Wake Robin. 293 



base. This is very abundant by our roadsides and in the 

 woods ; its handsome white drooping flowers appear in May 

 and June. This in England, vulgarly called cuckoo's bread, 

 flowers very freely, about Easter, in that place. This pretty 

 little plant, says Tyas, shuts its leaves, closes its corollas, and 

 the flowers hang pendant and drooping from the stems at night. 

 They seem to yield themselves to sleep ; but at the first dawn 

 of day we may say that they are filled with joy, for they throw 

 back their leaves and expand their flowers, and we doubt not 

 it is on this account peasants have said that they sung the 

 praises of their Creator, and that they emblemize Joy. This 

 plant is totally inodorous, but its grateful acid taste which pro- 

 ceeds from a juice abounding in every part, amply recompenses 

 this want and makes it a favorite among cooks for salads ; 

 approaching nearly in this respect, that of taste, to the juice of 

 lemons or the tartaric acid ; it also closely resembles them both 

 in its medical effects, being eminently useful as an anti-scor- 

 butic, duretic, and refrigerant. A pleasant whey has been 

 made by it with milk. Among other important uses this has 

 long been celebrated in the composition of the essential salt of 

 lemons which is made by mixing one part of oxalic acid with 

 two parts of cream of Tartar, and is used to remove stains 

 from linen. 



Wake Robin. 



This is a genus in the class Monoecia, order Polandria. Its 

 characters are :— Spathe one leafed, cowled ; spadix naked 

 above ; female, below ; stamenious in the middle. Specific 

 characters :— Leaves hastate, quite entire ; spadix club-shaped. 

 The tribe to which this belongs, according to Lindley, consist 

 of stemless or long stemmed plants, whose internal structure is 

 strictly that of Endogens, but whose leaves bear more resem- 

 blance to those of Exogens ; it is, however, to be observed that 

 the lobed figure of the leaves and their branched veining to 

 which the resemblance is due, need not be confounded with 



