508 BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
existing in the organs of generation, and the foetus was a 
fine colt foal, in a natural position, and apparently alive at 
the time the mare died—as I have been subsequently in¬ 
formed by Mr. Jones, who adds, that had he been present he 
would have performed the Caesarian operation on the mare ; 
therefore we cannot trace the cause of pericarditis to any 
affection of these organs; neither can I understand how the 
disease of the pericardium could by its influence prolong the 
period of utero-gestation. 
BOTANY AS APPLIED TO VETERINARY SCIENCE. 
By W. Watson, M.R.C.V.S., Rugby. 
(Continued from p. 269.) 
Having given a brief outline of the botanical characters, 
&c., of the principal grasses, I shall now for a time leave the 
natural order Graminea (to return to it again when considering 
the cereal plants), and proceed to make some observations on 
those plants that belong to quite a different class of the vege¬ 
table kingdom, and w 7 hich yield a large supply of food for 
animals—the natural order Leguminosa . This is so named from 
the fruit being contained in a legume, or pod. It contains 
a great variety of plants, which not only furnish much food 
for animals, but also a number of substances of great utility 
in li medicine, the arts, and domestic economy/ 5 
This order, unlike the one previously described, belongs 
to the class of exogens (known by having the wood in con¬ 
centric layers, the veins of the leaves being reticulated, the 
flower in parts of five, and by the embryo being dicoty¬ 
ledonous), and to the sub-class Calycifiora (from its stamens 
being perjgynous, or attached to the calyx), and may be 
distinguished by the following general characters:—The 
plants being either trees, shrubs , or herbs , with alternate leaves , 
jive sepals , more or less united, five petals papilionaceous , ten 
stamens monaclelphous or diadelgihous (the whole in one bundle, 
or more frequently nine and one, the separate one being 
superior), style and stigma simple, fruit contained in a legume, 
and seeds destitute of albumen . 
The order may be always easily recognised, as far as British 
plants are concerned, by the papilionaceous or butterfly¬ 
shaped corolla, and the seeds being contained in a legume 
