222 
CELANDINE. 
In early spring, tlTere is scarcely a grove, 
thicket, meadow, orchard, or plantation of any 
kind, that is not covered with the glossy golden 
flower of the Small Celandine. When they 
have been exposed for some days to the heat 
of the sun, they turn white, and fall off: they 
are succeeded by small bulbs, like grains of 
wheat, which shoot from the bottom of the 
leaves; and as the stalks lie upon the ground, 
these little bulbs get into the earth, and become 
the roots of new plants. The stalks being 
sometimes washed bare by the rains have in¬ 
duced the ignorant and superstitious to believe 
that it raised wheat. The young leaves are 
eaten by the common people of Sweden, boiled 
as greens. 
At night, and in wet weather, the flowers 
close, whicli helps to preserve them from the 
cold that otherwise might be hurtful to them, 
from their flowering so early in the spring. 
They first appear in February, and continue 
through March, and a great part of April. 
The Major Celandine is of the class Poly- 
andria, and order Monogynia; the Small 
Celandine, of the class Polyandrici, and order 
Polygynia, 
