Tales about plants

Preface

PETER PARLEY TO HIS YOUNG FRIENDS.

Having already told you all I know about animals, I thought you might next like to hear something: of the other branches of natural history, and as I know of none more interesting than that relating to plants, I am now going to tell you all I know about them. Perhaps you will think that you know enough about plants already, because you have all of you seen oaks and elms, and flowers and vegetables ; but there are many things about plants, of which I suspect you know nothing, and some of these you will find in the little book now before you. Plants are indeed interesting objects of study ; they are, like animals, endowed with life, and in this they

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PREFACE.

differ from the rocks and stones around them; but their life is more feeble than that of animals, and their powers more limited. They cannot move about from place to place; they can neither bark like a dog, nor sing like a bird ; but still, low as they rank in the scale of creation, they show the power and wisdom of their Almighty Creator as forcibly as the construction of the human frame itself. I shall tell you much about them that I think you will like to know, particularly of their native countries, their habits, and the persons who discovered them. I shall also tell you about the products of plants ; most of which you have in daily use, though probably without thinking much about their origin. Tea, sugar, liquorice, and tamarinds are all products of plants ; as are muslin and cambric, and many other things that you see and use every day. I shall tell you a great deal about these things, and I shall endeavour as much as I can to make my book entertaining to you. I wish also to make it instructive and useful ; and for this

PREFACE.

VU reason I shall not only tell you all I know about each plant separately, but I shall arrange all the plants I speak of, according to what botanists call the natural system ; in which those plants are classed together, which bear a natural resemblance to each other. This you will find very useful, as it will enable you to guess something about the nature of a plant the moment you see it ; and, at any rate, it will show you what plants it is most prudent to shun, from the probability of their being poisonous. Botany is in itself a very comprehensive science, and one which it will require much time and study to understand ; but this little book will shew you the first step towards acquiring some knowledge of it. I have here brought you into a fertile country, and opened a pleasant path before you, but it depends upon yourselves whether you will follow it to your advantage. No difficulty, however, will present themselves to prevent you from studying the great book of nature, which lies, as it were, open before you. The earth

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PREFACE.

teems with beauty ; and every bank is covered with objects which only require to be seen to excite your wonder and admiration ; but which, if not pointed out, you would probably suffer to pass by unnoticed. In the following pages I have endeavoured to prevent this from being the case; and if I have succeeded in opening your eyes to any natural beauties, which would otherwise have passed unseen, and in making you feel more grateful to the Supreme Being, who has created all these wonders, I shall be satisfied, and my end will have been fully answered.

Contents

Chapter . Page

1 . Peter tells about the different kinds of Clematis, or

Virgin’s Bower, and Traveller's Joy. Of the Use the French Beggars make of the latter. Peter also tells of the different kinds of Anemone, with the Story of M. Bachelier; and of the Hepatica ... 1

Chapter I. Peter Tells About The Different Kinds Of Clematis

or virgin’s bower, and traveller’s JOY. OF THE

USE THE FRENCH BEGGARS MAKE OF THE LATTER. PETER ALSO TELLS OF THE DIFFERENT KINDS OF ANEMONE, WITH THE STORY OF M. BACHELIER ; AND OF THE HEPATICA.

My dear Boys and Girls, during the long winter nights, when the fierce winds and the deep snow prevented us from walking out to enjoy the blessings of Nature, we fell back upon another great virtue; we cultivated a good and neighbourly feeling; we met together round the winter fire-side of my little brown cottage ; you, my little dears, to listen, and I to relate my various adventures in different parts of the world. You no doubt remember that nearly the whole of last winter was occupied by your hearing,

B and my relating “ Tales about the Sun, Moon, and Stars,” and about “ Rome and Greece.” Now that the spring is far advanced, summer is near, and the beauties of Nature are breaking forth, we cannot do better during your holidays than to cultivate an acquaintance with the works of nature. Let us then discourse profitably on the goodness of God as seen in the vegetable world, and speak of trees and plants, “ from the cedar that is in Lebanon, unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall.” Well! well! I see you wish me to begin, so come with me into my garden, and I will tell you some of my tales about plants.

Though I have but a small house, I have a large garden, and I have many beautiful flowers in it, which delight the eyes of an old man like me to look at. I have a pleasant bower too at the end of my garden, where I sit and enjoy my flowers; and bless God for his mercy in having given me so many comforts in my old age, and such a happy home after all my adventures.

