J. the hand of your friend as far as you can in your own, and then contracting the muscles of your thumb, fingers, and palm, till you have induced any degree of compression you may propose in the hand of your friend. Particular care ought to be taken, if your own hand is as hard and as big as a frying pan, and that of your friend as small and as soft as a young maiden's, not to make use of the tourniquet shake to the degree that will force the small bones of his wrist out of the place. It is as seldom safe to apply it to gouty persons. A hearty young friend of mine, who had pursued the study of geology, and acquired an unusual hardness and strength of hand and wrist by the use of the hammer, on returning from a scientific excursion, gave his gouty uncle the tourniquet shake with such severity, as had well nigh reduced the old gentleman's fingers to powder; for which my friend had the pleasure of being disinherited, as soon as his uncle's fingers got well enough to hold a pen. 4. The Cordial grapple is a shake of some interest. It is a hearty boisterous agitation of your friend's hand, accompanied with moderate pressure, and loud cheerful exclamations of welcome. It is an excellent travelling shake, and well adapted to make friends. It is indiscriminately performed. 5. The Peter Grievous Touch is opposed to the cordial grapple. It is a pensive tranquil junction, followed by a mild subsultory motion, a cast down look, and an inarticulate enquiry after your friend's health. 6. The Prude major and Prude minor are nearly monopolized by ladies. They cannot be accurately described, but are constantly to be noticed in practice. They never extend beyond the fingers; and the prude major allows you to touch even them only down to the second joint. The prude minor gives you the whole of the fore finger. Considerable skill may be shewn in performing these with nice variations, such as extending the left hand instead of the right, or stretching a new glossy kid glove over the finger you extend. I might go through a long list, Sir, of the gripe royal, the saw-mill shake, and the shake with malice prepense; but they are only factitious combinations of the three fundamental forms already described, as the pump-handle, the pendulum, and the tourniquet-I should trouble you with a few remarks in conclusion on the mode of shaking hands, as an indication of character, but as I see a friend coming up the avenue, who is addicted to the pump-handle, I dare not tire my wrist by further writing. Bristol, Jan. 20, 1821. G******. NATURAL ORDERS OF PLANTS, No. 8. Fifteenth Family. AROIDEÆ. Aroideæ, Ventenat. 4roidearum gen. Jussieu. THE Aroidee are distinguished principally by the disposition of their flowers, which are sessile and numerous, on a simple, terminal, spadix or catkin, which is sometimes naked, but generally surrounded by a coloured spathe; the flowers are very rarely furnished with a floral envelope (perigona,) and exhibit nothing, generally, but the pistils and stamens inserted on the spadix, and which are sometimes mixed, and sometimes separate; the ovaries terminated by an acute style, or by a stigma, change to roundish berries, of one or many cells, containing one or many seeds; Placentarium unilateral. The seeds have a perisperm and a cylindrical, axile, embryo. Plumula contained in a coleoptila. Radicule adverse. Perisperm fari naceous. Many of the exotic aroidea have a true stem furnished with alternate leaves, sheathing at their bases; in those of our climates, the stem is reduced to a fleshy tubercle, and is what we regard very often as a root. It is this tubercle which bears the leaves, which appear almost radical. The germination of these plants is ill known; they differ from the typhacea, the cyperaceae, and the gramineæ, because their fruit is a berry; the structure of the flower appears to approach the aristolochieæ. Genera. ARUM. ZOSTERA. C. PHENOGAMOUS MONOCOTYLEDONSA 912 Artigs * Stamina periyynous. Sixteenth Family. JUNCEÆ.’ Junci, Mirbel. Juncorum gen. Jussieu. Juncoidearum gen.Ventenat, Lamarck. Tripetaloidearum gen, Linnæus. Liliacearum gen. Tournefourt, Adanson. The Junced form an intermediate group between the cyperaceae and liliacea; they approach the first in their habit, and especially in having a floral envelope (perigona) of a scaly or glumaceous consistence; but they differ from them in the structure of their flowers and fruit, which are analogous to those of the liliaceœ. Their roots are ordinarily fibrous; their leaves sheathing, often radical, sometimes cylindrical; sometimes analogous to those of the gramineae; their stems, which are simple and herbaceous, bear small flowers, disposed in a spike, a panicle, or a corymb, accompanied by dry