CLASS PENTANDEIA. 
"We are no more able to trace the analogies which exist between the common 
potato, the deadly night-shade, and tobacco, than the affinities between tlie nause- 
ous jalap and the sweet potato of the sa-me natural order. 
189. Order Digynia^ two pistils. — We find liere the Gentimi^ 
which affords some plants with delicate flowers, and others 
valuable for medicinal properties. The fringed gentian is a beau- 
tiful wild plant with a blue flower. The Gentiajs^a lutea^ which 
afibrds the medicinal gentian, is found on the Alps, at a liigh 
elevation ; it produces yellow flowers, and has a yellow root. 
This genus sometimes presents an irregularity in the number of 
stamens. The lobes of the calyx and corolla are of the same 
number, and alternating with them ; the stamens vary in num- 
ber from four to five, the latter number being most common. 
The large inflated corollas of the saponaria^ or soap-wort gen- 
tian, appear like buds. In the natural family, called AtripUces^ 
from the genus Atriplex (sea-orache), is the pig-weed, or goose- 
foot, Chenopodium. It is grouped by natural characters with 
the beet and spinach, whose flowers are destitute of beauty. 
According to the late arrangement of natural orders, we find 
these plants in the order Chenopodiacece^ in which are the pig- 
weed, water-hemp, and several other plants, placed by Jussieu 
in his order Atnnvlices. 
190. Uvnbellifiroiis Plants. — We meet in this order of the 
class Pentandria with the Umhelliferm.^ a large family, closely 
allied in natural characters.* Among the plants of this family 
which are used for food are the carrot, parsnip, celery, and 
parsley ; the aromatics are dill, fennel, caraway, coriander, and 
sweet cicely. Poison hemlock {Conium)., water-parsnip {Sium\ 
water cow-bane, are among the poisonous plants of this tribe. 
The water cow-bane (Cicuta virosa) grow« in ponds and marshes. Cows are 
often killed in the spring by eating it, but as the summer advances, the smell be- 
comes stronger and they carefully avoid it. Linnjeus relates, that in a tour made 
into Lapland, for scientific purposes, he was told of a disease among the cattle of 
Torneo, which killed a great many in the spring, when they first began to feed in 
pastures. The inhabitants were unable to account for this circumstance ; but the 
Swedish botanist examining the pastures, discovered a marsh where the Cicuta 
virosa grew in abundance ; he acquainted the people with the poisonous qualities 
of the plant, and thus enabled them to provide against the danger by fencing in 
the marsh. The poison hemlock (CoNroM maculatum) has a peculiarly unpleasant, 
nauseous smell ; its stalk is large and spotted, from whence its specific name macu- 
latum. This plant is supposed to be the poison so fatally administered by the 
Athenians to Socrates and Phocion. The umbellate plants which grow on dry 
ground are aromatic; as dill and fennel: those which grow in wet places are 
among the most deadly poisons ; as water-parsnip, <fec. Plants of this family are 
not in general so beautiful to the sight, nor so interesting as objects of botanical 
analysis, as many others.f Fig. 135 represents the coriander (coriandrum). 
* See Plate ii. Fig. 3, for a plant of this family, 
t " Botanists in general shrink from the study of the Umbelliferae ; nor have theseplants much beao 
%y in the eyes of amateurs ; but they will repay the trouble of a careful observation. The late M. Cusso> 
189. Gentianae — Family Atriplices— Chenopodiae. — 190. Umbelliferae 
