constitute an article of food; beer is obtained from the roots of others; and, finally, Aspidium fràgrans has been used as tea. Division and seeds. 504. Tribe 2. OsMUNDA CEE 503. Tribe L. POLYPODIA CEE 2921 Asplenium L. 20 2922 Canópteris Berg. 2923 Allant dia R. Br. 2901 Polybotrya H. & B. 2902 Acróstichum L. 2945 Osmanda L 2925 Diplázium Siz 2903 Hemionitis L. 2926 Pteris L. 1 2908 Polypodium L. 2948 Schiza`a Sm lig. 0. herb. 1 £2 505. Tribe 3. GLEICHENIE`L 2909 Tænitis Swz. 2932 Cheilanthes Suz. 0 2 2949 Gleichènía Sm. Genus 1, Species 10; Hot-house Species 0; Green-house Species 0; Hardy Ligneous Species 0; Marsh plants, with a verticillate arrangement of their branches, and a highly indurated epidermis. Their seeds are remarkable for a hygrometrical movement. The quality of some is said to be hurtful to cattle, which is denied by others. Formerly they were used in medicine as astringents and diuretics. Equisetum hyemale has been employed for tea, and as a polishing material for furniture, under the name of Dutch rushes. Divisions. Genera 2, Species 19; Hot-house Species 1; Green-house Species 2; Hardy Ligneous Species 0; With the habits of mosses they have the seeds of ferns. They are herbaceous prostrate plants, with imbricated simple leaves. Lycopodium complanatum, Selago, and clavatum are used as dyes; the sporules of Lycopòdium clavatum are said to be employed for ameliorating wine, and are also used in making fire-works, on account of their inflammable nature. The herb of Lycopodium clavatum and Selàgo is emetic, and produces abortion. Lycopodium Phlegmària is reputed an aphrodisiac. Divisions. Genera 4, Species 4; Hot-house Species 0; Green-house Species 0; Hardy Ligneous Species 0; Floating or erect simple-leaved plants of no known use. The Marsileas, which are to some countries what Winter plants, reviving in humid air, abundant about the poles, rare at the equator. They cover the mountains of the earth as high as the limits of perpetual snow; growing in patches, they clothe the most barren spots with verdure, preserve trees from heat and cold, prepare the earth for nourishing more perfect plants, and fill up bogs and morasses with vegetable matter. To the economy of nature they are, therefore, more subservient than to the purposes of man. Medicinal astringent properties were formerly ascribed to some few, but they are now neglected or forgotten. Creeping small plants, with their leaves arranged in an imbricated manner. They differ from Lichens in structure, color, and fruit; from Músci, in the dehiscence of their capsule. Their qualities are mild, if any; some of them are fragrant. The genera under the following orders, being arranged under the same orders in the Linnean system, according to their natural affinities, are not here repeated. 513. ORDER VII. A'LGÆ. Plants ascending from the simplest form known in vegetation to a very compound state. The lowest are filiform, leafless, with their fructification immersed; the highest are leafy, with the fructification included in an indehiscent wart-like pericarpium. Some copulate like animals, others have a spontaneous motion like Their color is lively, in the lowest grades green, in the highest red or purple. Some are ephemeral worms. and microscopical, annual or perennial, and others extend to the length of many fathoms. They grow at the bottom of the sea, or in fresh water, the depths of which they clothe with vegetation, as the higher orders of plants cover the earth with forests. They grow on stems in the water only, or on each other. Some exhale oxygen, others are scented like violets. Their taste is mild; their substance gelatinous, membranous, or coriaceous, usually covered externally with mucus. The structure of the lowest is articulated; of the highest fibrous. 514. ORDER VIII. LICHE`NES. Genera 35, Species 412. Lichens are not only most useful in the economy of nature, as preparing the surface of the earth for the reception of larger vegetables, but they are, moreover, of great utility to man. Many, as Cetrària islandica, are eatable, having a bitter principle, and giving out a styptic tincture if immersed in alcohol. Others, steeped in urine or salts, are used for dyeing; crustaceous species of this kind are Variolària orcina, Lecanòra tartàrea, Leprària chlorina, &c. ; foliaceous species, Parmèlia saxát lis, Sticta pulmonacea, Solorina crocea, Gyróphora deusta and pustulata, &c.; and branched kinds, Roccella tinctòria the common Orchal), U'snea plicata, Alectòria jubàta, and others. In medicine, Cetrària islàndica and nivàlis, Sticta pulmonàcea, Alectòria usneoides are tonic and nutritive; Parmèlia parietina, Borrèra purpuràcea, Evérnia Prunástri, &c., are astringent and febrifugal; Peltidea aphthòsa, anthelmintic; Evernia vu pina, poisonous. Some yield a gum, as Evernia Prunástri; Sticta pulmonacea may be employed for bittering beer instead of hops, and Ramalina scopulorum instead of soap. The various species give the grey hue to old walls and stones, cover desert heaths, and mottle the bark of ancient trees. 515. ORDER IX. FU'NGI. Genera 159, Species 1157. We have now reached the lowest station of vegetable existence, in arriving where the vesicles which compose the vegetable fabric are combined in various forms, according to the contingent circumstances under which they are developed. The mould on the cheese, the ergot of corn, the rust of the rose, and the huge Boletus, which, in Java, spreads out its many-handed body from the trunks of ancient trees like a vegetating demon, differ only in the number of the vesicles of which they are composed. Many species are eatable, as Agaricus campestris; others are deadly, as Bolètus scaber: some are used medicinally, as Dædalea suaveolens in coughs; Agaricus taba reginæ in diarrhea; Agaricus piperàtus in calculous disorders; Phallus Mokisin against cancer; Polyporus annosus against the bites of serpents. Some Coprini are used for healing ulcers; Polyporus officinalis as a purgative; Polyporus igniàrius as a styptic; Polyperus destructor, and a number of others, constitute dry rot. For the poison of fungi, the roots of garlic, the leaves of parsley, and tincture of lacmus, are said to be remedies; so also is common spirit. Fungi swarm in all the coldest countries of the world, but as we approach the equator they are extremely rare; the place where they most flourish is Sweden, and the adjacent regions. After the most perfect classification which the present state of botanical knowledge renders practicable, there still remain a few genera which are incapable of having their true station assigned to them, either in consequence of their structure being incompletely known, or of their affinity not having yet been discovered. As far as this work is concerned, they are the following, all of which are Dicotylédones. 3341 Márlea Rox. 2731 Trichócladus Pers. |2994 Laurophyllus Thun. THE foregoing Arrangement is founded on that given by Mr. Lindley in the Encyclopædia of Plants; but to suit it to the purposes of this Catalogue, it necessarily required a great many alterations and addí tions, for which Mr. Lindley is not responsible. —J. C. L. |