28 



CHAPTER III. 

 CEUCIFER&. 



" ' Not to myself alone,' 

 The little opening flower transported cries, 

 ' Not to myself alone I bud and bloom ; 

 With fragrant breath the breezes I perfume, 

 And gladden all things with my rainbow dyes. 

 The bee comes sipping, every eventide 



His dainty fill ; 



The butterfly within my cup doth hide 

 From threatening ill.' " 



SARGENT'S Collection. 



THEEE is no family of plants whose uses are wider spread and 

 who live less "to themselves" than the CEUC!FEEJS or CEESS- 

 WOETS, the sixth natural order. Their simply- constructed 

 flowers utter G-od's praises with their " silent lips," showing 

 forth His wisdom in their easily-recognised construction, and 

 His love in scattering so suitably and abundantly these most 

 useful and healing herbs. 



The cruciform flower, with its four petals, four sepals, four 

 longer and two shorter stamens, and the entire absence of any 

 floral leaf or bract at the juncture of the flower- stalk with the 

 main stem, are distinguishing marks which never vary, and 

 which are open even to a child's observation. The uniformity 

 and simplicity of this rule becomes a matter of no small 

 importance when we consider that all the plants of this order 

 are wholesome, and many afford agreeable food, either cooked 

 or eaten as salad. The commonest sea-side plants, extending 

 into very high latitudes, are the Scurvy Grasses, the most 

 valuable antidote to that frightful scourge of seamen. When 

 in Anson's famous expeditions this disease was consuming the 

 power of the crew, the doctor dare not allow them to eat any 

 vegetable except grass when they landed on unknown shores. 



