Loe 
392 THE VEGETABLE WORLD. 
a-dozen popular synonyms, is a handsome tree, with four-lobed 
truncate saddle-shaped leaves, and large elegant flowers, coloured 
green, yellow, and orange, sometimes attaining the height of a 
hundred and twenty feet, and a circumference of twenty feet. 
Nor is the order deficient in officinal properties, or fragrancy. 
Their general character is bitter and tonic in taste, with fragrant 
odorous flowers. M. glaté is so stimulating as to produce fever 
and inflammatory gout, according to Barton. A species of 
Michelea, called Tsjampar, is the delight of the people of, India 
for its fragrant properties. 
The Anonacex% are trees and shrubs of the tropics in both hemi- 
spheres, whence they spread to the north and south within certain 
limits. Their general properties are their powerful aromatic taste | 
and smell, The flowers of some are sweet and fragrant. Others, 
as Anona squamosa, have a heavy, disagreeable odour. The Dil- 
leniaceé are trees and shrubs of Australia, India, and tropical 
America,of comparatively little interest, though some of the Indian 
species are of great beauty. Dr. Wight speaks of them as equally 
remarkable for the grandeur of their foliage and the magnificence 
of their flowers. The plants generally are astringent. 
The Ranuncutace®, the typical order of the Ranals, are 
herbaceous, rarely shrubby, plants, and they are chiefly natives 
of Europe, with a sprinkling of North American, Indian, and 
African plants, on the shores of the Mediterranean ; acidity, caus- 
ticity, and poison are the general characteristics of the order, 
which includes a powerful sudorific in Ranunculus glacialis, & 
strong diuretic in Aconitum Napellus and Cammarum, drastic 
_ purgatives in the Hellebores, a virulent poison in some of the seeds 
of Aconitum and Ranunculus thora, while many of the order are 
vermefugal and tonic. 
To give any sufficient idea of this important family, it will be 
necessary to study successively the Columbine, the Hellebore, the 
Larkspur, Aconite, Ranunculus, Clematis, and Peony. Country 
people, struck with the form and elegance of the Columbme 
(Aquilegia vulgaris), have bestowed the name of “ Our Lad vs 
gloves” upon its flowers (Fig. 397). Its petals are fashioned 
with spurs, the shape of a hollow cornet, hooked at their extrem! 
a ties ; there are five of them, which alternate with as many level 
