Familiar lectures on botany, practical, elementary, and physiological : with an appendix containing descriptions of the plants of the United States and exotics, &c., for the use of seminaries and private students / by Almira H. Lincoln.

Almira Hart Lincoln Phelps

Date:: 1836

Credit: Familiar lectures on botany, practical, elementary, and physiological : with an appendix containing descriptions of the plants of the United States and exotics, &c., for the use of seminaries and private students / by Almira H. Lincoln. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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$sixty shillings a pound, and for many years its great price limited its use to the most wealthy. , _. ^».j__ The poppy (Papaver) is a fine example of tins class andorfler Its numerous stamens standing upon the receptacle arouna uu oase of the germ, and its large stigma, with the two sepals ol a Caaucous calyx, are conspicuous characters. Single poppies have but loin petals; but the change of stamens to petals is very common in this flower, and most of the cultivated poppies are double, brom the papaver somniferum is obtained the opium of commerce. 1 he juice which issues from incisions in the green capsules, is dried in the sun, and usually made into cakes. Six hundred thousand pounds of tins di-u- are said to be annually exported from the banks of the Ganges. The narcotic property of opium renders it highly valuable as a med- icine. Why it is that certain substances, acting upon the human sys- tem, have power to affect the mind, no physiologist has yet been able to explain. But in the power of fermented liquors to produce changes in the mind, or of opium to lull its faculties into temporary oblivion, there is nothing more wonderful, than that the presence of light should produce vision, or the vibrations of the air, sound. All are equally beyond our knowledge ; we may trace a series of organic changes, but the last link of the chain, that which connects body and soul, is concealed from our observation. Though narcotics can for a time, Rase out the written troubles of the brain, And, with a sweet oblivious antidote, Cleanse the full bosom of that perilous stuff Which weighs upon the heart, yet, they who attempt to drown sorrow by artificial means, whether of the intoxicating bowl or the stupifying opium, find their sensi- bilities return with aggravated terrors. When properly used to allay bodily anguish, the product of the poppy may be considered one of our greatest blessings; but like all our blessings, it may, by its abuse, be made a curse. The genus Citrus, which contains the orange and lemon, is found Here. Jussieu places this in his order Aurantia, or golden fruits. The fruit is a berry with a thick coat. It furnishes citric acid. Few valuable fruits, with the exception of this genus, are found in the class Polyandria. Order Di-pentagynia. (f { The four orders following Monogynia, are, as in the preceding class, united into one, called as before, Di-pentagynia, having from two to five styles. ,-]l We find here some plants of a poisonous nature, as the Larkspur, Monk's-hood, and the Columbine ; these belong to the natural order Ranunculacece, which contains also the Ranunculus or crow-foot, the anemone and gold-thread, (Coptis.) In the same natural and artificial order we find the Peony, (Pceo- nia,) a large and showy flower, which, in its native state, has a calyx with 5 sepals, a corolla with 5 petals; 2 or three germs, each crown- ed by a stigma ; the capsules or carpels are the same in number as the germs; each contains several seeds ; this flower is remarkable for becoming double by cultivation. Order Polygynia. This order is divided into two sections: 1st, flowers with no ca- Poppy—Opium—Power of opium and fermented liquors to affect the mind—Genu* Citrus—Order Di-pentagynia—Natural order Ranunculaceae—Peony—Order Polv- gynia. y$