The leguminous, or papiliooaceous plants, so called from their winged blossoms, form a very important di vision in English botany. The herbage of all when fresh, and of many when dry, is a most grateful food to horses, cattle, and sheep ; and several of them, as the clovers and vetches, are largely cultivated for this pur pose. AIany of this class :re climbers, and adorn our thickets and hedges with elegant festoons of blossoms and foliage. Almost all the English papilionaceous plants flourish best in light calcareous soils, either rocky or sandy ; and some of them, as the lady's finger and sainfoin, may be reckoned certain indications of chalk or limestone.
The umbellifereus plants form another large class in the natural arrangement of English vegetables, consist ing of about 60 species. The roots and seeds of those kinds which grow on dry light soils, are frequently aromatic ; those that are natives of marshes and moist meadows, are, for the most part, in a greater or less degree, poisonous. The whole class, indeed, is a sus picious one, and, excepting the fennel and celery, not a single native species is cultivated for the food of man or beast.
Perhaps the most splendid of all the herbaceous plants, are the bulbous rooted, which, from their general resem blance to the lily, have obtained the name of liliaceous ; most of these, however, are natives of warmer climates. The sandy deserts about the Cape of Good Hope, and the shores of the Indian Ocean, produce the most beauti ful species. Of those which are found wild in England, there are only 28 species ; and the greater number of these are of rare occurrence in a truly native state. The spring and autumnal crocus, the snow-drop, the snow flake, the three kinds of narcissus, including the daffo dil, the fritillary, tulip, and lily of the valley, are more familiar to us as garden plants, than as natives of our woods and pastures. The common ones of this class are ramsons, a species of garlic, meadow saffron, and the beautiful and fragrant harebell, or wild hyacinth, one of the principal ornaments of our groves and thickets, even at a time when they are profuse of beauties.
Our native fruits belong, for the most part, to the class of rosaceous plants; such as the wood strawberry, the bullace and black thorn, the hawthorn, crab and mountain ash, the common bramble or blackberry, the raspberry, stone-bramble and cloudberry. The cherry,
the medlar, the service, and pear tree, whose fruit, when wild, is of so little account, and of such value when im proved by cultivation, belong also to this class.
One of the largest of the natural classes of English vegetables, is that of the radiated or compound flowered plants, (including about 120 species). It is rather re markable, that out of so large a number of plants, many of which are very abundant, and of great size, only a single one, the Tragoponon porffolius, (Falsafy,) should be applied to the sustenance of man, and not even a single one should be cultivated for the use of cattle ; more especially as the Lactuca virosa, (strong-scented lettuce,) is the only species possessed of deleterious pi o perties. Most of this class have an ungrateful bitter taste, and the succulent ones contain a white milky juice, of an acrid flavour. Of all our native vegetables, they are the commonest, thriving by neglect, and multiplying by persecution. The farmer and gardener are unceas ingly employed in their destruction, for they contribute little or nothing to the support of man and the larger quadrupeds ; nor is the beauty of their appearance such as to obtain for them a place in the flower garden. The annual kinds, however, producing vast multitudes of seeds, and the perennial ones being furnished with long and deeply striking roots, there is no fear of their ex termination. They occupy road sides, ditch banks, and all waste places that are incapable of cultivation, and seem peculiarly devoted to the sustenance of the grani vorous birds by their seeds, and of numerous tribes of insects by their foliage. The sow thistle, hawk weed, bur-dock, thistle, cud-weed, coltsfoot, groundsel, dan delion, daisy, and yarrow, are the most commonly occur ring genera.
Such of our trees and shrubs as have not been already mentioned, may be considered as forming a peculiar class, and one of great importance ; it is naturally sub divided into the evergreen and deciduous. The most valuable of our native evergreens are, the box, the pine, the yell, and the holly. Those of secondary consequence are the juniper and ivy. The spurge laurel, the cran berry, and those extremely ornamental plants, the Vac cinium vitisidea (red whortle berries), and uva ursi, (bear berry).