OCR Text |
Show HERS The Smooth Chelone. : Chelone foliis-glabris. Mode Mele The root is long, flender, and furnifhed with many fibres. . The ftalks are numerous, round, firm, up- right, and confiderably branched. The leaves are long, narrow, and beautifully ferrated at the edges: they ftand very irregularly.on:the ftalks 5 thofe toward the bottomal- ternately ; and thofe toward the top in pairs. Ge eB N TRUMP EIT The flowers are large and white: they fmall clufters at the top of the ftalkc anc andareof a fingular afpett, fhort, thich andclofé at the mouth. The feed-veffel is oval, and the feeds < andthree-cornered. It is a native of North America, in July. Tournefort calls it Che Ray, Digitalis} mariana perfice leaves refe-mbling thofe of the pe Use § 1. Smooth Bears Breech. Acanthus mellis. The root is long, flender, white, divided into many parts, and furnifhed with numerous fibres. The firft leaves are large, and extreamly beau- tiful: they rife in clufters ten or twelve together, V. WLOWMWER BIGNOWI] 2. MpHE flower is made of a fingle petal, land is of thé labiated /form: it confifts of a tube, a hollow body, andadivided sim: the tube, properly fo called, ‘is very hort, and reach i than the cup: the bedy is very long and shollow ; and the rimis divided into fiveparts, two of whi are turned back ; thefe ftand upwards, and the other three hang downward, and ‘pread out : cup is hollow, and divided into five fegments at the rim; and the feed-veflel is formed in the ner of a pod. Linnzus places this among the’ didynamia angiofpermia, the threads in ¢ two longer and two fhorter, and the feeds being contained in a capfule. 1. Ever-green Trumpetflower. Bignonia fempervirens. -leaved Trum, “7/9, ) Theroot is long, thick, tough, and fasting, The ftalks are numerous, very long, weak, rTeee | pe) andclimbing, but of a woody fubftance. The leaves ftand in pairs, and have very hort footftalks: they are large, dblong, and ‘confiderably broad, undivided at the edges, and fharppointed. The flowers ftand in the bofoms of the leaves, and have fhort footftalks; two ftand) together, one inthe -bofom of each leaf of the pair, and fo all the way up the ftalk: they are large and yellow, and have a very fragrant {mell. The feed-veffel is of a heart-fathioned fhape. The feeds are winged. It is aonative of Virginia, and has ‘been called by many names. Plukenet» calls it Syringa volubilis Virginiana, myrti majoris folio, alata femine, floribus adoratis lateis, Catelby, ‘Fafminum luteum odoratum Virginianum feandens fempervirens. Ray and others allow it as a Bignonia. Biguonia foliis digitatis. The root is.long, {preading; andfull offibres. The ftem is woody, and the bark brown, with a tinge of red. The leaves are of a yery beautiful colour and figure: five grow on every footftalk, and are difpofed in a Gelteted manner: three of the five ftand forwards, and have long tialks ; two are fhorter and ftand back, and thefe have very fhort footftalks: they are of a firm fubftance, and their colouris a bright green. The flowers are very large, and whi The feed-ycflel is long, in the m iner..of a pod, and when ripeit fplits at, the.end. It is a native of Jamaica,,and grows on the banks of waters, and in damp places: it dowers in July. Sir Hans |Sloane has name of Nerio affinis /; de doit un } BR ITT }S-H—H-E-R- EAL. and have nofootftalks : they {pread as they grow up, and fome lie upon the ground, while thofe in the middle keep more erect. Thefe leaves are long, and confiderably broad, deeply divided into thtee or four pairs of large fegments at the edges, and they terminate in a larger portion, of the fame form, at the point: thefe feveral parts are all irregularly indented at the edges, -and give the leaf the afpect of thofe of the pinnated kind, thoughthey are not divided nearly to the rib: the colouris a beautiful deep green, andthe furface glofly. The curious reader will not be offended at fo long and minute a defcription of a leaf admired fo extreamly for its beauty among the antients, and copied into fo manyof their ornamental works. The ftalk rifes in the centre of this clufter of leaves, and is thick, firm, upright, and three t high: the leaves ftandirregularly on it, and aredn toward the bottom, and {maller near the top; fo that they give the whole plant a figure: thofe on the upper part of the ftalk are more divided at the edge, and thofe at the lower part lefs, The flowers ftand. in a long, thick fpile, ter- minating the ftalk, and are large and white. The feed-veffels are large, and the feeds are fmall. It is a native of Italy, and of the Greek iflands, and flowers in June. uhine-calls it Acanthus fativus five.mollis i, Others, Branca urfina, and Acantbus and Acanthus mollis. We call it Brank urfine, or Bears breech. \t grows very well in our gardens. A great deal of learned nonfenfe has been put together by criticks on the fubject of the