LESSONS IN BOTANY. 



green leaves and pink blossoms of thin plant are admirably 

 render. r form and manner of growth aro con- 



cerned, in Fig. 1 GO. Tho garden peas that aro grown for tho table 

 aro variutir- , or common cultivated pea. 



y of tho Leguminosno of the Old 

 AY.. rid i-<.iit;iiti an astringent juico, 

 whirl;, ln-intf caused to flow from in- 



- and dried, becomes hardened 

 int> Hulistances employed in modicine 

 :uid t'.i. 



Several Ani'-rioan species aro used for 



;; for example, tho so-culled Brazil 



! mimbuco wood is tho produce of 

 a leguminous plant, the Ccesalpinia echi- 

 .iata. Sappan wood (Coualpinia Sappan) 

 is another, as in liko manner is logwood 

 'on CatnpecManum, Fig. 165), 

 and rod sandal-wood (Pterocarpus santa- 

 i . Bnt assuredly the most impor- 

 tant of all the leguminous dye materials 



ligo (Fig. 167), tho produce of tho 

 .id, a native of tropical 



hut now cultivated in many other 

 tropical regions. Blue indigo, however, 

 does not exist ready formed in the in- 

 digo plant, but is procured from it by 

 submitting the plants to a sort of fer- 

 mentation. The chemical nature of 

 indigo is very peculiar, differing from all 

 other dye-stuffs, and does not admit of 

 being explained in few words. Tho 

 method, however, of preparing indigo 

 blue may be described briefly as fol- 

 lows : The plant, when sufficiently 

 grown for the purpose, is pulled up and 

 steeped in water, as we steep 

 flax for the preparation of linen 

 yarn, until fermentation takes 

 place. A yellow solution is thus 

 procured, which is drawn off 

 from the decaying vegetable 

 matter, and exposed to the air. 

 In course of time a precipitate 

 of a dark-blue colour is ob- 

 tained the indigo of commerce 

 which is dried and pressed 

 into lumps for exportation. In- 

 digo is obtained principally from 

 Hindoston and the islands of 

 the Eastern Archipelago. The 

 plant is also cultivated in Cen- 

 tral America. 



The so-called aloes wood is a 

 resinous aromatic wood fur- 

 nished by a leguminous treo 

 which grows in certain moun- 

 tainous regions of Cochin China. 

 Its botanical name is Aloexylon 

 Agallochum. 



Copal resin, a valuable con- 

 stituent of many varnishes, is 

 the produce of a leguminous ve- 

 getable, of which the name and 

 even the true locality were long 

 unknown. The tree yielding it 

 is now demonstrated to be tho 

 Bymenaea vcrrucosa, a native of 

 Madagascar, and called by tho 

 natives Tanrouk-rovki. Balm 

 of Peru, balsam of tolu, and 



gum tragocwith, are also the produce of various species of 

 Leguminoso3. This is a long list of products of plants used in 

 medicine and dyeing, but we might fill whole pages in this way, 

 so fertile in medicinal products ore tho Lcguminoeae. Suffice it 

 to say, that tamarinds, cassia, senna, gum-arabic, and catechu 

 (one sort), are all the produce of vegetables belonging to this 

 natural order. None of these medicinal and highly odorous spe- 

 cies are natives of our temperate dime, or admit of being grown 



167. THE INDIGO PLANT (IXDIGOFERA TIXCTORIA). 168. TEX 



BUGLOSS, OR OX-TONGUE (AXCHU8A OFFICINALIS) . 



there except in hot-home* ; but we have, at Iwut- the AJfcgfa. 

 bloMomed, odour-diffusing tweet pea. 

 SECT. XniV.-BOBAOINA<;K^:, OB THE BORAOE TI: 

 Although it will be impossible in this work to do more b%n 

 mention the names of many nasurat or- 

 ders of plants, a detailed list of which 

 will be given in a tabular form at tho 

 end of these lessons, yet we may find 

 space for a description of the order 

 which contains that universal fav 

 the myosotis, or forget-me-not 

 teristiri : Calyx free, with five divisions ; 

 corolla hypogynons, monopetaloas,rega. 

 lar five lobed; stamens five, inserted on 

 the tube of the corolla alternate with toe- 

 divisions ; carpels four, style one ; seeds 

 one in each carpel, dicotyledonous, little 

 or no albumen ; radicle superior. 



This is the tribe of plants which LIB- 

 naras termed Atpcrifolia, on account of 

 the hair-like projectionx with which their 

 leaves and stems aro studded. Promi- 

 nent among these vegetables is bo: 

 hence the modern term Boraginaceae, 

 now applied to the order. 



Remark the peculiar fashion in which 

 tho flowers of a forget-me-not gro. 

 The stem which bears them is coiled np 

 like the main-spring of a watch, and aa 

 the flowers grow the coils unfold. This 

 kind of inflorescence is denominated by 

 the botanist gyrate, from the Latin 

 gyro, to move in a circle, and is as dis- 

 tinctive of the borage tribe and certain 

 allies as the minute characteristics enu- 

 merated in our definition. 



Let us now pay attention to 

 the flower. The calyx consists 

 of five sepals, which remain 

 joined to each other to the ex- 

 tent of half the flower, thui 

 constituting the tube. The 

 border of the corolla is also di- 

 vided into five lobes. Lastly, 

 we observe five stamens and an 

 ovary, from which springs one 

 style, terminated by a double 

 stigma. In correspondence with 

 four lobes of the ovary, we ob- 

 serve four nut- like bodies which 

 used to be mistaken for seeds, 

 but are really fruits. The pecu- 

 liarities of the fruit and the inflo- 

 rescence (gyrate) are the grand 

 distinctive characteristics of 

 the borage natural order, the 

 members of which are all harm- 

 less, and many of them the 

 sources of valuable dyeing ma- 

 terials. We insert a drawing 

 (Fig. 168) of the bugloss or ox- 

 tongue (Anchusa officinal**), a 

 plant belonging to this order. 



A decoction of the roots oi 

 the bugloss was once much used 

 as a demulcent drink. From 

 the roots of another plant of this 

 order, called the alkanet (An- 

 chusa tinctoria), a resinous dye 

 of a red colour is obtained. The 

 borage (Borago officinalis), from which, as we have said, the name 

 of the order is taken, ia supposed to possess some cooling pro- 

 perty, and its leaves and flowers are often put into "oool tan- 

 kards," or drinks made of wine, water, sugar, ind lemons. The 

 young leaves may be used in salads, or they may be boiled and 

 cnten like spinach. The blossoms of plants belonging to the 

 borage tribe are, for the most part, of a beautiful bind of a 

 deeper tint fhp- n the flowers of tho forget-me-not. 



