178 



THE VEGETABLE KINGDOM. 



world, producing that most 

 useful article, cotton, so 

 largely grown in America, and 

 for which the slave popula- 

 tionare chiefly employed. The 

 fine white hairs surrounding 

 the seeds and filling up the 

 pod is the part picked out and 

 preserved, it forms the cot- 

 ton-wool of commerce, of 

 which some eight hundred 

 millions of pounds' weight are 

 used annually ! employing a 

 million and a half people, in England alone, and fur- 

 nishing clothing to hundreds of millions. It is grown in 

 India, which is supposed to be its native place, and will 

 probably be grown to a much greater extent when rail- 

 ways and canals shall have made a more easy communi- 

 cation from the interior of that country to the sea-board, 



15. GEEANIACE^E (Geranium pyreniacum) Meadow Gera- 

 nium. 



Marsh Mallow. 



Meadow Geranium. 



Many species of this order 

 are indigenous, and when 

 cultivated produce ^ome of 

 our most beautiful garden 

 flowers, as the Geraniums, 

 Pelargoniums, and Ero- 

 diums. The Geraniums 

 are those species which have 

 five irregular petals and ten 

 stamens ; they are the most 

 characteristic of the order. 



16. LINAGES (Linum usitatissimum) Common Flax. 



The Flax plant is another of those insignificant plants 

 which, from certain properties they possess, have 



