LEGU'MINOUS PLANTS. 195 



This last kind of seed-vessel is called a Legu'- 

 men ; and the plants that bear it are said to be 

 Leguminous. Very few of them are poisonous ; 

 indeed most of them produce very wholesome food 

 for man and the larger animals ; but there is one 

 species found in the West Indies, called Jamaica 

 Dog-wood, or Fish-bean, Piscid'ia Erythri'na, the 

 leaves and branches of which, when thrown into 

 water where there are fish, have such an effect 

 upon them, that they come up and float upon the 

 surface, and may be easily taken with the hand. 

 The seeds of the Laburnum, Cyt'isus Laburnum, 

 and of Lupine, Lupi'nus, are also extremely 

 noxious. I have heard of a child being killed by 

 eating only three or four Laburnum-seeds ; and 

 Hasselquist, a Swedish botanist, who travelled in 

 the East, informs us, that the inhabitants of Egypt, 

 who live near the banks of the Nile, destroy the 

 hippopotamus, or river-horse, which does great 

 mischief at night to their gardens and fields, by 

 placing near his haunts the seeds of Lupine, which 

 he devours greedily. 



But let us examine our plant. [PLATE 19.] 

 If you reckon the stamens, which are of different 

 lengths, you will find that there are ten ; nine of 

 them united together at the lower part, into a sort 

 of membrane, which covers the germen. The 

 order, then, is Decandria; and this contains so 

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