contains a list of one hundred and five varieties, under the head of simple leaves; of twenty-seven, under that of compound leaves; and of thirty-four, under the head of determinate leaves.

Leaves perform the most important offices in the vegetable economy; they contain sets of vessels and pores which qualify them not only to exhale redundant moisture, and the perspirable matter secreted by the plant, but also to inhale the gases of the atmosphere, and appropriate them to the perfecting of the proper juices.

The leaves are probably the organs of respiration; the health and even life of the plant depending in a great degree upon them: thus Sir Humphry Davy observes, that "the production of the other parts of the plant takes place at the time the leaves are most vigorously performing their functions. If the leaves are stripped off from a tree in spring it uniformly dies; and when many leaves of forest trees are injured by blasts, or long-continued dryness, the trees are always stag-headed and unhealthy. The leaves are necessary to the existence of the individual tree; the flowers, for the continuance of the species. The soundness of the leaves is also essential to the goodness of the fruit; for it is a well-known fact, that if the foliage of gooseberry bushes is infested by a certain small green caterpillar, the fruit invariably dwindles, is defective in size and flavour, and frequently falls off. Many remedies have been recommended; Mr. Loudon (Encycl. p. 4667), prefers hand picking; but when it is considered that the back of one single leaf may be tenanted by above a hundred of the caterpillars of the saw-fly (Larra of the Tenthredinida), it becomes a matter of calculation what might be the time occupied in picking off such a host of diminutive things, scarcely the size of a mite, from the greater proportion of leaves upon a hundred or two gooseberry bushes. The simple calculation by common multiplication, averaging the number of leaves, by counting those of one medium-sized tree, would possibly take up an hour or two of a person's time. My trees, for two successive years, were ruined as to fruit, by the ravages of these larvæ; we picked, and pulled, and washed, and limed, and fumigated with sulphur, burning it in a flower-pot saucer under the bush ;-nothing availed. At length, in the third year, I boiled a quantity of the pith of colocynth, or bitter apple, in water, and with a brush flirted the cold liquor over the leaves, the under sides particularly, as well as I was able, while another person held up the branches. Whether this bitter dose effectually destroyed the enemy, or so molested him, as to cause him to quit his quarters, I cannot exactly say; but certain it is that I saved the leaves and fruit that third year; and three years subse

quently elapsed without a recurrence of the visitation. To prepare the infusion, take a quarter of a pound of the pith, boil it in a gallon and a half of soft water till it be reduced to one gallon; strain the liquor through a hair sieve, press the pulp, and pour over it as much cold water as will make up the quantity to one gallon.

248. The Inflorescence (Inflorescentia, from In, and floresco—to produce flowers in a certain form or order) is a term used by Linnæus, to express the particular manner in which flowers are produced. It includes eleven modes or forms, that are fully detailed in the eighteenth chapter of DR. SMITH's Introduction. They are as follow:

(a.) VERTICILLUS,-a whirl or whorl." In this the flowers surround the stem in a sort of ring; though they may not, perhaps, be inserted on all sides of it, but merely on two opposite ones, as in Dead-nettle Lamium" (derived, it may be, from λapia, lamia, a sorceress, from Xaipos, laimos, the throat, indicating the gaping form) -some of the mints, Mentha, &c.

(b.) RACEMUS (possibly from pàg, payòs, a grape-berry).—“ A Cluster, or Raceme, consists of numerous, rather distant flowers, each on its own proper stalk, and all connected by one common stalk-as a bunch of currants, Ribes rubrum.

(c.) SPICA (an ear of corn).-" A spike bears numerous flowers, ranged along one common stalk, without any partial stalk"-as in the greater plaintain, Plantago major; lavender, Lavandula spica ; spiked veronica, Veronica spicata. Spicula, a spikelet, is a term applied to the grasses that have many florets in one calyx. Such florets are ranged on a little foot-stalk, and thus they form part of the flower, and not of the inflorescence. Reedy sweet grass, Glyceria-formerly Poa aquatica-is an example.