The Crowfoot Tribe ( Ranunculacece ).

Now look my children at that plant which hangs down so gracefully over my bower! See how its

TALES ABOUT PLANTS.

beautiful purple bell-like flowers project on their long footstalks from the mass of leaves, and how bright and transparent they look, with the sun shining behind them. That plant is called the Clematis Viticella, or Purple Virgin’s Bower.

It does not grow wild in England, but it was brought to this country from Spain above two hundred years ago. This was in the time of Queen Elizabeth ; and

PURPLE VIRGIN S BOWER.

when she saw the plant, with its elegant drooping purple flowers, she said, “ Let it be called Virgin’s Bower ; since it will make such a beautiful bower for young maidens to sit in.”

There is another kind of Clematis also hanging down over our

heads. Look at its large, star-like white flowers^ how they shine through the dark green leaves. This plant comes from Japan ; and like nearly all the plants that have been brought to England from that country it is very handsome. It is more tender than the purple Virgin’s Bower; but it grows well in my sunny garden ;

and when the winter comes, showy-flowered clematis.

TALES ABOUT PLANTS.

I cut down its long shoots, that it may spring up more vigorously next year. This kind is called Clematis florida, the Showy-flowered Virgin’s Bower.

Besides these plants, and many others of the same kind which have been brought from foreign countries, there is a Clematis which grows wild in England, and which I will show you when we walk out together in the lanes. This kind is called the Clematis Vitalba, or the Traveller’s Joy ; and its English name has been given to it, because it grows over the hedges by the road sides, and makes them look gay and cheerful, for the travellers to look at, as they journey onwards.

The Traveller’s Joy grows wild in France, as well as England, and in that country it is called the beggar’s herb ; because the beggars who wish to make good people pity them, and give them money, gather the leaves of this plant and bruise them, and then they scratch their arms and legs, and bind the bruised leaves of the Traveller’s Joy on the place. These leaves are what is called acrid, and they would blister your lips if you were to chew them : they are also poisonous, and would make any person die in dreadful pain who was to eat them. When they are tied upon the slight scratches on the beggars’ arms and legs, they make them become bad wounds ; and c then charitable people who see them, and who do not know how wicked the beggars have been, are sorry for them, and give them money. When the stem of the Traveller’s Joy becomes old and withered it loses its acridity ; and the shepherds in France and Germany cut the old wood stems which are quite hollow, into short pieces, and lighting them at one end, they smoke them like pipes.

The flowers of the Traveller’s Joy are not so handsome as those of either of the other kinds of Virgin’s Bower that I have told you about, but they smell like sweet almonds ; and their seeds are beautiful. If you will come with me into the lanes in September or October, you will see the hedges covered with what look like tufts of Marabout feathers, waving gracefully in the wdnd. These are the long, light silky tails of the seeds of the Traveller’s Joy ; and their All-merciful Creator has provided them with these appendages; because as the plants grow in hedges, the seeds might fall into the middle of the hedges among the branches, and never reach the ground, if they had not been provided with this kind of wing, which the wind acts upon, and blows them away from the top of the hedge to the ground.

All these kinds of Clematis are called climbing

TALES ABOUT PLANTS.

plants ; because they have not thick, strong trunks like trees : and when they grow, their long slender stems would lie on the ground, if they had not something to climb up to support themselves. They will climb twenty feet high or more when they are trained against a bower; and when they are not near a house, or any thing they can be trained against, they will hang over a hedge, or run up the trunk of a tree, twisting their slender tendrils round the branches, and hanging their light festoons of flowers, or feathery seeds from bough to bough.

It is because they climb up trees or trellis work by means of their tendrils like the vine, that they are called Clematis ; for Klema is the Greek word for the tendril of a vine.

There are many other kinds of Clematis besides these, but it will be time enough for you to know them when you are old enough to study botany ; and I will now only tell you about one more, which you would hardly know to be a Clematis, because it does not climb ; but if you will look at the flower you will see it is like one of those which hang down over our heads. It is called Clematis integrifolia, or the Hungarian climber ; but the last you will see is a very bad name, because though it comes from Hungary, it is not a climber, and so I think it would be better to call it the entire-leaved Clematis, for .that is the meaning of the Latin name.

