.CONTENTS. IX 



resorted to dishonest practice in the sale of its uses con- 

 fined to the dyer Certain natural productions receive and 

 retain artificial colourings others reject, or soon part with it 

 Difference in the fibre of flax and silk Nature of colour 

 effects of the rays of the sun on colours Peculiarities of the 

 snapdragon a perfect insect trap extraordinary formation of 

 its corolla The dogsbane cruelly destructive of animal life 

 the object mysterious The glaucous birthwort The fluids 

 secreted by the nectaries of plants the food of insects Taste, 

 the most variable of our senses Sugar, in accordance with the 

 likings of all orders of creation The book-worm its delight in 

 sweets The saccharine principle Sugar contains above half its 

 weight of oxalic acid The very air a compounded poison, in the 

 proportion of seventy-eight parts of deleterious matter, in a 

 mixture of one hundred The snapdragon vegetates in great 

 droughts Power of vegetation in plants Effect of evaporation 

 from the earth .... Page 71 to 84 



The ivy its shelter and food for birds and insects love of ivy 

 ornament to ruins its effect The foxglove grows only in par- 

 ticular soils medicinal uses uncertain application its name 

 Vindication of pld epithets Ancient and modern remedies 

 The snowdrop a native plant remains long in neglected 

 places character of the snowdrop a melancholy flower Yel- 

 low oat grass affected by drought The vervain estimation 

 in which it was formerly held supposed qualities of its ancient 

 and modern virtues The dyer's weed its value and uses its 

 culture recommended Yellow colour most permanent and 

 common The brimstone butterfly The day's eye The dan- 

 delion -Singular appearance of a grass Common brambles 

 insect path on its leaves its uses . . Page 84 to 105 



The maple tree an early autumn beau the fashion followed by 

 others the maple wood, a beautiful microscopic object 

 medicinal properties ascribed to it by Pliny its leaves punc- 

 tured by insects The wild clematis, or traveller's joy grows 

 in limestone soils by preference its uses pores of the wood in 

 the microscope Vessels of plants uninjured by dry seasons 

 seeds of the clematis .... Page 105 to 112 



