guage of flowers, and as it gives out such magnificent blossoms without ever producing fruit, we have made it emblematical of a boaster, whose vaunting words resemble the abortive flowers of the Hydrangea, large and showy, without being followed by suitable results.

PERSICARIA. Polygonum Orientale.

Natural Order Holeracea. Polygonæ, Juss. A Genus of the Octandria Trigynia Class.

Their rise they boast.

From India's deserts or Columbia's coast.

EUROPE is indebted to M. Tournefort for this eastern plant, that celebrated botanist having first noticed it growing in the Prince of Teflis's garden in Georgia, and he afterwards procured the seed from the garden of the monks of the three churches near Mount Ararat, the spot on which the ark is supposed to have rested: we have therefore made it the emblem of restoration.

The Duchess of Beaufort appears to have been the earliest cultivator of the Oriental Persicaria in this country, it having been introduced by her Grace in the year 1707; and, although it is pronounced to be a native of the East Indies, it has so far become a denizen of our soil, that the plants which spring spontaneously from the self-sown seeds are generally finer than those raised by art; from which we may learn that the autumn is the proper time of sowing this seed, and that it should

be but thinly covered with earth. The plants raised from seed sown in the spring seldom grow so strong, or produce so fine flowers.

When the plants, which are raised from the autumn sowing, are transplanted in the spring into a rich moist soil, they frequently grow to the height of eight or ten feet, displaying their clustering branches of brilliant carmine flower-buds to great advantage from July to the end of autumn. To assist the Persicaria in attaining this great height, all the lower branches should be regularly pruned off in the growing season, which gives strength to those of the upper part of the plant, and causes it to take a most elegant and graceful shape, the delicate lightness of which contrasts most agreeably with the stiff and heavy Sun-flower. The Persicaria, from its height and size, is only calculated for the largest parterre, or to intermix in the shrubbery.

Mr. Martyn enumerates thirty-six species of the Polygonum, ten of which appear in "British Botany" as native plants, one of which, Fagopyrum, however, it is doubtful whether it be even an European plant; but its cultivation under the name of Buck-wheat, is of great antiquity in England, as well as most European countries.

The generic name of these plants is derived from the Greek, Пoλvyovov, from woλv, many, and

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yovov, knee, and it was so called in allusion to the numerous knots in the stalks. The British species of this genus of plants was formerly called Knotgrass on the same account. The name of Persicaria, by which several of the species are distinguished, is of modern origin, and was given to these plants on account of the foliage of the kind principally used in medicine being similar to that of the Peach-tree, which is called Persica in the Latin language. The leaves of the Oriental Persicaria are, however, quite of a different shape, being large, and of a broad oval shape inclined to a point, whilst the Persicaria Urens, Polygonum Hydropiper, has leaves of a narrow oblong shape like those of the Peach. Medical writers distinguish this species by the name of Hydropiper, water and pepper, from its hot, acrid taste, and because it grows in wet situations, and most abundantly in places that are under water in the winter. M. Tournefort tells us that the Eastern Persicaria was cultivated in Asia, principally on account of its medicinal properties, which are similar to those of the Hydropiper or Water-pepper, which was formerly held in high reputation in this country on account of its efficacy in medicine; but its pungency is so great as to be scarcely tolerable, for which reason alone, probably, it is but little used in modern practice. As an external application, in

form of a poultice, the biting taste can be of no objection; and it is stated, that the fresh leaves pounded and applied are of great efficacy in cleansing and altering the ill condition of long standing ulcers. It is also valuably applied in this manner to contusions and blows, for the purpose of speedily removing the blackness, by promoting the absorption of extravasated blood.

Country people chew the leaves as a cure for the tooth-ach, and they are said to have relieved the pains of the gout when applied to the parts affected

Linnæus tells us, that all domestic quadrupeds reject this biting Persicaria. When 'gathered whilst in full blossom and preserved, it effectually keeps insects from wardrobes and other places; and on this account it is used by the Germans, to keep their chambers free from fleas.