80 ENGLISH" BOTANY. 
for the purpose, it is said, of adulterating beer. This adulteration is, however, 
perfectly harmless, and therefore caunot be so severely deprecated as many to which 
the same beverage is subjected. Two ounces of dried leaves are said to be equal to 
one pound of hops in flavouring beer. The creeping stems or rhizomes of the Buck- 
bean contain a large quantity of farinaceous matter resembling starch. In Lapland 
and Finland these rhizomes are sometimes powdered, washed to get rid of the bitter 
principle, and then made into a kind of bread — not very palatable but somewhat 
nutritious. The Buckbean is one of the prettiest of our wild flowers and deserving of 
cultivation in the garden, where it grows and thrives well if planted in peat, and with 
water constantly around the roots. 
The Buckbean has a reputation for preserving sheep from the rot ; but it is 
exceedingly probable that these animals seldom touch it, on account of its bitterness, 
and this fact is observed by several botanists. 
GENUS VI.— LIMN ANT HE MUM. Gmel. 
Calyx 5-partitc. Corolla funnelshaped-rotate, membranous, 
deciduous ; tube very short ; limb 5-partite, with the segments 
1 (carded or ciliated in various ways, frequently with glands. 
Stamens 5, inserted in the tube of the corolla ; filaments not 
dilated at the base ; anthers not twisted spirally after the pollen 
is shed. Style commonly scarcely distinguishable from the pro- 
longed point of the ovary ; stigma bilobed. Capsule 1-celled, 
indehisccnt, or bursting irregularly without separating into valves. 
Seeds 2 or numerous. 
Aquatic herbs, with floating peltate or cordate leaves, and 
flowers in irregular simple umbels, generally yellow. 
The name of this genus of plants is from Xtjj.fi] (lirnne), a pool, and avdoQ (anthos), 
a flower, from the habitat of the species. 
SPECIES I.— LIMNANTHEMUM NYMPH^EOIDES. Link. 
Tlate DCCCCXXI. 
Reich. Tc. Fl. Germ, ct TTelv. Vol. XVII. Tab. MXLII. 
Billot, Fl. (Jail, et Germ. Exsicc. No. 1710. 
M <ii v.int lies nymph;eoides, Linn. Sm. Eng. Bot. No. 217. 
Villarsia nymphseoides, Vent. Lab. Man. Brit. Bot. p. 22-1. Hook, k Am. Brit. Fl. 
• I. \iii. p. 284. 
Hootstock creeping, producing alternate leaves, and flow r cring- 
stniis with opposite leaves. Leaves all stalked, iloating, orbicular, 
very deeply cordate, with the basal lobes contiguous, repand-dentate. 
Flowers in umbels at the termination of the stem, but appearing 
axillary from the growth of a proliferous branch, which seems a 
continuation of the stem. Calyx-segments oblong-strapshaped. 
