Dent here, as consisting of corolla and calyx united. In some kinds of Anthencum, and in Veratrum, the petals are likewise permanent, but in a faded condi tion. The stamena are universally three of them . interior. Germeo superior. In Aloe the pistil is so litary, and three-cleft; but the style is divided to the very base into three parts in Melanthium Helonias Veratrum, and one species of Ornithogalum. All the tribe have a capsule of three cells, and three • valves, the seeds being placed one above another." " There is no uniformity in the qualities of the Coronaries, there being among them a great diversi ty of scent. The nauseous smell of Fraillaria lupe rialis and Veratrum indicates a very poisonous qua lity,. of which likewise Aloe partakes. Lilium is mild ; its root inodorous and mucilaginous ; its qua lities therefore are emollient and lubricating Scilla maritime is in the highest degree acrid and diuretic, dissolving viscid humours. The root of Ornithoga lum umbellatunt, as well as of 0. luteum, is eatable. The former appears to be the Dove's dung, sold for so high a price during the siege of Samaria, as recorded in the Second Book of Kings, chap. vi. v. 25 ; in the first place, because it is very abundant in Palestine, whence the English• call it Star of Bethle hem ; secondly, because the flower, resembles the dung of pidgeons and other birds, in its greyish and white partycoloured hue, whence also comes the name Ornithogalum, or bird's milk, alluding to the white.substance, always accompanying the dung of these aninials; and lastly, because the root in question is to this day eaten in Palestine, at least by the poor." (See English Botany, t. 130.) " Wepfer has proved, by many experiments, the very poisonous nature of the root of the Crown Im perial, which kills dogs, wolves, and various other animals. ' The ancients relate that the honey of its ' flowers caused abortion. No flower, except Meli ant hiss, produces more of this fluid, yet the bees do not collect it ! We owe this fine plant, now so com mon, to Clusius, who more than two hundred years ago received it, along with the Horse-Chesnut, from the east. He likewise acquired many other bulbs, before unknown, now become the ornaments of our gardens. From his time, no one has taken the same pains. Certainly if any person could travel, for this object, into the interior of Persia and the kingdom of the Mogul, he would be likely to obtain many superb plants of this order, as recent travellers to the Cape of Good Hope have made us acquainted with so many novelties among the Ixice, Antholyxce, &c. of which Hermann, Oldenland, &c. their prede cessors, have not mentioned a word. Tulipa Gesne riana is so called, because it was procured by Con rad Gesner, from Cappadocia, whence it has become common throughout Europe : its endless varieties are the delight of florists, and some of them fetch a high price.
Linnaeus in his own manuscript has, as we have already said, removed Brotnelia Tillandsia, and Burnianaia, from this order to the Palmer, or at least an appendix thereto.
Order 11. SA RMENTACEIE. " Sarmenta among the ancients meant unarmed, prostrate, weak branches, unable to support themselves ; hence this name is applied to the order before us, many plants belong ing to which answer to that character, being of a long, weak, trailing or twining habit. The Sarmen tacece are monocotyledonous. They differ much in fructification, and may be variously arranged ; either by their calyx and corolla ; the number of their sta mens or of their pistils ; the nature of their fruit ; or the inferior and superior situation of their germen. Hence it appears that no common character, appli cable to the whole order, can be deduced from the fructification." " Raiania, Tams, Dioscorea, Smilax, Cissampelos, Menispermum and Ruscus, form one assemblage, all except the last having the above-mentioned kind of stem, twining to the left, not to the right, except in one species of Menispermum. Such a difference is rare between plants of the same natural order. Smi lax supports itself by two tendrils, springing from near the base of the footstalks ; all the rest are spi ral, and without examination of the fructification, may easily be confounded. The above are dioecious
except one or two species of Rums." (Centelils ranged among these in • Gen. Pl. is now referred to. Hydrocotyk.) " Draccena, Asparagus, Convallaria, Uvularia,.' Gloriosa and Erythronium, compose another section. The last is intermediate, as it were, between the pre sent order and the Coronaria. thoriosa simplex is a small plant, not unlike Erythronium, with reflexed petals." (What Miller, who is Linnieus's sole autho: rity for this species, intended, nobody has ever been able to make out.) Medeola, Paris and Trillium, have whorled leaves, except M. asparagoides, which scarcely dif fers from the genus Asparagus, except in having three styles instead of one." Aristolochia, Asarum and Cytsnus, nearly akin to each other, are removed from this order, by the au-' thor in his manuscript, to the 27th, Rhoeadece, but not without a query. In the same place•we meet with what may perhaps prove a solution of the mystery, which Giseke was so anxious to unriddle, and to which we have already alludecl in the beginning of this part of our subject. Linnaeus has here men tioned Nymphma, as having in some of its species one cotyledon, in others two. He notes also that Menis um . and Aristolochia are dicotyledonous. Nym cea however appears to be the great secret, whit the worthy professor told his pupil, that he, or some other person, might chance to find out in ten, twenty or fifty years, and would then perceive that Linnaeus himself had been aware of it. According ly, Gaertner and Jussieu have made the same disco very, or rather, fallen into the same mistake ; de scribing Nympkea as monocotyledonous, and Cy amus Sm. Exot. Bot. v. i. 59. (their Nelumbo, or Nelumbium), as in some measure dicotyledonous.. The excellent De Condone, in the Bulletin des Sciences, n. 57, published in 1802, has first ly considered both as dicotyledonous, and akin the Papaveracem of Jussieu, the Linnagin Mom— ,. deer..
Linnaeus, in his lectures, proceeds to observe, that: he " wanted to make further inquiry into the cotyle dons of his Sarmentacece, for though he knew that several of these plants were monocotyledonous, he knew two, and did not doubt there were more, per., fectly dicotyledonous. Hence he suspected the or der might be separated into two, in other respects. very closely related." " The roots of all this family are oblong and fleshy, except Erythronium, whose radicles are long and quite simple ; those of Smilax Sarsaparilla run very deeply into the ground, and are sometimes so. thickened at the ends as to become tuberous. The: stem at first coming forth is smooth and leafless, mostly branched, except in Paris and Trillium ; in . some prostrate. Leaves in every instance simple and undivided, sometimes linear, sometimes lanceo late and acute, or heartshaped, uniform, mostly al. ternate ; except when three or more stand together in a whorl, and in Dioscorea oppositifolia. It is rare that alternate and opposite leaves occur in the same natural order. Flowers mostly on simple stalks, Smilax excepted, which has umbels; they are droop ing except in Paris. Stamens universally six, ex.. cept in Menispermum. Styles three, or three-cleft.. All the genera, almost without exception, are defi cient in either calyx or corolla. The fruit is gene-. rally of three cells. Inflorescence axillary in all ex cept Erythronium, which has but one flower, and Ruscus, where it springs from the leaf." . " Their qualities are to be judged of by the smell. All of them ..betray something of malignity, except two insipid ones which are eatable, Dioscorea and Asparagus. Gloriosa is very poisonous ; the dried flowers of Lily of the Valley cause sneezing, like Veratrum, that is, they produce convulsions. Paris has always been deemed poisonous. One kind of Clasen:pc/0s, named Pareira brava, and Smilax, are known- by physicians to be highly diuretic, as well as the roots of Asparegta. Mixispernates Coc ' cults* kills fishes, lice, and men." " This whole order is entirely without pubescence, even the prickly Smilaces." Next follow the Dicotyledonous Orders.