14 LETTER XXVI. 



knows the cause of this curious habit ; it is one of 

 those certain but inscrutable facts, the explanation 

 of which is probably beyond the faculties of man. 

 There is one thing, howeyer, connected with it that 

 deserves to be noticed, although it does not throw 

 light upon the nature of the phsenomenon. If you 

 dose the Barberry with laudanum or any opiate, the 

 stamens are stupified and lose their elasticity ; and 

 if you poison the plant by some corrosive substance, 

 such as arsenic, which produces inflammation in 

 animals, a sort of vegetable inflammation is produced 

 in the stamens of the Barberry. We are not, however, 

 on that account to conclude that this plant approaches 

 animals in its nature, but merely that the principle of 

 life which pervades all nature is the same in its es- 

 sence, and is aff\3cted in a similar manner by similar 

 causes, whether it exists in an animal or a vegetable. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE XXVL 



I. The Magnolia Tribe. — 1 . A full-blown flower o{ Magnolia cor- 

 duta, the natural size, showing the sepals a, and the six yellow petals, 

 in the midst of which are seen the stamens and a small portion of the 

 carpels. — 2. The stamens without the petals, together with the mass 

 of carpels in the middle. — 3. A vertical section of the latter part, a 

 little magnified ; a si ows the elevated receptacle, over the outside of 

 which the numerous stamens are arranged ; at h b are seen the stigmas 

 with their uneven inner edge admirably adapted to collecting the pollen; 

 and below some of the styles are the cavities of the ovary, in each of 

 which are two ovules. — 4. is a filament and anther, a little magni- 

 fied. — 5. The lower part of a leaf and its petiole, with its horn-like 

 hairy stipule ; at a is seen the scar of the opposite leaf which had 

 dropped off, and b shews a portion of the end of the branch. 



