70 GARDEN FLOWERS. 



sometimes allured by the verdure around it, to 

 graze upon these plants, and soon fall victims 

 to its powerful poison. This is so often the 

 case, that the Spanish Americans give it a 

 name significant of its destructive effect on 

 those animals. Our beautiful cardinal flower 

 contains a dangerous poison. One species of 

 lobelia is smoked by the negroes, and termed 

 Indian tobacco. 



A very coinmon border flower now, is the 

 spider wort, {Trades cantia Virgiiiica,) which, 

 as its name implies, is a native of North Ame- 

 rica, and very general in several parts of that 

 country. It is there often called by the name 

 of the " life of man ;" because, like that, though 

 beautiful it is brief, for it soon withers. Its 

 botanic name stands as a record of John Tra- 

 descant, gardener to Charles r., Avho introduced 

 several plants into England, and this among 

 others ; and Avhose museum of curiosities is 

 celebrated as the earliest collection of that kind, 

 made in our land. It is now in the Ashmolean 

 museum of the University of Oxford. 



We have several garden species of spider 

 wort. None are found wild either in Europe 

 or Northern Asia, but several are brought 

 from the East Indies and Ceylon, and others 

 from America. Some of them have rose- 

 coloured blossoms, but they chiefly vary in all 

 the shades of blue. They are not a very hand- 

 some tribe of flowers, and our common species 

 is as ornamental as any, its dark blue petals 

 and yellow anthers showing to advantage among 

 its glossy green leaves. 



