58 Introductory View of the 
its place has been partly supplied by the water flag, and other 
plants. The roots, dried and powdered, are used by the 
peasants of Norfolk as a cure for the ague. 
Of the rush (Juncus) we have three and twenty species, 
indigenous of Britain ; among which are the common (J. con- 
glomeratus) and the soft rush (J. efftisus), so well known by 
the various domestic purposes to yeaa they are applied. For 
mats and the seats of chairs they are now superseded by the 
bullrush (Scirpus lactistris) ; and fhein chief use at present is 
in the making of rushlights. Before the introduction of car- 
pets and mats, they were used for strewing floors, even at 
court, a custom mentioned by Shakspeare ‘and. other poets. 
The barberry shrub has been much slandered as being an 
enemy to the ripening of corn, which is perhaps the reason 
that we so seldom see it. If the filaments of its flowers be 
touched on the inner side, near the base, they will immediately 
contract, and throw the pollen upon the stigma. Various 
causes ae been assigned for this; Sir J. E. Smith s says they 
contract by irr itation, “like the muscles of animals. The fruit 
is acid, and is preserved 1 in the form of jelly, pickle, or comfits. 
Among the exotic plants of this order are many flowers of 
exquisite “beauty, of which a great portion belong to the family 
of lilies, sty led by Linneeus the nobles of the vegetable king- 
dom. We are not to suppose that every flowe er familiarly 
called a lily, is of the genus Lilium, though that genus con- 
tains many very handsome and very dissimilar flowers ; the 
purple martagon (L. Mdrtagon), the scarlet martagon (2. chal- 
ceddnicum ), “the bulb-bearing lily (Z. bulbiferum), and the 
magnificent white lily, are Ail of this genus, and all worthy 
of admiration. The scarlet martagon is interesting from the 
circumstance of its being believed by many persons to be the 
true hyacinth of the ancients ; the bulb-bea aring lily is remark- 
able for the little black bulbs which it bears in the axils of 
its leaves; these bulbs, though but little larger than a pea, 
increase in size, when planted, until they are lar ge enough to 
produce new plants. The white lily is too well known, too 
highly and deservedly admired, to need either eulogy or 
description ; but I cannot refrain from noticing the extreme 
fineness of the extremity of the slender filament which supports 
the large anther attached to it by the back ; so slender is the 
juncture, that we can scar cely believe but chiest some magnetic 
attraction lurks within. 
This, like the tulip, and many other liliaceous flowers, is 
without a calyx; the corolla is sufficiently stout to protect the 
beauty that lodees within its but being itself unguarded, the 
pure whiteness of its delicate petals is often injur ed by rain or 
