GENERAL REMARKS. 31 



Poisonous Plants, and those which are not Poisonous, 



In collecting flowers, you should be cautious with respect to poi- 

 sonous plants. Such as have five stamens and 07ie pistil, with a co- 

 rolla of a dull, lurid colour, and a disagreeable smell, are usually- 

 poisonous ; the Thorn apple (^stramonium) and the Tobacco are ex- 

 amples. The Umbelhferous plants, which grow in wet places, have 

 usually a nauseous smell : such plants are poisonoris, as the water 

 hemlock. Umbelliferous plants which grow in dry places, usually 

 have an aromatic smell, and are not poisonous, as Caraway and 

 Fennel. 



Plants with Labiate corollas, and containing their seeds in cap- 

 sules, are often poisonous, as the Foxglove ; (Digitalis ;) also, such 

 as contain a milky juice, unless they are compound flowers. Such 

 plants as have horned or hooded nectaries, as the Columbine and 

 Monk's-hood, are mostly poisonous. 



Among plants which are seldom poisonous, are the compound 

 flowers, as the DandeUon and Boneset; such as have labiate corol- 

 las, ^vith seeds lying naked in the calyx, are seldom or never poison- 

 ous ; the Mint and Thyme are examples of such plants. The Papi- 

 lionaceous flowers, as the pea and bean ; the Cruciform., as the radish 

 and mustard, are seldom found to be poisonous. Such plants as have 

 their stamens standing on the calyx, as the rose and apple, are never 

 poisonous; neither the grass-like plants with glume calyxes, as 

 Wheat, Rye, and Orchard-grass, (Dactylis.) 



Proper Flowers for Analysis. 

 In selecting flowers for analysis, you must never take double ones ; 

 the stamens (and in many cases the pistils also) chancre to petals by 

 cultivation, therefore you cannot know by a double flowt.r, how many 

 stamens or pistils belong to it in its natural state. Botanists seem to 

 view as a kind of sacrilege, the changes made by culture, in the natu- 

 ral characters of plants ; they call double flowers, and variegated ones, 

 produced by a mixture of different species, monsters and deformities. 

 These are harsh expressions to be appUed to Roses and Carnations, 

 which our taste must lead us to admire, as intrinsically beautiful, al- 

 though their relative beauty, as subservient to scientific illustration, 

 is certainly destroyed by tiie labour of the florist. The love of na- 

 tive wild flowers is no doubt greatly heightened by the habit of seek- 

 ing them out, and observing them in tlieir peculiar situations. A 

 Botanist, at the discovery ofsome lowly plant, growing by the side 

 of a brook, or almost concealed in the cleft of a rock, will often ex- 

 perience more vivid delight than could be produced by a view of the 

 most splendid exotic. IBotanical pursuits render us interested in 

 every vegetable production : even such as we before looked upon as 

 useless, present attractions as objects of scientific investigation, and 

 become associated with the pleasing recollections, arising from the 

 gratification of our love of knowledge. A peculiar interest is given 

 to conversation by an acquaintance with any of the natural sciences ; 

 and when females shall have more generally obtained access to 

 these dehghtful sources of pure enjoyment, we may hope that scan- 

 dal, which oftener proceeds from a want of better subjects, than from 

 malevolence of disposition, shall cease to be regarded as a charac- 

 teristic of the sex. It is important to the cause of science, that it 

 should become fashionable ; and as one means of effecting this, the 



Poisonous plants— Compound flowers seldom poisonous— Double flowers not proper 

 for analysis— Effect of Botanical pursuits— Of an acquaintance with any of the natural 

 sciences. 