(d.) CORYMBUS (from κópvμßos, korumbos, the head or top of plants, a bunch or clustre of ivy-berries)." A Corymb is a spike, whose partial flower-stalks are gradually longer as they stand lower on the common stalk, so that all the flowers are nearly on a level; of which Spiraea opulifolia, a common shrub in the gardens, is an excelent specimen." Another may be found in the common pearlblossom, Pyrus communis.

(e.) FASCICULUS (from fascis, a bundle of twigs).-"A fascicle is applied to flowers on little stalks, variously inserted and subdivided, collected in a close bundle, level at top-as the sweet-william, Dian

thus barbatus."

(f) CAPITULUM (from caput, the head, adding the diminutiveulum, meaning a little head)." A head or tuft, bears the flowers sessile" (without partial foot-stalks, Pedicelli, 243-4), “in a globu

lar form"-as Globe amaranthus, Gomphrena globosa and Buddlea, Buddlea globosa.

(g.) UMBELLA (a little shade, an umbrella, a covering from the sun). An Umbel or Rundle." In this several flower-stalks or rays, nearly equal in length, spread from one common centre, their summits forming a level, convex, or even globose surface, more rarely a concave one. When each ray is simple, or single-flowered, it is called a simple umbel-as those of cowslip and oxlip, Primula veris, and elatior. In the compound umbel, each ray or stalk bears an umbellula, or partial umbel, as in the common carrot, Daucus carota; celery, Apium graveolens, &c."

(h.) CYMA (from xûμa, kuma, a young shoot of cabbage).-"A cyme has the general appearance of an umbel, and agrees with it so far that its common stalks, all spring from one centre, but differs in having those stalks variously and alternately subdivided. Examples are found in common laurustinus, and also in elder, Sambucus niger. This mode of inflorescence agrees with a corymbus also, in general aspect; but, in the latter, the primary stalks have no common centre, though the partial ones may sometimes be umbellate; which last case is precisely the reverse of a cyme."

(i.) PANICULA (from panus, gossamer, or millet, panic, reeds, &c. Panicula may be derived from #avos, panos, a torch, a candlestick; or, more probably, from waviкos, panicos, fear, indicating the quaking, wavy structure of the inflorescence).-"A panicle bears the flowers in a sort of loose, subdivided bunch or clustre, without any order. When the stalks are distant it is called diffusa, a lax or spreading panicle-as in Saxifraga umbrosa, London-pride, but particularly in many grasses, as the common cultivated oat, and Arena strigosa, bristle-pointed oat. In this tribe the branches of the panicle are mostly semi-verticillate: the common reed, Arundo phragmites, furnishes a most beautiful and ornamental specimen of a compound panicle; when ripe, it is brownish and grayish-purple, drooping and waving in the wind.

(k.) THYRSUS (from Oúpoos, thursos, a sprout, stem, or stalk; a spear surrounded with garlands of ivy, carried by the Bacchanals).— "A bunch is a dense or close panicle, more or less of an ovate figure, of which the lilac, Syringa vulgaris, and butterbur, Tussilago petasites, are examples cited by Linnæus." Dr. Smith thinks that a bunch of grapes is a specimen of a true thyrsus, "to the characters of which it correctly answers."

249. A Flower is divided into several parts; namely the Calyx, or flower-cup; the Corolla, or blossom; the Stamina, or male organs; the Pistillum, or pointal; the Pericarpium, or seed-vessel; the

Semen, or seed; and the Receptaculum, or receptacle. These parts admit of several divisions, which will now be concisely described.

250. CALYX (from кaλvž, kalux, the case of a flower).-The flower-cup is that external covering, usually of a greenish colour, which invests and protects the coloured floral leaves, or corolla, where that is present; or those principal and most important organs of fructification, the stamens and seed-vessel, where the corolla is wanting.

The Calyx is sometimes absent, and therefore is not absolutely essential to the perfecting of the fruit. It is distinguished by different appellations, and was by Linnæus originally divided into seven distinct kinds. The following is Dr. Smith's arrangement:

(1.) PERIANTHIUM (from πept, peri, about, and avôos, anthos, a flower) is "a calyx, properly and commonly so called, when it is contiguous to, and makes a part of, the flower, as the five green leaves which encompass the rose, including their urn-shaped base.”

