THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST. 



arises from the base of a one-celled 

 ovary. Most of the plants of this order 

 are acrid and caustic in the highest de- 

 gree. The roots of one, Plumbago Eu- 

 ropoea, used to be employed by beggars 

 to raise ulcers upon their bodies to ex- 

 cite pity, and another, P. Scandens, is so 

 very acrid that in the island of St. Do- 



seci lavender or marsh rosemary. The 

 root of Statice Caroliniana is one of the 

 most powerful astringents in the vegeta- 

 ble materia medica, while the bruised 

 fresh bark of the roots of Plumbago 

 Zeylanica acts as a splendid blistering 

 agent, or to speak more elegantly it is a 

 vesicatory or vesicant. 



Fig. 1482.- 



mingo it is called, on this account, herde 

 du diable, or the devil's herb. 



Only one member of this family 

 figures in North American botany, viz , 

 Statice Limonium and its variety, Staitce 

 Carolinana, which are found along the 

 sea coast in salt marshes, and is called 



47' 



Before I proceed to speak particularly 

 of the member of the family whose 

 name heads this paragraph I might ob- 

 serve that the reason the order is called 

 the Leadwort family is not because the 

 color of the flower of some of the mem- 

 bers of the typical genus. Plumbago^ re- 



