Ruta graveolens.

Rue is a hardy, shrubby, nearly evergreen plant, and thrives best in poor but dry and warm soil. It is propagated by seeds, or slips, and by dividing the roots. The seeds are sown in April, and the roots may be separated in spring or autumn. The plants should be set about eighteen inches apart in each direction. When extensively cultivated, they are set in rows eighteen inches apart, and a foot asunder in the rows.

Use.--"Rue has a strong, unpleasant odor, and a bitter, pungent, penetrating taste. The leaves are so acrid as to irritate and inflame the skin, if much handled. Its efficacy as a vermifuge is unquestioned; but it should be used with caution. It was formerly employed in soups; and the leaves, after being boiled, were eaten pickled in vinegar." The plant is rarely used in this country, either as an esculent or for medical purposes.

The kinds cultivated are the following:--

BROAD-LEAVED RUE.

Stem shrubby, four or five feet high; leaves compound, of a grayish-green color and strong odor; flowers yellow, in terminal, spreading clusters; the fruit is a roundish capsule, and contains four rough, black seeds.

At one period, this was the sort principally cultivated, and is that referred to in most treatises on medicine. More recently, however, it has given place to the Narrow-leaved, which is much hardier, and equally efficacious.

NARROW-LEAVED RUE.

Stem three or four feet high; foliage narrower than that of the preceding, but of the same grayish

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