_ few plants having a viler aspect. Nature has provided the 
capsules of many plants with a power of scattering their 
contained seeds t6° a distance, which is mostly, effected by 
some of the parts of which they are composed contracting © 
by their elasticity, and suddenly separating the moment 
their continuity is imterrupted, of which a species of 
Balsam, hence called. Touch me not, affords a notable in-. 
stance; but the fruit of this cucumber, having a tough 
leathery covering, keeps the same form, after it has com-_ 
pletely emptied itself of its contents, as it before possessed. 
It affords young people amusement to set a person, igno- 
. rant of its properties, to gather the fruit, which, when quite 
ripe, will, upon the first attempt to pull it from its stalk, 
discharge a volly of seeds and juice, perhaps, into the face 
of the unsuspecting object of mirth. ae 
From the liquor spontaneously discharged from the fruit, 
a medicine is prepared of very ancient. celebrity, known 
by the name of Elaterium, which is of so active.a nature, 
that a single grain will often occasion violent effects ; but, in. 
proper hands, is nevertheless considered as a powerful and 
useful remedy, particularly in certain dropsies.° 
_. Propagated by seeds, and. generally considered as an 
annual, but if the soil is dry and the situation sheltered, the 
root will survive two or three winters, and the plants will 
flower earlier and spread farther than those of the same year. 
_ Communicated by Joun Waker, Esq. of Arno’s-Grove.- 
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