Linnean System of Plants. 



137 



yet all are octandrous, and all monogynous. Of this first 

 order we have nine British genera, of which eight are well 

 known, and the greater number handsome. Of the 6Bnothera 

 we have but one species CE, biennis {bis, twice, annus, a year), 

 the evening primrose ; and some botanists doubt whether that 

 is really a native. Sir J. E. Smith observes that, though 

 undoubtedly wild on the coast of Lancashire, it may have 

 been brought by natural means from the other side of the 

 Atlantic. It has been found in some places less suspidous, 

 but still, it may be supposed to have escaped from gardens ; 

 being a plant in general cultivation. It has no resemblance 

 to the primrose but in colour ; its fine fragrant petals expand 

 in the evening, and make a conspicuous figure in a bouquet, 

 for which the flower is the better adapted as it is fragrant 

 without being oppressive. Several foreign species are seen in 

 gardens, some yet handsomer than this native or naturalised 

 species. 



The willow-herb is a large and beautiful genus, of which 

 we have nine native species : it derives its English name from 

 the form of its leaves, and the watery situations in which it 

 is found. The botanical appellation, Epilobium, signifies a 

 violet on a pod * ; but it must be acknowledged that the 

 flower has very little resemblance to a violet, either in form 

 or colour ; neither is its pericarp properly termed a pod : — it 

 26 is inferior, quadrangular, 1, 2, or 3 in. long, 

 according to the species, and more or less tinged 

 with red ; it is composed of four pieces called 

 valves which form the sides, and is divided into 

 four cells by as many partitions extending from 

 thence to the angles of the quadrangular re- 

 ceptacle, as seen magnified in^^. 26. a, (This 

 receptacle is not to be considered as one of the 

 seven parts of fructification ; it is the receptacle, 

 not of the flower, but of the seeds.) If the 

 seed-vessel be carefully opened on one side, 

 when ripe, a sort of silky feather will imme- 

 diately spring out, as if weary of confinement 

 in so narrow a lodging (&). Each seed is winged 

 with these silken feathers (c), in which they lie 

 embedded, until the valves make away for them 

 to take flight, and by their means the plant is 



* Some persons believe the word violet to have reference to the colour 

 only ; but one small objection to this interpretation is, that the colour is no 

 more like that of the violet than the form : others suppose the word to be 

 used in a complimentary sense, as we use the word pink. In France and 

 Italy the name of violet is extended to many other flowers, more espe- 

 cially the stocks, wallflowers, and others of the fifteenth class. 



