been emphatically named "The Englishman's Foot ;" for, with a strange degree of certainty, wherever it is found there our countrymen have trod. P. Coronopus has been eaten as a salad, but it is too bitter and astringent to be palatable; and these properties, which are perhaps more subdued in it than most of the other species, has recommended some of them as expectorants and vulneraries. Strange tales once were told of their sanative powers, and of which the boast, consumption curable by plantain, may serve to exemplify the style. The leaves and roots of P. media, Holostea, &c. have been used in decoction as astringent lotions; and the seeds of P. Psyllium, arenaria, and Cynops, which are peculiarly mucilaginous, have been made into demulcent drinks, and form a good substitute for linseed and marsh-mallows. The seeds of the other common species are a favorite food with small birds. The besom plantain is a curious variety of P. major, in which the bracteole become inordinately developed and imbricate; and the rose-plantain is another variety, in which they become whorled at the end of the scape, and expand so as to resemble a rose. (4676.) ARMERIACEE. The Thrift (Armeria), and the Lead-wort (Plumbago), with their allies, are herbaceous plants, with shortened stems, or suffrutescent, rarely shrubs. Their leaves are alternate or clustered, simple, somewhat sheathing at the base, but exstipulate, and marcescent. The inflorescence is aggregate, glomerulate, subcapitulate or spicate, seldom paniculate; the peduncles often scapiform; the flowers regular and united, and furnished with 3 bracteolæ, which are frequently scarious. The calyx is free, tubular, and persistent, scarious or coloured; equal, 5-plaited and 5-toothed; the torus is undeveloped; the corolla syn- or apo-petalous, hypogynous, equal, with a 5-parted limb, the lobes 1-nerved, and the tube 5angled, or the petals 5, and discrete; the æstivation is contorted; the stamina are definite, opposite the petals or lobes of the corolla, hypogynous in the synpetalous species, epipetalous in the others. The filaments are straight in æstivation; the anthers 2-celled, with parallel contiguous locules, distinct below, and dehiscent lengthwise by chinks. The pollen is round or oval, and covered with mucilage; the germen is free, sessile, 1-ovuled, the ovule pendulous from a lengthened podosperm arising from the bottom of the ovary; the styles 5 (seldom 4 or 3), distinct, seldom connate; and the stigmata equal to them in number. The fruit is membranaceous, utricular, irregular, dehiscent, or scarcely opening; the seed solitary and inverted, with a simple covering, not mucilaginous; the albumen farinaceous, the embryo straight and axile, and the radicle superior. (4677.) Hence, selecting the chief differential characters, the Armeriacea are syn- or apo-petalous Plantaginæ, with regular flowers, the stamens straight in æstivation, the calyx 5-plicate; a utricular, scarcely dehiscent fruit, and solitary seeds, pendulous from a lengthened basal podosperm, and mealy albumen. (4678.) The diversity found amongst the genera as to the union or discretion of the petals and styles, has caused two subtypes to be instituted, and their difference in properties would appear to sanction the proposed segregation. These, from Plumbago and Statice, are called the Plumbaginidæ and Staticide. (4679.) In the Plumbaginide the corolla is synpetalous, the styles connate, and the fruit subcapsular; (4680.) While in the Staticide the corolla is pentapetalous, the styles distinct, and the fruit irregularly dehiscent from its base. (4681.) PLUMBAGINIDE. The different species of Plumbago are remarkable for the acridity of their juices. One was used in ancient times as a stimulating application to remove opacity of the cornea, which disease was then called Plum bum, and hence the present generic name. P. Europaa, like other acrid plants, has been used to relieve toothach; and by the French it is called dentelaire, or toothwort. In decoction it has also been recommended as a stimulating wash to old and sluggish ulcers, and as a kind of potential cautery to cancers; but Sauvage de la Croix says, that a young woman, who had it applied, affirmed that the pain it occasioned was intolerable, and that she felt as if being "flayed alive." It is said to be a certain cure for the mange in dogs and horses, and, like the ranunculi, is sometimes used by beggars to ulcerate their skin. Plumbago rosea, the blister-root of Rumphius, as