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LES. X.-THE COMPOSITE, OR SUNFLOWER FAMILY.

[EXOGENOUS or DICOTYLEDONOUS; Angiosperms; Monopetalous.]1

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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 monopetalous1 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 prnaments 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

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as

"With Sol's expanding beam her flowers unclose,
And rising Hesper2 lights them to repose;"

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,
And shrouds her sweetness up, and keeps
Sad vigils, like a cloistered nun,

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.

5.

"When, with a serious musing, I behold

The grateful and obsequious marigold,
How duly, every morning, she displays

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':
When this I meditate, methinks the flowers
Have spirits far more generous than ours,

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And give us fair examples to despise
The servile fawnings and idolatries
Wherewith we court these earthly things below
Which merit not the service we bestow':
But oh, my God! though groveling I appear
Upon the ground, and have a rooting here
Which hales me downward, yet in my desire
To that which is above me I aspire,

And all my best affections I profess

To Him that is the Sun of Righteousness."

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,

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I see thee rise, alert and gay,

Then, cheerful flower'! my spirits play
With kindred gladness':

And when, at dark, by dews oppress'd,
Thou sink'st', the image of thy rest
Hath often eased my pensive breast

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,
Need we to prove that God is here;
The daisy, fresh from winter's sleep,
Tells of his hand in lines as clear.

For who but he who arched the skies,
And pours the day-spring's living flood,
Wondrous alike in all he tries,
Could rear the daisy's purple bud;
Mould its green cup, its wiry stem,
Its fringed border nicely spin,
And cut the gold-embossed gem
That, set in silver, gleams within;

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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 resolved 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,
Where Fingal stemmed the tyrants of the world,

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:

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'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,5 bears the very appropriate motto, "Oh that the desert were my dwelling-place!"

1 MON-O-PET'-AL-OUS plants are those whose 3 PHŒ-BUS (fë'-bus), the sun. flowers have but one petal or flower leaf. 4 HALES, drags.

2 HES'-PER, Venus, or the evening star. 5 MIS'-AN-THRŌPE, a hater of mankind.

LES. XI. JESSAMINE,' HONEYSUCKLE, AND HEATH FAMILIES. [EXOGENOUS or DICOTYLEDONOUS; Angiosperms; Monopetalous.]

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1. Jasminum sambac, Single Arabian jasmine, ii. 1, w., 6 f., J.-D., E. Indies. 2. J. trifolia'tum, Double Tuscan jasmine, ii. 1, w., 6 f., J.-D., E. Indies. 3. J. fru'ticans, Common yellow jasmine, ii. 1, y., 3 f., A.-O., S. Europe. 4. J. revolu'tum, Curl-flowered jasmine, ii. 1, y., 12 f., M.-O., E. Indies. 5. Lonice'ra sempervirens, Trumpet honeysuckle, v. 1, r. and y., 15 f., My.-Au., N. Am. 6. L. pericly menum, Woodbine, v. 1, 20 f., My.-J., Britain. 7. L. fla'va, Yellow honeysuckle, v. 1, y., 10 f., My.-Jn., Carolina. 8. L. ru'bra, Italian honeysuckle, v. 1, r., 10 f., My.-J., Italy.

1.

AND luxuriant above all,

The jasmine, throwing wide her elegant swects,
The deep dark green of whose unvarnish'd leaf
Makes more conspicuous, and illumines more

The bright profusion of her scatter'd stars.-COWPER.

2. About one hundred species of ornamental shrubs, with exquisitely fragrant flowers, belong to the jessamine family. Originally tropical plants, they are now extensively cultivated in our gardens and green-houses. Fragrance, their predominant property, has made them for ages the favorites of poets and of the people. The very name comes from a Greek word which means perfume. The white jessamine especially, from which a costly oil is extracted, is very fragrant at night. Some of the species open only during the night, and fade at sunrise; and it is to these that Moore alludes in the follow

ing lines:

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