THEIR ATTRIBUTES AND NAMES. 
Ill 
their bloom, richly deserve their other names, 11 queen-of-the- 
meadow” and bridewort. Our native species are not less beautiful 
than their more aristocratic cousins, Spireea Japonica and Spircea 
palmata. Of the Potentillas, or strawberry group, our most 
familiar examples are the common, though beautiful, silverweed 
or goosegrass, and the barren strawberry, one of the earliest spring 
wild flowers, much resembling, and often taken for the wild 
strawberry, but having the flower-stems more erect and the petals 
entire. The real strawberries, and the blackberries and rasp¬ 
berries, belong also to this order. Of the Rosidse or rose group, 
the rose has ever been a favourite flower with poets as with 
Oriental writers. In the East it is supposed to be the chosen 
flower of the nightingale; Englishmen glory in the rose as their 
national emblem, although at one time it was the symbol of civil 
war and bloodshed. The Pomese or apple group include the apple, 
pear, quince, medlar, service, mountain-ash, and hawthorn. The 
fruit of the mountain-ash and of some other species yields malic- 
acid, and the leaves yield prussic-acid in as great abundance as 
the laurel. 
Onagracece .—The Willow-herbs include some plants the leaves of 
which are used to adulterate tea, and in Kamskatchka are used as 
tea. To this order belongs the Enothera or evening primrose, of 
which the root is eatable. Originally it was called “ onagra” 
(signifying asses’ food), and was eaten after dinner to give flavour 
to wine, as olives are now, whence it derives its present name, 
(Enothera or wine-trap. 
Lauracece .—This order only includes one European plant, the 
bay-tree, but from one species cinnamon is obtained, and from 
others, cassia, camphor, nutmeg, and mace. 
Cucurlitacece .—The gourd tribe inhabits principally the hot 
regions of the globe ; the properties of this order are in many 
instances exceedingly violent, the drug colocynth being a familiar 
example. The bottle-gourd is very poisonous; it is recorded that 
some sailors were poisoned by drinking beer that had been standing 
in a flask made of one of these gourds. The only plant belonging 
to this order that is a native of Britain is the white bryony, the root 
of which is used in medicine. The spurting cucumber, so called 
from the force with which it expels its poisonous juice when ripe, 
is a very dangerous drug; on the other hand, we have belonging 
to the same order, the melon, the cucumber, and the vegetable 
marrow. 
Crassulaeece .—This order comprises plants inhabiting most parts 
of the world, such as the houseleeks, the cacti, and stonecrops. 
They are remarkable for their thick fleshy leaves, and they grow 
in the driest situations, where not a blade of grass or a particle of 
moss can live, requiring no nourishment but that which they derive 
from the atmosphere. It is said that one British species, Sedum 
telephium , will grow for months if suspended by a string from the 
ceiling, without being supplied 'with water. It is sometimes called 
livelong and “midsummer-man,” taking these names from an old 
