LESSONS IN BOTANY. 



87 



sickening iteration, and then Jeffreys went on to Bristol, where, 

 however, In; hail but throo victims. Two men of the same 

 family having boon convicted in Somersetshire, one of them 



.i.'iMi!-- i to death, and the other procured a pardon ; bat 



Ins release, the other man escaping, Jeffreys ordered 



execution to be done on the pardoned one, because " his family 



i life." 



r h 'o sum of money was mode by the judge in the sale of 

 pardons, notwithstanding the quantity of blood actually shed. 

 As much as 15,000 was given in one case, JC.3,000 was refused 

 in another, and by the time the circuit was over, Lord Jeffreys 

 fimn.l himself rioh enough to support the dignity of lord-chan- 

 cellor, a post which was the reward of his zealous services in 



\t'St. 



Ni-ithor king nor judge profited in the end. The former lost 

 his throne, which has been ever since barred against the return 

 of any of his dynasty, and the memory of his work at tho Bloody 

 Assize sat heavily on the soul of tho judge, and pressed it down 

 to death. As soon as it was found that King James had fled 

 on the approach of the Prince of Orange, in 1688, the people 

 demanded with loud voices that his ill advisers should not 

 escape. The chief one for whose punishment they thirsted was 

 Jeffreys, and search was made high and low for him. He 

 almost escaped. Steps to ensure his departure from England 

 had been " secretly taken, and, disguised as a seaman, his 

 eyebrows shaven off, the better to conceal his features, he had 

 arrived on board tho collier which was to take him to Hamburg, 

 when he took it into his head to go on shore. At an alehouse 

 in Wappinghe was recognised by one to whom he had, as judge, 

 behaved brutally ; a mob surrounded the house, and would have 

 torn the fugitive to pieces, had not some soldiers rescued him 

 and taken him to the Lord Mayor. By order of the temporary 

 Government he was sent to the Tower, where he died miserably, 

 before he could be brought to trial on a charge of high treason.'' 



In the West of England the man's memory is still preserved 

 as that of an incarnate fiend, the true representative of perfect 

 injustice, the fit sign of brutal cruelty and oppression. Pro- 

 bably some inventions to his disadvantage have been made by 

 the fertile brains of angry foes, and possibly some traits of 

 goodness may have been forgotten amidst the universal execra- 

 tion which has been his historical epitaph ; but there are few 

 even now-a-days who think tho epithet " bloody," which is 

 usually prefixed to Jeffreys' name, too strong for the man who 

 presided over tho special commission after Monmouth's rebellion, 

 and who, in his capacity of judge, "played such fantastic tricks 

 before high Heaven, as made the angela weep." 



Born at St. James's, Oct. 14, 1633 



SYNOPSIS OP THE LIFE AND REIGN OP JAMES n. 

 James II. was tho third son of Charles I. by his Queen, 

 Henrietta Maria of France. He was the twenty-seventh sove- 

 reign of England after tho Norman Conquest, and the fourth of 

 the Stuart dynasty. 



Test Act Suspended . . . 1686 

 The King goes to Mass . . 1686 

 The Universities compelled 



to admit Papists .... 1687 

 Birth of the "Old Pretender," 



Juno 10, 1680 

 Trial of the Seven Bishops, 



June 29. 1688 

 William of Orange lands at 



Torbey .... NOT. 5, 1686 

 Abdication of James, Deo. 11, 1688 



Began to Keign . . Feb. 6, 1685 

 Kisiug in Scotland in favour 



of the Duke of Monmouth 1685 

 Moiiruouth lauds at Lyiue, 



June 11, 16S5 



Battle of Sedgemoor, July 6, 1685 

 Execution of Monmouth, 



July 15, 1685 



Tho " Bloody Assize ". . . 1685 

 Revocation of the Edict of 



Nantes, in France, Oct. 12, 1685 



Died at St. Oermains, Aug. 6, 1701 

 SOVEREIGNS CONTEMPORARY WITH JAMES II. 



Turkey, Sultan* of. 



Mahomet IV. . 1649 

 US? 



Denmark, King of. ' Portugal. King of. 

 Christian V.. . 1670 Peter II. (prot- 



otuli/ Regent) , 1683 



franco, King of. 

 Louis XIV . 1643 Sonti pop , 0/ . 



Innocent XI.. . 1676 

 Leopold I. . . 1658 , 



iut, Czars of. 



IV. and 



Poland, King of. 

 John Sobieski . 1674 



[This monarch tras 

 the last independent 

 king of Poland. He 

 defeated the Turks in 

 many battle, and com- 

 pelled them to raise the 



iege of Vienna, in 1683. Charles VL 



Ivan 



Peter I. (the 

 Great) con- 

 jointly . . . 1682 

 Spain, King of. 



Chiirlos II. 



1688 



Sweden, King of. 



1660 



Solyman III. . 



United Provinces of the 



Netherlands, Statt- 



holdtn of. 

