144 CLASS PENTANDRIA. 



We are no more able to trace the analogies which exist between the common 

 potato, the deadly niglit-shade, and tobacco, than the affinities between the nause- 

 ous jalap and the sweet potato of the same natural order. 



189. Order Digynia^ two ]}i8tils. — AVe find here the Gentian^ 

 which aifords some plants with delicate flowers, and others 

 valuable for medicinal properties. The fringed gentian is a beau- 

 tiful wild plant with a blue flower. The Gentiana lutea^ which 

 afic)rds the medicinal gentian, is found on the Alps, at a high 

 elevation ; it produces yellow flowers, and has a yellow root. 

 This genus sometimes presents an irregularity in the number of 

 stamens. Tlie lobes of the calyx and corolla are of the same 

 number, and alternating with them ; the stamens vary in num- 

 ber from four to five, the latter number being most common. 

 The large inflated corollas of the saj)onaria^ or soap-wort gen- 

 tian, appear like buds. In the natural family, called AtriphceSy 

 from the genus Atrijylex (sea-orach e), is the pig-weed, or goose- 

 foot, Che7ioj)odiu7n. It is grouped by natural characters with 

 the beet and spinach, whose flowers are destitute of beauty. 

 According to the late arrangement of natural orders, we find 

 these plants in the order Ohenoj^odiacece^ in which are the pig- 

 weed, water-hemp, and several other plants, placed by Jussieu 

 in his order AtrijMccs. 



190. Umlelliferous Plants. — We meet in this order of the 

 class Pentandria w^ith the Uuibelliferce^ a large family, closely 

 allied in natural characters.^ Among the plants of this family 

 which are used for food are the carrot, parsnip, celery, and 

 parsley ; the aromatics are dill, fennel, caraway, coriander, and 

 sweet cicely. Poison hemlock {Conium\ water-parsnip {Siicm\ 

 water cow-bane, are among the poisonous plants of this tribe. 



The water cow-bane (Cicuta virosa) grows in ponds and marshes. Cows are 

 often killed in the spring by eating it, but as the summer advances, the smell be- 

 comes stronger and they carefully avoid it. Linnaeus relates, that in a tour made 

 into Lapland, for scientific purposes, he was told of a disease among the cattle of 

 Torneo, which killed a great many in the spring, when they first began to feed in 

 pastures. The inhabitants were unable to account for thia circumstance ; but the 

 Swedish botanist examining the pastures, discovered a marsh where the Cicuta 

 virosa grew in abundance ; he acquainted the people with the poisonous qualities 

 of the plant, and thus enabled them to provide against the danger by fencing in 

 the marsh. The poison hemlock (Coxiuji maculatum) has a peculiarly unpleasant, 

 nauseous smell ; its stalk is large and spotted, from whence its specific name macu- 

 laticm. This plant is supposed to be the poison so fatally administered by the 

 Athenians to Socrates and Phocion. The umbellate plants which grow on dry 

 ground are aromatic; as dill and fennel: those which grow in wet places are 

 among the most deadly poisons ; as water-parsnip, <fec. Plants of this family are 

 not in general so beautiful to the sight, nor so interesting as objects of botanical 

 analysis, as many others.f Fig. 135 represents the coriander (coriandrum). 



* See Plate ii. Fig. 3, for a plant of this family. / 



t " Botanists in general shrink from the study of the Umbelliferae ; nor have these plants much beau 

 ly in the eyes of amateure ; but they will repay the trouble of a careful observation. The late M. Cusso j 



189. GentiansE— Family Atriplices— Chenopodia». — 190, Umbellifere 



