15 
In medical properties this plant 
Is similar to many of the labiate 
plants; being one of the most grate- 
ful it is often used, making a fra- 
grant tea and pleasant distilled wa- 
ter, vehicle for many medicaments. 
Th e tea and wa te r a r e ge n 1 1 e d i ftu - 
sible stimulants, antispasmodic, ex- 
pectorant, pel lent, resolvent, &c,; 
they are useful in all obstructions, 
hysterics, headache, piles, pleurisy, 
asthma, cholic, palsy, several fevers 
chiefly nervous, &c. Another beau- 
tiful native plant not uncommon in 
our gardens, the Monarda Coccinea, 
Scarlet Balm or Oswego tea, is an 
equivalent that may be used when 
the common balm is lacking; but al- 
though "stronger in effects, it is not 
quite so grateful. 
This plant grows one or two feet 
high, with square stem and branch- 
es. Leaves opposite petiolate ovate 
acute serrate. Flowers axillary in 
half whorls, pedunculate, with ob- 
long bracts. 
It is the moral emblem of Grate- 
fulness. C. S. R. 
Melissa, lovely nymph and grateful plant, 
The garden sides and shady groves adorns, 
Becoming floral emblem of delight 
And feelings sweet by gratitude evolv’d; 
Among the scented tribes of labiate blooms 
The first perhaps: in modest sweetness clad, 
Not dazzling colors nor gigantic size; 
By gentle maids beloved and feeling hearts. 
1L BOTANY. 
Part of a letter from C. A. Agardh, Professor 
of Botany at Lund, in Sweden, to Prof. C. 
S. Rafinesque, dated 26th June, 1S31. 
Translated from the French, 
I have published, since 1825, be- 
sides many Memoirs inserted in the 
Literary Transactions, two pam- 
phlets on a new theory of Vegetable 
Physiology in French, and the Ve- 
getable Organography in Swedish 
and German. I am now publishing 
a Vegetable Biology, based upon this 
new theory. As soon as this shall 
be published, I mean to undertake 
the Natural System, on a plan more 
enlarged and correct than in my 
previous aphorisms, and my Classes 
Plant arum: according to the new 
Physiological system, all will be 
considered in a different point of 
view. 
My Classes Plant arum are but 
outlines: I have been far from deem- 
ing them perfect. 1 consider it a 
great honour and advantage to enter 
into correspondence with you, since 
you labour on the some subjects. I 
shall be glad to profit of your disco- 
veries. But I cannot agree with 
you on the numerical accordance of 
classes in Animals and Plants. It 
appears difficult that the animals 
whose variable form depend on the 
medium of their existence, and their 
motions, food, &c. may agree with 
the classes of plants. But 1 suspend 
my judgment until I see your clas- 
s i fi ca t mn , when I shall c om mu ni ca te 
my remarks on it. 1 am also afraid 
that the positive characters can only 
belong to artificial groups of beings; 
natural groups can only have ten- 
dencies, since there are few immu- 
table characters. 
My n ew theory o f Vege fa ti on con- 
sists in proving" that there are but 
two kinds or series of organs in 
plants: . 
1. Leaves or appendicular organs. 
2. Buds or fulcrant organs. 
But those two organs unfold them- 
selves under: six different forms: 
, 1. Cotyledons and plumule. 
2. Leaf and bud. 
3. Bract and flower-bud. 
4. Petal and stamen. 
5. Carpophore and placenta. 
6. Spermoderme and embryo. 
Each of these pairs of organs form 
a degree of vegetation, or an age of 
it. Each flower that has several 
petals, or a divided corolla and ca- 
lyx, consists of as many floscules. 
A decandrous flower only differs 
from a pentandrous, because the in- 
ternal floscules or petals are sterile 
or without stamens. The applica- 
tion of this theory is immense. You 
will see it in my work. It would 
be well to translate my organogra- 
phy in English, that it may be ex- 
amined and studied by the English 
Botanists, that do not read German. 
Remarks by C. ~8* R> — The above 
