The essential oils obtained by distillation from the Orange dissolve readily in fatty oils or alcohol, but very imperfectly in water. The condensed water, however, which passes with the oil, is a true watery solution of the essences: in short, orange-flower water. It is very subject to putrefaction, which is indicated by the appearance of flocculent flaky matter accumulating at the bottom of the vessel in which it is kept, which is commonly called Orange Flower. These organic particles are the seeds of decomposition, which light and air are sure to develop. Kee

The AmyRipAcezx are trees and shrubs abounding in balsamic resins, and haying all the appearance of the Orange, even to 1s

dotted leaves, but the fruit forms a shell whose husk eventually are natives species The few known segments. splits into valve-like of The frankincense India, Africa, and America. of tropical Arabia is said to be the produce of Boswellia serrata. The Balsamodendron myrrha, a dwarf shrub of Arabia, yields the myrrh of Mecca, and most plants of the order yield resins and balsams _ of great commercial and officinal value.

GERANIALS.

This group, of which the Crane’s-bills or Geraniacew are the type, are hypogynous exogens, whose most positive character is having a definite number of stamens, an imbricate or overlapping calyx, and a twisted corolla and symmetrical flowers. They are emollient and purgative in Linum; acid, nutricious, and aromatic in Ozalids; and aromatic and astringent in Geranids.

x needy op’ hrodite pate. ervey flowers, generally five distinct igtoed ‘orl CLXXXIII. Linacee. - with four or five petals; stamens pe and alternate with ovary n peergy fruit i

ees or shrubs, with shouy’ata fon flowers, alternate aso feaherseined, entire; sometimes plaited, — nent, cup-like, CLXXXIV. Chienacez. involucre; onodelphous stamens, and atandaet album: ‘Sea plants, under-shrubs, or trees; leaves ais or compound etl vaoueee carpels longer than the ‘torus; seeds with anaadent CLXXXV. Oxalidacee.

Herb: y annuals, with simple opecette - es = CLXXXVI. Balsamina-leaves, withoutstipules; reeers imegular anand uns ymmetri involucre; distinct stamens, and no album SSebacne plants or pat with ad stems, separable at the ast CLXXXVII. Geraniacee. torus,

~- The Linace®, or Flaxes, are a small order of useful annual woody plants, valuable alike for their fibre, whose tenacity renders it invaluable, and its seeds which yield by expression the linseed oil * of commerce. Their leaves are alternate, free from all trace of volatile secretions, and destitute of stipules; the body of the stem The order consists of two genera, incapable of disarticulation. _ Linum and Radiola;the. first comprehending many species. The Plants of the order are distributed’ throughout the temperate regions of the earth, particularly along the shores of the editerranean, in Europe and Africa; but it is supposed to be a native of the great plateau of upper Asia, whence it was introduced into Europe. It is the Linum usitatissimum which furnishes man with his first and last clothing. Martianus says that lint was a first sown by the Egyptians, and that the priests of Isis made its ues known tothem. From the time of Moses it was cultivated on a great scale in the plains of Egypt; under the Roman i. emperors the Egyptians were renowned for their linen fabrics. It Le mon Spread over France, Germany, and other European countries, : 5ut in our times it has been most fully developed in Holland,

Belgium, and the North of France. In Britain it seems to have become the speciality of the North of Ireland. Linum usitatissimum, which is the only species cultivated, is much more delicate in appearance than the Cannabis, or Hemp-plant. It branches out towards the summit, and carries its alternate leaves at an acute angle. Its flowers are of fine blue; the fruit a capsule containing ten small seeds. When the plant becomes yellowish, when its capsules begin to open and its leaves to fall, which usually happens at the end of June, the plant is at its maturity. Itis gathered by tearing it up by the roots, and laid on the earth; after twenty-four hours it is bound up into small bundles, which are placed on end to dry. When ripe and perfectly dry, they are carried to the farmyard and the seeds thrashed out.; In preparing the fibre for lint, it is‘placed under water for a sufficient time to destroy the non-textile part of the stem by a species of fermentation which promotes decomposition. The Cuiyacex are all natives of Madagascar, of whose uses little is known, but they present some curious anomalies to the botanist, along with remarkably showy flowers usually red in colour, borne in racemes or panicles enclosed in a five-toothed involucre. The Oxatrpace®, or Wood Sorrels, formerly arranged among the Crane’s-bills, have regular flowers, beakless fruit, albuminous seeds, and a general tendency toform compound leaves. They are plentiful in tropical and temperate America, and the Cape of Good Hope, but thinly diffused in colder regions. Almost all the species are distinguished by acidity, owing to the presence of oxalate of The tubers of some Some are bitter and stimulating. potassium. contain a considerable quantity of starch.’ It is best known to us as the common Wood Sorrel (Qxalis acetosella), common in the moist and shady woods in this and other European countries;it 18 one of the most elegant of our wild flowers, and the grateful acid of its leaves is well known. It was called of old, Allelujah, and Cuckoo’s Meat, because, says old Gerarde, “ when it springeth forth, the Cuckoo singeth most; at which time also Allelujahs were wont to be sung in our churches.” _ eee - The Barsaminace® are best known by the Ba/samina hortensis

of floriculture; natives of China and other tropical countries of the East, so remarkable for their unsymmetrical flowers. The nature of the parts which constitute this irregularity has been much discussed by botanists. “According to Roper and others,” says Dr. Lindley, “two membranous external scales and a spur alone belong to the calyx, of which the two other sepals are usually deficient on that side of the flower which is opposite the spur: on the other hand, the corolla consists of a large upper or back-piece, and of two lateral inner wings, each of which consist of two petals. Kirsch considers the large back-piece of the flower to be composed of two sepals, and together with the spur and exterior scales to form a five-leaved calyx, while he finds in the innermost parts, a corolla of four petals united in pairs, and he assumes the fifth petal to be abortive.

