268 



lube of the corolla. It is a native of China and Japan, flowering in 

 June and July. 



The fourth species has long, narrow, grass-like leaves, which 

 come out from the root without order, sitting close to the ground ; 

 between these come up straight single slalks, which in good ground 

 rise a foot and half high ; at each joint of the stalk come out two 

 leaves opposite, of the same form as the lower, but decreasing in 

 their size upwards; under each pair of leaves, for an inch in length, 

 there sweats out of the stalk a glutinous liquor, which is almost as 

 clammy as birdlime, so that ants and other insects which happen to 

 light upon these places, or attempt to creep up to the flowers, are 

 fastened to the stalk; Avhence the title of Catchfly: the root is 

 perennial, yellowish on the outside, white within: the stem round, 

 not grooved, smooth, being terminated by a cluster of purple flowers, 

 and from the two upper joints come out on each side of the stalk a 

 cluster of the same flowers, so that the whole forms a sort of loose 

 spike: these appear in the beginning of May, and the single flowers 

 are succeeded by roundish seed-vessels, which are full of small 

 angular seeds, ripening in July. It is a native of most parts of 

 Europe. 



The fifth has likewise a perennial root, the thickness of the little 

 finger, white, of a slightly acrid and bitter taste, furnished with 

 numerous fibres: the stalks are several, upright, from one to three 

 feet high, round, hirsute, jointed, purple, the joints swelled: the 

 uppermost branches forked : the leaves opposite, connate, ovate- 

 acuminate, hirsute, slightly nerved: the calyx is hairy, striated, pur- 

 ple, five-toothed; in the female more turgid: the petals purple, 

 obcordate: at the bottom of the lamina or broad spreading part are 

 two or four small upright white blunt appendicles: the germ is ovate, 

 surrounded by a nectary at the base: the capsule one-celled, with 

 ten teeth at the mouth: seeds gray, somewhat rugged. It is a native 

 of many parts of Europe. 



There is a variety with double flowers, cultivated in gardens by 

 the name of Red Bachelor's Buttons, which is an ornamental plant, 

 and continues long in flower. 



