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Show The Be Ral TSH HE RB AL. FO RETGN SPECIES, a. Gre ‘oliis cordatis dentatis: Wh O73 an obThe root is verylarge, thick, and of Jong form, and covered withfibres. flenThe leaves are fupported fingly on long, der footftalks. afhioned They are very large, and of a heart-f where they fhape ; being deeply cut at the bafe, they are broadeft, and thence fmaller to the end: flefhy are fharply dentated on the edges, andofa fabftance andbright green colour. Their footftalks are long, as thofe of our ; and theyare fmooth on the €-mmon wat furface, and of a deep green. The flowers are large and white: theyare fupported fingly on flenderfootftalks, much longer than thofe of the leaves, and are compofed of manypetals, placed in numerous feries, and furrounded by a cup compofed of four leaves, as in the common white water-lilly. The feed-veffel is very large, round, but drawn up to a neck-at the top, and full of a fpungy matter, with many large feeds: the large cup remains with this, and is fpread out under it, in the manner of the rays of a ftar. Alpinus calls it Lotus A2gyptia; a name moft authors have copied from him. Sir Hans Sloane, Nymphaea Indica flore candido, folio in ambitu ferrato. Others, Ambel. It is a native of Egypt, the Eaft Indies, and the hotter parts of America, and flowers in autumn. The root, whichis of the fhape and fize of a large egg, is a delicacy with the people of the Eaft, and accounted a very wholefome and delicate food: they boil.it, and eat it withthe liquor. Itis fo extremely abundant in the Nile, that it ferves as a kind of univerfal food to the poor, who have nothing to do but gointo the places where the water is fhalloweft, and take up in an hour or two food for many days for their families. Nymphea pediculis [pinofs The root is large, thick, and hung with aumerous longfibres. The leaves are fupported on long footftalks, in the manner of thofe of the common water-/ and are, like them, of a round form, and bignefs; but though they agree thus w others in the general fhape and mannerof appear. BRITISH HERBAL. ing, they differ in very effential particul Thefootftalks of the leaves are full of finall prickles, all pointing upwards, and the leaf it{elf is umbilicated ; the ftalk not beinginferted at the edge, as in the others, but in the centre LEEREEEEREESE ofthe leaf. The flowers are verylarge, and of a bright and elegant red: they are compofed of feveral feries ofpetals, and are fupported each on a long prickly foorftalk, as the leaves. The feed-veffel is very large, and ofafingulat form : it feems asifit had beencut off at the top, andthere are in it feveral cells, each of which contains one feed. Thefe are as large as the biggett filbert, and of a brownifh red colour on the outfide, but white within, The whole fruit is of a fpungy fubftance, and the feeds are foft. It is a native of the Eaft Indies, and other warm quarters of the world, It flowers in Hermancalls it Nymphea Indica faba 4 difia flore incarnate. Others call it fimply, Faba Aigyptiaca ; and fome after its Eaftern name ¢lumbo. Wefee the figure of this plant frequentlyin the Chinefe works on porcelain, and in their ja pan, and many held it to be imaginary ; but later obfervations have fhewn it to bethe reprefentation of a real plant, very commonintheir waters, and familiarly knownto the ancients. It is whatall the old writers have meant bythe faba Agyptia. Plants that have the flower compofed of FouR PETALS, difpofed in form of 4 crofs, and the feed-veffel sinciz, and of am IRREGULAR fort. Y y ye havein the preceding claffes arranged thofe genera which havea fingle capfule for the feeds, of a plain and fimple ftructure, according to the number of petals in the flower preceding that feed-veffel; from thofe which have only one, by regular fteps proceeding to fuch as have it compofed of an irregular and uncertain large number. In thefe clafies we have treated of thofe genera whofe feed-veffels have nothing particular in their form, nor have been ufed to be diftinguifhed peculiarly by authors under any diftinétive name: but there yet remain fome to which we are, according to Nature, and the cuftomofbotanifts of all time, founded on natural diftin€tions, to give a peculiar place. What are commonly called the /iquofe and / plants, are perfectly diftinguifhed from all others, and held feparate by writers; and in the fame manner the papilionaceous: yet each of thefe claffes confift of plants which have a fingle feed-veffel. Thefe therefore, as alfo the berry-bearing plants, diftinguifhed fromall others in the fame manner bythe ftructure of their fruit, we are to treat of diftin€tly, eachin its feparate clafs; and between the firft of thefe the filiquofe, and the laft of the former regularferies, we are to introduce a fmall clafs, which naturally leads to them. The filiquofe are thofe which have the flower compofed of four petals, difpofed crofs-ways, and the feed-vefiel a regular pod: thofe of the prefent clafs have the flower in the fame manner, compofed of four petals fo difpofed, and have for their fruit a feed-veffel whichis not a regular pod. Linnzus hus difperfed thefe over his works; and Mr. Ray has committed an overfight, in refpect of the feveral firft genera, placing them amongthe plants with five-leaved flowers. Thee Ba NeD,, of othe T.H,1-R ts EB Nut »C Li Ass S obiendet id) “ES 1 Natives of BRITAIN. Thoof which one or more fpecies are naturally wild in this country. Gate PN Oss L PEARL WORT. ALSINELD A *HE flower is compofed of four petals regularly difpofed: the feed-veffel is round, membrag naceous, and full of minute feeds: the cup is compofed of four little leaves, and remains £ when the Bower is fallen. N° XXIII. Mmm Diy |
