146 FAMILY HERBAL. 



FaoG Bit. Morbus rayies. 



A LITTLE plants not uncommon on watcM?/ 

 with round leaves and small white flowers. It 

 has been hy the common writers called a kind of 

 water lily, because its leaves are rounds and it 

 floats upon the water, but it is as distinct as any 

 thing can be, when we regard the flower. Duck- 

 weed has round leaves^ and floats upon the water^ 

 Jind it might be called water lily for that reason^ 

 if that were su^cient. The leaves arc of a round- 

 ish figure, and a dusky dark green colour : they 

 are of the breadth of a crown piece^ and they rise 

 many together in tufts^ from the same part of the 

 stalk. This stalk runs along at a little distance 

 under the surface of the water, and from it descend 

 the roots, but they do not reach down into the mud, 

 but play loose like the fibres of duckweed in the 

 water. ^The flowers stand singly upon slender 

 foot stalks ; they are white, and. composed of 

 three leaves a-piece, which give them a singular 

 rfppearancc^ 



The fresh leaves are used in outward applica- 

 tions, and are very cooling. 



Fumitory, Fumaria, 



■ A PRETTY wild plant, with bluish divided 

 leaves, and spikes of little purple ilowers, com- 

 rooD in our corn-fields in June and July. It grows 

 ten inches hipjh. The stalk is round, striated, of 

 a pale green, thick enough, but not very firm or 

 perfectly erect. The leaves are large, but they are 

 divided into a vast number of little parts, which 

 are blunt and rounded at the ends ; their colour 

 is a faint green. The flowers are smaii and pur- 

 ple : they have a heel behind, and a cumbei of 



