The Vegetable World: Being a History of Plants, with Their Botanical Descriptions and Peculiar Properties

according to Dr. Pulteney (Linn. Trans., v. p. 19), are not only innocuous, but nutritive to cattle, the cottagers on the banks of the Avon gathering them into boats, from which their cows eat them with avidity. Many species of this tribe possess blistering properties, that is to say, they stick to the skin and produce an irritation which goes far towards the destruction of the epidermis, and the formation of a sore: the species used for these purposes are the Ranunculus fammula (Lesser Spearwort); 2. lingua (Great Spear- _ wort); 2. repens (Creeping Crowfoot, or Golden Crowfoot). When the juice of these flowers is distilled, the liquid drawn from it contains a yery acrid principle. Animals will not touch the Ranunculi when fresh, but when dried and used as hay its taste is lost. The Sweet or Wood Crowfoot, R. auricomus, or Goldilocks, differs remarkably from most of the tribe; it grows in tufts with numerous stems, very slightly branching above, its habitat, woods, and moist shady places, and it is without the acridity so common to the tribe. The Buttercup, King-cup, or Meadow Crowfoot (2. en-auris), in spite of its known acridity, has been a favourite with the poets. One sings of

“The kingeup of gold brimming over with dew, To be kissed by a lip just as fresh as its own.”

One variety of this species having become double, was 4 favourite in old gardens, and probably is still, under the name of Bachelors’ Buttons. The Creeping Crowfoot (R. repens) is the Cuckoo-bud of Shakespeare.

“ When daisies pied and violets blue, And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue, Do paint the meadows with delight.”

the Clematis, we must also mention the Ranunculi Amongst Anemones, Hepticas, and Adonis. —

The Clematis (Traveller’s Joy, and several other popular names) a corolla. and without divisions, has a calyx with four petaloidal The stamens and pistils are numerous as in the Ranunculus; their i pistils are unilocular; after efflorescence they become achenes, with seeds reversed, and surmounted by a sort of plumose tail, resulting

from the growth of the style. They are climbing shrubs. The leaves, when pulled and laid upon the body, produce inflammation, vesication, and ulceration of the skin; properties which mendi-cants sometimes use to produce artificial ulcers,—hence one of their common names, Beggar’s Herb. Its flowers are white, disposed in axillary panicles; the name of “ Virgin’s Bower” was given to this species by old Gerarde in 1597, “ by reason”’ as he tells us, “of the goodly shadowe which they make with their thick bushing and climing; as also for the beauty of the flowers, and the pleasant savor or scent of the same.” And indeed there is no finer ornament in our country hedges, than this pretty bush with its copious clusters of white blossom. The flower has one floral envelope, and is one-cloaked;the corolla is absent, hence the flower is apetalous.

Fig. 402 is a front view of the flower, Fig. 403 a back view of the

_ Fig, 403. Fig. 402. Back and front view of the flower of Clematis vita/ba.

same flower. We meet sometimes on lawns and gardens with Clematis lammula (Sweet Clematis),where it is used to ornament, palisades and bowers, and where it is distinguished from the preceding Species by its sepals, which are covered with a hairy down at the edges. We frequently see clumps of Clematis viticella, where the sepals are violet, purple, or rose colour, the flowers of which are’ produced double by cultivation. We sometimes see beside this Species, the Atragenum of the Alps, remarkable for the beauty of its large flowers of violet blue: the Atragene tribe is distinguished from the Clematis by the existence of a corolla, composed of numerous petals shorter than the sepals.

Pzontes (Peonia) have the calyx foliaceous, coriaceous, persistent, with unequal sepals; the corolla is composed of five, six, or ten

nearly equal petals; the pistils are variable in number, and enclose a great number of ovules; the fruit is a coriaceous follicule; the receptacle is swollen into a fleshy disc, which forms a sort of sack. The seeds are furnished with a slightly developed arill rising out of the placenta which surrounds it. The Peonies are herbaceous or somewhat shrubby perennial plants, with alternate leaves; they are among the earliest ornaments of our gardens in the spring time. In the Moutan Peony, commonly known as the Tree Peony, the petals are sometimes white, marked at the base with a purple

shade, and sometimes rose coloured. This Peony has become double under culture; by cultivating this species for fifteen centuries the Chinese have obtained two hundred varieties. The Peony has been introduced into France since the t of the present century. We may also note the Common Peony (Péonia officinalis)

with red, rose coloured, or variegated petals, the flowers of which are easily grown double. The Peonies were famous as agents of sorcery in the olden times; the Coral Peony is commonly known as the Male Peony. The Peony has a very ancient history, according to Theophrastus, and after him Pliny; it is to be gathered of necessity in the night, “for if any man shall pluck of the fruit in the day time, being seen of the woodpecker, he is in danger to lose his eyes,’’—this is, according to Gerarde, the seeds of the Peony. Even at the present day anodyne necklaces are worn round the necks of children cutting their teeth. It is a common garden plant, and although Withering thought he had found it among the Vincent rocks, on the Avon, near Bristol, growing wild, it was probably introduced there from some foreign country by ships entering the port of Bristol. “Amid the shelving rocks and loose shingly stones, at the elevation of a hundred feet above the river,” however, “ there ye may see the Peony spreading wide.”

