LESSONS IN BOTANY. 



375 





that the Scotch noaman made the acquaintance of Defoo, d 



t'iinii-i>' I him with iiuitorialK which he worked n; i 

 tietion nan CruHoe." Souio have even endci 



ni !K.- in. 'fit of the novelUt, by suggesting that he 



1 his famous pro.hn-t:.-!! from Homo munu- 



omsintt.'d to his caro by Selkirk ; but for thin charge 



- mi foundation. Ni.thing more can be said thun thut 



lerivod the general idoa of his story from the lifo of 

 Selkirk on tho island where ho was put ashore by hia captain. 

 A few details such aa those about the huts, the goats, the cats, 

 and the doviee* to supply the want of clothes, may have been 

 adopted by tho former from tho account of Captain Kogors'a 

 voyage, but these aro matters which go for but little. The real 

 creator of " Robinson Crusoe " was Defoe. 



The tir-t volume of the fictitious narrative, now universally 

 acknowledged as one of the most remarkable works in the 

 English language, was published in April, 1719, with tho rather 

 of " The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures 

 of Robinson Crusoe, of York, Mariner : Who lived Eight-and- 

 Twenty Years all alone in an Uninhabited Island on the Coast 

 of America, near tho Mouth of tho great River of Oroonoque ; 

 having boon cast on shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men 

 perished but himself. With an Account of how he was at last 

 aa strangely delivered by Pyrates. Written by Himself." The 

 story is prefaced by a short address to the reader, in which the 

 so-called editor professes his belief that tho work is "a just 

 history of fact," in which there is no "appearance of fiction." 

 This is intended to keep up the pretence of the book having 

 been written by Crusoe himself a species of device from which 

 Defoe was never averse when it suited his purposes. " If ever," 

 be wrote in this address, " the story of any private man's 

 adventures in the world were worth making public, and were 

 acceptable when published, the editor of this account thinka 

 this will be so. The wonders of this man's life exceed all that 

 (he thinka) is to bo found extant; the life of one man being 

 scarce capable of a greater variety." It is stated by Chalmers, 

 though without any evidence in support of the assertion, that 

 the manuscript of this great work was offered to one bookseller 

 after another, until a purchaser was at length found in one 

 William Taylor, of Paternoster Row. The amount paid for 

 it is unknown ; but those were days in which authors wero 

 never very splendidly remunerated, and it is certain that 

 Defoe's share in tho profits was small indeed in comparison 

 with that of Taylor. 



Never did a work leap more suddenly into public favour than 

 this story of the shipwrecked mariner. The second edition was 

 printed only seventeen days after the first ; twenty-five days 

 later, a third edition followed ; and a fourth was published on 

 the 8th of August in the same year. On the 20th of August, a 

 .second volume was issued under the title of " The Further 

 Adventures of Robinson Crusoe ; being the Second and Last 

 Part of his Life, and of the Strange Surprising Accounts of his 

 Travels round Three Parts of the Globe. Written by Himself. 

 To which is added a Map of the World, in which is delineated 

 the Voyages of Robinson Crusoe." These two parts completed 

 tho narrative; but in 1720 Defoe published a sequel to the 

 work, which he called, " Serious Reflections during tho Life and 

 Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe : with his Vision of 

 the Angelick World/' This division was far less successful than 

 the two former parts, and it is not generally included in tho 

 popular editions of the story. Defoe was fifty-eight years of 

 age when he wrote " Robinson Cnnsoe." It was his first work 

 of fiction, and ho lived to compose many others, but none of 

 equal fame. 



LESSONS IN BOTANY. XXV. 



SECTION XLIX.-BIGNONIACE.aG, OR BIQNONIADS. 



Characteristic.*. Calyx free; corolla hypogynous, monopeta- 

 loua, usually irregular ; stamens inserted upon the tube 

 corolla ; ovary one, or two, or four celled ; fruit capsular, 

 valves two, dissepiment formed from the axile placenta, 

 seeds usually horizontal and winged ; embryo dicotyledonous, 

 straight. 



The Bignoniacea derive theirjajnn ir_pm tho genus Bignonia 

 or trumpet-flower, dedicated "tothe Abbe Bignon, librarian to 

 louis XIV., and a greafr promoter of botany. They are generally- 



ligneous vegetable*, frequently climber* or oteepets, hating 

 opposite and stipulate leaven ; flower* complete, anally irre- 

 gular ; calyx monoscpalous, qninqnepartito, bflabiate, or tripartite; 

 corolla a abort tabe terminating in a large throat limb otdi- 

 narily bilabiate, imbricated in activation; 

 with tho divUions of tho corolla, rarely fir* in 

 narily four. 