 William Henry 



(afterward! 



William 1IL 



of Eiiglaud) . 1672 



[TTiw prince mamd 

 Jfary, the daughter o] 

 Jam* II.] 



LESSONS IN BOTANY. XVL 



SECTION XXIX.-CUCUBBITACE.S, OB THE CUCUMBER 

 TBL 



THIS natural order is allied by many characteristics to the 

 (Mission-flower, for which reason we treat of it in thfc place. 



Characteristic* : Flowers monoecious, dioBoiow, or polygamous 

 calyx with tube adherent to ovary ; stamens free, or monadelphoM, 

 or triadolphouH ; anthers turning outwards ; ovary three to five 

 rarely ono-carpclled ; seed dicotyledonous, exalbtuninoos ; stem 

 uniformly herbaceous, climbing leaves alternate, palminerved, 

 each furnished with a lateral stipule ; inflorescence, axillary. 



If wo compare tho parts of tho flower of a common encumber 

 flower with those of a passion-flower, a similarity in many re- 

 spects will bo found to hold good. Like the passion-flower, tb< 

 calyx bos the colour of petals ; like the passion-flower, there u 

 the same growing together of stamens ; like the passion-flower, 

 the ovary has usually one cavity, and the arrangement of ovule* 

 within the ovary is similar. Moreover, both orders yield fruits 

 which are juicy. These are strong resemblances. Let us now 

 examine the parts in which the two natural orders are dissimilar. 

 In the first place, then, on referring to our characteristics of the 

 order, we find that the flowers in the tribe C'ucurbitac&x are 

 monoecious, or dioecious, or polygamous, which means that some 

 flowers are male and others female ; the male and the female 

 flowers sometimes exist on the same plant, sometimes on diffe- 

 rent plants, and at other times on both. In this important 

 particular, then, the Cucurbitacecs differ from the natural order 

 we have just been considering. Moreover, the cucumber Mi 

 very rough leaves, which the passion-flower has not; the 

 cucumber has an inferior ovary, the passion-flower a superior ; 

 the passion-flower has rays, tho cucumber flower has none. 

 Nor does the distinction between tho two natural families end 

 with a mere difference of form and parts. The chemical cha- 

 racter of their secretions, as we shall find by-ond-by, differs 

 also. The passion-flower tribe are uniformly harmless as regards 

 every part except their root, whereas every member of the 

 cucumber order contains a poison. Tho cucumber or gourd 

 family, occurs naturally in all tropical and sub-tropical regions ; 

 its members are more rare in temperate clime,:., but the short- 

 ness of their life, usually limited to one summer, admits of the 

 cultivation in Europe of many tropical species. 



Tho greater number, if not all the members of the tribe 

 Cucurbitaccce, contain a bitter poisonous principle presenting 

 many degrees of intensity. In tho colocynth it attains its maxi- 

 mum, and, being extracted, furnishes us with a valuable medi- 

 cine. In tho ordinary cucumber tho poisonous bitter principle 

 is usually but little developed ; never to the extent of being 

 dangerous, although frequently enough to be disagreeable. In 

 the melon, sugar is the principal secretion ; nevertheless, the 

 bitter principle so prevalent in the family is not wanting ; it 

 exists in the outside rind of the fruit, and to a still greater 

 extent in the roots, which are violently emetic. Colocynth ha? 

 already been mentioned. White bryony, another species, is still 

 more violent in its action. The common cucumber (Cucumu 

 salivus), although capable of growing in the open air of our cli 

 mate, is a native of India and Tartary. The species called 

 Vudaim is cultivated in Turkey on account of tho delicious 

 odour of its fruit, which, however, is possessed of an insipid taste. 

 Gourds are certain species of Cucurbitacece with very large 

 fruit. Although our garden cucumber possesses no great claims 

 fco beauty, it is otherwise with certain species. The Cucumu 

 Momordica, for example, is a very beautiful Indian plant, the 

 leaves and fruit of which differ in external appearance from 

 almost every species of the Cucurbitacea (Fig. 153). Leas 

 beautiful than extraordinary is the species called Trichoxmthu 

 colnbrina (Fig. 156), tho fruit of which resembles huge serpents 

 hanging from tho parent stem. It is a native of Central Ame- 

 rica ; its leaves are more than a foot in diameter, and its flowers 

 disposed in corymbs ; the corolla is white, and bordered by a 

 long hair-like fringe ; hence the specific term Trichosanthts, which 

 means, in Greek, )u*inj-flowered. 



The Ecbaliuin agreste a plant better known as the wild 

 cucumber, or squirting cucumber is cultivated at Mitcham, in 

 Surrey, for the sake of a peculiar drug called elatorium. which 

 is yielded by its fruit. Tho fruit, after it has fallen from its 

 stalk, possesses the curious property of expelling its seeds 

 through the hole in which tho stalk was inserted. The drw 



