KESEDACEiE. 



81 



BMSEDACEM 



Exogens, with flowers in racemes or spikes. Calyx many-parted. 

 Petals broad fleshy plates, having torn appendages at the back, 

 and unequal. Disc below the ovary, one-sided, glandular. Sta- 

 mens definite, inserted into the disc. — Soft, herbaceous plants or 

 small shrubs, with alternate, entire, or pinnately divided leaves, 

 and minute gland-like stipules. Europe, the Mediterranean 

 islands, and the adjoining parts of Asia, are the principal loca- 

 lities. 



RESEDA. (Mignonette.) 



Gen. Char. (Dodecandria Trigynia.) Involucre many-leaved, 

 spreading ; central flower having both stamens and pistils, but no 

 petals, surrounded by several fringe-petaled, barren flowers. 



The genus is named from resedo, to calm, as some of the 

 species were used in appeasing pain. The well-known R. 

 odorata, the Mignonette of our gardens, is raised in the 

 greenhouse for early spring use, and this is done by autumn 

 sowing, and forcing ; the young plants will then be ready 

 for planting out as soon as frosts are over in the spring, 

 whilst that sown in the open ground is still backward ; 

 or the seeds may be sown in pots out-of-doors in June, 

 July, and August, and taken into the house before frosts 

 set in : these will flower quite in the winter. The follow- 

 ing plan is sometimes adopted for forming what is called 



VOL. II. G 



