Linnean System of Plants, 351 



and flowers in the dreariest months of the year, and is elegant 

 and ornamental at all seasons. It grows wild near the Lake 

 of Killarney, in Ireland ; but is by many persons supposed to 

 have been originally introduced from the south of Europe. 

 The two other species included in the British Flora are trail- 

 ing shrubs, growing on mountainous heaths. Another elegant 

 genus of evergreens, very nearly related to the ^'rbutus, is the 

 Andromeda, so called by Linnaeus, from the fair lady of that 

 name, who was exposed to the fury of sea-monsters, and 

 rescued by Perseus. We have one British species, men- 

 tioned by Linnaeus in that delightful work, his Tou7' in Lap^ 

 land. The exotic species are numerous. Rivalling these in 

 elegance of growth is the genus wintergreen (Pyrola), of 

 which we have several British species growing in the woods 

 of Scotland and the north of England. Among the more 

 important productions of this order are, the logwood of com- 

 merce, the Brazil wood of the dyers, lignum vitae, mahogany, 

 the balsam of capevi, and the quassia bark, so named in me- 

 mory of the negro slave Quassi, who first discovered its valu- 

 able properties. A very remarkable plant is Venus's fly-trap 

 (Dionae^« muscipula), which, from the form and irritability 

 of the leaves at their extremity, entraps small insects. Among 

 the more ornamental plants generally cultivated in England 

 are the rhododendrons, kalmias, and andromedas. In the 

 second order, Digynia^ are placed the Hydrangea (from two 

 Greek words, signifying water and vessel, on account of the 

 great quantity of water it consumes), the pink (Dianthus, 

 from the Greek, signifying God's flower, on account of its 

 superior beauty) ; and the saxifrage, of which that delicate 

 little plant called London Pride, so well known as thriving 

 even in the smoke of cities, is a species. Another native 

 species, S. granulata, aflbrds to the 

 young botanist an example of the gra- 

 nulated root; in which a number of 

 small solid knobs are connected by 

 fibres, {fg. 90.) 



A handsome and fragrant native 

 plant of this order is the soapwort 

 (Saponaria officinalis), so called from 

 the cleansing properties of the sap. 

 The other orders are chiefly composed 

 of plants of inferior note. 



In the next three classes we are to 

 consider not only the number of sta- 

 mens, but their insertion. The eleventh 

 class, Dodeccindria, includes plants of which the flowers have 



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