CLASS III. 
TRIANDRIA. 
MONOGYNIA. 
(1) Flowers superior , 
VALERIA'NA. Bloss. five-cleft; gibbous at the base: Seed 
one, (with a feathery radiating crown. E.) 
(FE'DIA. Bloss. five-cleft, protuberant at the base: Caps. 
three-celled ; two mostly abortive. Seeds solitary. E.) 
BRYO'NIA. Stamens and pistil in separate flowers : Bloss. 
with five divisions. 
Bert. FI. Style three-cleft: Berry somewhat globular ; 
many-seeded. 
RUS'CUS. Stamens and pistil in separate flowers: Bloss. 
none : Nectary central, egg-shaped, open at the top. 
(Mr. Thompson ingeniously observes, that as the odours of leaves depend chiefly on 
the exhalation of their essential oil, they are often regulated by circumstances affecting 
the excretory ducts of the follicular glands. Thus the duct being closed by the pres¬ 
sure of the cells, turgid with sap, in the fresh stem and leaf of the Anthoxanthum odo- 
ratum, no odour is perceived ; but it opens when these cells shrink, as the grass dries, 
and then the agreeable perfume peculiar to new hay is exhaled. E.) Cows, goats, 
sheep, and horses eat it. It abounds chiefly in wet lands, flourishing in a particular 
manner on peat bogs. (We cannot adduce a higher authority on this subject than that 
of Mr. Sinclair, who states, “ Its merits in respect to early growth, continuing to 
vegetate and throw up flowering stalks till the end of autumn, and its hardy and per¬ 
manent nature, sufficiently uphold its claim to a place in the composition of all per¬ 
manent pastures. The superior nutritive qualities of its lattermalh are a great recom¬ 
mendation for the purpose of grazing, the stalks being but of little utility, as they are 
generally left untouched by the cattle, provided there is a sufficiency of herbage.” E.) 
The valves of the blossom adhere to the seed when it is ripe, and the jointed awn by 
its spiral contortions through the alternate moisture and drynass of the air, assisted by 
the awn and the hairs which cover the valves, which from the same cause act as so many 
levers, separate it from the receptacle, and lift it out of the calyx, at a time when the spike 
is necessarily kept in an erect situation by a throng of taller grasses surrounding them. 
A most beautiful and curious contrivance of Nature, without which, or some similar 
provision, the seed in wet seasons would be apt to vegetate in the husks, and the young 
plants in consequence become abortive. Rev. G. Swayne. 
