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2. HYPERICUM HIRCINUM. 



FETID ST. JOHN'S WORT. 



Tins genus furnishes plants of the shrubby and under-shrubby, 

 hardy and tender kinds. 



It belongs to the class and order Polyaddphia Polyandria, and 

 ranks in the natural order of Rotacea. 



The characters are: that the calyx is a five-parted perianthium: 

 segments subovate, concave, permanent: the corolla has five petals, 

 oblong-ovate, obtuse, spreading, wheel-shaped, according to the sun's 

 apparent motion : the stamina have numerous capillary filaments, 

 united at the base in five or three bodies: anthers small: the pis- 

 tillum is a roundish germ: styles three (sometimes one, two, or five), 

 simple, distant, the length of the stamens: stigmas simple: the peri- 

 carpium is a roundish capsule, with the same number of cells as there 

 are styles: the seeds very many and oblong. 



The species cultivated are: 1. H. balearicum, Warled St. John's- 

 wort; 2. H. Ascyron, Great flowered St. Peter's-wort ; 3. H.Andro- 

 stzmutfi, Common Tutsan; 4. H.Canariense, Canary St. John's- wort; 

 5. H. hircinum, Slinking Shrubby St. John's-wort ; 6. H. monogynum, 

 Chinese St. John's-wort. 



The first rises with a slender shrubby stalk in this country, about 

 two feet high; but in its native soil it acquires the height of seven 

 or eight feet, sending out several weak branches of a reddish colour, 

 and marked with scars where the leaves have fallen off: the leaves 

 are small, oval, waved on their edges, and having several small pro- 

 tuberances on their under side: they sit close to the branches, half 

 embracing them at the base: the flowers are terminating, large, 

 bright, yellow. It is a native of Majorca. 



The second species has a stem a cubit and half high, round, 



