LADIES’ BOTANY. 
73 
only three cells, instead of four, and has a strong aromatic taste, of 
which the Fuchsia is entirely destitute. 
You will, after reading this, ask me, perhaps, with surprise, what 
resemblance I can discover between the Myrtle and the Evening 
Primrose tribe; for it seems difficult to select two objects more un¬ 
like. I answer thus:—although the Myrtle itself is not very like an 
Evening Primrose, yet there are many of the Myrtle tribe, which, 
having only four divisions of the calyx, and four petals, might be 
mistaken for plants belonging to the Evening Primrose tribe, for 
they have an inferior berry, like that of a Fuchsia; you would, how¬ 
ever, see that the number four could not be traced further than the 
petals, and consequently, the resemblance would cease with these parts. 
The Myrtle tribe, like the last natural Order, abounds in beautiful 
plants: it also contains many that are of great use. The spice you 
call Cloves, consists of the young flower-buds of a tree found in the 
West Indies (Caryophyllus aromaticus :) and All-Spice is the ber¬ 
ries of another (Myrtus Pimenta.) The pleasant fruits called the 
Rose Apple, and the Jamrosade, in the East Indies, are produced by 
different species of Eugenia; Guava Jelly is prepared from the suc¬ 
culent berries of trees of the Myrtle tribe, found in the West Indies; 
and, finally, the Pomegranate is an example of another fruit-bearing 
kind, which has migrated from Barbary into Europe. 
All these are kinds with berries for their fruit; and tliev form the 
greatest part of the tribe. Others, however, there are which have 
dry fruits opening at the top, and containing a great number of very 
minute seeds: these, the principal parts of which are natives of New 
Holland, have very often also alternate leaves. It is, therefore, 
neither to the fruit, nor 7 to the position of the leaves upon the stem, 
that you are to look for the precise character of the Myrtle tribe. 
The inferior ovary, the numerous stamens, the single style, and the 
dotted leaves, are what you will know it by with most certainty. 
To that division of the tribe in which the fruit is dry and many- 
seeded belong Melaleuca, and Metrosideros, with their long tassels 
of silken stamens, purple, or yellow, or crimson, and so do the gigan¬ 
tic Gum Trees of New Holland (Eucalyptus). These last are re¬ 
markable for having no petals: and for their calyx falling off like a 
lid or extinguisher. I told you, in my first letter, to observe what I 
said about the curious calyx of Eschscholtzia,* which was pushed off 
* In the Eschscholtzia a circumstance happens which yoi* should not omit to 
note, because it seems to explain several things in other plants, which seem at 
first sight very puzzling. The flower of this plant, before it expands, is enclosed 
in a taper-pointed green sheath, shaped like a hutkin, which is pushed oil’by de¬ 
grees as the petals unfold, and at last drops to the ground.—Letter I, p. 22. 
