LETTER VII. 



THE CHICKWEED TRIBE METAMORPHOSES OF PLANTS 



THE PURSLANE TRIBE SUCCULENT PLANTS 



BREATHING-PORES. 



(Plate VII.) 



From the earliest period of your familiarity with a 

 garden, you must have been acquainted with those 

 sweet aromatic flowers called Pinks, Piccotees, and 

 Carnations, and you must have admired their beau- 

 tiful stripes, and the symmetry with which their 

 petals are arranged. It is also not improbable that 

 you have some knowledge of a mean weed, called 

 Chickweed (Stellaria media), which inhabits every 

 neglected corner of your garden ; Corn Cockle 

 (Agrostemma Githago), Bachelors Buttons (Lychnis 

 dioica). Ragged Robin, (Lychnis flos Cuculi), and 

 jnany species of Catchfly (Silene) are also pretty 

 flowers, that you will easily procure either by hunt- 

 ing for them in the fields, or by inquiry after them 

 in gardens. 



All these agree with each other in a number of cha- 

 racters which are so remarkable as to divide them 

 from all other plants, and to cause them to be esta- 

 blished as a distinct natural order called the Chick- 