The Geranracem, Crane’s-bills, Geraniums, and Pelargoniums, form perhaps the most popular group of plants of the whole vegetable world. They are herbaceous, soft, or tumid stemmed plants; the young stems jointed, and separable at the joints like the vines; leaves opposite in the upper part, often alternate; the flowers hermaphrodite;regular or irregular calyx, with five equal segments; corolla with five petals, sometimes equal; stamens, ten in the Geranium. In the Pelargoniums they are rendered unequal by one of the petals being elongated into a hollow spur at the base, and closely united to the peduncle; corolla unequal; and the petals sometimes reduced to four or even two by abortion, clawed and alternating with the segments of the calyx; stamens seven, and more or less united by their filaments.:

These distinctions between the Geranium and Pelargonium are perhaps too refined for popular appreciation, and in common parlance both genera are known by the common name. The long _ beak-like torus round which the carpils are arranged, and the -Membranous stipules at the joints, which are tumid or enlarged, are the true marks of the order. The Pelargoniums are chiefly natives of the Cape of Good Hope. The Geraniums and Erodiums, of Europe, North America, and Northern Asia. order to give the reader some idea of this interesting family, _ Of which we meet with examples at every instant, whether we oS happen to be in town or country, in field or garden, let us

examine in succession the genus, Geranium, Erodium, and Pelargonium, of which the order consists. The Geraniums, or Crane’s-bills, have a calyx with five sepals, a hypogynous corolla with five free petals, and an andrecaum composed of ten stamens, five of which are large and five small. The latter are exterior and opposite to the petals; the larger stamens have a nectarous gland at their base; the filaments of these stamens are slightly attached at their base, and have two-celled anthers, opening from within by two longitudinal gia At OM, i cssanane Om ‘te +) MS)

Fig. 412.—Herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum). clefts. The pistil is composed of an ovary with five cells, surmounted by five styles, more or less connected in their middle part, but free towards their summit, and bearing long stigmates the whole length of their internal surface. Each cell of the ovaty contains two ascending anatropal ovules. The fruit 1s a capsule with five cells, each containing only one seed by abortion, and opening, as it were by a spring, with a sort of central axis, from

_ the base to the summit. Under its integuments the seed encloses an embryo without albumen, the flexous cotyledons of which are fitted into one another. Herb Robert (Geranium Robertianum) (Fig. 412) is frequently met with in hedgerows, shaded places, and on old walls. It flourishes in the months of April to August, and exhales a strong odour. This plant, which is sometimes used in medicine, is an annual, with a diffused branching, ascending, or straight stem, often of a reddish colour. It is coated with long, shaggy, patulous hairs, glandulous towards the summit. The leaves are divided into three to five Vv2 petiolated segments. The, cS ' peduncles are longer than ) y the leaves. The petals are purple in colour, veined with

WH |ZZ

white. Wiz

2 easel. The Erodium, or Stork’s- a bill, one species of which, TF the Hemlock Stork’s-bill (Z. cicatarium) (Fig. 413), with pinnate leaves, is very common in all sandy places; has @ corolla and calyx like the Geranium. But of the ten _ Stamens five only are fruitful. Those which are sterile, that is to say destitute of anthers, are small, with flattened filaments, ‘and are Fig. 413.—Storks-bill Geranium. °pposed to the petals in the exterior whorl. The fruit differs also in some particulars from that of the Geranium.

|... The Pelargoniums are particularly remarkable from the irregu-et larity of their flowers. In the calyx the posterior sepal is prolongated at its base by a spur, which is a straight, hollow,

hectarous horn or gland adhering to the peduncle. The corolls Senerally bears unequal petals. The upper two are often largest, the other three differ from each other. As to the andraceum, whilst in the Erodium the exterior verticle is completely abortive,

in the Pelargonium, on the contrary, only three of the stamens of this verticle are sterile. The Pelargoniums are indigenous to the Cape of Good Hope. They enclose a volatile oil which gives them a strong odour, sometimes anything but agreeable, which is only redeemed by their beauty of form and colour. A great number of species are cultivated, to which horticulture has added innumerable varieties. Amongst others, we may mention Pelargonium zonale, the leaves of which are marked with a brownish band, and the petals of which are red or reddish-rose coloured, or whitish; Pelargonium inquinans, the shiny cottonous leaves of which stain the fingers with a brown rust, and the petals of which are scarlet or flesh-coloured; and Pelargonium odoratissimum.

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