1853.] 



ON ACCIDENTAL DISCOVERIES. 



207 



The root is acrid, like that of the arum, but the puugency 

 disqipears iu drying. Linuseus says the Laplanders use it for 

 bread. 



13th. Anemone Nemorosa .Wood Anemone. 



14tli. Ranunculus of diflerent ) Cro^Yfoot, Buttercups, 

 species. j 



These well-known plants are amongst the earliest flowers of 

 Spring, and are too common in all our meadows, pastures and 

 woods, to require a particular description. 



They are all more or less acrimonious, but like the arum and 

 the calla, this property is lost by drying.* 



15th. Sanguiuaria Canadensis Blood Root. 



Class Polyandria Order Monugyina. 



This is one of our earliest spring flowers. The flower and 

 leaf proceed from the end of a horizontal, fleshy, abrupt root, fed 

 by numerous radicles. 



Externally, the colour of the root is a brownish red ; internally, 

 it is pale, and when divided, emits a bright orange-coloured juice 

 from numerous points of its surface. 



The bud or hybernaculum, which terminates the root, is com- 

 posed of successive scales or sheaths, the last of which acquires a 

 considerable size as the plant spring's up. 



By dissecting this hybernaculum in the summer or autumn, 

 we may discover the embryo leaf and flower of the succeeding 

 spring, with a common magnifier, and even the stamens may be 

 counted. 



The leaves are heart-shaped, with large roundish lobes, sepa- 

 rated by obtuse sinuses. The flower consists of eight white 

 spreading, and concave petals. 



The root is violently emetic. 



1 6th. Phytolacca Decandria Poke. 



Class X Order X. 



This is a common plant found on the road sides, and flowering 

 in July and August. The flowers are succeeded by long clusters 

 of dark purple berries, almost black, with which the Indians stain 

 their basket work, and hair for embroidery. 



The root is violently emetic. 



(To be continued.) 



* The greater part ofihe plants of this order are objects of interest with 

 gardeners, containing, as it does, many of the cnost elegant or showy of the 

 trilies of hardy plants. It is here that the graceful Clematis, the lowly 

 Anemone, the gliuermg Rantmculus, and the gaudy Pteonyare found, differ- 

 ing iiideed, in external appearance, but combined by all the essential charac- 

 ters of the fructification. It is remarkable, however, that the acrid and 

 venomous properties of these plants are nearly as powerful as their beauty is 

 great. Tlicy are all caustic, and in many of them the deleterious principle is 

 in most dangerous abundance. 



Mons. Decandolle remarksthat its nature is extremely singular; it is so 

 volatile that, in most cases, simple drying in the air, or infusion in water is 

 suHicient to destroy it ; it is neither acrid nor alkaline, but its activity is in 

 creased by acids, honey, sugar, wine or alcohol ; and, it is in reality, destruc- 

 tible by water. The Crowfoots of our pastures, and the Anemone Trilobata 

 and Triternata of South America, are well known poisons of cattle. Blister- 

 ing plasters aie made in Iceland of the leaves of the Ranunculus Aeris. 



The Helleborus, famous in classical history for its drastic powers, and the 

 Nigella, celebrated in ancient housewifery for its aromatic seeds, which were 

 used for pepper before that article was discovered, are both comprehended in 

 the Eanunculaceas. 



The range o( this order, in a geographical point of view, is very extensive. 

 A very great number has been dis'jovered in Europe ; but they are so abun- 

 dant in all parts of the world, that an order can scarcely be found more 

 universally and equally dispersed. 



On Actiilental Di-coverrcs. 



Head at the Annual Conversazione of the Canadian Institute, 

 April, 2, 1852, iij Henry Scadding, D.D., Cantab., First 

 Classical Master of Upper Canada College. 



I shall ask you to transport yourselves in imagination, for a 

 few moments, to the sea-side. The brilliant blue of the heavens 

 — the stillness, and rather inconvenient glare of light on the sur- 

 face of the water, may tell you that it is the Mediterranean. The 

 arid aspect of the precipitous shore, with the dark palm-trees that 

 stand out disthictly here and there along the strand, indicate that 

 it is the Syrian coast. Yonder bold promontory on the right is 

 the famous Cape Ctrrmel. 'I'he spacious bay which you gaze 

 into is the Bay of Acre. The river which you see entering be- 

 tween the ridge of low rocks and the beach of white sand on the 

 left, is the Belus. To that beach of white sand let me direct 

 your attention. A group of sea-faring men are there rising from 

 their mid-day repast; their vessel — a small trading craft — has 

 been run in close to the shore ; their meal and siesta over, they 

 are gathering up their rude culinary utensils, and are about to 

 resume their voyage. The fire upon the beach has smouldered 

 away ; the pale ashes have become of the same temperature as 

 the surrounding sand. 



But while the party are busy in re-embarking, one — he is 

 possibly the commander of the vessel — observes something in 

 those ashes. Something that glistens strikes his eye ; he touches 

 it with his knife ; he lifts it out from among the mingled ashes 

 and sand, a bright, irregularly-shaped mass. Something has 

 been fused in that fire ; whilst fluid it has " run," as we say, in 

 several directions ; where, in one place, it has met with the rock 

 underneath, it has spread out in small sheets, which are, to some 

 extent, transparent. 



Now, it will be necessary to explain. Yonder vessel bears in 

 its hold, among other merchandize, some tons of rough nitre — a 

 substance produced naturally in the neighbourhood of the Dead 

 Sea. It was used possibly of old, as now, in the preservation of 

 fish and meats. The sailors, on landing, having failed to find 

 near at hand stones adapted for the purpose, took some lumps of 

 this portion of their cargo to rest their camp-kettle upon. The 

 fire has acted on those lumps, as also on the silicious sand on 

 which they are placed ; fusion and amalgamation of the two sub- 

 stances have ensued ; the hard transparent material, noticed by 

 the commander of the ves:el, is the result. The captain, during 

 the remainder of the voyage, is more silent than usual ; he is 

 ruminating on what he has observed — " If this nitre and this 

 sand, thus subjected to fire, will produce this hard, transparent 

 substance once, they will do so again ; if this substance spread 

 itself out so readily upon the flat rock, becoming solid and con- 

 tinuino' transparent, it will spread more conveniently, and be 

 rendered more transparent by means of surfaces which I can pre- 

 pare for its reception — nay, will it not assume any form of which 

 I may be able to construct the mould ?" 



You will perceive that it is glass that has been discovered — a 

 substance that contributes so much to the comfort and gratifica- 

 tion of man — a substance that excludes from his house the in- 

 clemencies of the atmosphere, and yet admits freely the sun's 

 rays ; that adorns his hospitable board with a variety of vessels of 

 brilliant hue and graceful shape — that permits him to refresh his 

 eyes in winter with the green leaves and blooms of summer — that 

 helps to repair his vision when defective, and to add. incredible 

 powers to it when at its best — a substance that, elaborated into 

 massive jalates, lends lustre along the street to his multifarious 

 handy work ; and, on occasion, forms walls of what, prior to ex- 

 perience, would be deemed of fabulous extent, to shelter in vast 

 store-houses the gathered masterpieces of his skill. 



The narrative just given may or may not be authentic. Pliny 



