like the tail of a viper, and gradually lengthen and straighten as the flowers blow. The calyx is of one leaf, usually fivecleft; the corolla of one petal, tubular in the lower part, the upper cut into five segments. The stamens are concealed within the tube, the mouth of which is frequently closed by five little valves, which meet in the centre. In these characters, all the ten genera agree; as they do, also, in having flowers as delicate, as the herbage is coarse. One interesting plant, the Forget-me-not (Myosòtis palustris), has the bristles of its leaves so fine, as scarcely to render them rough either to the eye or to the touch. This plant grows about a foot high, with oval leaves, of a bright green, somewhat shining and sessile; the flower is about a third of an inch in diameter, of a delicate blue, with a yellow eye, formed by the valves before mentioned; it grows in marshes, and by the sides of brooks and rivers. Other species are frequently mistaken for this, but they have smaller flowers, and the eye is not so bright as in the true Forget-me-not; which we speak of thus at length, because it has been repeatedly celebrated by poets of different countries, is respected in Germany as the emblem of affection, and is deserving of notice from its own beauty. (fig. 195.) 195 The second section of this order contains sixteen genera, which, like those of the first, have their flowers monopetalous and inferior, but have numerous seeds, enclosed in a covering called a capsule (casket). Of this section are many of our favourite flowers: the convolvulus, which twines around its neighbours, and frequently conceals them with its numerous stems and heart-shaped leaves; the primrose, which we all hail as the pretty pale herald of the spring; the periwinkle, which crowds its fine evergreen leaves into clumps and tufts, flourishing in shades too confined for most plants to thrive in; the water violet, a tall showy plant, which conceals its leaves under the water, and erects its large flowering head two or three feet above it; the mullein, with its tall golden pyramids rising from a bush of leaves, so thick, soft, and downy, as to serve the Russian peasantry for socks in their rigorous winters; the shepherd's weatherglass (so named from the warning it gives of coming rain, by the closing of its corolla), which, with the exception of the poppy, is the only scarlet flower indigenous of Britain; and the nightshade or bittersweet (Solànum Dulcamàra), which wears a necklace of pearls, and produces one of the most elegant berries that the vegetable world can boast; shaped like an egg, and sparkling like a ruby. To this last genus belongs our domestic friend, the potato; said to have been first brought to Ireland by Sir Walter Raleigh, and thence introduced into England. Most species of the Solanum are poisonous, and the potato is so, in some degree, before it is exposed to the action of fire. The plant known by the name of the Deadly Nightshade (A'tropa Belladonna) is of another genus, contains a most virulent and powerful poison, and should never be suffered to grow in the public way. It has, indeed, on this account been so frequently eradicated, that it is now a very rare plant. It bears a large handsome purple flower, and is honoured with the appellation of Fair Lady. The generic name is derived from Atropos, one of the Fates. "How the same plant should come to have the gentle appellation of Belladonna, and the tremendous name of Atropa, seems strange, till we know that it was used as a wash, among the Italian ladies, to take off pimples and other excrescences from the skin, and are told of its dreadful effects as a poison," observes Rousseau. The third section contains six genera, with flowers monopetalous and superior of this number are "the gadding woodbine," with its honey-bearing trumpets; and the campanula, of which genus is the delicate little heath-bell, that nods on the summit of a stalk so slender as to appear supported by magical influence. Many persons call this the hare-bell, but the true English hare-bell is the English hyacinth (Scilla nutans). These two plants have been frequently confounded by poets; but, according to Sir J. E. Smith, the little campanula, which we call the heath-bell, is the hare-bell of Scotland, while the harc-bell of England is the Scottish blue-bell. The fourth section has four genera; with flowers inferior, and four or five petaled. To this section belongs that beautiful genus, the violet. Hédera, the ivy, and Ribes, the currant bush, are the only two genera composing the fifth section; their flowers are five-petaled (pentapetalous) and superior. The sixth section has flowers without petals (apetalous); it contains three genera. This class and order, though it contains a great number of splendid and truly beautiful plants, and is remarkably extensive, is by no means the most important to mankind. Beauty, however, is not its only claim to consideration, as will readily be acknowledged; for it has a fee to purchase praise from every class of society: it is in possession of the tobacco plant of Virginia, of the coffee tree of Arabia, and of vines from various parts of the world: these will insure it respect, even from those who deny it to the elegance, the splendour, and the fragrance of its fine flowers. (To be continued.) ART. VII. Contributions towards a Flora Hibernica. Being a List of Plants not before observed wild in Ireland: together with New Localities for a few of the more Rare Ones. By EDWARD MURPHY, Esq. A.B. Trin. Coll., Dublin. THE plants in the subjoined list were principally observed in a botanical and geological tour, which I made for the North-west of Ireland Society, in the summer of 1826. Circumstances have retarded, hitherto, the publication of the Catalogue drawn up for the Society, but their object in instituting researches of this nature being to make known the natural history of the district with which they are more immediately concerned, it will readily be conceded that the means best calculated to attain that end is to record, from time to time, any discoveries which may be made. My investigations were confined to