16 
RICE (6) is the grain of those parts of the world which are 
too hot for wheat. It grows in a loose panicle, and the 
grains are very hard and white, less nourishing than those 
of the other species of corn, hut almost the sole subsistance 
of the native inhabitants of the East Indies, who need 
less solid food than the people of colder countries. It is 
grown in fields close to the river side, which can be easily 
irrigated, water is let in so as to stand over the whole 
soil, even while it is being’ sown, and horses and oxen are 
driven in to tread it into the ground. In India, these wet 
fields are called paddy fields, and are the most important 
crop. In China likewise, much rice is grown, and is not 
only used for food, hut after much boiling and cooling it 
hardens into a substance almost like marble, of which 
many ornaments are made, and it is also spread into rice 
paper, which takes colouring most beautifully and softly. 
A great quantity of rice is brought to England to be used 
for puddings and in broth, but this is chiefly brought from 
Carolina in North America, a country so low, wet and hot, 
in the swamps of the great rivers, that though not native 
there , the rice grows larger than even in India, which 
would seem to be its original home. 
MILLET (c) is another sort of grain, chiefly cultivated in Sou¬ 
thern Europe, Northern Africa, and Eastern Asia where a 
fermented drink called teff, or murwa, is prepared from 
it, which is drunk warm and weak, through a reed, and 
is said to be very unpleasant to European tastes. Some 
kinds of millet are used for food in Brittany, and others 
in Northern Italy, but we seldom see them here. 
PLATES XVI TO XXVI. POISONOUS 
PLANTS. 
The same bounteous Hand which has prepared the grass and 
the Herb for our food, has also fitted the vegetable 
world to supply us with medicine, but those plants which 
are healing’ to the sick often have deadly effect on those 
who have no disease to be counteracted. They are there¬ 
fore classed under the head of poisons and are to be care¬ 
fully avoided as food, though the beauty and grace of 
many of them have caused them to be looked on as the 
emblems of temptation, at first alluring, then leading to 
death. 
One of themostnotable among these medicinal plants is the beau¬ 
tiful FOXGLOVE (PI. XVI b) or Digitalis. It is a biennial 
plant, that is, it flowers and dies the second year after it 
has been sown. The leaves are large and downy, the stem 
solid and straight, bearing a long spike of bell shaped 
blossoms, the lowermost of which open first, so that it 
tapers towards the top, and they hang all on the same 
side of the stem. They are of the large class of Labiate 
flowers, like the Lavender, but unlike its four naked seeds, 
the g’erm becomes a hard-shelled brown capsule as does 
that of the snap dragon, the skull cap and many others, 
which unlike the bare-seeded ones, either have no smell 
or are unwholesome and disagreeable. 
Nothing can be more noble and beautiful than a full richly bel¬ 
led foxglove spike , which could never come into our pic¬ 
tures for it rises up two or thee feet, and hangs down 
double and treble rows of the bright beautiful flowers, of 
a deep red polished purple outside, and inside white, hairy, 
and speckled with dark brown spots and rings. The sta¬ 
mens have bent filaments, adhering closely to the upper 
side of the flower, and the outside of the anthers before 
they have opened to discharge their pollen, is bright yel¬ 
low, spotted with tiny brown specks. 
The multitudes in which foxgloves grow is another great charm 
of the woods and hedgerows in late July and early August; 
they are quite purple with their grand nodding spires, 
and gather and gather as children may, they can hardly 
exhaust them. Children like to hold both ends of the 
flower, shut in the air, and then snap them together with 
a loud pop, so that the autumn road is often strewn with 
the pretty purple bells — or some merry children will 
thrust their fingers into the long blossom and hold them 
up, as if they had on crimson gloves, not knowing that 
this is the very reason of their name both Latin and Eng¬ 
lish, for digitalis means something belonging to a finger, 
and the foxglove, ought to be folks glove, the folk being the 
good people or fairies, who used in England to be said to 
use them for their gloves, or the lesser ones, to hide in 
their bells. In Ireland this flower is called the Lusmore 
or fairy-cap, and in truth the bell would suit a little fairy 
head quite as well. Leaving fairies and their pretty tales 
however, it seems that the Digitalis or foxglove juice 
has a great effect on the movement of the heart, and the 
circulation of the blood, so that though beneficial in some 
illnesses, it would be very dangerous to a healthy person. 