PapavERACE®. The Poppies have a calyx with two caducous sepals, a corolla of four petals, with numerous stamens, provided with a long filament, whose anthers open laterally by two longitudinal clefts. The unilocular pistil is almost entirely divided by many placentary glands, which, emanating from the walls, advance nearly to the centre, bearing a number of ee — in-nerted over its whole surface,

The Poppies are herbs with a white milky juice, with dentate leaves; the leaves emanating from the root are petiolate; those

issuing from the stem are sessile, or embracing. Their peduncles, solitary, unifloral, are inclined before inflorescence.

We select for description three kinds of Poppy. oe 1. The Corn Poppy (Papaver rheas) is very common in the corn-fields, cultivated ground, and by road sides, and forms, along with the Corn Centaury, the most graceful ornament, although it is the last plant the farmer would see in his fields; its specific name is derived from Tova, pomegranate, which the capsule is supposed slightly to resemble. (Fig. 404.) Its mucilaginous, acid, bitter petals are emollient and slightly narcotic. 2. The Poppy of the East, or Tournefort’s Poppy, has scarlet or orange-coloured petals, with black and purple-coloured aiglets; differs but little Fig. 404. from the bracteated Poppy (Papaver bractiatum). Cave ot the Pons: 3. The Narcotic Poppy (Papaver somniferum), of which there are two varieties: one, the White Poppy (Fig. 405), so called because the seed is generally white, is the variety cultivated for the purpose of extracting opium; the other is the Black Poppy, because the seed

is black, and which furnishes sweet oil, known under the name of Poppy Oil. This oil, in spite of the narcotic influence, is found to be perfectly wholesome, and is extensively used for its own qualities, as well as to adulterate Olive Oil. It is well known that opium is nothing more than the thickened juice of the White Poppy. The juice flows out from an incision made in the ovary a little before ripening. The history of the Opium Poppy is very obscure as to the date of its first cultivation, but it was well known to the Greeks, and was cultivated for its seeds, as we learn from Theophrastus. It is also described by the Arab authors under the name of “ Afeesgou.” The White Poppy is supposed to be a native of Asia Minor, or of Persia, but it is nowhere found in a wild state. It is distinguished by obovate or globular capsules, which, as well as the calyx, are smooth; the stem smooth and glaucous; leaves embracing the stem, and incised and obtusely dentate; the flowers are usually red, of DD

different tints; but there is also a white-flowered variety, which Dr. Royle describes as peculiar to the plains of India, while the red flowers he has only seen in the Himalaya mountains.

Fig. 405.—The Opium Poppy (Papaver Somniferum).

The Celandine (Chelidonium majus), belongs to the family of Papaveracee. Itisa perennial plant with a reddish ores Bie

which has a certain reputation for the cure of warts. The stems are straight, branchy, pubescent, being covered with long patu-ous hairs scattered over it. The leaves have from three to seven lobed oval segments, the lobes notched and crenulate, glaucous below. The flowers, which are yellow, are disposed in simple umbels, differing remarkably from those of the Poppy in the structure of the pistil. This organ, in reality, is composed of a versilocular ovary, having only two parietal placentie, surmounted by a short style with bilobate stigma. The fruit is a linear capsule, and opens with two valves which detach themselves from the base to the summit; leaves persistent, the frame formed by placentz. The seeds seem, besides other remarkable peculiarities, to be provided with a little white cellular excrescence like a crest.

There is still in this family the Eschscholtzia Californica, a perennial plant with a large solitary flower of a golden yellow colour, closing itself up when it rains, the sepals of which, coherent at the base, detach themselves in one piece after the fashion of a little pointed hat.

, BERBERIDS.

Hypogynous exogens with monodichlamydeous flowers, un-

Symmetrical in the ovary; placentz, sutural, parietal, or axile; stamens definite, minute; embryo enclosed in a large quantity of hard fleshy albumen. Seventy-nine genera, six hundred and four —,

epsieneeeii roe parietal Hantaties and stamens pvoaldt Pheresometim pei, orfa Fe num’ and withering. CLVII. Droseracee. zlandular hairs, theirritability of which reaches um. in Catchtly Dionea), uliar! ie

Herbac prciecs naw with brittle stems and a watery juice, having eregularses pepo aSeahwhite, or yellow; resesbee pla-

ene i ropesLi e petals;four hypogynous,or six,intwotwo parcels,

_Eq¢en00 shraeororherbaceous perennials,for the most part hairless; tine 2 spiny with regular symmetrical flowers; sutural placentae; oppositethe petals, and’ equal in number, with recurved anthers CLIX. Berberidaceee below.

Exogenous ctorvaeag indor climbing shrubs,with tumid separate joints,;

Symmetrical flowers arran, in thyrses, umbells or pours. axleplacenta stamens oppositeoy eypertns anthers opening longitu- OLX. Vitacess.

ore genoUS trees orshrubs, withregular etrical flowers, terminal; ve i. eet ee; stamens alternate, with aged OU ee chiefl 2 Bie Mpr fs imbricated petals. The CLXI. Pittosporacere.ian Cia 9 Australia, a few only occurring in Africa, the Pacific