13 
that our word assassin is derived from haschisch, because 
the Saracens, who sometimes broke into the camp of the 
crusaders meaning to commit murder, had maddened them¬ 
selves by the use of this drug. So the hemp may he said 
in the East to commit the murders, in the West to punish 
it. The seeds of the hemp are much used for the food 
of caged birds, especially parrots, hut from their fat¬ 
tening and perhaps their narcotic quality, all bird lovers 
know that the staple of the food of their smaller pets 
must be the pretty shining’ seeds of the CANARY GRASS 
(, d ), a graceful plant, like miniature wheat. It is grown 
in the Isle of Thanet, and the seeds are thence sent to fill 
the small larders of many a merry little yellow bird, 
whose strong hill well kno’ ’s how to act as flail and win¬ 
nowing machine, scatters \ } bright chalf over his sanded 
floor or hurls it over half t ? room, and further requires 
neither windmill nor oven. The blossom will find a des¬ 
cription among the grasses. Sweet and delicious LAVEN¬ 
DER (c) with its sober grey flower and most charming 
perfume, belongs to a class called LABIATE or lipped 
flowers, of a single petal, with a deep throat, and four 
stamens two much longer than the others. The pistil is 
one, with a long style that falls off, leaving four round 
seeds in the bottom of the calyx. All the Archangels or 
dead nettles, the ground ivy, the thyme, marjoram and 
many others belong to this tribe and those with the 
naked seeds have generally a strong aromatic scent, so 
delicate and fragrant in the lavender that it is grown in 
many Gardens for the sake of gathering the whorls of 
blossoms, sewing them up in muslin hags, and putting 
them to sweeten pocket handkerchiefs, and other contents 
of our drawers. In Surrey, as well as in France and 
Italy, whole fields are planted, and the essence where 
the scent resides is distilled from the blossoms and sold 
diluted as Lavender water. 
MUSTARD (6) is one of the yellow cruciform race, bearing 
smooth leaves and siliques containing the round seeds, so 
often destroyed by “that same giant ox beef.” — Like 
the radish and horse radish, it is full of pungent flavour, 
very useful as a stimulus in correcting the greasiness of 
the said heavy Giant, and is therefore much used, when 
ground up and moistened with water. 
English mustard is chiefly grown at Durham and Tewkes¬ 
bury, and for its stinging qualities is often used to excite 
irritation on the skin, when mixed with the milder Lin¬ 
seed, the fruit of the plant next ensuing. 
PLATE XI. 
FLAX (a). The Linseed when beaten flat, so that some of the 
oil is squeezed out, for the use of painters, is made up 
into oil cake as it is is called, for the fattening of cattle. 
Flax has however a far more notable use, more worthy of its 
fair tender blue flowers, with five pistils and five stamens, 
with azure blue anthers. It has the fibrous stem of the 
hop and flax, and from the very earliest times these fibres 
have been spun and woven into LINEN, so called from 
the Latin name LINUM, and its other name USITATIS- 
SIMUM well expresses that it has always been very much 
used indeed. 
In Egypt, where it grew’ near enough to the Nile to share in 
the inundations, it was so important a crop as to be men¬ 
tioned among the plants destroyed by the hail, and in¬ 
deed the fine linen of Egypt was used for garments, for 
the swathings of mummies, and for commerce, so much 
that it must have been on u of the greatest losses inflicted 
during the ten plagues. Rahab hid the spies in the stalks 
of flax laid out to dry on the flat roof of her house and 
while white fine linen is mentioned in the Bible as one of 
the greatest articles of luxury, “he that is clothed with 
a linen frock” stands as the lowest rank. Soaked, beaten, 
spun, and woven, much as has been described with hemp, 
flax furnished all the lighter garments of mankind for 
many centuries, and was grown almost every where, and 
even now, it is the best and stoutest material, as well as 
the finest and most delicate, and furnishes the strong un¬ 
bleached holland, the firm shining Irish Linen, the fair 
white lawn and cambric, and the delicate Lace that seems 
to imitate frost work. The gloss is almost equal to that 
of silk, and it is only what is strong in texture that can 
afford to be so fine as the threads of lace. 
