PLATE XXXVII. 



1. NIGELLA DAMASCENA. 



LOVE IN A MIST. DEVIL IN A BUSH. 



THIS genus contains plants of the hardy herbaceous flowering 

 annual kind. 



It belongs to the class and order Polyandria Pentagynia, and ranks 

 in the natural order of Multisiliquce. 



The characters are: that there is no calyx: the corolla has five 

 petals, ovate, flat, blunt, spreading, more contracted at the base: 

 the nectaries eight, placed in a ring, very short; each two-lipped; 

 outer lip larger, lower, bifid, flat, convex, marked with two dots; 

 inner lip shorter, narrower, from ovate ending in a line: the stamina 

 have numerous awl-shaped filaments, shorter than the petals. An- 

 thers compressed, blunt, erect: the pistillum has several germs (five 

 to ten), oblong, convex, compressed ; erect, ending in styles which 

 are awl-shaped, angular, very long, but revolute, permanent: stigmas 

 longitudinal, adnate: the pericarpium capsules as many, oblong, 

 compressed, acuminate, connected on the inside by the suture, gap- 

 ing on the inside at top : the seeds very many, angular, and 

 rugged. 



The species cultivated are: 1. N. damascena, Common Fennel- 

 flower; 2. N. sativa, Small Fennel-flower; 3. N. arvensis, Field Fen- 

 nel-flower; 4. N. Hispanica, Spanish Fennel-flower; 5. N. orientalis, 

 Yellow Fennel-flower. 



The first rises with an upright branching stalk a foot and a half 

 high: the leaves much longer and finer than those of the third: the 

 flowers are large, pale blue, with a five-leaved involucre under each 

 longer than the flower; they are succeded by larger swelling seed- 



