11 
after waggon goes creaking in early morning into Lon¬ 
don, laden and piled up high with the stout hard crimson 
stems cut from the fields of the nursery Gardeners, where 
grow multitudes of the plants, bearing the enormous 
leaves, the biggest perhaps that grow in our country. 
The PEA (fig. c), the BEAN, and SCARLET RUNNER, (fig. d. e) 
all belong to a very pretty and curious race called 
PAPILIONACEOUS or butterfly flowers. They always 
have five petals beautifully arranged. Above stands one 
single large one, called the Standard, whose work it is 
always to keep its back to the wind or rain, and shield 
the others. Thence grow two lesser ones called the 
wings, which close over the two innermost. These are 
joined together beneath so as to form a little ridged boat, 
the keel as it is called, containing the ten stamens, whose 
filaments again are united so as to form a covering round 
the pistil, all but one which is left loose that the germ 
may have room to grow. It is a long narrow germ, 
and, after the blossom is fallen off, becomes a pod, contain¬ 
ing’ six seeds, fastened alternately to the sides of the 
case. Some people have said that the pod is like the ca¬ 
terpillar, the flower like the butterfly, the round seed like 
the egg — but think of it as we will these papilionaceous 
flowers are some of the prettiest and most valuable that 
we possess. Most of them have weak stems, and cling to 
some support by pretty spiral or branching tendrils, and 
their leaves are usually very regularly arranged. Our 
garden Pea has blossoms like a white butterfly, sea green 
alternate leaves, and a pod containing seeds, most excellent 
when young and green, and when hard and dry, very 
good for making soup, and often given to pigeons. Pulse 
or hard dry pease, being easy of carriage, has been often 
Pilgrim’s fare, although nothing can be more uninviting. 
The broad Bean is a lower plant, not needing support, and 
with a beautiful white flower, the standard adorned with 
a jet black spot, and so carefully rolled up that Bees can 
only steal the honey by drilling a hole through the base. 
The large grey fruit grows in pods, and has always been 
the trusty comrade of bacon at the dinner table. A smaller 
sort is grown in fields for horses, and gives a delicious 
smell when in blossom. 
Scarlet runners grow to such a length so quickly that they 
may be supposed to have furnished the beanstalk by 
which Jack climbed to the moon. They have heart sha¬ 
ped leaves, brilliant scarlet flowers, and seeds of a lovely 
pink at first, and afterwards polished black variegated 
with lilac, a favorite plaything for small children, but 
they are not often allowed to ripen many seeds, for the 
portion usually eaten is the young seed pod, chopped into 
long narrow pieces and boiled. The bright blossoms make 
the scarlet runner very ornamental. 
PLATE IX. PLANTS USEFUL IN DO¬ 
MESTIC ECONOMY THE ARTS etc. 
Many plants, though not directly used as food are exceedingly 
valuable, either as ingredients in the preparation of food, 
as medicine, or as clothing. 
Among the first of these stands the HOP (a), one of the most 
graceful as well as the most valuable of plants. It has a 
long weak stem, of very tough texture, but unable to 
support itself. And therefore clinging to any support that 
it can find, twisting as it grows, so that the veins go spi¬ 
ring round the stem, which is all over rough prickly short 
bristles, the better to take hold. The leaves are of the 
beautiful form named pinnate, or winged, having one or 
sometimes two wings parting from the foot stalk, like a vine 
leaf. The blossoms belong to the race which have the sta¬ 
men and the fruit bearing blossoms growing from separate 
roots. The barren flowers grow in small spikes, the corolla is 
green, and contains five yellow stamens, but these soon 
die away, and are seldom noticed. The fruit bearing 
blossoms are in most graceful green catkins, consisting of 
green scales, growing one over the other, the largest 
uppermost, so as to form a larg’e loose drooping cluster, 
round above, pointed below, and about as large as a 
Blackbird’s egg. Under each scale is a single carpel, bea¬ 
ring two styles. The catkins grow near together, on foot¬ 
stalks, hanging down, and ranged in spiral lines on the 
branch from the main stem. There is a wild ease, a regu¬ 
lar irregularity which makes the Hop so beautiful that it 
would be grown for ornament even if it were of no use. And 
nothing can be prettier than it is, trained round a porch, 
or following its own wild will on a hedge side. But though 
we often see it wild, and many of us have enjoyed gathe¬ 
ring the young shoots in the hedge, to be boiled like aspa¬ 
ragus , it is not a native. There is an old rhyme which 
tells us that. “Turkeys, Carp, Hops, Pickerel and Beer 
came to England all in one year.” And that year was in 
the time of King Henry VIII. Not but what there had 
been beer, or at any rate, ale in England ever since there 
were Anglo Saxons, but they put into it the blue ground 
ivy which they therefore called ale hoof, before the Hop 
was brought from Flanders, with the French name Beer, 
which, probably means something to drink. 