well as the bruised bark and root of P. Zeylanica and scandens, will raise vesications like cantharides; the latter, on account of its acridity, is called the Devil's wort in St. Domingo. P. Europea, administered internally in small doses, is said to be as effectual an emetic as ipecacuan. (4682.) STATICIDE. The thrift (Armeria), and sea-lavender (Statice), are, like the Plumbagines, very ornamental plants; but they differ greatly from them in their properties. They are bitter, tonic, and astringent; and several have been found very serviceable medicines in diarrhoea and dysentery. Statice Caroliniania is said to be one of the most powerful astringents known. The root is the part employed, and in America it is much esteemed. (4683.) GLOBULARIACEE. The Globularia, which form this type, are low shrubs, undershrubs, or perennial herbaceous plants, with roundish non-articulated branches, simple, entire, marcescent leaves, alternate or crowded, exstipulate, and nigrescent. The inflorescence is terminal or axillary, capitulate, the receptacle being convex, pedunculate, paleaceous, and girded by a polyphyllous abbreviated involucrum. The flowers are irregular, seldom regular, and united. The calyx is free, persistent, herbaceous, synsepalous, and bilabiate, the upper lip being trifid, the lower bifid; seldom regular, with a 5-cleft limb. The corolla is hypogynous, synpetalous, tubulose with an unequal limb, two-lipped, rarely unilabiate, the upper lip the smallest, bipartite or obsolete, the lower trifid and elongated; seldom regular. The torus is obsolete. The stamens 4, exserted from the upper part of the tube of the corolla, and alternate with its lobes, the axial or upper stamen being wanting, and the others somewhat didynamous. The filaments are free, capillary, and incurved in æstivation. The anthers reniform and versatile, 2-celled, the cells confluent into 1, and dehiscent lengthwise by chinks. The germen is free, 1-celled, with a solitary ovule, pendulous from an elongated podosperm. The style 1 and terminal, and the stigma simple or emarginate. The fruit is utricular, small, and indehiscent; surmounted by the persistent style, and invested by the calyx. The seed solitary and pendulous, the albumen fleshy, the embryo straight and axile, the radicle superior, and about the length of the cotyledons, which are ovate. (4684.) Hence, differentially considered, the Globulariacea are capitate Plantagine, with mostly irregular flowers; the stamens alternating with the lobes of the corolla, and often didynamous; the fruit superior, 1-celled, indehiscent, and monospermous; and the seed pendulous, with fleshy albumen. (4685.) The Globulariæ are reputed to possess bitter and cathartic powers, but are destitute of any especial acridity; although one species, G. Alypum, has been supposed to be the aλvrov of Dioscorides, and hence described in the works of Lobel, Bauhin, and the older botanists, under the formidable title of "Herba vel Frutex terribilis." The Alypum of the ancients was probably a species of Euphorbia, for it is described as having very caustic juices, and their plant might merit the epithet terrible, but the one in question is no more to be dreaded than any other drastic cathartic. G. nudicaulis is also purgative; and G. vulgaris, which participates in the properties of both the preceding, is said by Lemery to have been employed as a resolvent and vulnerary. (4686.) The Globularia differ so little from the Dipsacea in their general structure, that, were it not for their free superior germen, they might be associated immediately with them; and even as it is, considering that the germen in Dipsacea is sometimes scarcely inferior, and the peculiar circumstance of the ovarium being occasionally free, although the calyx is superior, it seems to be a debateable point as to whether they might not with propriety be admitted as a subtype. At all events, they shew the close connexion which exists between these types, and become another evident link in that beautiful chain of affinities which pervades the whole vegetable kingdom, associating and assimilating the most distant, and apparently the most discordant parts. (4687.) The demonstration of the types and sections in which the genera comprehended in the order Syringales have been distributed and arranged being now concluded, it only remains to add the usual tabular conspectus of the whole. 