through an evening very well. The introduction of such a fashion might be an important advantage to the fair-sex : should the rooms be very warm, and likely to injure the beauty of their floral ornaments, and cause them to droop prematurely, they would be compelled, like Cinderella in her fairy dress, to retire at a seasonable hour, before such a catastrophe should take place; which would be of no small benefit to their health and beauty. In the East, ladies commonly wear natural flowers. Thunberg speaks upon the subject with a gallantry quite enthusiastic :

"The ladies in Batavia," says he, "wear neither caps nor hats; but tie up their hair (which is only anointed with oil, and has no powder in it) in a large knot on the crown of their heads, and adorn it with jewels, and wreaths of odoriferous flowers. In the evenings, when the ladies pay visits to each other, they are decorated in a particular manner about the head with a wreath of flowers, of the Nyctanthes Sambac*, run upon a thread. These flowers are brought every day fresh to town for sale. them is inconceivably delightful, like that of orange and lemon flowers: the whole house is filled with the fragrant scent, enhancing, if possible, the charms of the ladies' company, and of the society of the fair-sex+."

The smell of

* This plant is the Arabian jasmine: Nyctanthes signifies nightflower; it is also called arbor tristis, sorrowful tree. + Thunberg's Travels, Vol. II. p. 223.

SOLANEE.

STRAMONIUM.

DATURA.

PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

Called also Thorn-apple.-French, stramonie ; la pomme epineuse; herbe aux sorciers; herbe des magiciens [both signifying conjurors'wort]; endormie [sleeper]; herbe du diable [devil's-wort]; pomme du diable [devil's-apple]; herbe a la taupe [mole-wort]: noix metelle [metel-nut]; which last properly belongs to the datura metel.—Italian, datura; pomo spinoso [thorny-apple]; stramonio; noce metella.

SOME few of the Stramoniums require the protection of a stove: the other kinds are usually raised in a hot-bed. The Purple Stramonium is the handsomest the flowers are purple on the outside, and of a satiny white within; and blow in July. The double-flowered varieties are the most esteemed.

The Stramonium is one of the plants commonly connected with witchcraft, death, and horror. Harte, describing the plants growing about the Palace of Death, says—

"Nor were the nightshades wanting, nor the power
Of thorn'd stramonium, nor the sickly flower
Of cloying mandrakes, the deceitful root

Of the monk's fraudful cowl*, and Plinian fruit †.”

*Monk's-hood.

† Amomum Plinii.

STRAWBERRY-BLITE.

BLITUM.

ATRIPLICEE.

MONANDRIA DIGYNIA.

Blitum is derived from the Greek, and signifies, fit only to be thrown away: it is also called Strawberry Spinach, and Berry-bearing Orach. French, bléte; arroche.

THE name of these plants may not appear very inviting; but it is to be understood with some limitations: they bear fruit resembling the Strawberry in appearance; and all the name is intended to imply is, that the fruit is unfit to eat. Having thus explained matters, I will proceed to introduce the plants themselves, which, perhaps, may make a more favourable impression than if more expectation had been excited.

There are three or four species of the Strawberry-blite, all annuals, and easily raised from seed. They may be sown in March or April, three or four seeds in a pot of eight or nine inches diameter, of the Swedish kind; but only one, of the others. In five or six weeks the plants will come up, and in July will begin to show their berries. They should always be kept moderately moist, and must stand in the open air. As the flower-stems advance in height, they will require sticks to support them, or the weight of the berries will bear them down.

The Blitum Capitatum, or Berry-headed Strawberryblite, bears the largest berries.

CISTEÆ.

SUN-FLOWER.

HELIANTHUS.

SYNGENESIA POLYGAMIA FRUSTANEA.

French, l'hélianthe; fleur du soleil; soleil [the sun]; tournesol [sun-turner]; couronne du soleil [crown of the sun]: herbe du soleil [sun-wort].—Italian, girasole; fior del sol; corona del sole; girasole Indiano [Indian sun-turner]; girasole Peruano.

THE Sun-flower can scarcely be introduced here with propriety, being in general so large, even the annual kinds, as to be ill adapted for pots. The Annual Sun-flower rises to the height of twelve or fourteen feet, and the flower sometimes exceeds a foot in diameter.

Churchill speaks of it as

"the proud giant of the garden race, Who, madly rushing to the sun's embrace, O'ertops her fellows with aspiring aim,

Demands his wedded love, and bears his name."

It is not called Sun-flower, as some have supposed, from turning to the sun, but from the resemblance of the fullblown flower to the sun itself: Gerarde remarks, that he has seen four of these flowers on the same stem, pointing to the four cardinal points. This flower is a native of Mexico and Peru, and looks as if it grew from their own gold. It flowers from June to October.

The Dwarf Annual kind, which grows from eighteen inches to three feet in height, is a little more within compass.

The Perennial Sun-flower is much esteemed for bouquets; the flowers are about eight or ten inches in diameter: there is a constant succession from July to November. It is a native of Virginia.

The Dark-red Sun-flower, and the Narrow-leaved, are of a more moderate height; the first, two or three feet, the latter, a foot and a half. Both are natives of Virginia, flowering in September and October.

The Sun-flowers are hardy plants; the perennial kinds are increased by parting the roots into small heads: this should be done in the middle of October, soon after the flowers are past, or very early in the spring, that they may be well rooted before the droughts come on. They will require watering in dry weather, particularly when in pots.

Several of the Sun-flowers are natives of Canada, where they are much admired for their beauty, and cultivated, in gardens, by the inhabitants: in the United States they sow whole acres of land with them, for the purpose of preparing oil from their seeds, of which they produce an immense number. This oil is very pure, fit for salads, and for all the purposes of Florence oil*.

Thomson supports the popular notion that this flower turns ever towards the sun :

"Who can unpitying see the flowery race,

Shed by the morn, their new-flushed bloom resign
Before the parching beam? So fade the fair,
When fevers revel through their azure veins.
But one, the lofty follower of the sun,

Sad when he sets, shuts up her yellow leaves,
Drooping all night, and, when he warm returns,

Points her enamoured bosom to his ray."

Mr. T. Moore has taken advantage of the same idea, in the words of one of his Irish Melodies:

"As the sun-flower turns to her god when he sets
The same look which she turned when he rose."

"The flower enamoured of the sun,

At his departure hangs her head and weeps,
And shrouds her sweetness up, and keeps

Sad vigils, like a melancholy nun;

Till his reviving ray appears,

Waking her beauty as it dries her tears."

Clare gives a natural picture of the Sun-flower in the following description of the floral ornaments of a rustic cottage:

See Lambert's Travels in Canada, &c.