Hops were at first grown all over England, and thus spread 
into all the hedges and woods, but there was a duty im¬ 
posed on the selling them which checked the cultivation, 
and they are now chiefly grown in Kent and Sussex, 
where large fields are yearly planted with them, and 
poles about three yards apart are set for their support. 
A Hop field with this multitude of green garlands is a 
beautiful sight. There is one enemy, the hop aphis, a 
little insect, which often does great mischief, but is kept 
in check by crowds of the little scarletLady bird. — This 
pretty creature likes no food so well as the aphis, and 
is thus the greatest friend of the hop grower. Hopping, 
as the gathering in the hop catkins is called, begins just 
after harvest. The plant is cut down, so the poles are 
taken up, and men, women and children turn out in 
crowds to gather the green bunches. They are then stored 
in great sacks, called pofcets, like huge bolsters, gene¬ 
rally marked with the horse, the ensign of Kent and sold 
to be put into beer. The bitter taste and narcotic, or 
sleepy quality of Beer is owing to the Hop, which has a 
very peculiar and refreshing smell, making a hop garden 
exceedingly pleasant and wholesome. A pillow stuffed 
with hop catkins is sometimes found beneficial in soothing 
the nerves and inducing sleep. In the time of his first at¬ 
tack of insanity, King George III was greatly calmed and 
refreshed by using a hop pillow, which gave him sound 
and healthy sleep. 
It is to a very different use that the next plant in the picture 
is applied, neither serving for food nor for dress, but yet 
so valuable in the preparation of dress, that the clothier’s 
ensign is three heads of TEASEL. (6) 
The Teasel belongs to the race called aggregate flowers, 
namely those which flock closely together within one com¬ 
mon involucre like the compound flowers, but unlike them 
have always perfect florets, and follow the rule of four 
instead of five. The pistil is single, the stamens four, the 
lilac corolla of one petal, divided into four, the deep ca¬ 
lyx in two divisions, the upper short, the lower very long, 
and both adhering to the seed. The blossoms are all 
packed so closely together as to form an oval head, whence 
tho long calyx leaves stretch out on all sides, so as to form 
a complete array of bristles garnished every where with 
minute hooks, such as would scratch and tear any enemy 
to the delicate flower, which blossoms within this head 
‘well armed with pointed spears,’ in circles, a single wreath 
round the head opening at a time, so that the Teasel is 
crowned with a gradually ascending fillet of lilac. The in¬ 
volucre consists of four long prickly pointed leaves, the 
stem, also hard and prickly, is perfectly straight, upright 
and regular bearing the one main head in the middle, 
and sometimes at the joint in the stem, putting out two 
straight branches opposite to each other, each bearing 
a lesser head. The leaves, long, taper, pointed, and with 
each midrib armed at the back with angry hooks, grow 
in pairs, opposite to each other, and without footstalks, so 
that the large ones at the lower part absolutely join to¬ 
gether and make one single leaf, or cup round the stem, 
so deep and firm as to form a pool of water, caught from 
the rain or dew, and there retained to nourish the plant. 
For this reason it was named D1PSACUS, from a Greek 
word meaning thirsty, and it has also been sometimes cal¬ 
led VENUS’S-KETTLE. Our word Teasel must come from 
the fretting, fraying or teasing of the little hooks, cat¬ 
ching hold of threads, and never letting go. Yet it is in 