the counties of Tyrone, Donegal, and Derry; and, having been undertaken in May, after the early phænogamous and most of the cryptogamous plants had disappeared, they were not by any means so successful as, under more favourable circumstances, it is reasonable to suppose they would have been. But, indeed, the north of Ireland, and particularly the portion of it above mentioned, is far from fertile in botanical treasures. The surface of Tyrone and Derry, with the exception of a few basaltic façades in the north of the latter, consists of a succession of low rounded hills, invariably covered to their summits with bog, and producing only a fatiguing repetition of the Erica, Erióphora, Scirpi, and Carices, common to such situations. Donegal, though possessing great variety of soil and surface, and the mountains of which, in elevation and the other requisites, are to appearance peculiarly adapted to the growth of alpine plants, is notwithstanding extremely unproductive. I have no hesitation in saying, that a greater number of rare plants may be found in one glen in Carnarvonshire than is afforded by this entire district. That other parts of this country however, are not uninteresting, in a botanical point of view, is abundantly evident in the great variety of plants observed by Mr. Drummond in the county of Cork, as well as in two or three autumnal excursions by the late Dr. Wade and Mr. M'Kay, a catalogue of all of which was published by the last-mentioned gentleman in 1825. In climates favourable to vegetation, the variety of plants is generally proportional to that of the soil and surface, and when it is known that scarcely a rock of any extent has hitherto been discovered, the prototype of which does not exist in this country, as it already is that its mountains exceed for the most part in elevation those of England, and are little inferior to those of Scotland, we may confidently premise that its botany will, when adequately investigated, be found equally respectable with that of the sister countries. The following Plants do not appear in Mr. M'Kay's Catalogue. Valeriana dentata. Ann's-brook, Meath. Phalaris arundinacea. Margins of lakes, ditches, &c.; common. This plant had been observed by Mr. M'Kay, but was omitted in his list by mistake. Potamogeton perfoliatum. Canals about Dublin, and in rivers and lakes; common in the north. P. gramíneum. Lakes in Fanet, Donegal. Scandix odorata. Way-sides and plantations; common. This plant may have been introduced; but the like remarks will apply to many received as indigenous. Polygonum vivíparum. Northern declivity of Benbulben mountain, Sligo. Pýrola rotundifolia. Glen-Idra, Derry. Arenària vérna. Magilligan, Derry. A. trinervis. Strabane Glen, Tyrone, and Glenade mountain, Leitrim. Rubus Chamæmòrus. Plentiful on Glen-Garro mountain, Tyrone. Subulària aquática. Lough Carban, a little north-west of the Gap of Barnesmore, Donegal. Ervum tetraspérmum. Ann's-brook, Meath. Aspídium Lonchitis. In a glen east of Lough Esk, Donegal, and on Glenade mountain, Leitrim. New Habitats for Plants before observed. Scírpus acicularis. Canal at Strabane, and margin of Lough Foy, Derry. Sesleria cærulea. On all the calcareous mountains of Leitrim and Sligo. Pòa alpina var. vivípara. Benbulben, Sligo. E'lymus arenàrius. Bundorn and Aranmore, Donegal. Galium boreale. Magilligan, Derry. Centúnculus mínimus. Rosses and Fanet, Donegal. Rhodiola millegràna. With the last. Drósera longifolia. Flow bogs; common. Phellándrium aquáticum. Canal near Dublin. Oxýria reniformis. Benbulben, Sligo. Pýrola mèdia. Ards, &c., Donegal. Chrysosplènium alternifolium. Ballylast, Tyrone. Saxifraga oppositifòlia. Calcareous mountains of Leitrim and Sligo. S. aizöldes. With the last. Silèné acaúlis. With the last two. Rùbus suberéctus. Common in Leitrim. R. saxátilis. Ards, &c., Donegal. Papaver cámbricum. Benbulben, Sligo. Trollius Europæ'us. Convoy and Lough Gartan, Donegal. Thlaspi arvénse. Magilligan, Derry. Dràba hírta. Limestone mountains of Leitrim and Sligo; plentiful. Geranium sylvaticum. In a field adjoining Dunluce Castle, Antrim. Hypéricum Androsæ'mum. Of common occurrence in this district. Eriocaulon septangulàre. Abundant in the lakes of the Rosses, Donegal. Lycopodium alpinum. Aghla and Barnesmore mountains, Donegal. Isoètes lacustris. Lakes in the Rosses, Donegal. ART. VIII. On the Natural Order of Plants, Dicotyledoneæ, Anonàceæ. By Mrs. E. BoWDICH. It is one of the peculiar beauties of the natural system, to be so frequently able to recognise the general qualities of a plant, by merely referring to the name of the order to which it belongs. The physiological portion of botany places it among the most important of those studies furnished by nature; and the mere repetition of long names, the counting of petals and stamina, &c., are, by uniting them to the uses of plants, raised into a science which benefits mankind. The family of Anonacea, composed of trees and shrubs, is one of the most natural of the different orders, and presents, not only a strong similarity of appearance, but a remarkable analogy in the qualities of its species. Its existence is mostly confined to that portion of the globe contained between the tropics; it is eminently beautiful, and not less useful to the natives of the countries to which it is indigenous. Almost all the individuals classed in it possess a strong aromatic or pungent odour, which is shared by the roots, the bark, and even the leaves. The period of its discovery is not exactly known; but the Anòna squamosa is mentioned by Oviedo in his work on America, published in the year 1546. In 1548, we hear of the Ethiopian, or Malaguetta pepper; and, in 1648, three or four of the Brazilian species were described. Rheede mentioned the Malabar species in 1703; since that, one has been discovered in New Holland; and, still more recently, Palisot de Beauvois speaks of several belonging to Africa. There are, probably, many more hidden in the immense forests of that continent, of which we have so imperfect a notion. The flowers of the Anonacea vary in form, but the petals are generally thick and coriaceous; they are mostly red, |