POLYANDllIA. 



Much has been said about the unwholesomeness 

 of this pJantj and perhaps truly, with respect to some 

 of its properties 5 but its refreshing quality is so agree- 

 able, and the harm arising from it estimated with so 

 much uncertainty, that in England it has become ge- 

 neral, without our being aware of any serious evil from 

 its use. 



It has been much the habit of studious men to 

 indulge in drinking tea. I once called upon the great 

 Professor Porson at five o'clock, when I myself was 

 going to dinner, and found him in his room alone, 

 sitting over his books, with a disorderly tea equipage 

 on the table, and his tea-pot standing on a trevet be- 

 fore the fire. Dr. Johnson would sometimes drink 

 more than twenty cups at a sitting; and he tells us 

 himself, that he was a * hardened and shameless tea- 

 drinker; who for twenty years diluted his meals 

 with only the infusion of this fascinating plant; whose 

 kettle had scarcely time to cool; who with tea amused 

 the evening, with tea solaced the midnight, and with 

 tea welcomed the morning.' Nevertheless, according 

 to the same enthusiastic admirer of it, its proper use h 

 to amuse the idle, to relax the studious, and to dilute 

 the full meals of those who cannot use exercise, and 

 will not use abstinence. 



Of this Order is the Genus Delphinium, of which 



description of this p'ant, see Martino DobrizhofFer, Hlsiorla etc 

 Abiponibus, tom. iii. 8VO. and, Voyages dans L'Amerique iMeri 

 dionale,i;arDon Ftlixde Azara, ti)n;. i. p. 120. 



