others have five, but the greater part have two, and therefore belong to the 2d order. The exotic genus Dianthus, containing the carnation, and other garden-pinks, and sweet-william, is a great favourite with florists, who gravely tell us what varieties we ought most to admire ; as if fashion, and not nature, were to regulate our emotions. The seed of the carnation often produces a different kind of flower from its parent. A writer on the culture of flowers, observes, that a florist may consider himself fortunate, if, in the course of his life, he should be able to raise six superior carnations;-but the hope that such success may crown his labours, he thinks a sufficient stimulus to continued exertions. Such contracted views of nature and of the pur * See Appendix, Plate i. Fig. o. Mountain-laurel-Kalmia, or sheep-laurel-Dionæa-Pink tribe. suits most enn bling to man, are too contemptible to need a comment. To degrade the beautiful an 1 innocent employment of cultivating plants, by rivalries to produce a flower that may claim to be distingué, shows that the serpent still lingers in Eden. Let the flower-garden be a retreat from low and grovelling competitions, the promoter of innocence, of benevolence to man, and devotion to God. Order Trigynia. We here find the genus SILENE, one species of which is called the catch-fly; another, the nocturna, or night-blooming, is, "That Silene who declines The garish noontide's blazing light; Another genus, the sandwort, is the "Arenaria, who creeps Among the loose and liquid sands." The corn-cockle (Agrostemma) is very common in corn-fields; although troublesome, and regarded as but a weed, it is a handsome pink-like plant, bearing a purple blossom. In its generic character it differs little from the genus which contains the pink, except in having five pistils instead of two, on which account it is placed in the fifth order. Here is also found the Sorrel, (Oxalis,) which produces the oxalic acid, similar in its properties to the acid obtained from lemons; it is poisonous, and not known as a medicinal article, but is important in the arts. Order Decagynia. In this order is the Poke-weed, (Phytolacca,) a very common plant, found on the borders of fields and road-sides; the fruit consists of large, dark berries, often used by children for the purpose of colouring purple. The young shoots are tender, and are sometimes eaten as a substitute for asparagus. The flower of this plant presents us with 10 stamens, 10 styles, a calyx with 5 white sepals resembling a corolla, a berry superior, (above the germ,) with 10 cells, and 10 seeds. We have completed our review of the first groups of classes, or those which depend upon the number of stamens; in our next lecture we shall consider the two classes which depend on the number and insertion of the stamens. Plants in the order Trigynia-Order Pentagynia-Describe the Poke-weed. |