Did you ever see the Wood Anemone ? It is a beautiful little flower, growing among the long grass in thick woods, and on the grassy banks of hedges. It is one of the flowers of early spring; and even in March when the sun shines brightly, the little wood anemones may be seen, raising their heads above the grass, and opening their snow white flowers to the sun, as widely as possible, as though to get as much as possible of warmth and light. When the wreather is wet and gloomy, the little* anemones close their petals, and hang their drooping heads as if they were mourning for the loss of that sun, in which they had so much delighted. Botanists call this flower Anemone nemorosa.

When the wood anemone is brought into gardens, and planted in rich soil, its flowers become double ; but I do not think these cultivated flowers half so beautiful as the little wild ones. There are many other kinds of anemone, which grow wild in England ; some have bright yellow flowers, some are bluish, and some have large white flowers. They are all very beautiful, and they all blossom in early spring.

Besides these, there is the Purple Anemone, or

TALES ABOUT PLANTS.

pasque flower, which is also a native of England, where it grows on open heaths, and in exposed places. It is called pasque flower, because it flowers about Easter, which the French call Paques ; and its botanical name is Anemone Pulsatilla. This flower has light, feathery, silky seeds, like those of the traveller’s joy, which produce a beautiful shining appearance when they are waved to and fro in the wind ; and it is because the plant looks most beautiful when its seeds are blown about by the wind, that the Greeks called it anemone, which, in their language, signifies wind flower.

Have you ever been in a seed shop and seen boxes filled with dark brown curiously shaped roots, that look something like bundles of little shrivelled black figs. These uglylooking roots are those of the Garden Anemone ; and if you buy some, and plant them in your garden, they will produce you a beautiful flower something like this. There are two sorts of gar-

PINK HEPATICA.

GARDEN ANEMONE.

den Anemone; and of the sort of which I have just shown you a flower (which is called the Poppy Anemone) there are more than two hundred varieties ! You may well be surprised ; but you will be still more so when you hear that of the other kind, which is called the star anemone, there are as many varieties. And all these are so distinct, that people who are accustomed to grow them know them at first sight, and can call them by their different names. I do not know a tenth part of their names ; but if I did, and could tell them to you, you would not be able to remember them without seeing the flowers, so it would not be of much use. But I may tell you that I have seen garden anemones bright orange, bright scarlet, and bright purple ; and in Holland, what they call Dutch anemones, broader than my hand. These last are very fine flowers, and are now often to be met with in England.

I am now going to tell you a curious story about the way in which it is said that these garden anemones were first made common in Europe, for they came originally from Asia. There was a gentleman in Paris, whose name was M. Bachelier, who procured some of these beautiful flowers from the East Indies ; but he was of a very selfish disposition, and though he was very proud of having these fine

TALES ABOUT PLANTS.

flowers in his garden, he would not let any one have any of them but himself. He kept them thus ten years, till at length a counsellor of the parliament, who was very fond of flowers, having tried several times to buy some of them, was determined to try if he could not punish M. Bachelier for his selfishness. The counsellor accordingly went to see M. Bachelier at his country house, and when they were walking in the garden, and came near the anemones, which were in seed, the counsellor let fall his gown over that part of them that was near the walk, and as he swept it along, the seeds, which are rough (though not so feathery as those of the pasque flower), stuck to it. The counsellor then gathered up his gown, and carried off the seeds without M. Bachelier knowing any thing about it.

I do not mean to say the counsellor was right, though in a year or two he gave the seeds away freely to any body that asked for them, and it was by his means that this beautiful flower became so common as it now is ; but still he ought not to have taken what did not belong to him; yet I am glad that selfish man was punished. Nobody can be good that is selfish ; and when we give other people a share of what we have, we enjoy what we keep much more than any selfish person can do who has kept all he had to himself ; and we have besides the pleasure of seeing the people we have given something to, enjoying themselves, and the satisfaction of knowing that we have made them happy.

I am sorry to tell you that all these beautiful anemones are poisonous : but the wild sorts are the worst; for plants are like children, their bad qualities are softened, and often entirely removed by cultivation. The bruised leaves of all the wild kinds will raise blisters on the skin, and if eaten, they will cause a heat and soreness in the throat and tongue, and violent sickness : a large quantity would occasion death. Even that beautiful little wood anemone which I first told you about would poison cattle if they were to eat it ; but that Almighty Being who has created both it and them, has placed it in woods where cattle rarely come, and not in fields, where they could hardly fail to eat it. Thus wisely has every thing been arranged, and thus do we always find in nature every plant fitted to its place.

