4G 
POISONOUS PLANTS. 
paper, (white paper gives the plants a more showy appearance.) A quarto 
size is more convenient than a larger one ; upon the first page of each leaf 
should be fastened one or more of the dried specimens, either with glue or 
by means of cutting through the paper, and raising up loops under which 
the stems may be placed. By the sides of the plants should be written the 
:lass, order, generic, and specific name ; also, the place where found, and 
the season of the year. The colours of plants frequently change in drying; 
the blue, pale red, and white, often turn black, or lose their colour ; yellow, 
scarlet, violet and green, are more durable. An herbarium should be care- 
fully guarded against moisture and insects. Some, as a security against 
the latter, brush the plants over with corrosive-sublimate. 
As a healthful and agreeable exercise, we would recommend to you in 
summer, frequent botanical excursions ; you will experience more pleasure 
from the science, by seeing the flowers in their own homes ; a dry grove of 
woods, the borders of little streams, the meadows, the pastures, and even 
the way-sides will afford you constant subjects for botanical observations. 
To the hardier sex, who can climb mountains, and penetrate marshes, many 
strange and interesting plants will present themselves, which cannot be found 
except in their peculiar situations ; of these you must be content to obtain 
specimens, without seeing them in their native wilds. You will no doubt 
easily obtain such specimens, for there is usually among the cultivators <5f 
natural science, a generosity in affording assistance to others, and impart- 
ing the treasures which nature lavishes upon those who have a taste to en- 
joy them. 
POISONODS PLANTS AND THOSE WHICH ARE NOT POISONOUS. 
In collecting flowers, you should be cautious with respect to poisonous 
plants. Such as have five stamens and one pistil, with a corolla of a dull, 
lurid colour, and a disagreeable smell, are usually poisonous ; the Thorn 
apple ( stramonium ) and the Tobacco are examples. The Umbelliferous 
plants, which grow in wet places, have usually a nauseous smell : such plants 
are poisonous, as the Water hemlock. Umbelliferous plants which grow in 
dry places, usually have an aromatic smell, and are not poisonous , as Car- 
away and Fennel. 
Plants with Labiate corollas, and containing their seeds in capsules, are 
often poisonous, as the Foxglove ; (Digitalis ;) 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 pois- 
onous. 
Among plants which are seldom poisonous, arc the compound flowers, as 
the Dandelion and Boncset ; such as have labiate corallas, with seeds lying 
naked ift the calyx, arc said never to be poisonous : the Mint and Thyme 
are examples of such plants. The Papilionaceous flowers, as the pea and 
bean, the Cruciform, as the radish and mustard, are seldom found to be 
poisonous. Such plants as have their stamens standing on the calyx, as 
the Rose and Apple, are never poisonous, neither the <rrass-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) change to petals by cultivation, 
therefore you cannot know by a double flower, how many stamens or pistils 
belong to it in its natural state. Botanists often view with some degree of 
indignation, the distortions of nature, as they term it, by means of differ- 
Botanical excursions — Poisonous plants — Plants seldom poisonous — Double 
flowers not proper for analysis. 
