894 



DOMESTIC BOTANY. 



gooseberry, are natives of this country, but have been 

 greatly improved from the wild state by cultivation. The 

 currant takes its name from the grape currant, which at 

 first came from the Island of Corinth. Several species, such 

 as a. sangm?ieum, i?. aureum, and B. speciosum, natives of 

 North America, are highly ornamental garden shrubs. 



The Escallonia Family. 



(ESCALLONIACEJE.) 



Evergreen shrubs or rarely small trees. Leaves alternate, 

 simple, smooth, or with lepidote viscid scales, or resinous, 

 often with toothed glandular margins. Flowers solitary, in 

 spikes, racemes, or corymbs, generally red or white. Petals 

 5. Stamens 5 or 6. Fruit a capsule or berry, crowned with 

 the persistent calyx. 



This family consists of about 60 species, the greater 

 number belonging to the genus Escallonia, natives chiefly of 

 South America, principally Chili, and extending to the 

 Straits of Magellan. In Tasmania the family is represented 

 by the beautiful laurel-leaved, small tree, Anoptens glandu- 

 losa, and in New Zealand by Quintinia serrata, also a small 

 tree covered with lepidote scales; and in North America by 

 the pretty garden shrub, Itea virginica. They possess no 

 particular qualities, except that some of the resinous- leaved 

 species of Escallonia emit a strong odour, especially after 

 rain or on calm summer evenings, so much like the smell of 

 pigs that, at Kew, a piggery at a considerable distance from 

 where the plant was growing was innocently blamed as a 

 nuisance. 



The Myrobalan Family. 



(COMBRETACE^.) 



Trees, climbing or twining ampelids. Leaves simple, 

 alternate or partially opposite, sometimes with glands on the 

 foot-stalk. Flowers in spikes or racemes, axillary or termi- 



