187 



four-sided, rising upwards : the pistillum is a five-cornered germ, 

 elevated from the receptacle: style simple, short, bent downwards, 

 incurved: stigma sharp, rising upwards: the pericarpium has five 

 capsules, conjoined inwardly at the border, compressed, acuminate, 

 with distant tips, two-valved : the seeds in pairs, ovate, very smooth, 

 within a common aril, which is two-valved, and cut down. 



The species cultivated is D. albus, Fraxinella, or While Dittany. 



It has a perennial root, striking deep into the ground, and the 

 head annually increasing in size: the stalks many, two or three feet 

 high, round, here and there slightly grooved, sometimes subancipi- 

 tal, not branched, at bottom green and beset with white hairs, ferru- 

 ginous-red towards the top, with resinous glands: the leaves are alter- 

 nate, the larger above a foot in length, spreading out horizontally, 

 ascending towards the end; the midrib flat at top and edged on both 

 sides, convex beneath and hairy; leaflets from two to five pairs, Avith 

 an odd one at the end, most of them alternate, except the top pair 

 or two, sessile or subsessile, except the end one, which is on a long 

 winged petiole, smooth, stiff, oblique except the end one, ovate, 

 acute, serrate, shining on both sides, about two inches long and an 

 inch wide; the whole somewhat resembling an Ash leaf. The flowers 

 in a long pyramidal loose spike or raceme, nine or ten inches long, 

 of a purplish colour: the branches of the raceme alternate, with a 

 bracte at the foot of each, one or two-flowered ; there is also a short, 

 lanceolate, hairy bracte to each pedicel. To each flower succeeds 

 a fruit consisting of five compressed capsules, spreading out like the 

 points of a star. 



The whole plant, especially when gently rubbed, emits an odour 

 like that of lemon-peel, but when bruised it has something of a bal- 

 samic scent. It is a native of Germany, flowering here at the end of 

 May. 



There are varieties with white flowers, wilh red and purple striped, 

 and with short spikes of flowers. 



Culture. These plants may be increased by sowing the seeds in 

 the beds, borders, or other parts of pleasure-grounds or gardens 

 where the plants are to remain, in the beginning of the autumn soon 



