Part 17

NOTE I. THE SNOWDROP, page 70.

Mr. Knapp tells us in the text, that in England the Snowdrop will linger longer than any other plant on the site of a deserted garden, outlasting, in this way, as a memorial of human tillage even the rose- bush, the plumb-tree, or the daffodil. With us the pansy, heart’s-ease, or garden-violet appears to have something of the same character; we have found it opening its pretty, lowly blossoms among the grass, the only vestige of a flower-garden, ploughed up more than thirty years earlier.

NOTE J. THE VERVAIN, page 71.

We have in the United States several native Vervains, and one species of European origin; the nettle-leaved Vervain, Verbena urticifolia, has become one of our road-side weeds. We are told that verbena was a Latin name given to any sacred herb, and by no means confined to the single family of plants to which the term Vervain is now applied.

NOTE K. THE MISTLETOE, page 71.

The Mistletoe has been sometimes asserted to be unknown in America; but this is an error. The yellow Mistletoe, Viscum flaviscens, is found on the trunks of old forest trees, the elm, the oak, and the hickory, in the middle, western, and southern states of the union. This singular parasitic plant has yellowish leaves, with white berries tinged with the same color. See Gray’s Botany.

NOTE L. DYER’S WEED, WOLD, (Luteola reseda,) p. 72.

Dyer’s Weed, Weld, Wold, Luteola reseda, has become partially naturalized, here and there, in western New York. It is a plant about three feet high, from whose leaf and stem a yellow coloring matter is obtained, which is preferred to all other substances for giving a brilliant greenish-lemon tint. It is also much used for dyeing silk a golden yellow.

The reader is probably aware that while many minerals and a certain number of animal substances are employed in coloring, the largest portion of our dyes are borrowed from the vegetable kingdom.

NOTE M. SULPHUR, OR BRIMSTONE BUTTERFLY, (Gonepteryx Rhamni,) p. 74.

“This is the Brimstone Butterfly, which, gaily painted,

“Soon Explores the tepid noon, And fondly trusts its tender dyes To feeble suns and flattering skies.”

“It has been supposed by some that this early visitant, (also a late one,) is, like the above, a winter survivor; but from the trim of his yellow robes, usually so fresh and glossy, it would seem more likely that, instead of being laid up—not in lavender, but perhaps in ivy—they are of the newest spring fashion. Be this as it may, he is the very pink, or, as he has been more properly considered, the very primrose of Papillons, sometimes to be seen like a living shadow of the primrose’s self, fluttering beside it in the sunny hedge-row, or the sheltered copse. We may know him by the cut of his bright, sulphur-colored pinions—each, instead of being rounded, ending in a smooth tail-like angle.

“Of all the wings of the butterflies, these bear perhaps the closest similitude to floral productions, and on each, as if to perfect the resemblance of the delicate, flower-like coloring, is a reddish spot, an exact copy of that often produced by decay or accident on the surface of a yellow petal. In the beautiful raised bearing of their reverse, the pinions of the “Brimstone” are no less correspondent with the same; but those of the female, which, instead of yellow, are of a greenish white, resemble perhaps yet more nearly, the leaf of a poplar on its under side. The dye of the antennæ—that purplish pink so frequent upon tender leaf and flower-stems—also the clothing of the body, a soft satin down like that by which stalks and seed pods are so often covered, are all alike accordant with the floral character of this most elegant flutterer of the spring. This pretty butterfly comes of a pretty caterpillar, with a smooth green coat, dotted or shagreened with black, and marked by a whitish line along the back and sides. It is said to feed usually on the leaves of the hawthorn and alder.”—Acheta Domestica.

NOTE N. FURZE, (Ulex Europæus,) p. 77.

The Furze, Gorse or Whin, is a low, shrubby plant, common in barren soils throughout western Europe, and belonging to the natural order leguminosæ. The yellow flowers, covering broad tracts of untilled land, produce a brilliant and striking effect when in bloom. It is said that Linnæus, when he first saw them, fell on his knees with expressions of delight at their beauty, lamenting that the plant should be wanting in Sweden. It is occasionally cultivated in poor soils for fodder, as horses are fond of it, and the cattle are also fed with it in some parts of England, after it has been bruised in a sort of mill. In tracts of country where wood is scarce, it is frequently used by the cottagers for fuel. The pods of the Whin, or Furze, when ripe burst open with a loud crackling sound, which is described as pleasing, of a warm summer’s day. We Americans have no other acquaintance with the Furze than what is derived from books and prints.

NOTE O. THE MAPLE, (Acer campestre,) p. 79.

The common English Maple, Acer campestre, is wholly different from our own various species. It is a tree found throughout the greater part of Europe south of Scotland and Sweden, and is observed as far east as the Caucasus. In England, however, it is little more than a bush, or small tree of no great beauty, and whose wood is chiefly used for turning cups and bowls, such as hermits used in days when ballads were written about them. Its leaves are heart-shaped, with either two or five segments which are not serrated; its flowers are erect, in branching corymbs.

In the southern Caucasus this maple is said to become a fine tree, the wood being in request for its hardness; and it is used for purposes less peaceful than the hermits bowl, being worked up into gun-stocks.

The Sycamore-maple, Acer pseudo-platanus, is a very different tree, of noble growth, indigenous to southern Europe. This has been transplanted to England where it is much cultivated, and has been called the Sycamore from an erroneous notion that it is the same as the Sycamore of the east. Neither of these Maples will compare, for autumnal coloring, with those of our American woods. The true English Maple alluded to in the text, is described as “shifting its dress to ochery shades, then trying a deeper tint, and lastly assuming an orange vest.” This is pale indeed compared with the Rubens-like coloring of our native trees of the same family.

The Maples are a very numerous and widely diffused tribe of trees. No less than thirty-four species are enumerated by botanists, belonging to different parts of the earth.

NOTE P. AGARICS, page 85.

Scientific writers have examined no less than a thousand different species of Agarics, or those fungi belonging to the class of mushrooms, and probably there are many more than have yet been enumerated. Some few only of these plants are edible; a large proportion are highly poisonous to man, while the character of many more have never yet been ascertained. It is particularly remarkable that those which are found wholesome in one country often become very dangerous in a different soil; in England, for instance, only three kinds are eaten, the Agaricus campestris, or common mushroom, the A. pratensis, or fairy- ring mushroom, and the A. Georgii; but in southern Europe many more are used as food, and among these a number of the same species which in Great Britain have proved very dangerous. In Kamschatka again, the Agaricus muscarius, considered a deadly poison in England, is found quite harmless, and is regularly used as food.

The following directions have been given in avoiding poisonous mushrooms; all those possessing either of the characteristics mentioned being dangerous:

1. Such as have a cap very thin compared with the gills.

2. Such as have the stalk growing from one side of the cap.

3. Those in which the gills are of equal length.

4. Such as have a milky juice.