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EW. Taxus. Class 21, MONCIA. Order: POLYANDRIA. There is in every plant something which either attracts or repels us. The yew tree is considered by all nations to be the emblem of sorrow. Plants are said to die under its shade, and if the weary traveller should sleep under its umbrageous branches his head becomes affected, and he soon feels violently ill. It also exhausts the earth which yields it nourishment. Our ancestors, guided by a natural sentiment, considered it a fit resident in the cemetery, and so destined it to overshade the tomb. They used its wood for bows, lances, and cross-bows; and the Greeks also employed it for the same purposes.

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SORROW.

Beneath that yew tree's shade,

Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, Each in his narrow cell for ever laid,

The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.

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INNIA. Zinnia. Class 19, SYNGENESIA. Order: POLYGAMIA SUPERFLUA. This flower received its singular name from a German botanist, Dr. John G. Zinn. We have many species of this genus in America. The red is found on the banks of the Mississippi; the yellow is a native of Peru; the scarlet, purple-flowered and slender-flowered, of Mexico.

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ABSENCE.

Short absence hurt him more,

And made his wound far greater than before;
Absence not long enough to root out quite
All love, increases love at second sight.

MAY.

I do not doubt his love, but I could wish
His presence might confirm it: when I see
A fire well fed, shoot up its wanton flame,
And dart itself into the face of heaven;
I grant that fire, without a fresh supply,
May for a while be still a fire;
but yet
How doth its lustre languish, and itself
Grow dark, if it too long want the embrace
Of its loved pyle? how straight it buried lies
In its own ruins.

MEAD.

O thou that dost inhabit in my breast,
Leave not the mansion so long tenantless;
Lest, growing ruinous, the building fall,
And leave no memory of what it was!
Repair me with thy presence, Sylvia;

Thou gentle nymph, cherish thy forlorn swain.

SHAKSPEARE.

Love reckons hours for months, and days for years;
And every little absence is an age.

DRYDEN.

BOTANY.

BOTANY is the science of plants. It teaches their natural history and intrinsic qualities; and, to facilitate an acquaintance with these particulars, arranges all vegetables in classes, orders, and other subdivisions. This arrangement is called a system. Various systems, or plans of arrangement, have been from time to time proposed; but the sexual system of Linnæus is at present generally received. This naturalist has drawn a continued analogy between the vegetable economy and that of the animal; and has derived all his classes, orders, and genera, from the number, situation, and proportion of the parts of fructification. In twenty-four classes, he has comprehended every known genus and species. In considering a plant with a view to its characteristics or distinguishing features, it is divided by Linnæus into the following parts, making so many outlines, to which the attention of the botanical observer must be directed: 1. Root; 2. Trunk; 3. Leaves; 4. Props; 5. Fructification; 6. Inflorescence. 1. The root consists of two parts, the caudex and the radicula. The caudex, or stump, is the body or knob of the root from which the trunk and branches ascend, and the fibrous roots descend, and is either solid, bulbous, or tuberous: solid, as in trees and other examples; bulbous, as in tulips, &c.; tuberous, as in potatoes, &c. The radicula is the fibrous part of the root, branching from the caudex. 2. The trunk, which includes the branches, is that part which rises immediately from the caudex, is either herbaceous, shrubby, or arborescent, and admits of several other dis tinctions, according to its shape, substance, surface, &c. 3. The leaves are either simple, as those that adhere to the branch singly, or compound, as when several expand from one footstalk. Leaves are farther described by various terms indicative of their form and outline. 4. The props, those external parts which strengthen, support, or defend the plants on which they are found, or serve to

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facilitate some necessary secretion: as, the petiolus, or footstalk of the leaf; the pedunculus, or footstalk of the flower; the stipula, or husk, that is, the small leaves that generally surround the stalk at its divisions; the cirrhus, or tendril; the pubes, or down; the arma, or defensive weapon, as thorns. 5. The fructification, or mode of fruit-bearing. 6. The inflorescence, or mode by which the flowers are joined to the several peduncles.

The various parts of a flower are arranged under distinct heads, consisting of the "Calyx" or Empalement: the "Blossom" or Corolla: "Stamens" or Chives: "Pistils" or Pointals: "Seed Vessels" or Pericarpium, and "Seeds" or Semina. To these are to be added the "Nectary" and "Receptacle." The calyx is formed of one or more green or yellowish-green leaves placed at a small distance from, or close to the blossom. There are different kinds of calyxes, as the perianthium or cup near the flower, in the rose: the involucrum, remote from the flower, in umbelliferous plants, as is seen in the hemlock and carrot:-the catkin, or amentum, as in the willow or hazel:—the sheath, or spatha, in the snow-drop:-the husk, or gluma, in wheat, oats, and different kinds of grasses:—the veil, or calyptra, covering the fructification of some of the mosses, and resembling an extinguisher: -the curtain, or volva, surrounding the stems, and attached to the pileus, or cap, that spreading part which forms the top of several fungi, and covers the fructification, and which in the common mushroom covers the gills.

The Blossom is that beautifully coloured part of a flower, which principally attracts the attention. It is composed of one or more petals, or blossom-leaves. When it is united in one, as in the Polyanthus or Auricula, it is termed a blossom of one petal, but if it be composed of many parts, it is then said to be a blossom of two, three, or many petals.

The Stamens are slender thread-like substances, generally placed within the blossom, and surrounding the Pistils. It is composed of two parts, the Filament or Thread, and the Anther or Tip, but the latter is the essential.

A Pistil consists of three divisions, the Germen or Seed-bud, the Style or Shaft, and the Summit or Stigma; but the second

is often wanting. Some flowers have only one Pistil: others have two, three, four, &c., or more than can easily be counted. The Seed-Vessel, in the newly-opening flower, is called the Germen; but when it enlarges it is termed the Seed-Vessel. Some plants have no appendage of the kind, and then the seeds are uncovered, as in the dead nettle; the cup, however, generally incloses and retains the seeds till they ripen: and in the tribe of grasses, this friendly office is generally performed by what was previously called the blossom. Seeds are sufficiently well known to render a description unnecessary; the part to which they are affixed within the Seed-Vessel, is termed the Receptacle of the seeds.

Nectaries are those parts in a flower which are designed to prepare a sweet nectareous liquor. The tube of the blossom, as in the honey-suckle, frequently answers the purpose; but in many other flowers, there is a peculiar organization for the purpose. At the base of the petal, in the crown imperial, the Nectary is a very peculiar one, containing the liquor, from which, as there are few flowers in a greater or less degree unprovided with it, the little industrious bee derives its honey.

The Receptacle is the seat or base to which the various divisions of a flower are affixed. Thus, if you pull off the Calyx, the Blossoms, the Stamens, the Pistils, and the Seeds or SeedVessel, the substance remaining on the top of the stalk is the Receptacle. In many plants it is not particularly striking, but in others it is remarkably so; thus, in the artichoke, after removing the Calyx, the Blossoms, and the bristly substances, the remaining part, so highly esteemed for the table, is the Receptacle.

The Classes are next to be considered, which were, according to the system of Linnæus, divided into twenty-four.

The characters are taken either from the number, length, connexion, or situation of the Stamens.

The first class comprehends all that have a single stamen in each blossom, and this he calls monandria (one male); the second class such as have two stamina, called diandria (two males);

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