A Popular Description of the Indigenous Plants of Lanarkshire: With a Glossary of Botanical Terms

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Daniel Lizars, 1831 - 399 pages
 

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Page vi - But should he hide his face, the astonish'd sun, And all the extinguish'd stars, would, loosening, reel Wide from their spheres, and Chaos come again. And yet was every faltering tongue of man, Almighty Father ! silent in Thy praise, Thy works themselves would raise a general voice, Even in the depth of solitary woods By human foot untrod ; proclaim Thy power, And to the choir celestial Thee resound, The eternal Cause, Support, and End of all...
Page 351 - The fir tree of our plantations is not the native tree as found in the Highlands, but was brought from Canada not more than half a century ago. This circumstance is sufficient to explain the cause of the great deterioration in the growth and quality of our fir plantations, so much talked of at present. CLASS XXII. DIOECIA, CONSISTING OF SUCH PLANTS AS HAVE BARREN OR MALE FLOWERS, ON ONE INDIVIDUAL, AND FERTILE OR FEMALE ONES, ON ANOTHER OF THE SAME SPECIES. ORDER I. DIANDRIA, Male flowers with 2...
Page 76 - G 2 side. Panicle spreading, becoming contracted, directed to one side. Florets, with a purple tint, cylindrical, pointed or awned, smooth at the base and at the edges of the inner valve. June and July. A poor wiry grass. Species II. Hard Fescue-grass. F. Duriuscula. Dry pastures, common. Green before Chatelherault. Twice or thrice the size of the preceding. Root fibrous, in tufts. Stalk round. Leaves bristle-like, sea green — those from the root many, hard, stnoothish — those on the stalk Jtat,...
Page 347 - A prince's refuge once, 111' eternal guard Of England's throne, by sweating peasants fell'd, Stems the vast main, and bears tremendous war To distant nations, or with sov'reign sway Awes the divided world to peace and love. Why should the Chalybes, or Bilboa boast Their harden'd iron ; when our mines produce As perfect martial ore ? Can Tmolus' head Vie with our saffron odours?
Page xiv - Leadhills is about 1564 feet above the level of the sea. It is generally allowed to be among the highest inhabited districts in Scotland. The Lowthers rise to the elevation of about 3000 feet. Mr Penant's description of Leadhills is well known. " Nothing" says he " can equal the gloomy appearance of the country around ; neither tree, nor shrub, nor verdure, nor picturesque rocks, appear to amuse the eye ; the spectator must plunge into the bowels of the earth for entertainment.
Page 2 - ... Botany had its origin in Greece ; although it is probable that the study of plants had been previously cultivated in the great Hierarchical colleges of Egypt and Persia, — where they were early applied in the cure of the sick, or the hurt. In detailing the history of Botany, in its progress from the earliest period to the present time, it may be divided into the following eras, each of which is characterized, by certain progressive advances made in the science. The principal botanists who flourished...
Page 19 - If you find that they are perfectly distinct, and of equal height and maturity, and not so many as twenty, the number of them alone will be sufficient to determine the class. Those that have one stamen will belong to the first class Monandria. Those that have two, to the 2nd Diandria. Those that have three, to the 3rd Triandria.
Page xxvii - It falls at all seasons, and at all times of the day, und night. In winter, however, we have generally a greater number of rainy days than in summer ; but the quantity of rain is greater in summer than in winter. By far the greater portion of our rains are from a westerly direction ; for which we are probably indebted to that ineihaustable source of fluidity — the Atlantic Ocean. Upon examining the tables, containing statements of the quantity of rain falling annually in Great Britain, we may see...
Page ix - The experience of nearly one hundred years has proved to every unprejudiced mind, that no system has appeared which can be compared with that of the immortal Swede (Linneus) for the facility with which it enables any one, hitherto unpractised in botany, to arrive at a knowledge of the genus and species of a plant.
Page 7 - Charles Linnaeus was a native of Sweden, and the son of an obscure clergyman in that country : his father was a great admirer of the vegetable productions of nature, and adorned the environs of his rural mansion with the natural produce of the neighbouring fields. Young Linnaeus caught the enthusiasm, and early imbibed the same taste, with such warmth, that he was never able to bend his mind to any other pursuit. His father intended to bring him up to the church, but he showed such...

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