Asiatic ranunculus (Ranúnculus Asiáticus) is a well-known and handsome flower. All the plants of this tribe possess an acrimonious principle. They received their name from rana, a frog, because many species like that animal frequent watery places. The order termed by botanists, ranunculaceæ (of which the ranunculus is the type), comprehends some of our most brilliant garden plants. Several deadly poisons are among them, and very few can be pronounced wholly innocent in their properties. They generally prevail in cold moist climates, and when found within the tropics, inhabit mountainous situations only. To this order belongs the poisonous hellebore, one species of which, the black hellebore or Christmas rose (Helleborus níger), is one of our most beautiful winter garden ornaments. The ancients considered an extract of it as a wonderful remedy in mental disorders. It is a lovely flower, rivalling in whiteness the snow which often lies around it, and the snowdrop which rears its head above it. It is called the black hellebore, to distinguish it from the two wild species which grow in our woods, its root being covered with a thick black skin. The fragrant white clematis, as well as the darker coloured kinds, belong to this order, as do also the bright and elegantly formed anemone, the globe flower, the "pæony spread wide," whose acrid root is useful in medicine, and a large number of the flowers of the summer garden. It includes the hepatica, with its pretty blue or pink blossoms, and its three-lobed leaves, which from their resemblance to the form of the liver, have given the plant its English name of liverwort, and induced our forefathers to fancy it must be a useful remedy in liver complaints. Then there is the pheasant's-eye, or Adonis, or as Gerard calls it, the rose-a-rubie, which is termed by the French, goutte-de-sang, because of the ancient fable which states it to have sprung from a drop of the blood of Adonis. It is a pretty crimson flower, very common in corn-fields in the southern counties of England, lifting its deep red cup among the green slender leaves of the wheat and barley, long before they are ripening. The marsh marigold (Cáltha), or as it was formerly called, the brave bassinet, is another ranunculaceous plant. Its young flower-buds form a good substitute for the capers which are procured from the caper bush of the continent. The larkspur (Delphínum), of which one species is used in France as a cosmetic; the wolfsbane, or monkshood (Aconitum), with its lurid purple flowers, which the ancients thought the most deadly of all poisons, and were afraid to touch; and the fennel flower, called also familiarly, love-in-a-mist, are classed with them. The aromatic seeds of the latter (Nigélla) are used in the East as pepper, and possess there much more pungency than in our climate. They are thought to be the cummin alluded to in Scripture, where our Saviour reproved the Pharisees for their scrupulosity in minor things, and their neglect of important duties. The columbine (Aquilégia) received its name from aquila, an eagle. Dr. Darwin says of it, that it is called Columbine, in English, because its nectary represents the body of a bird, and the two petals standing on each side, its expanded wings, the whole resembling a nest of young pigeons, fluttering while their parent feeds them. This flower is often found growing wild in the neighbourhood of gardens, and it has been discovered in some spots of England, where it appears to be truly wild. Withering remarks of the blossom, "the elongated and curved nectary seems to bid defiance to the entrance of the bee, in search of the hidden treasure; but the admirable ingenuity of the sagacious insect is not to be defeated; for, on ascertaining the impracticability of effecting his usual admission, he, with his proboscis, actually perforates the blossom near the depôt of the honey, and thus extracts the latent sweets." Those who examine flowers, may find the honeysuckle, or other tube-shaped blossoms, pierced in the same way by the little honey gatherer. CHAPTER VII. EVENING PRIMROSE GARDEN CENOTHERA-SHEWY CENOTHERA INTRODUCTION INTO ENGLAND OF EVENING PRIMROSE-SINGULAR MANNER OF EXPANSION-ASPECT OF COUNTRY LANDSCAPE DURING NIGHT-USE OF DARKNESS-SLEEP OF PLANTS-EXPANSION OF FLOWERS AT VARIOUS TIMES OF DAY-LIST OF TIMES AT WHICH MANY FLOWERS OPEN AND CLOSE-CHANGES OF THE INSECT WORLD IN TROPICAL CLIMATES. Now came still evening on, and twilight gray Milton. THE evening primrose (nothera biennis) is so common a flower, as to need no description. |