158 CLASS DECANDEIA. 



the tenth, class are to be found in shady woods in June and 

 July. "We will mention another of the heath tribe, the Mono- 

 tropa, a most curious little plant; — several stems of a few 

 inches in hight form a cluster ; each stem supports a single 

 flower, resembling a tobacco-pipe. Tlie stems are scaly, but 

 without leaves ; the whole plant is perfectly white, and looks 

 as if made of wax ; it is sometimes called Indian-pipe. This 

 may be sought for in shady woods, near the roots of old trees, 

 in June or July. Ehododendron, an evergreen with large and 

 beautiful oval leaves, is found growing on the sides of mount- 

 ains, or in wet swamps of cedar; it flourishes beneath the 

 shade of trees ; the pink and white flowers appear in large 

 showy clusters, and continue in bloom for a long period ; they 

 have a five-toothed calyx ; a five-cleft, funnel-form, somewhat 

 irregular corolla; stamens ten, sometimes half the number, 

 capsule five-celled, five-valved. At Fig. 141, c, is a flower of 

 the genus Ledum (Labrador tea) ; it has a very small calyx, 

 and a flat, five-parted corolla ; is found on the "White Mountains 

 of New Hampshire. Connected by natural relations to the 

 RJiododenclrecB is a splendid shrub, the American laurel {Kal- 

 inia). On the Alleghany Mountains it may be seen twenty 

 feet in hight ; the flowers grow in a corymh / they are either 

 white or red. This fair and beautiful shrub is of a . poisonous 

 nature, particularly fatal to sheep w^ho are attracted toward it ; 

 one species of the Kalmia is on this account called sJieejy-lcmrel. 



219. The DiONiEA muscipula^'^ or Yenus' fly-trap, is a native 

 of North Carolina ; the leaves spring from the roots ; each leaf 

 has, at its extremity, a kind of appendage like a small leaf 

 doubled ; this is bordered on its edges by glands resembling 

 hairs, and containing a liquid that attracts insects ; but no sooner 

 does the unfortunate insect alight upon the leaf, than with a 

 sudden spring it closes, and the little prisoner is crushed to 

 death in the midst of the sweets it had imprudently attempted 

 to seize ; after the insect, overcome by the closeness of the grasp, 

 has expired, the leaf again unfolds itself. 



220. Order Digynia^ two pistils^ contains the Hydrangea^ an 

 elegant East Indian exotic ; a species of this plant, a shrub with 

 white flowers, is said to have been found on the banks of the 

 Schuylkill Eiver. The Pink tribe, of the natural order Caryo- 

 phyilacece^ is composed of plants belonging to this class, some 

 of which have three styles, or sessile stigmas, others have^'<?, 

 but the greater part have two. 



a. The genus Dianthus, containing the pinks and sweet-william, is a great favor 

 ite with florists, who gravely tell us what varieties we ought most to admire : as 



* See Appendix, Plate iii., Fig. 6. 



Mountain-laurel— Kalmia.— 219. Dionaa.— 220. Hydrangea— Pink tribe— a. Varietiea of carnations. &o. 



