Linnean System of Plants. 



Ul 



liness of their dress and jewels. The sycamore is one of the 

 few trees that thrive best by the sea-side, and being large and 

 leafy, may be employed to defend weaker plants from the winds 

 and salt spray. It is a fine tree when its robes are new ; but 

 late in the season is commonly clothed in rags ; the fragrance 

 of the leaves attracting various insects, which perforate them in 

 every part, until they have reduced them to the most jagged 

 condition. This tree, like others of its genus, affords a quan- 

 tity of saccharine juice, which, by evaporation, may be reduced 

 to sugar, but is more commonly converted into wine. The 

 species termed the sugar maple (A, saccharinum) is a North 

 American species, from which many of the inhabitants of that 

 country manufacture their own sugar. Each tree produces 

 from twenty to thirty gallons of juice, pleasantly flavoured, and 

 sometimes drunk fresh as a remedy for the scurvy. 



In speaking of foreign productions of this class we may say 

 that the number of heaths alone exceeds that of all the species 

 of the other genera united ; and though there is a general 

 and strong family likeness among them, there is also great 

 variety. 



The nasturtium, Tropae'olum (the diminutive of tropaunt^ 



atrophy), is a Peruvian genus, of 

 which some of the species are as 

 well known in this country as if 

 they were natives ; the greater 

 nasturtium more especially. The 

 seed-vessels are pungent, and 

 much esteemed for pickling ; and 

 the flowers are among the most 

 splendid to be seen in our gar- 

 dens ; they look like blossoms of 

 fire, and it seems quite in cha- 

 racter that they should emit sparks 

 in the evening, as they were ob- 

 served to do by the daughter of 

 Linnaeus. This plant affords a 

 familiar example oiihe peltate \e2ii (target-shaped, hompelta, 

 a target), a leaf which has its foot-stalk inserted in or near the 

 centre, {fig, 29.) 



The genus .4myris is known by some minor articles of 

 commerce which it produces : though of one of them, the 

 Balsam, or Balm, of Gilead, which is the dried juice obtained 

 from the bark of one of the species, it is believed, that it is too 

 scarce to be frequently exported genuine from its native 

 country. From the earUest periods of antiquity till the present 

 day, this balm has been held in great estimation in Syria and 