Silk came in, to put linen somewhat out of fashion and in time 
was followed by COTTON (b), a pretty yellow flower, 
with stamens growing together round the pistil, like those 
of the Holyoak, and with such an unusual amount of silky 
white wool growing in the seed pod, that the original in¬ 
habitants of South America had found out that it made 
excellent wadded breastplates to defend them from arrows. 
From them the Spaniards learned to call it Algodon, the word 
that we have turned into cotton. 
At the same time another species growing in India had been 
long woven in the little handlooms into the beautiful 
white soft fabric that furnished the long sweeping gar¬ 
ments of the Hindoos, and the splendid white folds of 
their Turbans. Such a covering was needed to keep off 
the burning heat of the sun from the head, and even in 
battle, warriors wore the full light folds which might often 
serve to turn a sword cut; or if a mortal wound were given, 
the soldier was often carried from the field, wrapped in 
the ample folds stretched out to serve as his winding 
sheet. The perfection of the art was to make a piece 
many yards in width, so soft and fine that it could be drawn 
through a ring. This delicate fabric is called muslin 
from the town of Mosul, and that which is a little stouter 
calico from Calicut. Little did the first importers of calico 
guess the full value of the material, or the difference it 
would make in England. Linen though it can be easily 
grown in Britain is somewhat expensive, but the abun¬ 
dance and softness of cotton makes it far cheaper, where 
there is traffic enough to make the cost of carriage less 
important, and enormous quantities are grown in India 
and Carolina, whence monstrous sacks stuffed with the 
soft white cotton wool are transported to Manchester, 
and the other towns where it is spun into thread, and 
woven into calicoes, prints, and innumerable forms, alm'ost 
all cheap, and not only enabling our own poor to afford 
much more comfort and cleanliness than ever before, but 
being’ sold throughout the world, where English printed 
calicoes are met with in the most strange and remote 
places, the most gaudy being- generally preferred by the 
most savage nations. It is the soft bed of the seeds of 
one little yellow flower that sets to work that mighty 
world of stamping, tearing, whirling steam engines that 
work on with untiring activity, and have made England 
the mightiest commercial country in the world. 
The little CORIANDER plant (c) lias not quite so wide a use. 
It has pinnate leaves, and umbellate blossoms producing 
seeds that are crushed and used in medicine. In other 
parts of Europe, they are put into bread to give it a 
flavour, but in the South, it is found a troublesome weed, 
as it becomes so luxuriant as to overgrow the wheat in 
the same field, and if bruised the scent of the stem is ex¬ 
ceedingly unpleasant. 
The RUSH tribe are endogens, and some of the simplest plants 
in creation, with scarcely branch or leaf, only straight 
stems bearing the bunches of flowers, and very poor 
flowers they are; only a few scales containing three 
stamens and one or two pistils. They grow chiefly in 
wet places, and their single stem is furnished with an 
unusually strong, tough case, containing a quantity of 
soft pith, they bend with every wind, but cannot be bro¬ 
ken without the greatest difficulty, and this has made 
them valuable for plaiting and weaving into baskets. 
The ark in which Moses was placed on the Nile, was of some 
of the great reeds of the Nile, though probably not of 
such as we have here. 
The rind of the Egyptian reed first furnished paper for wri¬ 
ting, and among ourselves, the pith of the common rush 
is used as the wicks of the cottage candles, home made 
by dipping the peeled rush in tallow. 
The BULRUSH (d) in the plate, is cut by chair makers to form 
the seats of chairs, as it is both springy and strong enough 
to take a good deal of wear, and it is also used by coop¬ 
ers, who put it at the seams of their casks, to fill up the 
space which they allow for the swelling which is sure to 
take place when the wood is wetted. 
PLANTS XII & XIII. FORAGE. 
Green herb not only grows up for the service of men, but it is 
the provision of great multitudes of cattle; all those ani- 
' 4 