(PERIGONE is a term introduced as one of the modifications of Calyx; it appears to be derived from πept, about, and povevs, peva, the parent, or generator; it invests the seed-vessel, and frequently is highly and beautifully tinted.)

(2.) INVOLUCRUM (from involvo, to enclose or wrap up),—an involucre or wrapper.-"This is remote from the flower, and can scarcely be distinguished clearly from a Bractea.”—(See 245-b.)

"The term was first adopted by Linnæus at the suggestion of his friend Artedi, in order to distinguish the genera of the umbelliferous plants, for which purpose the latter deemed the part in question very important." Dr. Smith has subsequently abandoned this distinction, as appears by his notice of the umbelliferous tribe, in the last edition of his English Flora.

(3.) AMENTUM (I can find no other translation to this term than that of "a strap, to which javelins were tied to throw them with greater violence;" however, one of the terms used by authors prior to Linnæus, nucamemtum, from nux, nucis, a nut, seems to furnish an idea of the original meaning of the word as understood by botanists), a catkin; it consists of "a common receptacle of a cylindrical form, beset with numerous scales, each of which is accompanied by one or more stamens or pistils, so that the whole forms an aggregate flower. The receptacle itself, and the bases of the scales, are firmly united, and the whole catkin falls off entire, except that in some instances the upper part of each scale withers away, as in the willow genus. The common hazel-nut furnishes an example of the catkin as respects the male blossom only: Humulus, the hop, has a catkin for the female or fertile flower.

(4.) SPATHA (a sheath or scoop, from σraon, spathe, a branch of a palm), “a covering which bursts longitudinally, and is more or less remote from the flower." One of the most familiar examples of the spatha is to be found in the common arum, vulgarly called "lords and ladies;" this also contains the fructification on a spadix (from σradı, spadix, a palm-branch with the fruit on it), or lengthened receptacle, "according to the genuine Linnæan idea of this kind of calyx, taken from palm-trees."

(5.) GLUMA (a husk).—The calyx of grasses, corn, and grass-like plants of a chaffy nature, the one usually enclosing and enfolding the other, as in quaking-grass, Briza.

(6.) PERICHETIUM.-" A scaly sheath, investing the fertile flower, and consequently the case of the fruit-stalk, in some mosses.'

(7.) VOLVA (from volvo, or involvo, to wrap), "a wrapper or covering of the Fungus tribe, of a membranous texture, concealing their parts of fructification, and in due time bursting all around, forming a ring upon the stalk, as in agaricus campestris, the common mushroom."

It must not be overlooked that modern botanists have established the fact that, when a single integument only invests the parts essential to fertility; that covering is considered as a calyx, never as a corolla. A true corolla must be situated within an external covering colour is now a secondary consideration; and therefore, the following definition of corolla must be received with some qualification.

:

251. The COROLLA (from coronella, a little crown).—The corolla is that part of the fructification which is universally admired on account of the beautiful colours it displays, and the fragrance it exhales. Like the calyx, the corolla is not absolutely essential to fertility, for it frequently is absent. "The term includes two parts, the petal, Petalum; and the nectary, Nectarium. The former is either simple, as in the primrose, in which case the corolla is said to be monopetalous" (from povos, monos, one, and πeraλov, petalon, a leaf-flower-leaf), "of one petal; or compound, as in the rose, in which it is polypetalous," or composed of several petals (from πoλus, polus, many, and Teтaλov). This part of the fructification admits of an almost infinite variety of forms, and modes of construction: it is called regular, if, as in the rose, primrose, and pink, it be uniform in figure; and irregular, when it is unequal, as in the columbine and violet. Among the irregular corollas, the most remarkable kinds are the ringent, or gaping, as dead-nettle; the personate, with a mouth or palate, as toad-flax or snap-dragon, and the papilionaceous, (from papilio, a moth or butterfly,) of which, the leguminous tribe of plants, peas, beans, vetches, clover, &c., present familiar examples.