Leaves of Maldxis palndbsa. 4-41 



mencement of intermittent fevers. The flowers of the G. 

 virgata {g) possess a delicious fragrance. 



Assembling, as we do, in this country, and easily procuring, 

 every thing that is useful and ornamental, it may be a mere 

 matter of amusement thus to sketch the uses of foreign plants : 

 but could we, for a moment, imagine ourselves out of the 

 reach of European assistance and European luxuries, we 

 should be glad of every resource presented to us by nature, 

 and congratulate ourselves on possessing a knowledge of her 

 treasures. In all primitive countries where vegetation is 

 luxuriant, it supplies every department of life with a mine of 

 wealth. Not only is it employed in the construction of edi- 

 fices, weapons of offence and defence, household utensils, and 

 musical instruments ; but it affords clothing, ornaments, food, 

 medicines, and is, even, the great source from which rude 

 people draw their poetry and romance. 



The physiological botanist, therefore, possesses great ad- 

 vantages when travelling in these wild countries ; and it has 

 been observed, that the respect felt by savages for this sort 

 of knowledge increases their confidence in strangers, and gives 

 them a favourable impression of the omniscience of civilised 

 Europeans. 



Art. IX. On the Leaves of Malaxis paludosa. By the Reverend 

 John Stevens Hen slow, Professor of Botany in the University 

 of Cambridge. 



Sir, 



In the fourth volume of the English Flora^ Sir James Smith 

 has described the leaves of Malaxis paludosa, as " roughish 

 about the extremity, often somewhat fringed, so that this plant 

 may perhaps have given rise to the report of a hairy-leaved 

 Orchis," &c. 



This plant occurs in great plenty in the bogs on Gamlingay 

 Heath, Cambridgeshire, where I had an opportunity of exa- 

 mining it a few days ago, and ascertained the cause of the 

 fringed appearance of the leaf, alluded to by Smith. Every 

 specimen I gathered exhibited this in a greater or less degree, 

 and it required only the assistance of a common lens to show 

 me that it was occasioned by numerous little bulbous germs, 

 sprouting from the edge, and towards the apex of the leaf, as 

 represented in the accompanying sketch ( fg. 197. a b). They 

 were of the same colour as the leaves, green on those which 

 were more exposed to the light, and quite white on those which 

 were lowest on the stem, and half buried in peat and moss. 



Vol. I. — No. 5. h h 



