138 VEGETABLE MORrilOLOGY. 



loquat-tree, with its large woolly leaves ; tlie Nepal white-beam tree, 

 and many others, deserve especial notice. 



Among the flowering trees of May and June may be reckoned tliat 

 splendid climber Wistaria sonsequana, or, as some call it, Glycine 

 sinensis. The flowers of this tree resemble those of the laburnum in 

 form, but are of a delicate lilac. Nothing can exceed tlie vigorous 

 growth of this tree, or the profusion of its blossoms ; the specimen in 

 the Horticultural Society's garden at Turnham Green extends nearly 

 eighty yards along the wall. This splendid plant is a native of China, 

 from which country it was brought in 1816. At its first introduction, 

 and for a year or two afterwards, plants were six guineas each ; but 

 they are now to be had in any nursery for a shilling or eighteen-pence. 



Next to the Wistaria may very appropriately be placed the laburnums, 

 which, notwithstanding their beauty, are now become so common as to 

 be little valued. Some of these are sweet-scented and remarkably long 

 in their drooping racemes of flowers. The purple-flowered laburnum, 

 as it is called, though in fact its blossoms are of a dirty pink, is a hybrid 

 between the common laburnum and the purple cytisus, and it possesses 

 the extraordinary power of reproducing its parents. Trees of this kind 

 in different parts of the country have been known to produce a sprig of 

 the purple cytisus from one branch, and of the common laburnum from 

 another, without any grafting, and yet each quite distinct. 



The Judas-tree (Cercis siliquastrum) is anotiier ornamental tree be- 

 longing to the Legnrainosse. This tree produces its pretty pink flowei's 

 on its trunk and thick branches, and the flowers have a slight acidity 

 that makes them form an agreeable dish, wlien dipped in batter and 

 fried as fritters. The tree takes its name from its being supposed to be 

 that on which Judas hanged himself ; but Gerard gravely assured us 

 that this Avas not the case, as he hanged himself on an alder. 



The peat-earth plants belonging to the order Ericaceae are a host in 

 themselves. The rhododendrons, the kalmias, the arbutus, the heaths, 

 and their allied species, are all so beautiful that no garden should be 

 without them. The rhododenerons, it is well known, vary very much 

 in the colour, though not much in the form, of their flowers, and some 

 of tiie hybrids between the Nepal-tree species and the common kinds 

 are extremely splendid. The rhododendrons are generally considered 

 American plants ; but one of the commonest kinds, 11. ponticum, is a 

 native of Asia Minor. The number of varieties and hybrids almost 

 exceed belief, amounting to more than one Imndred. It has been said 

 that the honey whicii Xenophon tells us produced so injurious an effect 

 on the Greeks in their celebrated retreat, was produced by the flowers of 

 this shrub ; but others attribute this poisonous honey to the Azalea 

 pontica. 



VEGETABLE MORPHOLOGY. 



Looking at vegetables in their generality, we may say that a plant 

 consists of three parts, the leaf, the stem, and the root ; although, in 

 the lower classes, it is often the case that one or two of these are want- 

 ing. Advancing again, as in the case of the cell, we find that a plant 

 may be composed of one of these individuals, or phytons as they have 



