90 DIALYPETALOUS EXOGENS 



* * Leaves opposite ; petals wanting, or minute. 



2. Li. palustris, Ell. Stem procumbent, creeping ; leaves ovate, 

 petiolate ; capsules oblong, obtusely 4-cornered. 

 Isnardia palustris, L. $ Fl. Cestr. ed. 2. p. 109. 

 MARSH LUDWIGIA. Water Purslane. 



Stem 6 to 12 and 18 inches long, succulent, purple, creeping (sometimes floating), 

 branching. Leaves half an inch to an inch long, abruptly narrowed to a flat or 

 winged petiole which is half an inch to three quarters in length. Capsule truncate, 

 crowned with the persistent calyx-segments. 

 Hob. Ditches, and miry places : frequent. Fl. July. Fr. Sept. 



f f f PETALS 2 ; stamens as many. 



134. CIRCAE V A, Tournef. 

 [Named from Circe, the fabled Enchantress.] 



Calyx-tube a little longer than the ovary ; lobes 2, deciduous. Petals 

 obcordate. Capsule turbinate, subcompressed, uncinately hirsute, 

 2-celled, 2-seeded. Perennials: leaves opposite, petiolate. 



1. C. IjUtetiana, L. Leaves ovate or subcordate, acuminate, 



remotely toothed ; bracts none. 



PARISIAN CIRC ABA. Enchanter's Nightshade. 



Stem 12 to 18 inches high, simple, more or less pubescent. Leaves 1 to 2 or 3 

 inches long, thin ; petioles % an inch to 2 inches in length. Flowers reddish- 

 white, in slender virgate racemes, alternate and pedicellate; pedicels of the fruit 



Hob. Moist, shaded places: frequent. Fl. July. Fr. Aug. 



Obs. Dr. DARWIN, in his Botanic Garden, devotes a number of 

 lines to the vulgar notions formerly connected with this plant. The 

 following are the initiatory couplets: 



" Thrice round the grave CIRCSEA prints her tread, 

 .And chaunts the numbers which disturb the dead ; 

 Shakes o'er the holy earth her sable plume, 

 . Waves her dread wand, and strikes the echoing tomb ! " 



He informs us, in a note, that it "was much celebrated in the 

 mysteries of witchcraft," &c. and remarks, that "the superstitious 

 ceremonies or histories belonging to some vegetables have been 

 truly ridiculous : " such as those of the Druids with the Mistletoe, 

 the legend of the Mandrake, the wearing of Paeony roots, as amu- 

 lets, and the use of the Hazel twig, or Divining Kod, in discovering 

 ores, and fountains. He adds, that, in the very year when he was 

 writing, "there were many in France, and some in England, who 

 underwent an enchantment without any divining rod at all, and be- 

 lieved themselves to be affected by an invisible agent, which the 

 Enchanter called Animal Magnetism!" 



ORDER XXXIX. GROSSULACEAE. 



Low shrubs, sometimes prickly ; leaves alternate, palmately veined and lobed, ex- 

 tipulate, or the petioles with stipular margins, ciliate and somewhat clasping at 

 base; calyx-tube adherent to the ovary, the border 5-lobed, shriveling; petals 5, very 

 small; stamens 5, inserted, alternately with the petals, on the calyx; fruit a 

 1-celled berry, with 2 parietal placentae; seeds numerous; embryo minute, at the 

 base of hard albumen. 