If it be a disappointment to find the glorious foxglove classed 
among poisons, what is it to discover the golden BUTTER¬ 
CUP (PI. XVI b) or king cup , that early sprin; friend, 
among the same class ? It is well that we do not to 
eat all that we admire for the buttercup or ranun , is 
full of an acrid blistering juice, so that even the cc L have 
instinct to refuse it, and will leave the bare stal s stan¬ 
ding up, when all the grass between them is gone It be¬ 
longs to the same natural order as the poppy, ard every 
one of them is more or less poisonous. This noxious family 
may be always known by one certain sign, namely that the 
calyx is not fastened to the carpel, but the numerous 
stamens are. The apple and most of our fruits are many 
stamened, but then they have a firm, permanent calyx, 
which lasts even longer than the fruit, but the poppy, 
the ranunculus, the anemone, and many others have a 
small feeble calyx, which falls off sometimes even before 
the blossom opens, and all of these are unwholesome. The 
ranunculus, crowfoot or buttercup, for it is a plant of many 
names, has a low branched stem, shining leaves, and five 
most brilliantly polished yellow petals, containing’ a host 
of stamens, and a knob of curiously shaped carpels, some¬ 
thing like commas upside down. 
There are many sorts, the grand crimson garden ranunculus 
that first came from Egypt, the merry little spring celan¬ 
dine or pilewort, with stem unbranched, and the petals 
double the usual five number, and very narrow, for con¬ 
venience of shutting up readily. 
There is a flower, the lesser celandine 
That shrinks like many more from cold or rain. 
And the first moment that the sun may shine 
“Bright as the sun himself, tis out again.” 
Besides these are the merry kingcups, laughing in the mea¬ 
dows, the small pale corn crowfoot, with the curious seed- 
vessels in the wheat fields the two white water crowfoots, 
with yellow eyes, that smile upon pools and rivers — one 
with ivy like leaves to keep it afloat on the surface of 
the stream, and short tassels of dark green beneath, the 
other growing underwater, in immense plants, lying along 
under water, waving their green hair like foliage with 
the motion of the stream, and curiously twisting or stret¬ 
ching the stalks so as always to keep the flower above 
water. 
These pretty plants all have the same acrid juice, and are sel¬ 
dom used for any purpose- of man. 
The larger CELANDINE PL. XXII, fig. «, is like a little yel¬ 
low poppy, the yellow petals so loosely attached that 
they are shaken off by a touch, but looking very pretty 
on a shady bank among their profusion of pale grey 
leaves. 
The acrid juice is sometimes used for removing white spots 
from the eye. 
PLATE XVII. — Any one would think the plant first standing 
here was the pretty purple crocus, whose ornamental 
stigma is called saffron, colours cakes, and is used for 
medicine for sick canary birds. But this meadow saffron 
is no such thing, it has six stamens instead of three, and 
flowers, not in early spring, but late in Autumn, when it 
would have no chance of ripening the seed, if it did not 
keep it within the leaves safe under ground, all the win¬ 
ter, and put it up with the leaves in the spring — as if 
by way of being unlike all other plants. The blossom 
though it appears both leafless and stemless, is a great 
ornament to the meadows in the midland counties, but the 
peQple round seldom gather it, as it is full of poison. — 
The bulb however is taken up to be used as medicine, 
under the Latin name Colchicum; for it is found very use¬ 
ful for the cure of gout and rheumatism. 
The pretty red berries of the MEZEREON, have even in the 
picture a treacherous look, and yet the plant is a great 
friend, for the dark purple flowers, on the leafless shrubby 
stems, are some of the firstlings of the year. Here and 
i 
