GENERAL REMARKS. 
31 
Poisonous Plants^ and those which are not Poisonous. 
In collecting flowers, you should be cautious with respect to poi- 
sonous plants. Such as have five stamens and one pistil, with a co- 
rolla of a dull, lurid colour, and a disagreeable smell, are usually- 
poisonous ; the Thorn apple (stramonium) and the Tobacco are ex- 
amples. The UmbeUiferous plants, which grow in wet places, have 
usually a nauseous smell : such plants are poisonous, as the water 
hemlock. Umbelhferous plants which grow in dry places, usually 
have an aromatic smell, and are not poisonous, as Caraway and 
Fennel. 
Plants with Labiate corollas, and containing their seeds in cap- 
sules, are often poisonous, as the Foxg-love ; (Dio-italis ;) also, such 
as contain a milky juice, unless they are compound flowers. Such 
plants as have horned or hooded nectaries, as the Columbine and 
Monk's-hood, are mostly poisonous. 
Among plants which are seldom poisonous, are the compound 
flowers, as the Dandelion and Boneset; such as have labiate corol- 
las, with seeds lying naked in the calyx, are seldom or never poison- 
ous ; the Mint and Thyme are examples of such plants. The Papi- 
lionaceous flowers, as the pea and bean ; the Cruciform, as the radish 
and mustard, are seldom found to be poisonous. Such plants as have 
tlieir stamens standing on the calyx, as the rose and apple, are never 
poisonous; neither the grass -like plants with glume calyxes, as 
Wheat, Rye, and Orchard-grass, (Dactylis.) 
Proper Flowers for Analysis. 
In selecting flowers for analysis, you must never take double ones ; 
the stamens (and in many cases the pistils also) chanire to petals by 
cultivation, therefore you cannot know by a double flowt;r, how many 
stamens or pistils belong to it in its natural state. Botanists seem to 
view as a kind of sacrilege, the changes made by culture, in the natu- 
ral characters of plants ; they call double flowers, and variegated ones, 
produced by a mixture of different species, monsters and deformities. 
These are harsh expressions to be applied to Roses and Carnations, 
which our taste must lead us to admire, as intrinsically beautiful, al- 
though their relative beauty, as subservient to scientific illustration, 
is certainly destroyed by the labour of the florist. The love of na- 
tive wild flowers is no doubt greatly heightened by the habit of seek- 
ing them out, and observing them in their peculiar situations. A 
Botanist, at the discovery of some lowly plant, growing by the side 
of a brook, or"almost concealed in the cleft of a rock, will often ex- 
perience more vivid dehght than could be produced by a view of the 
most splendid exotic. Botanical pursuits render us interested in 
every vegetable production : even such as we before looked upon as 
useless, present attractions as objects of scientific investigation, and 
become associated with the pleasing recollections, arising from the 
gratification of our love of knowledge. A peculiar interest is given 
to conversation by an acquaintance with any of the natural sciences ; 
and when females shall have more generally obtained access to 
these dehghtful sources of pure enjoyment, we may hope that scan- 
dal, which oftener proceeds from a want of better subjects, than from 
malevolence of disposition, shall cease to be regarded as a charac- 
teristic of the sex. It is important to the cause of science, that it 
should become fashionable ; and as one means of effecting this, the 
Poisonous plants— Compound flowers seldom poisonous— Double flowers not proper 
for analysis— Effect of Botanical pursuits— Of an acquaintance with any of the natural 
sciences. 
