Outlines of Creation

by Elisha Noyce

3. Ranunculaceæ (Anemone coronaria) Garden Anemone. (Aconitum Napellus) Monk's-hood. (Ranunculus acris) Butter-cup.
Garden Anemone. Monk's-hood.	Besides the above examples, there are many beautiful flowers belongingto this order, as the Clematis and Peony. Members of this order arefor the most part poisonous, and some of them, as Monk's-hood andHellebore, are violently so, while even the Butter-cup is to a certainextent acrid.
4. Fumariaceæ (Fumaria officinalis) Fumitory.
Fumitory.	This order contains no plant of any importance. The common Fumitoryderives its name from the supposed resemblance of the odour of itsflowers to smoke.
5. Brassicaceæ (Sinapis alba) White Mustard. (Nasturtium officinalis) Water Cress. (Brassica oleracea) Cabbage.
Water Cress.	In this order are contained many of the useful occupants of ourkitchen gardens, the Cabbage, Turnip, Cauliflower, Radish, and manymore; they have nearly all a pungent taste, and some, as the Rape,yield seed producing much oil. The Water Cress is grown near London insquare pools, into which some neighbouring stream is turned. Thesepools are arranged side by side, and those who gather the plants liedown on a plank of wood placed across. Enormous quantities are thussupplied to the London markets.
6. Cistaceæ (Helianthemum Vulgare) Helianthemum.
Helianthemum.	These plants are for the most part evergreens; the Yellow Cistus isour most familiar example of the order. In Turkey the Rock-roses aremuch cultivated, they exhale a gum having a highly aromatic odour,which is there used as a perfume.
7. Berberidaceæ (Berberis vulgaris) Common Berberry.
Common Berberry.	The Berberry is commonly found in our hedgerows, and its fruitis sometimes eaten; in Italy it grows to a good-sized tree. It isremarkable as furnishing an example of vegetable motion, from theirritability of its stamens, which if touched will bend forward ina curved position, and touch the stigma with the anther, and afterremaining a short time in that position the stamens recover theirnatural form.
8. Violaceæ (Viola odorata) Sweet Violet. (Viola tricolor) Heart's-ease.
Sweet Violet.	The well known Sweet-smelling Violet belongs to this order, whichotherwise contains no plants of importance, except one, the CephaelisIpecacuanha, which produces the well-known emetic bearing that name.
9. Droseraceæ (Drosera rotundifolia) Sun-dew.
Sun-dew.	The Sun-dew is so called from the globules of a sort of viscid liquidexcreted by the hairs of this plant while in sunshine, and lookinglike dew; some species of this order have their leaves so irritablethat an insect alighting on them causes them to shut up and catch it,hence the name "Venus's Fly Trap" (Dionea muscipula) which is given toan American species.
10. Polygalaceæ (Polygala vulgaris) Milk-wort.
Milk-wort.	The Polygala Senega, or Virginian Snake-root, is a member of thisorder; it is celebrated in America for the cure of the bite of snakes,and is used here as an expectorant. The Rhatany, a very powerfulastringent, is also of this order.
11. Caryophyllaceæ (Lychnis dioica) Bachelor's Buttons. (Dianthus caryophyllus) Common Pink. (Stellaria media) Chickweed.
Bachelor's Buttons. Pink.	There are upwards of a thousand species of this order, but none areof much importance; they form however many of our most beautifulornamental garden flowers, of which the Carnation, Sweet William, andseveral others, are familiar to all.
12. Tiliacæ (Tilia Europæa) Lime Tree.
Lime Tree.	The Lime Tree grows often to a great size, is a fine handsome tree,commonly found in our plantations, has heart shaped leaves, andflowers generally in corymbs; it is very general in tropical climates,and produces a fine close grained wood.
13. Hypericaceæ (Hypericum perforatum) Perforated Hypericum.
St. John's Wort.	Many species of Hypericum are cultivated in our gardens, and formhandsome flowers; the well known plant called Aaron's Beard (Hypericumcalycinum) is a member of this order, and is remarkable for the longrunners which it throws out forming fresh plants at intervals. It isoften suspended in pots, from which these runners descend in a verygraceful manner.

14. Malvaceæ (Malva sylvestris) Common Mallow.
(Althæa officinalis) Marsh Mallow.

Marsh Mallow.

The Marsh Mallow has been much esteemed as a demulcent medicine, and an ointment is made from it for external use; but one species of this order, the Gossypium, is one of the most important plants in the whole world, producing that most useful article, cotton, so largely grown in America, and for which the slave population are chiefly employed. The fine white hairs surrounding the seeds and filling up the pod is the part picked out and preserved, it forms the cotton-wool of commerce, of which some eight hundred millions of pounds' weight are used annually! employing a million and a half people, in England alone, and furnishing clothing to hundreds of millions. It is grown in India, which is supposed to be its native place, and will probably be grown to a much greater extent when railways and canals shall have made a more easy communication from the interior of that country to the sea-board.

15. Geraniaceæ (Geranium pyreniacum) Meadow Geranium.
Meadow Geranium.	Many species of this order are indigenous, and when cultivatedproduce some of our most beautiful garden flowers, as the Geraniums,Pelargoniums, and Erodiums. The Geraniums are those species whichhave five irregular petals and ten stamens; they are the mostcharacteristic of the order.

16. Linaceæ (Linum usitatissimum) Common Flax.

Flax Plant.

The Flax plant is another of those insignificant plants which, from certain properties they possess, have become the greatest boons to mankind; the stalks of the Linum usitatissimum, soaked, bruised, and prepared by combing, &c., form the flax of commerce, from which all our linen fabrics are made. The manufacture of flax is one of the oldest arts known, the ancient Egyptians formed their mummy-cloths from this article, and a piece of one of these cloths, bleached and placed side by side with some of the present date, would hardly suffer by the comparison, but the rapidity of its manufacture, and the price at which supplied, are doubtless very different in the two cases.