bractes; these flowers are very often hermaphrodite, and composed of a perigone of six deep divisions, resembling a glume; the stamens are amost always six in number, placed before the divisions of the perigone; the ovary is free, and bears a style divided into three stigmas; the fruit is a capsule of three valves; these valves often bear a longitudinal dissepiment, and then the capsule is of three cells; sometimes this dissepiment is wanting, and then the capsule is of one cell; in the first case the seeds are numerous, and adhering to the internal side of the dissepiment; in the second we find but one seed adhering to the base of each valve: these seeds have an embryo placed at the base of a fleshy perisperm. Genera. 1 ERIOCAULON. ACORUS. JUNCUS. LUZULA. Seventeeth Family, ASPARAGEE. Asparagi, Jussieu. Asparagoideæ et Smilaceæ, Ventenat. Sarmentacearum gen. Linnæus. This family is distinguished from all the other monocotyledons, by its pulpy fruit; it contains plants dissimilar at the first view, but of which the affinity appears very natural when we examine all the inter Stems her medials. Their roots are never bulbous. baceous, or woody, often climbing; the leaves are alternate, opposite, or verticillate, rarely sheathing, often sessile, sometimes contracting in form of petioles, and furnished with longitudinal or ramified nerves; the flowers each grow in the axil of a particular spathe, often very small; the leaves are also often placed in the axil of a small stipule; the flowers are hermaphrodite or dioecious; their perigone is simple, free or adhering, of six divisions, (sometimes four or eight,) more or less deep, and sometimes coloured; the stamina are in number equal to the divisions of the perigone, and attached to the base or towards the middle of these divisions; the ovary bears a style with three stigmas, or three styles; the fruit is a spherical berry of three cells; the cell contains from one to three seeds; the embryo is placed at the base of a horny perisperm. Genera. Flowers hermaphrodite. Ovary free ** *** Flowers dioecious. Ovary adhering. TAMUS, Eighteenth Family. ALISMAÇEÆ. Fluviales et Alismoidea, Ventenat and Lamarck, Butomi et Fluviales, Mirbel. Tripetaloidearum gen. Linnæus. Nayadum et Juncorum gen. Jussieu. Liliacearum et Arorum gen. Adanson. The Alismaceae differ from all the monocotyledons, in having their seeds destitute of perisperms, and in their numerous ovaries. This last character gives them a general resemblance to the ranunculaceæ ; their habit and structure are analogous to the Juncea and the Colchicaceæ. All the species of this family live in fresh water or in moist places. Their roots are never bulbous; their leares are often - radical, sessile, or contracted in form of a petiole, alvways sheathing at their bases; the flowers, furnished with a spathe, are hermaphrodite, or monoecious, al most always terminal, disposed in a spike, an umbel, or a wheel; the perigone is free, of four or six divi- . sions, sometimes herbaceous; generally the three interior are petal-like, and the exterior herbaceous: the number of stamens varies from one to twenty-five; the ovaries are of the number four, six, nine, or more, each of which bears a style and a stigma, and changes to a capsule of one cell, with one to three seeds; sometimes the capsule opens not of itself, and sometimes it bursts at the internal side; the seeds are attached to the edge of the suture, and each contains a crooked embryo, destitute of a perisperm. In some genera (which perhaps do not belong to this family,) the embryo ad. heres by its base to a vitellus. Genera. * One to four Stamens. Perigone herbaceous. (Fluviales, Venteňat.) ZANICHELLIA. RUPPIA. POTAMOGETON. ** Six to twenty-five Stamens. Perigone coloured. (Alismoides, Ventenat.) ALISMA. SAGITTARIA. BUTOMUS. SCHEUCHZERIA. TRIGLOCHIN. Nineteenth Family. COLCHICACEÆ. Merendera, Mirbel. Juncorum gen. Jussieu, Ventenat, Lamarck, Liliacearum gen. Adanson. Spathacearum gen. Linnæus. The Colchicaceae approach very nearly, both by their habit and their character, to the alismacea, from which they differ in the presence of a perisperm, and by their simple ovary; and to the liliaceae, from which they are distinguished, by the valves of the fruit bearing no internal longitudinal dissepiments. The fruit is a capsule of three valves, of which the edges turn inwards, and form as many cells, which open towards the summit of the interior side; the seeds are numerous, attached in two series to the edges of the valves. The embryo is environed by a fleshy perisperm; the perigone is simple, free, petal-like, of six deep divi sions; the ovary is simple, surmounted by three styles, or by one style and three stigmas: the stamens are six |