iJ8 Introductory View of the 



its place has been partly supplied by the water flag, and other 

 plants. The roots, dried and powdered, are used by the 

 peasants of Norfolk as a cure for the ague. 



Of the rush (Juncus) we have three and twenty species, 

 indigenous of Britain ; among which are the common [J. con- 

 glomeratus) and the soft rush (J. effusus), so well known by 

 the various domestic purposes to which they are applied. For 

 mats and the seats of chairs they are now superseded by the 

 bullrush (^cirpus lacustris) ; and their chief use at present is 

 in the making of rushlights. Before the introduction of car- 

 pets and mats, they were used for strewing floors, even at 

 court, a custom mentioned by Shakspeare and other poets. 

 The barberry shrub has been much slandered as being an 

 enemy to the ripening of corn, which is perhaps the reason 

 that we so seldom see it. If the filaments of its flowers be 

 touched on the inner side, near the base, they will immediately 

 contract, and throw the pollen upon the stigma. Various 

 causes have been assigned for this ; Sir J. E. Smith says they 

 contract by irritation, like the muscles of animals. The fruit 

 is acid, and is preserved in the form of jelly, pickle, or comfits. 



Among the exotic plants of this order are many flowers of 

 exquisite beauty, of which a great portion belong to the family 

 of lilies, styled by Linnaeus the nobles of the vegetable king- 

 dom. We are not to suppose that every flower familiarly 

 called a lily, is of the genus Zilium, though that genus con- 

 tains many very handsome and very dissimilar flowers ; the 

 purple martagon {L.Mdrtagon), the scarlet martagon (Z/.chal- 

 cedonicum), the bulb-bearing lily (L. bulbiferum), and the 

 magnificent white lily, are all of this genus, and all worthy 

 of admiration. The scarlet martagon is interesting from the 

 circumstance of its being believed by many persons to be the 

 true hyacinth of the ancients ; the bulb-bearing lily is remark- 

 able for the little black bulbs which it bears in the axils of 

 its leaves ; these bulbs, though but little larger than a pea, 

 increase in size, when planted, until they are large enough to 

 produce new plants. The white lily is too well known, too 

 highly and deservedly admired, to need either eulogy or 

 description ; but I cannot refrain from noticing the extreme 

 fineness of the extremity of the slender filament which supports 

 the large anther attached to it by the back ; so slender is the 

 juncture, that we can scarcely believe but that some magnetic 

 attraction lurks within. 



This, like the tulip, and many other liliaceous flowers, is 

 without a. calyx ; the corolla is sufiiciently stout to protect the 

 beauty that lodges within it ; but being itself unguarded, the 

 pure whiteness of its delicate petals is often injured by rain or 



