Order 26. MULTISILIQUIE. This consists of four sections. In the first are Pceonia, Aquilegia, .Aco nitum and Delphinium, to which Linnaeus, alter much diversity of opinion, finally determined to add Cimi cifuga and Actrza. The second contains Dictamnus, Rata and Peganum : the third Nigella, Garidella, Isopyrum, Trollies, Helleborus, Caltha, Ranunculus, Myosurus and Adonis : and the fourth Anemone, Atragene, Clematis, and Thalictrum. " Most of the order, with a few exceptions, are of European grovith ; rarely arboreous or shrubby, except such species of Clematis as climb trees. The roots are fibrous, sometimes tuberous. Leaves often many cleft, or compound; but in a few instances simple ; all alternate, except in Clematis integrifolia. There are no stipules, spines, nor prickles. One or two kinds of Clematis bear tendrils. Flowers in no case monopetalous. Stamens always more than eight, except in the second section. Fruit in some capsu lar, in some single-seeded. An acrid taste prevails through the whole. Their odour is disagreeable, almost universally, so that none is esculent, and many, if not all are poisonous, though there is no milky plant among the whole, nor any one with a twining stem." Linnaeus remarks, that " a calyx is very rarely present, and when it occurs, manifest ly originates from tip leaves ;" but this is not appli cable to Ranunculus and its nearest relations, nor to any genus in the second section ; that section in deed being a most distinct order of itself, called by Jussieu Rutacem, but not well defined by him.
Order 27. RHOLADES. The Poppy tribe. No remark on this order is found in the lectures of Lin naeus, but he has made some manuscript notes. He wished to remove if next to the 24th and to place its genera thus, Argemone, Chelidonium, Papaver, Podophyllum, Sanguinaria and Bocconia. Sangui naria, he observes, has the flower of Actcea, which last genus he had once brought hither. He has 0 , nally placed here Aristolochia, Asarum and Cytinus, as we have mentioned under the 11th order. Nyns eha a also is indicated, but afterwards erased, which is unfortunate.
Order 28. Luninz. The gloomy family of night shades, henbane and tobacco. " This order is a most distinct and evident one. All the plants have alternate leaves ; a five.cleft calyx ; monopetalous corolla ; stamens four or five ; pistil one ; germen superior ; seed-vessel of two cells, in some a berry, others a capsule. Their corolla folds in a plaited manner." Digitalis, Celsia, Verbascum, Nicotiana, Atropa, Hyoscyamus, Datura, Physalis, Solanum, Capsicum, are examples of this order. " They are none of them arboreous, though some are shrubby. Colour (of the herbage) mostly dull and lurid ; the taste disagreeable, smell nauseous; hurtful to the nerves, hence their generally poisonous qualities." El lisia is properly expunged in the manuscript, and Nolan with equal propriety removed hither from the 41st order.
Linnaeus observes, that " the poisonous quality of Verbascum appears in its power of killing fish, if made up into balls with meal." " Nicotiana rusti
ca," he says, " furnishes the Turks with their best tobacco, yet it is not cultivated by us, though it grows readily. Atropa. Mandragora, a most poison ous and dangerous plant, becomes, under proper management an excellent and powerful medicine," for instances of which Linnaeus referred his hearers to his lectures on the Materia Medic& These, as Giseke notices, were never published. On turning to the thanuscripta used by the professor in that course, we find the Mandragora mentioned as " vi rose, acrid, bitterish and nauseous, useful in the gout and colic ; the herb boiled in milk, and applied to scirrhous tumours, more active in dispersing them than hemlock or tobacco. Three of the berries boiled in milk, given to a potter, labouring under a dreadful cholic, threw him into a sleep for twenty four hours, out of which he awoke cured. The ancients gave an infusion of this plant in wine, be fore they amputated a limb. Its narcotic qualities render it very useful in epilepsy and hysteria, though to be cautiously administered. Nothing can be more dangerous in a state of pregnancy. The editor of Hernandez, Mist. Nat. Mexic. Book viii. chapter 28, speaks of this fruit as eatable, without any soporific or injurious effect." Linnaeus himself appears to have been doubtful about Catesbma. which he has marked as akin to his • Dumosce. Giseke has subjoined an observation, not well fbunded, of the Solandra of Swartz being hardly distinct from Datura.
Order 29. CAMPANACEM. These Linnteus has noted as most nearly allied to the 24th order. " They never form trees, rarely shrubs. Leaves in every instance alternate ; Calyx and corolla five cleft; stamens five ; pistil one, except Evolvulus, which has at least a deeply. four-cleft style, if not four distinct ones. Fruit a capsule. They are milky plants, at least while young and tender. Their qualities there fore are purgative, and but slightly poisonous." Convolvulus and Campanula, with their respective allies, constitute this order. To the latter. Viola is supposed to be connected, through the medium of Lobelia. Parnassia, though in the manuscript rightly said to be not milky, stands at the end, its af finity being indicated by the nature of the flower stalk, calyx, as well as the seeds and their situation, but especially the nectaries and stigma. The anthers come one after another and impregnate the latter, retiring subsequently in their turns. Their close ap plication to that part, as Linmeus conceived, render ed the access of extraneous pollen impossible, " hence" says he " no more species of this genus can be produced." This alludes to his hypothesis of new and permanent species, or even genera, hav ing been generated, from time to time, in the vege table kingdom, by cross impregnation ; which we are very unwilling to admit, nor do any of his instances prove satisfactory to us. As to Parnassia, we now know several American species, as distinct -as those of any other genus.