BOTANY. 
such anomalous species, as far as he could 
recollect or determine them ; so that if our 
plant does not agree with any of the regular 
genera of the class, we may seek it among 
these irregular species. If, after all our 
attempts, the plant under consideration still 
proves refractory, the system of Jussieu 
comes to our aid. Not that we can hope, 
even though adepts in the science, to de- 
termine a plant by the same mode in this 
author ; beginning with the cotyledons, 
which, in many cases, we shall find it im- 
possible to judge of, and which, when 
found, will often lead us astray in the more 
abstruse orders of Jussieu. 
The true way to use this system is to 
consider what known genus or family our 
plant most approaches in its habit and 
leading characters. By turning to such, 
through the help of the index, and reading 
the characters of the corresponding order, 
we shall be able to judge how far we are 
right, and shall, at any rate, grow familiar 
with natural orders and affinities. AVhen we 
have determined the genus of our plant in 
Jussieu, as he has not treated of species, 
we must still recur to Linnseus for that part 
of the subject, as well as for synonyms of 
other authors, and references to figures or 
descriptions. 
By such a manner of associating these 
two great authors, we render them truly 
serviceable to each other, and to the sci- 
ence ; whereas, by placing them in oppo- 
sition, we only make stumbling-blocks of 
all their defects , for there must be defects 
in all attempts of the human intellect to 
keep pace with the infinite wisdom and va- 
riety displayed in the works of God. 
With respect to the application of either 
of these methods of arrangement to medi- 
cal use, as a means of forming any proba- 
ble judgment of the qualities of plants; the 
more natural any system is, the better it 
serves us in this par ticular. But even the 
Linnaean classes and orders are many of 
them sufficient for general use, and their 
learned author has occasionally suggested 
other remarks, peculiar to himselfj tending 
to the same end. 
His Didynamia Gymnospermia, and the 
ringent flowers with naked seeds, allied 
thereto, which, having only two stamens, 
are necessarily placed in his second class 
Diandria, are all innocent or wholesome : 
those of the other order, Angiospermia, 
are fetid, narcotic, and dangerous, being 
akin to a large part of Pentandria Mono- 
Sty 11 ' 3 , known to be poisonous, as contain- 
ing henbane, nightshade, and tobacco. The 
whole class Tetradynamia is wholesome, 
except the fetid cleome, wrongly referred 
to it. Whenever the stamens are found to 
grow out of the calyx, whether they be 
numerous, as in Icosandria, or few, as in 
the currant and gooseberry, they infallibly 
indicate the pulpy fruits of such plants to 
be wholesome. Whenever the nectary is a 
distinct organ or structure from the petals, 
Linnams justly observes, that the plants to 
which it belongs are to be suspected. The 
papilionaceous or pea flower is remarked 
by him to belong to a wholesome family, 
which is generally true, at least when the 
plants are boiled or roasted. We think it 
right, however, to mention one exception 
to the innocence of this family, as it is not 
generally known, The seeds of the labur- 
nnm, eaten unripe, are violently emetic and 
dangerous. They are, indeed, so bitter 
and nauseous as seldom to tempt children, 
but we have heard of their being eaten, 
and such was the consequence, which is the 
more important to be known, as the tree is 
so common. 
Milky plants are generally to be suspect- 
ed, except such as have compound flowers ; 
but even some of these are highly danger- 
ous, as the wild lettuce, Lactucavirosa, which 
yields a kind of opium, and the stinking 
hawkweed, Crepis foetida. Crepis rubra 
also, or pink hawkweed, commonly culti- 
vated for its beauty, may be in the same 
predicament; but it is too nauseous to be 
eaten. Umbelliferous plants, which grow in 
dry or elevated situations, are aromatic, safe, 
and often very wholesome ; while those that 
inhabit low and watery places are usually 
among the most virulent and deadly of all 
poisons whatever. Oenanthe crocata poisons 
by its scent in a room, causing headachs, 
nausea, and swoonings. Cicuta virosa, if eaten 
by cattle unawares while under water, kills 
them, as Linnaeus informs us, with the most 
horrible symptoms. The mallow tribe, or 
Columniferae, so called from bearing their 
stamens in a columnar form, are all emol- 
lient, abounding with a mucilaginous juice, 
without taste and smell, very useful in in- 
ternal irritations. To this probably Horace 
alludes when he speaks of laeves malvae, and 
not to any external smoothness of the plants 
mentioned, which by their soft and downy 
leaves would rather claim the epithet of 
molles. The liliaceous family are often very 
dangerous, especially their bulbous roots, 
from some of which the wild natives of 
southern Africa are said to obtain a poison 
