MARMORATUM. In building, a cement of pounded marble with lime.
Alatea. This is a genus of tall, free-flowering plants. The biennial and anm_al kinds should be sown in the open border in spring, and transplanted when sufficiently strong. The herbaceous kinds may be increased by dividing the roots or by seeds. A. roxea, the parent of the many beautiful varieties of holly hock, yields a blue coloring matter equal to indigo. The common marsh-mallow (A. offici nails) is in England an indigenous perennial, growing abundantly in marshes, especially toward the sea. The root is perennial, tap shaped, rather woody-. Bees are very fond of its melliferous flowers. The whole plant, especially the root, yields in decoction a plentiful, taste less, colorless mucilage, besides a fatty oil, uncrystallizable sugar, starch, and phosphate of lime. It is emollient, and- salutary in cases of internal irritation. A syrup made with the root, as well as the decoction, is an officinal prepara tion used in the coughs of children.
Caltha. The species of this genus are showy, and do best in a moist situation, but will grow and flower in a common border. They may be increased by seeds or
divisions. The British indigenous species are two in number, viz: The common marsh-mari gold (C. palustris) which grows in marshy meadows, and about the margins of ponds, rivers, and brooks, almost everywhere. It is perennial in habit, blooming in March and April. The root is thick and somewhat tuberous, with many siniple fibers. Stem twelve or eighteen inches high, round, hollow, leafy, branched, fur rowed. Leaves variously heart-shaped, rounded. Flowers from three to five, large, bright, yellow, on alternate solitary stalks. The flower buds, pickled, serve for capers, which they resemble, except in having numerous germens. A double variety is frequent in gardens. Creep ing marsh-marigold (C. radicans). This species is found by the sides of lakes and rivulets in Scotland, and is scarcely half the size of the common C. palustris. A double variety of this is cultivat ed near London.