188 LETTER XV. 



in any way related to the venomous plants I have just 

 mentioned ; nor do they in fact belong to the same 

 tribe ; but they are so similar in many respects that 

 I shall have no opportunity more fitting than the 

 present, to say a word to you about them. Endeared 

 as they are to us all by some of the sweetest recollec- 

 tions of infancy, it would almost amount to a crime 

 to pass them by Avith neglect. Like the Nightshade 

 tribe they have regular monopetalous flowers with 

 five stamens, and a superior ovary ; they are some- 

 times similar in habit, as in the case of the Mandrake, 

 which resembles a gigantic Primrose with white 

 flowers marked by purple veins, and they also possess 

 slight narcotic properties. They are distinguished 

 by one circumstance in particular, by which they 

 may be at all times known among our wild flowers 

 with certainty, — their stamems are not placed between 

 the lobes of the corolla, as in the Nightshade tribe, but 

 are opposite to them, a very curious and permanent 

 difference. 



This you ^ill instantly discover by the examination 

 of the Primrose, the Auricula, or the Polyanthus. 

 The ovary is also constructed on a diff'erent plan : 

 you will find that of the Primrose to contain only one 

 cell, with the ovules collected in the centre : in the 

 Nightshade tribe there are two cells ; on the outside 

 of the ovary of the latter, you will discover two fur- 

 rows on opposite sides of it, indicating that it is con- 

 stituted by the growing together of a pair of carpels : 

 on the outside of the ovary of the Primrose are five 

 furrows, slight indeed, but sufficiently apparent, and 