1031 Sub-types and districts. Staticide (4680.) {Plumbaginida (4679.) Primulid (4664.) Myrsinidae (4663.) Fraxinide (4643.) Ligustrea (4648.) Fraxine (4647.) Syringe (4646.) Jasininida (4642.) Columellida (4641.) Loganida (4634.) Potalida (4633.) Stapelida (4601.) Apocynida (4600.) Spigelida (4591.) Gentianide (4590.) Menyanthide (4589.) Boraginidae (4570.) Heliotropidæ (4569.) Heliotropiere (4575.) Ehretiese (4574.) Cordies (4573.) Hydrophyllidæ (4568.) 5 Cuscutide (4549.) Convolvulidae (4548.) { Cestrida (4481.) Scrophulariacea (4551-2.) Scrophularidge (4454.) PRIMULOSÆ (4365, 4111.) MENTHIN Rhinanthide (4454.) Utriculariacea (4446-7.) Ocymide (4419.) Praside (4419.) Nepetide (4419.) Monardidae (4412.) Menthacea or Labiate (4415-6.) Verbenaceae (4100-1.) Bignoniacea (4395-6.) Orobanchaceae (4378-9.) Gesneriacea (4371-2.) Ajugida (4419.) Verbenida (4405.) Myoporida (4404.) Epacride (4337.) Vacciniacea (4307.) Lobelida (4298.) Stylidiaceae (4292-3.) Goodeniacea (4284-5.) Cichorace (4221.) Campanulid (4299.) Goodenovid (4289.) Scavolidæ (4288.) Brunonidæ (4287.) Mutisiacea or Labiatiflora (4222-65.) Calyceraceae (4210-11.) J Scabioside (4195.) COMPOSITE. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF THE ROSARES. (4688.) The Rosares form as it were the especial vegetation of the present epoch. Whatever may have been their relative proportions to the other tribes in different and distant eras, they constitute more than two-thirds of the now existing Flora. Their geographical range is therefore, as might have been expected, if not absolutely more extended than that of some of the foregoing classes, more general, and their distribution much more abundant, not only as compared with either of the others singly, but more so than the whole combined. The Rosares constitute, in fact, THE Flora of our times: other plants, such as the Ferns and the Zamias, with the southern Pines, may have predominated in former ages; and, from the proportion in which their fossil remains are found, it is not improbable that they did so. Others, such as the Selanthi, may increase their ratio hereafter; but, however this may be, certain it is, that these are the prevailing plants of this our day. For, although some of the preceding groups, as the Grasses and the Fungi, perhaps may equal them in the number of existing individuals, they are beyond comparison their inferiors in the numerical amount of forms specifically distinct. The Rosares quadruple the Gramina and Palmares combined; they count above fourfold the sum of all the agamic tribes, that is, the Fungi and Alga, with the Lichens, put together; they are about nineteen times as many as the Ferns, in their most comprehensive scope; upwards of twenty times as numerous as the Mosses; they are considerably more than 200 times as many as the Pinares; and, as to the remaining class, its numbers are so comparatively insignificant, that a proportional estimate would seem almost ridiculous. Such being the case, the local as well as the general distribution of the Rosares, that is, their stations and habitations, or topographical range, as well as their regional distribution, or prevalence in certain zones, and absence from certain districts; and furthermore, their statistical distribution, or the abundance in which they can be produced, and the ratio they bear to the other classes of plants in different climates, will comprehend a multitude of particulars, a host of curious facts connected with the soil and climate, and the meteorological condition of the various parts of the globe; facts, not only valuable to science, but subservient to the arts, and hence of importance to all men, whether they chiefly regard the comfort of their bodies or the culture of their minds: for upon such, still too often unobserved foundations, not only the manners and customs, but the habits of idleness or industry, the commercial pursuits, and not unfrequently the political rank of nations, in a great measure depend. (4689.) The topographical distribution, as affording the elements of the more general views, as yielding the materials of the regional and statistical accounts, must of course be the first described, the special stations and habitations of the types in each order being separately considered; and then an estimate attempted of the general distribution of the whole. QUERNEALES. (4690.) QUERCINE. The Casuarinacee, with which this order opens, and by which it is connected with the Equisetacee of the Ferns, as well as to the Taxacea of the Pinares through Ephedra, (§ 1450,) are, like the Ephedra, in |