208 DKEC1A. 



into boiling water. The tallow, which is on the outside, 

 being thus melted, rises to the surface and is skimmed off. 

 I is afterwards purified by re-melting, when it is of a green- 

 ish color, and very hard and heavy. This is sometimes 

 mixed with common tallow to make candles for summer use, 

 and which are not liable to the usual inconveniences of bend- 

 ing, or melting in hot weather. 



ORDER Y. PENTANDRIA. Stamens 5. 



GENUS Humulus. Hop. Name from the Latin humus, 

 moist or fresh earth, because the hop will not grow in a poor 

 dry soil. Our word hop comes from the Anglo-Saxon hop- 

 pan, which signifies to climb. 



This plant and its uses are so universally known, as not to 

 require description. The Pepperidge or Tupelo, (Nyssa vil- 

 losa,) and the Prickly Ash, (Xanthoxylum fraxinum,) belongs 

 here. 



ORDER VI. HEXANDRIA. Stamens 6. 



GENUS Smilax. Name from the Greek, signifying a. grater, 

 in allusion to the prickles which beset the species. One 

 species of this genus, called Green Briar, ( Smilax rotundifo- 

 lium,) is a well known and very troublesome native of our 

 woods and hedges. The stem is small, round, woody, very 

 strong, and of a green color ; leaves heart-ovate, and five 

 nerved; flowers in small umbels on axillary stalks; fruit a 

 bunch of bluish black berries, which remain during the 

 winter. This plant climbs on trees and bushes, and being 

 armed with strong sharp prickles, often forms thickets which 

 are impenetrable to man or beast. 



ORDER VII. OCTANDRIA. Stamens 8. 



GENUS Pppulus. Poplar. Bullet says, that the Poplar 

 has obtained its name from the motion of its leaves, which 

 are in a perpetual state of agitation like the populace. Others 

 say that it comes from arbor populi, tree of the people, be- 

 cause the public squares of Rome were planted with it. 



The genus consists of ten native, and many foreign spe- 

 cies, all of them trees, from 30 to 80, or 90 feet high. The 

 Tacamahack, (Populus balsamifera,) a native species, is some- 

 times a large tree, rising to the height of 70 or 80 feet ; leaves 

 ovate, acuminate, white, and netted underneath. The buds 



Whence >s it said that the Poplar obtained its name ? 