Early in the month of March, and often before the last snow has melted entirely away from the ground, the pretty little Hepatica opens its blue, white, or pink blossoms to the sun ; and nothing can be more

TALES ABOUT PLANTS.

beautiful than to see patches of it forming complete masses of flowers, gleaming amid the desolation around them. The flowers of this plant are always welcome, because they seem to assure us that winter has given place to spring, and spring is always a joyous season. Even my old breast warms when I hear the birds singing, and see the first young delicate leaves beginning to unfold ; it seems to bring back the feelings of my youth, and my garden never looks so beautiful in my eyes, as when it is blooming with the hepaticas, and other flowers of spring.

In Canada, the red hepatica forms a rich carpet through the woods ; for this little plant is found wild in North America as well as in Europe, and it is a favourite every where. In English gardens, the flowers are generally double ; and the pink and white varieties look like little double roses. The blue is also very pretty, and might be compared to a little double blue rose, only we have no blue roses. However, all the three kinds are so pretty that I don’t know which I like best, and if you will come and see me early next spring, you will find all three blooming in my garden.

The flower of the Hepatica remains a long time in the bud — that is to say, the buds that form this year will not expand till next spring ; and yet the little flower shut up in this bud is as fully formed, and of as fine a colour, as if it were just going to open. This is not the case with most flowers. If you take an unripe rose-bud, and cut it open, you will find the petals of a pale whitish, or rather pale greenish pink, and not at all of the beautiful deep rose colour that they will have when the flower is just ready to expand. Do you know what I mean by the word petals? The petals are the flower leaves. Here is a bud of the pink Hepatica, which I have just gathered. You see the outside of the bud is of a brownish green: this is the calyx or covering. Now this calyx consists of three leaves, as you will see when I open them with a pin. There ! now these calyx leaves are called sepals ; and these bright pink ones, which form what is called the corolla of the flower, are the petals. Thus you see the flower leaves are called petals, and the calyx leaves sepals, to distinguish them from the common green leaves of the plant, which are called simply leaves.

The Hepatica is called by the country people Noble Liverwort. I am sure I don’t know why they call it noble ; for though it is as pretty modest looking a flower as any I am acquainted with, I certainly

TALES ABOUT PLANTS.

cannot see anything noble about it. Liverwort is also not a very appropriate name, for it might lead people to suppose that it was good to be taken medicinally to cure diseases of the liver; while the fact is, that it is poisonous, like all the plants we have yet been talking of. You will never guess why it is called Liverwort. It is because its leaves are three lobed, and something in the shape of a liver ; but so little, that I think no one would ever guess it without being told.

QUESTIONS.

1. Why is Clematis Vitalba called the Traveller’s Joy? 2. What are the qualities of all the kinds of Clematis ? 3. What is the derivation of the word Clematis ? 4. Why are some plants called

climbers? 5. Why are Anemones called by that name, and what is its meaning? 6. When does the Hepatica come into flower? 7. Why is it called Liverwort?

Chap. II

PETER TELLS ABOUT THE MEADOW RUE AND MARSH MARIGOLD. MAY GAMES. THE RANUNCULUS, FICARIA, GLOBE FLOWER, WINTER ACONITE, CHRISTMAS ROSE, FLOS ADONIS, AND PEONY. HISTORY OF THE CHINESE PEONY. BOTANICAL COLLECTORS. LOVE IN A MIST, COLUMBINE, MONKSHOOD, AND LARKSPUR.

The Crowfoot Tribe, or Ranunculaceje.

Continued.

So ! here you come with flowers in your hands, and looking as gay and blooming yourselves as any flowers you can bring. I suppose you want to know the names of these. Well, well, I’ll tell you, and also all I know about them; but first I’ll tell you wThere you gathered them. It was by the side of the little brook that runs through the field behind my garden. Ah ! ah ! I see you laugh — I knew I was right.

One of these is not a very pretty flower ; it is called the common meadow rue (Thalictrum flavum). There is another kind which grows in Scotland, which is much prettier; but the prettiest of all the English kinds is that which grows on the sea coast, and is called Thalictrum minus. The common sort is used by country people, who cannot afford to employ doctors for trifling complaints, to raise blisters behind their ears when they have the toothache.

