200 PROSERPINA. 



Kora, the two strange orders of the Ophryds and 

 Agarics. 



32. Lastly will come the orders of flowers which may 

 be thought of as belonging for the most part to the Dark 

 Kora of the lower world, having at least the power of 

 death, if not its terror, given them, together with offices 

 of comfort and healing in sleep, or of strengthening, if 

 not too prolonged, action on the nervous power of life. 

 Of these, the first will be the DIONYSID^E, Hedera, 

 Vitis, Liana ; then the DRACONIELE, Atropa, 

 Digitalis, Linaria ; and, lastly, the MOIEID^E, Co- 

 mum, Papaver, Solanum, Arum, and JSTerium. 



33. As I see this scheme now drawn out, simple as it 

 is, the scope of it seems not only far too great for ade- 

 quate completion by my own labour, but larger than the 

 time likely to be given to butany by average scholars 

 would enable them intelligently to grasp : and yet it in- 

 cludes, I suppose, not the tenth part of the varieties of 

 plants respecting which, in competitive examination, a 

 student of physical science is now expected to know, or 

 at least assert on hearsay, something. 



So far as I have influence with the young, myself, I 

 we uld pray them to be assured that it is better to know 

 the habits of one plant than the names of a thousand ; 

 and wiser to be happily familiar with those that grow in 

 the nearest field, than arduously cognisant of all that 

 plume the isles of the Pacific, or illumine the Mountains 

 of the Moon. 



