native ditches they are often suspicious, and perhaps poisonous weeds, under the influence of cultivation many of them lay aside their venom, and become wholesome food for man. Thus a coarse bitter wild weed becomes by cultivation the sweet and crisp garden celery; the garden parsnip is nearly allied to the poisonous cicuta; and while the seeds of the garden fennel are a pleasant spice, the juice from the roots of another species of the same plant produces the loathsome asafoetida. 5. Only slightly divergent from the umbelliferous plants, and by many botanists included among them, are the ivyworts, at the head of which stands the common ivy: "The ungrateful ivy, seen to grow Round the tall oak, that six-score years has stood, Above its kind supporter's utmost bough, And glory there to stand, the loftiest of the wood." 6. But, however ungrateful it may be, the ivy is a valuable ornamental evergreen for covering naked buildings, trees, and ruins, to which it attaches itself by short fibres. The ancients held ivy in great esteem; and Bacchus, the god of wine, is represented as crowned with it to prevent intoxication. The modern associations connected with this plant are very happily set forth in the following song to THE IVY GREEN. 7. Oh! a dainty plant is the ivy green, That creepeth o'er ruins old! Of right choice food are his meals, I ween, In his cell so lone and cold. The walls must be crumbled, the stones decayed, To pleasure his dainty whim; And the mould'ring dust that years have made Creeping where no life is seen, A rare old plant is the ivy green. 8. 9. Fast he stealeth on, though he wears no wings, How closely he twineth, how tight he clings To his friend, the huge oak tree! And slyly he traileth along the ground, And his leaves he gently waves, And he joyously twines and hugs around A rare old plant is the ivy green. Whole ages have fled, and their works decayed, And nations scattered been; But the stout old ivy shall never fade From its hale and hearty green. The brave old plant in its lonely days Shall fatten upon the past; For the stateliest building man can raise Is the ivy's food at last. Creeping where no life is seen, A rare old plant is the ivy green.-CHARLES DICKENS. LE-GU'-MI-NOUS plants are such as have for 3 UM-BEL-LIF'-ER-OUS plants are such as have their seed vessel a legume of two halves, such as the pods of peas, beans, etc. 2 PA-PIL-I-O-NA'-CE-OUS, resembling the butterfly. the mode of inflorescence, or flowering, call ed an umbel, like the carrot. 2 LES. X.-THE COMPOSITE, OR SUNFLOWER FAMILY. 8 1. Cni'cus altis'simus, Tall thistle, xvii. 1., pu., 6 f., Au.-S., N. Am. 2. Cni'cus arven’. sis, Canada thistle, xvii. 1, pu., 2 f., Jl., N. Am. 3. Helianthus multiflo'rus, Many-flowered sunflower, xvii. 3, y., 6 f., Au.-O., N. Am. 4. Chrysanthemum Sinen'se, Chinese chrysanthemum, xvii. 2 (all colors but blue), 3 f., O.-N., China. 5. Lactu'ca sagitta'ta, Arrowleaved Lettuce, xvii. 1, y., 2 f., Jl.-Au., Hungary. 6. Gnapha'lium sto'chas, European shrubby everlasting, xvii. 2, y., 2 f., Jn.-O., Europe. 7. As'ter Chinen'sis, China-aster, xvii. 2, various colors, 2 f., Jl.-S., China. 8. Dahlia frustra'nea, Wild dahlia, xvii. 2, various colors, 6 f., S.-N., Mexico. 9. Tage'tes pat'ula, French marigold, xvii., 2, y., 2 f., Jl.-O., Mexico. 1. The "Sunflower" family is the name used by that distinguished American botanist, Professor Gray, as a popular term for the great division of plants having composite or compound flowers. It is the largest family of plants, embracing nearly ten thousand species, or about one tenth of all the species of the vegetable kingdom. They are either herbaceous or shrubby plants in northern regions, but many of them become trees in the tropics; and all of them are easily distinguished by having their single or monopetalous' flowers (called florets), which are always five-lobed, and have five stamens each, crowded into a head at the top of a flower-stalk, as in the daisy, dandelion, sunflower, and thistle. 2. These composite plants are, without exception, of easy Cultivated Dahlia. ant evidence in such delion, and tansy. cultivation; and as most of them flower in autumn, they are the chief ornaments of every autumnal garden. It would require a volume to point out the beauties of the various tribes of aster, sunflower, coreopsis, marigold, daisy, chrysanthemum, and kindred species, not to mention the almost innumerable and brilliant varieties of the dahlia. As to the medicinal qualities of the plants of this family, it is sufficient to state that they consist, almost without exception, of a bitter principle and an oily secretion; and of the former, at least, we have abundspecies as wormwood, chamomile, dan 3. The dandelion was one of the flowers introduced by Linnæus into his floral clock, or dial of flowers, on account of the regularity of the opening and closing of its petals. It was deemed by him "Flora's best time-piece, seeming of herself to know the opening and the closing of the day," inasmuch as "With Sol's expanding beam her flowers unclose, and Moore has very prettily expressed the same idea in the following lines: "She, enamored of the sun, At his departure hangs her head and weeps, Till his reviving ray appears, Waking her beauty as he dries her tears." 