232 CLASS DECANDRIA. 



A great proportion of the plants in the first order of the 

 tenth class are to be found in shady woods in June and July. 

 We can here enumerate but few of them ; in the description 

 of the genera of plants which we have provided, you will be 

 able to find the most common ones. 



We will not, however, omit to mention the Monotropa, a 

 most curious little plant ; several stems of a few inches in 

 height, usually grow up in a cluster, each stem supporting a 

 single flower, which, in form, resembles a tobacco pipe. The 

 stems have scales upon them but no leaves ; the whole plant is 

 perfectly white and looks as if made of wax ; it is sometimes 

 called Indian pipe. You must look for this in shady woods 

 near the roots of old trees, in June or July. 



Rhododendron, or as it is sometimes called, mountain laurel 

 or rose bay, an evergreen with large and beautiful oval leaves, 

 is found growing on the sides of mountains, or in wet swamps 

 of cedar ; it flourishes beneath the shade of the trees ; the 

 pink and white flowers appear in large showy clusters and 

 continue in bloom for a long period ; they have a 5 toothed 

 calyx, a 5 cleft funnel-form, somewhat irregular corolla, sta- 

 mens 10, sometimes half the number, capsule 5 celled, 5 

 valved. 



At Fig. 114, c, is a flower of the genus Ledum, which is 

 found in the same family as the Rhododendron ; it has a very 

 small calyx, and a flat, five-parted corolla. 



Connected by natural relations to the two genera above men- 

 tioned, is the American laurel (Kalmia), a splendid shrub, some- 

 times, found ten or thirteen feet high. On the Catskill moun- 

 tains, it is said to have been seen twenty feet in height ; the 

 flowers grow in that kind of cluster called a corymb ; they are 

 either white or red ; but this fair and beautiful shrub is of a 

 poisonous nature, particularly fatal to sheep who are attracted 

 towards it ; one species of the Kalmfa is on this account called 

 sheep laurel. 



Among the plants which have a place in this part of the 

 artificial system, is the DIONJSA muscipula, or Venus' fly -trap. 

 This is a native of North Carolina ; the leaves spring from the 

 roots, each leaf has at its extremity a kind of appendage, like 

 a small leaf doubled ; this is bordered on its edges by glands, 

 resembling little hairs, containing a liquid that attracts insects; 

 but no sooner does the unfortunate insect alight upon the leaf> 

 than with a sudden spring, it closes itself, and the little prisoner 

 is crushed to death in the midst of the sweets it had impru- 

 dently attempted to seize ; after the insect, overcome by the 



Monotropa or Indian pipe Mountain laurel Kalmia or sheep laurel 

 Dioneea. 



