316 PENTANDRIA. 



Tobacco. In a subsequent part we meet with the 

 Vine, Currant and Ivy, and the Order finishes with 

 some of the natural family of Contortce, so called 

 from their oblique or twisted corolla, and which are 

 many of them very fine plants, as Vinca, t. 514, 

 917. They often abound with milky juice, gene- 

 rally highly acrid ; but Dr. Afzelius met with a 

 shrub of this order at Sierra Leone, the milk of 

 whose fruit was so sweet, as well as copious, as to 

 be used instead of cream for tea. This is certainly 

 what no one could have guessed from analogy. Gar- 

 denia is erroneously reckoned acofitorta by Linneeus. 



2. Diguiiia begins with the remainder of the Con- 

 torted; then follow some incomplete flowers, as 

 Chenopodium, t. 1033, Beta, t. 285, and afterwards 

 the fine alpine genus of Gentiana^ t. 20, 493, 89^, 

 famous for its extreme bitterness and consequent 

 stomachic virtues. 



The rest of the Order consists of the very natural 

 Umbelliferous family characterized by having five 

 superior petals, and a pair of naked seeds, suspended 

 vertically, when ripe, from the summit of a slender 

 hair-like receptacle. Of the inflorescence of this 

 tribe, and the difliculties attending their generic di- 

 stinctions, we have spoken, p. 236. In Eryngiumy 

 i". 718 and 57, the umbel is condensed into a 

 capitalum, or conical scaly head, showing an ap- 

 proach towards the compound flowers, and accom- 