acanthus of the antients; but had they been better botanifts they would have been more in a condition to have underftood their authors; and would have faved their readers muchtrouble. The names acanthus and acantha occur very fre quently |in the writings of the Greeks and Romans, andare often atedfor different prickly fhrubs andplants, according to the more or lefs accurate expreffion, or determinate meaning oftheir authors; Gy Eea N S BE A.R.S..B.R.E-E.C H. ACAN 7H U.S. HE flower confifts of a fingle petal, and approachesin ne to the labia formedinto two parts, a tube and fingle lip. The tube is very thort: lip wanting ; the lower, whichis its only lip, is very long, and: divided into four the cup is of a fingular ftruéture, as well as the flower: it confifts of fix leaves; fideways, oppofite, and ereét, and thefe are {mall , twoare again placed opppofite, and fta and bottom ; thefe are larger; and there are befide thefe, two other very min vee Ones is alfo fideways. The ee veffel is oval. Linnzus places this among the didynamia angiofpermia, the thread:s in each flow longer and two fhorter, and the feeds contained in a capfule 4 but the reader at this time ig little concerned about any except the one plant, properly, determinately, and generally, called Acanthus. T his was the herb whofe leaves they have fo much celebrated for their beauty ; and which, we find, their artifts have introduced into various kinds of carved work, and’ of which the leaves in the capital of the Corinthian order in architecture are formed. This is the proper acazthus, and is the kind here defcribed and figured. Its greateft fame is in the capital juft named, which, we are told, Callimachus formed upon the model of a bafket, covered with a tile, and furrounded with the leaves of an acanthus plant, upon whofe roots it had accic Jentally been fet. This bafket continues the vafe of the capital; the leaves and ftalks are the ornaments with N° XIV. 134 o which it is covered; and the tile forms ifs abacus. Such was the original Corinthian capital; bué fculptors, even in thofe ages of chafter tafte, had the error, fo common at this time, of fuppofing every thing that is Jaboured muft be beautiful. Inftead of the great and noble plicity of this natural leaf, they foon began to decorate it with more earving: they fplit the edges of its feveral fegments, yarioufly into three, or into five diftiné& and feparate leaves: thefé they left plain and even at the edges; and, becaufe the form of the whole was altered, they called the’ firft-variation, whete the divifion was into three, the /awrel, and theother, where it was into five, the ofve leaf. In Boi the proper form and beauty of the leaf are loft : it is neither noble nor in nature: it becomes a monftrous production of ignorant art: the whole is a body of acanthus leaf_ bearing olive or laurel leaves at its top andfides. Onegtieves to fee this in the antique, but the remains of many oftheir great works are. difgraced by it. The leaves on the capitals of the columnsin the temple of Vetta at Romeare of the laurel kind; thofe of the Bafilick of Antonine of the olive; and there are many moreinftances, needlefs to'be recounted here, both of one and the otherdivifion. In the temple of Vefta at Tivoli wefee the true acanthus. obi reflects more uponthe tafte of architecture, in that time ofits eminent glory, fo rauch as this infult upon nature; the preferring'to:her great fimplity the litelenefs of art. Prickly Bears Breech. Acanthus aculeatus. The root is long, thick, ufually fingle, bu€ furnifhed with many finall fibres. The leaves that rife fromit are verylarge and beautiful; but they have not the elegant fimplicity-of thofe ‘of the former’ kind: they’ are long and broad, and are ‘divided fo deeply into many pairs ef fegments that they very muchrefemble the pinnated form, but they »are! not cut to the middle rib: thefe fegments, are notchedat the edges,,and the whole) leaf is covered: with long, white, and tharp; prickles, Theftalk rifes in the centre of this tuft, and is thick, firm, upright, and two foor and a. half high. The leaves that ftand onit are like thofé from the root, but lefs divided, and of apaler ‘ The flowers are, large and white, and they ftand in a thick {pike terminating the ftalk. The feed-veflel is large and oblong; and the feeds are fmail. It is not uncommon in Italy, growing moftly in dampfhadyplaces about the edges ofrivers and in thickets. Jt flowers in’ June. C. Bauhine calls ic Acanthus ac Acanthus filvefiris: This fpecies was known to the antients as familiarly as the former, but they: did ‘not much * regard it. Some of more depraved tafte iotroduced its figure into ornaments of earved work 3 bur it makes a confufed and poor appéarance. The true acanthus leaves have an open freedom and an eafy grace not found in any of thefe, whether fromart or nature. Mm Relide ee Bikol tS H The, |