. 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 color, and strong, peculiar odor; the
flowers are produced in longer and looser clusters than those of the
Broad-leaved, and the seed-vessels are smaller. Now generally cultivated
because of its greater hardiness.

* * * * *

SAFFRON. _Law._

Safflower. Carthamus tinctorius.

A hardy, annual plant, with a smooth, woody stem, two and a half or
three feet high; leaves ovate, spiny; flowers large, compound,
bright-orange, or vermilion; seeds ovate, whitish, or very light-brown,
a fifth of an inch long, and a tenth of an inch thick.

_Soil and Cultivation._--It grows best on soils rather light, and not
wet; and the seed should be sown the last of April, or early in May, in
drills about two feet apart and an inch deep. When the plants are two
inches high, they should be thinned to six inches apart in the rows, and
afterwards occasionally hoed during the summer, to keep the earth loose,
and free the plants of weeds.

_Use._--"It is cultivated exclusively for its flowers, from which the
coloring-matter of Saffron, or Safflower, is obtained. These are
collected when fully expanded, and dried on a kiln, under pressure, to
form them into cakes; in which state they are sold in the market. It is
extensively cultivated in the Levant