190 
ORDER MONOGYNIA. 
plant with white flowers ; the bark of the plant contains so 
much silex or flinty matter, as to injure the sickles of the rea- 
pers, when it glows in the field with the grain. The names 
Lithos permum, is from the Greek Lithos a stone, and sperma a 
seed, in allusion to the hardness of the seeds. The Bora^o, 
which gives its name to Jussieu’s Natural family, including 
rough leaved plants is an exotic, very common to our gardens. 
The corolla is wheel-shaped, of a beautiful blue color, having its 
throat closed with five small protuberances; the same is obser- 
vable in the cynoglossum and some others of this class ; the sta- 
mens are attached to the tube of the corolla ; you must take off 
the corolla carefully and you will see both the little scales which 
choaked up the throat of the corolla, and the manner in which 
the five stamens grow to it. 
The Luridce, from lurid , signifying pale or livid , are in the 
28th natural order of Linnaeus ; this order is by Jussieu inclu- 
ded under his 41st, the Solaneae. The general characters of 
these plants are monopetalous corollas, of a lurid or pale ap- 
pearance, flowers with five stamens attached to the basis of the 
corolla, and alternately with its divisions ; the leaves are alter- 
nate. The common Potatoe, (Solanom tuberosum,') is of this 
natural family, the flowers of this plant are large and the organs 
very plain for analysis. There is a peculiarity in the appear- 
ance of the anthers which it is well to notice ; they are of an 
oblong form, thick and partly united at the top, forming a cone, 
and instead of opening at the side, as anthers usually do, they 
open at the top by two pores. The potatoe was not known in 
Europe, until after the discovery of America. In the year 1597 
Sir Walter Raleigh on his return from this country, distiibuted 
a number of potatoes in Ireland, where they became numerous 
and the cultivation of them soon extended into England. It is 
said that the root of the potatoe is white or red according to the 
color of the flower. The little green balls, upon the stalks of 
the potatoe, are the pericarps, and contain the seed ; but this 
plant is usually produced from the root. The little knobs or 
eyes which you may notice upon the potatoes, are each one a 
kind of germ or bud ; and in planting potatoes the whole root 
is not put into the ground, but cut into as many pieces as there 
are eyes, each one of which produces a plant.* In the same 
genus with the potatoe is found the Tomato and the Egg plant. 
* This is more properly a continuation of the plant than a reproduction ; 
it is observed that the vegetable thu3 continued appears in process of time 
to become degenerated, and it is necessary to renew the race by reprodu- 
cing it from seed. 
Natural family — Luridae or Lurid plants — Potatoe. 
