98 SUMMER FLOWERS. 



very thin scale-like bodies. Besides the Parsnip, this family 

 comprises some of our most useful esculents, as the Carrot, 

 Celery, Parsley, Fennel; many valuable medicines, as Asa- 

 fcetida, Opopanax, Ammoniacum ; and some of the most viru- 

 lent of poisons, as Hemlock and Cowbaue. 



The Dogwood, or Common Cornel,* another of the epigy- 

 nous Calyciflores is a deciduous shrub of five or six feet high, 

 found in hedges and thickets in the southern parts of England. 

 It has opposite, broadly ovate, stalked leaves, which are silky 

 with closely appressed hairs while young, and the numerous 

 flowers form terminal cymes of a couple of inches across, and 

 consist of a four-toothed calyx on the summit of the ovary, a 

 four-petaled corolla of a dull white, and four stamens. The 

 flowers are succeeded by globular, almost black, very bitter 

 drupes. This plant affords a capital illustration of a cymose 

 inflorescence. 



From these we pass to the Monopetalous series, commencing 

 with a subdivisional group, in which the one-leaved corolla is 

 also epigynous, bearing the stamens. 



Of this series we have an example in the Common Honey- 

 suckle, or Woodbine,f which also illustrates the Caprifoliaceous 

 family. The Woodbine is common throughout Britain, in 

 woods, thickets, and hedgerows, and forms a woody climber, 

 scrambling over the bushes and trees to a considerable height : 



" Wound on the hedgerow's oaken boughs, 



The Woodbine's tassels float in air ; 

 And, blushing, the uncultured Kose 



Hangs high her beauteous blossoms there." 



The leaves of the plant are opposite, smooth above, and ge- 

 nerally slightly hairy beneath, ovate or oblong, the lower ones 



* Cornus sanguinea Plate 13 D. 



f Lonicera Periclymenivm Plate 14 A. 



