OR, PLAIN 



5 the pistil will be 



4g\ withdrawn with the 



§|lpr*, latter, leaving the 



^Spit) stamens, or some of 



OJn^I^P them, behind. 



^^^PS These curious 

 plants are included 



f^^^2&€ scrophalarinece^ con- 

 ^"^^1^^ sisting chiefly of 

 "|fC herbs with opposite 

 leaves, and natives 

 851. of mountains, val- 

 leys, ditches, woods, and way- 

 sides, in all parts of the world. 

 Some of them have the palate (as 

 the mouths of ringent — gaping — 

 flowers are called) so prominent 

 as to close up the orifice of the 

 corolla ; and this is the case in 

 the snap-dragon. 



6 



852. 



To the same natural order 

 belongs the fox-glove, digitalis] 6, 

 so called from digitabulum, a 

 thimble, in allusion to the form of 



TEACHING. 309 



the flowers. It cannot be too 

 generally known that the con- 

 spicuous and showy plant, grow- 

 ing wild in copses, hedges, and 

 upon road -sides, and commonly 

 known as the fox -glove, is 

 violently poisonous — but is very 

 useful in medicine. 



Few flowers are more associated 

 with the recollections of youth, 

 and with our first ideas of garden 

 beauty, than wall-flcvjers, 7, and 

 stocks, 8. In the natural system 



• 7 ' 8 



853. 



these are grouped in the order 

 cruciferce, an important botanical 

 division. The order consists 

 wholly of herbs ; the roots are 

 almost always perpendicular and 

 undivided, and the young rootlets 

 are tipped with a little sheath. 

 The turnip, radish, rape, horse- 

 radish, and cabbage, belong to 

 this useful order, of which stocks, 

 gillyflowers, wall-flowers, &c, are 

 the ornamental members. 



The passion-flower, 9, has been 

 so named, as a floral emblem of 

 the passion of Jesus Christ, the 

 prominent and lobed stamens of 

 some of the species having a 

 fanciful resemblance to tears. 

 The genus consists of very orna- 

 mental climbers, bearing large 

 flowers, red, white, and blue, &c, 



