LETTER XLIV. 



THE JASMINE TRIBE THE ASCLEPIAS TRIBE. 



Plate XLV 



I FORMERLY Said Something to you concerning the 

 difference between the Olive and the Jasmine Tribes 

 (Vol. 1.7?. 168.) ; and perhaps the brief remarks then 

 made upon the method of distinguishing them may 

 have satisfied you. Nevertheless let us not pass the 

 Jasmine by with inattention, for surely so lovely a plant 

 deserves something more than a careless glance of 

 recognition. 



The White Jasmine (Jasminum officinale), the pride 

 of the cottager, and the envy of the citizen, within whose 

 smoky streets no art can make it flourish, is a native 

 of the mountains of India, whence years ago it found its 

 way to the Persians and Arabs, who called it Yasmeen, 

 and thence passed to Europe. Its leaves offer a good 

 example of what we call unequally jjinnated, or pinnated 

 with an odd one ; that is to say, they consist of several 

 pairs of leaflets {Plate XLV. 1.), with an odd leaflet 

 at the end. The leaves are opposite each other on the 

 stem, and have no stipules. The virgin-white odori- 

 ferous flowers grow in little sessile clusters, or umbels, 

 at the end of short branchlets. The calyx is inferior 

 (Jig. 3.), divided into five narrow awl-shapcd segments, 

 and covered externally with glandular down. The 



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