. . Linnean Si/stem of Plants. 435 



of the most elegant berries that the vegetable world can boast ; 

 shaped like an Ggg, and sparkling like a ruby. To this last 

 genus belongs our domestic friend, the potato ; said to have 

 been first brought to Ireland by Sir Walter Raleigh, and 

 thence introduced into England. Most species of the Solanum 

 are poisonous, and the potato is so, in some degree, before it 

 is exposed to the action of fire. The plant known by the 

 name of the Deadly Nightshade ( A'trop« Belladonna) is of ano- 

 ther genus, contains a most virulent and powerful poison, and 

 should never be suffered to grow in the public way. It has, 

 indeed, on this account been so frequently eradicated, that it is 

 now a very rare plant. It' bears a large handsome purple 

 flower, and is honoured with the appellation of jPa/r Zy«^. 

 The generic name is derived from Atropos, one of the Fates. 

 " How the same plant should come to have the gentle appella- 

 tion of Belladonna, and the tremendous name of Atj^opa, seems 

 strange, till we know that it was used as a wash, among the 

 Italian ladies, to take off pimples and other excrescences from 

 the skin, and are told of its dreadful effects as a poison," ob- 

 serves Rousseau. 



The third section contains six genera, with flowers mofiop^" 

 talous and superior : of this number are " the gadding wood- 

 bine," with its honey-bearing trumpets ; and the campanula, 

 of which genus is the delicate little heath-bell, that nods on 

 the summit of a stalk so slender as to appear supported by 

 magical influence. Many persons call this the kare-bell, but 

 the true English hare-hell is the English hyacinth (5cilla 

 nutans). These two plants have been frequently confounded by 

 poets ; but, according to Sir J. E. Smith, the little campanula, 

 which we call the heath-hell, is the hare-hell of Scotland, while 

 the hare-hell of England is the Scottish hlue-helL 



The fourth section has four genera ; with flowers inferior, 

 and four or five petaled. To this section belongs that beau- 

 tiful genus, the violet, ii/edera, the ivy, and Rihes, the cur- 

 rant bush, are the only two genera composing the fifth section ; 

 their flowers are five-petaled (pentapetalom) and superior. 

 The sixth section has flowers without petals {apetalous) ; it con- 

 tains three genera. 



This class and order, though it contains a great number of 

 splendid and truly beautiful plants, and is remarkably exten- 

 sive, is by no means the most important to mankind. Beauty, 

 however, is not its only claim to consideration, as will readily 

 be acknowledged ; for it has a fee to purchase praise from 

 every class of society : it is in possession of the tobacco plant 

 of Virginia, of the coffee tree of Arabia, and of vines from 



