Linnean System of Plants. 159 



conceive why this delicate drug was used in preference to the 

 fine aromatics of the East ; but it is not much more extraor- 

 dinary than that the Cossacks should drink train-oil; and, 

 after all the astonishment we feel at the strange taste of these 

 Indians, what shall we say to the fact, that this very drug, 

 which has the scent and the flavour of putrid onions mingled 

 with soot, is used by British cooks, occasionally, as a substi- 

 tute for garlic I — in very small quantities, it is true ; but still 

 it is used. 



Of the third order, Trigynia, we have five British genera ; 

 among which we may reckon the elder tree (iSambiicus nigra), 

 a tree of infinite value to the peasantry of some remote coun- 

 tiy-places ; it supplies the place both of the surgeon and tlie 

 druggist ; it furnishes ointments, infusions, and decoctions, for 

 all ailments, cuts, or bruises. Every part of it serves some 

 useful purpose : the wood, pith, bark, leaves, buds, flowers, 

 and fruit. Its narcotic scent makes it unwholesome to sleep 

 under its shade; and if corn or other vegetables be smartly 

 whipped with the branches, they will communicate a sufficient 

 portion of this scent to keep off* the insects by which so many 

 plants are frequently blighted. An infusion of the leaves, 

 poured over plants, will preserve them from caterpillars also : 

 so that this tree does as much good by its noxious, as its agree- 

 able, qualities. The wine made from the berries is well known ; 

 but, perhaps, it may not be so generally known that the buds 

 make an excellent pickle. A water distilled from the flowers 

 rivals buttermilk itself as a rural cosmetic. There is another 

 species, the dwarf elder (»Sambiicus jG'bulus), which possesses, 

 in a heightened degree, all the noxious qualities of the common 

 elder, without any of its virtues, but that of keeping other 

 nuisances at a distance. This fetid plant was supposed, by 

 our ancestors, to have sprung from the blood of their enemies, 

 the Danes, whence it obtained the English name of Danewort. 



The bladder-nut (Staphylea pinnata) belongs to this order. 

 It is an elegant shrub, by no means justly appreciated. It is. 

 called bladder-nut, from the hard fruit, which is contained in 

 a large inflated capsule. The nuts were formerly used by the 

 monks, as beads to count their prayers by. 



The French tamarisk ( Zamarix gallica), a delicate shrub, 

 with pink flowers, is, notwithstanding its specific appellation, 

 a native of England, growing chiefly on the southern coast. 

 The salt flavour of its leaves renders it a grateful food to 

 sheep ; but we would not willingly bestow it upon them, for it 

 is not sufficiently common to admit of so lavish a use of it. 

 The. genus Fiburnum is better known by a foreign species, 

 than by those which are indigenous of the country. We al? 



M 4 