4. The marigold not only marked one of the hours in the floral clock, but she is said also, like the sunflower itself, to turn on her slender stem toward the sun, and thus follow him in, his daily walk. "When, with a serious musing, I behold The grateful and obsequious marigold, Her open breast when Phoebus3 spreads his rays'; How she observes him in his daily walk, Still bending tow' rd him her small slender stalk'; How, when he down declines, she droops and mourns, Bedew'd as 'twere with tears, till he returns'; And how she veils her flowers when he is gone, As if she scorned to be look'd upon By an inferior eye'; or did contemn To wait upon a meaner light than him': 6. The daisy, too, whose English name is derived from a Saxon word meaning day's eye, closes its petals at night and in rainy weather. When, smitten by the morning ray, I see thee rise, alert and gay, Then, cheerful flower! my spirits play And when, at dark, by dews oppress'd, Of careful sadness.-WORDSWORTH. 7. The daisy has been universally admired as an emblem of modest innocence; but, lowly and modest though it be, it has enough of mystery in its wonderful structure "to confound the atheist's sophistries," and prove the being of a God. Not worlds on worlds in phalanx deep, For who but he who arched the skies, O'er hill, and dale, and desert sod, That man, where'er he walks, may see At every step the stamp of God.-JOHN MASON GOOD. 12. The thistle, another of the sunflower tribe, though a prickly and not very graceful weed, has given its name to a Scotch order of knighthood. It might be said the Scotch order, as it also bears the name of St. Andrew, the patron saint of Scotland. The golden collar of the order, interlaced with flowers of the thistle, and bearing the motto, in Latin, "None shall annoy me with impunity," has also been adopted as the national badge. Tradition gives the following account of its origin: 13." At the time of the invasion of Scotland by the Danes, it was deemed unwarlike to attack an enemy in the night; but on one occasion the invaders résolved to avail themselves of this stratagem; and, in order to prevent their tramp from being heard, they marched barefooted. They had thus neared the Scottish force unobserved, when a Dane unfortunately stepped with his naked foot upon a superb thistle, and instinctively uttering a cry of pain, discovered the assault to the Scots, who ran to their arms, and defeated the foe with a terrible slaughter. The thistle was immediately adopted as the insignia of Scotland." 14. Triumphant be the thistle still unfurled, Dear symbol wild' ! on freedom's hills it grows, And Roman eagles found unconquer'd foes.-CAMPBELL. 15. But the downy seed of the thistle flower, so light as to be borne about on the wings of every wanton zephyr, may also, it seems, be connected with less lofty associations, for it has been made the emblem of fickleness itself, as the following fable will show: As Cupid was flying about one day, With the flowers and zephyrs in wanton play, Floating here and there, A winged seed of the thistle flower, And merrily chased it from bower to bower. And young Love cried to his playmates, "See, In my wavering flight As this feathery star of soft thistle-down, Which by each of you zephyrs about is blown. "See how from a rose's soft warm blush It flies, to be caught in a bramble bush; In my wand'rings, hie From beauty to those who have none, I trow; So the sly little god still flits away 'Mid earth's loveliest flow'rets, day by day; And oh maidens fair, Never weep, nor care When his light wings waft him beyond your power, Think-'tis only the down of the thistle flower. TwAMLEY. 20. In all ages of the world history and fable have attached to flowers particular associations, and made them emblematical of the affections of the heart and qualities of the intellect. In the symbolical language of flowers, the thistle, regarded as a misanthrope, bears the very appropriate motto, "Oh that the desert were my dwelling-place!" 5 HALES, drags. 1 MON-O-PĚT'-AL-OUS plants are those whose 3 PHŒ'-BUS (fe'-bus), the sun. 5 MIS'-AN-THROPE, a hater of mankind. |