This is a much more beautiful flower ; look what a fine bright yellow it is ; it is like a great buttercup. It is called Caltha palustris, or the Marsh Marygold. The word Caltha signifies a cup or bowl, and you

c may see the shape of the flower is quite like that of a cup or basin. Palustris signifies a marsh, or ground near water. Thus you see these hard names, as they seem to be, are easy to be remembered when we know their meaning. The Italians call this flower the spouse of the sun; because, I suppose, its great, broad, bright yellow head, when it is fully expanded in their warm climate, puts them in mind of that luminary. In England it is always cup-shaped like this. In some parts of England it is called waterblob, but this appears to me a very ugly name. What do you think of it ?

The marsh marygold is a favourite flower with the country people ; and in some parts of England they gather these flowers on May-day, and strew them before their doors, or twine them into garlands. You must have seen Jack-in-the-Green dance on May-day with the chimney-sweepers. Now, in some parts of Warwickshire, and other counties of England, they do not have the chimney-sweepers to dance on May-day, but the milkmaids ; and one of the milkmaids carries a long pole, ornamented with ribbons and garlands of flowers. In other places there is what is called a May-pole fixed on the village green, and the young men and maids hang it with garlands of flowers, and dance round it; choosing one to lead their dances, who is called Queen of the May.

These May games are very old. They were even common before the Britons knew the true God, and when they believed in the gods and goddesses of the Romans, who were heathens. The Romans used to worship a goddess of flowers, whom they called Flora ; and these dances were originally in her honour. Very few people who dance in the May games have any idea of their origin ; but it is curious to trace these things, and to see how many things we do merely because we see others doing them. Well, well, I am forgetting your flowers; now let me look at the others you have gathered, that I may tell you about them.

This is the common buttercup, or crowfoot of the meadows. It is a very common little flower, but it is a very important one to botanists, for it gives its name to the natural order Ranunculacese. You look at me, as if to ask what that means ; and I will tell you as simply as I can. A great while ago people who were fond of plants found it difficult to remember them; and so, to help their memory, they put those that were a good deal alike together in what they called orders or classes. There are a great

PETEK PARLEY’S many ways of doing this, that you will know more about when you get older ; but in what is called the Natural System, and which modern botanists consider the best, those plants are put together that are like each other in their qualities, as well as in the construction of their flowers and seeds.

Do you understand this ? If you do not, I must try to make it a little plainer. All the plants I have been telling you about belong to the order Ranunculacese ; because they are all more or less like this little Ranunculus in their seeds, and in the way in which that little bundle of yellow threads, which are called stamens, grows out of the centre of the flower. Look at this little flower, and you will see in the centre of its five bright shining yellow petals a little heap of green grains ; these are called the carpels or seed vessels, because every one of them contains a seed; and it is in having all those little yellow threads, which, as I have just told you, are called stamens, growing from beneath these carpels, that all the plants agree which belong to the order Ranunculacese. Look ! I will pull off all the petals of the flower, that you may see how the stamens grow from beneath the heap of little green grains that are in the centre. Another point in which all the plants be-

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longing to this order agree, is in having the carpels growing close together, but not growing together. Do you know what I mean ? It is that though these carpels grow as near together as possible, they are yet quite distinct, and are not joined together so as to form one head.

All the plants belonging to this order also resemble this little buttercup in their properties. They are all more or less poisonous, and the leaves of all of them would make your lips and tongue very sore, and perhaps raise blisters, if you were to chew them. They would also make you very sick and uncomfortable if you were to swallow them, and some of them would kill you.

The buttercup you have brought me, and which you found near the little brook, is called the Creeping Crowfoot (Ranunculus repens) ; but the commonest kind, which spreads all over the meadows in summer, and which makes them look quite yellow, is the Upright Crowfoot (Ranunculus acris). Some people fancy, because these buttercups look so yellow, that the cows eat them, and that they make the butter look so rich, and of such a fine colour in summer. Rut the cows do not eat them ; and when cows have been a long time in a field where there were many buttercups, the dry stalks of these flowers will be found to have been left standing by the cows, who have eaten all the grass around them. Thus wonderfully does the instinct implanted in animals by their Creator teach them what they may eat with safety, and what they ought to avoid.

When we go into my garden, I will show you some of these buttercups, which have been grown in rich soil, and have been thus made to become double. They look like little yellow roses; and they are called Yellow Batchelor’s Buttons. You look surprised, and I dare say thought them quite different flowers from the common buttercup ; but they are nothing but the double variety of the upright meadow crowfoot. The White Batchelor’s Buttons, or Fair Maid of France, is the double variety of another kind of crowfoot (Ranunculus aconitifolius), which grows wild among the Alps.