Tho annexed engraving of the Jacanmda, mimad/atia, off 

 mimosa-leaved jacaranda, a Brazilian plant (Fig. 194), 

 trates the general aspect and bearing of members 

 to this natural order. 



Individuals of this family belong exclusively to the tropics. 

 Many species of BignamaceoB furnish useful principles. The 

 wood of some and the flexible branches am applied by the 

 American Indians to many useful purposes. The catalpa of 

 North America (Catalpa syringifolia) and the catalpa of the 

 West Indies (Catalpa longitrima) are members of the natural 

 order Biynoniacece. The wood of the former ia as hard as oak, 

 and possesses the good quality of not .becoming subject to the 

 attacks of worms. The Bvmonia Chica is a climbing plant, 

 which affords a red dye, called chica or carajnra, used by the 

 Indian tribes that lire along the banks of the Orinoco for 

 staining tho handles of their weapons and for painting their 

 bodies. 



SECTION L.-PEDALIACE.E, OB PEDALIADS. 



Characteristics. These plants are generally herbaceous, hairy, 

 sometimes viscous ; the leaves are simple and without stipules ; 

 flowers complete, irregular, axillary ; calyx five-partite ; corolla 

 bilabiate, imbricated in aestivation ; stamens didynamons, in- 

 cluded in the tube of the corolla ; ovary furnished at its base 

 with a glandular disc, and composed of two or four carpels, form- 

 ing by their different degrees of introflexion either two, four, or 

 eight cells ; placenta) parietal ; the ovules are reflexed ; style 

 simple, terminal ; stigma bilaminated ; fruit dry or fleshy, some- 

 times horny at the summit by the desiccation of the carpels. 



The species of this natural order are not very numerous, and 

 are dispersed over tropical regions. The Pedalium Murae, an 

 Indian plant, diffuses an odour of musk, and when agitate*. 

 with water, causes tho latter to become viscous like the white 

 of egg. The genus Martynia, an example of which, the Martynia 

 proboscidea or proboscis-like Martynia, is given in Fig. 195, 

 furnishes many species, all of which are annuals, bearing flowers 

 like those of the foxglove in general aspect. 



SECTION LI. ACANTHACE2E, OB ACANTHADS. 

 Characteristics : Calyx free ; corolla hypogynons, monopeta- 

 lous ; stamens inserted upon the tube of the corolla, four 

 didynamons or sometimes two ; ovary bilocnlar ; capsule 

 loculicidal and bivalvular; seed dicotyledonous, albuminous; 

 radicle inferior and centripetal. 



The Acanthacece are herbaceous or ligneous plants, with 

 branching, knotty articulated stems ; leaves opposite or verti- 

 cillate, simple, and devoid of stipules ; flowers complete, rarely 

 solitary, each accompanied with a largo bract and two bracte- 

 olea ; calyx four to five partite, sometimes truncated ; corolla 

 ordinarily bilabiate, contorted in aestivation ; ovules curved ; 

 stylo simple, terminal ; stigma ordinarily bifid ; embryo usually 

 curved ; cotyledons largo and orbicular. 



The greater number of the Acanthus order are natives of the 

 tropics ; but a few, and that one which is the most celebrated, 

 aro indigenous to Italy, Greece, and other Mediterranean 

 regions. It is the Acanthus moliu, or soft acanthus, a repre- 

 sentation of which is given in Fig. 196. 



Tho picturesque beauty of the leaves of this species arrested 

 tho attention of the painters, sculptors, and architects of anti- 

 quity. Tho capitals surmounting tho columns of the Corinthian 

 order aro formed on the general basis of an acanthus leaf. 

 Virgil alludes to the beauty of the acanthus leaf in his third 

 eclogue, in which he makes his shepherd praise two goblets 

 carved in wood for him by Alcimedon, and the handle* of 

 which were ornamented with acanthus leaves : 



" Et nobis idem AJcimedon duo pocnU fecit, 

 Et molli circum e*t UMS amplexu* acantho." 



SECTION LII.-8ELAOIXACE2B, OK SELAOIHS. 

 Characteristics : Calyx free; corolla hypogynous, monop*ta- 

 lous, Bnb-regular, or one or two lipped ; stamens two or four, 

 inserted upon the tube of the ooroU* : aohsmia two; seed 



