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Show tl:~e Hi)ory of P L A N T S. 1 : Salicornia internodiis brevioribus. The foort-jointed Salicornia. • f1 ecies is lar e and robuft; it's root is fmall, oblong, and furrounded with a This p b f fib. g . 't's fralks are hard and woody toward the lower part, green great num er o res· I h ~ d f great number of d fi 1cculent toward the upper, and are throug out compo e o a ~~ry ~art joints, inferted into one another, in the manner of_£~ manyd_c~ds •. The . fi lk fends off a great number of branches, and towards It s top lVl es mto a mam a the s • but thefe have no leaves but only fmall branches like themfelves. greatdmary. o. t;d' growing from them. th~y are round, fucculent, and of a brackiOl ~ol~n tanfteJOll~he' flowers are very min~te, and of a yellow cG>lour ; they fiand only o1:1n mthee ato s of the branches, and 1aft but a lt· tt 1e w h1'l e. . This ii~cies is perennial, and is not a native of England.. It IS frequent about. tl?e coaftn olthe Mediterranean. The next fpecies to be ~efc~1bed grea_tly ref~mblcs It m it's ftrutture, and is often mifiaken for it; and, by this miftake, this fpectes has been called a native with us. c. Bauhine calls it, i<.ali geniculatllm rnajus. J. Bauhine, Kali geniculatum five Salicornia; an d mo ft o f t h e ot h er wrl ·ters , fimply , Kali geniculatum.• by that means confounding it with the other. 2. Salicornia internodiis iongioribu's. The longer-jointed Salicornia. 'fhis fpecies greatly refembles the former, but it is lefs robufl:, and is an ~nnuai plant. It's root is confiderably large for the fize of the plant, of ~n oblong figure, and whitifh colour; and furnilhed with a conliderable number of thick and {hong fibre~. The plant ufually rifes to eight or ten inches in height, fometimes to more. Th~ ~alk IS fucculent, and compofed of cylindric joints, inferted into one another ; thefe JOmts are longer than thofe of the former, though that be fo much the larg~r plant: fi·om the fides of the branches there iffi1e others, and from thofe yet others, ull t_he whole have a very rarnofe figure· the whole plant is of a fine bright green colour, and IS foft and tender down to the very bottom: the ftalks all the way are thicker at the joints than elfewhere, and the whole plant has a brackiili, but not difagreeable, tafte: the flowers grow only on the tops of the branches ; they are fmall, and of a pale green colour ; the feeds are black and oblong. This fpecies is extreamly common with us on the fea-coafts, and almofi through the world. Our people have a way of gathering it, and pickling it! under the name of Sampire. C. Bauhine calls it, Kali geniculatum alterum vel mmus; and J. Bauhine, Cali Arabum aliud. C/afs the Fitjl. Genus the Second. M 0 N A N D R I A D I G Y N I A. Plants which· have only one flamen, but have two .flyli in each flower. Of theje there are but three known genera. CORISPERMUM. T H B Corifpermum has no calyx. The corolla confifis of two petals, which are compre!fed, crooked, pointed, equal in fize, and placed oppofite to one another. The ftamen is a lingle, long, crooked filament; the anthera is fimple. The germen of the piftil is roundilh, and compre!fed. The ftyles are two in number; they ar~ capillary and crooked. The ftigmata are acute. The fruit is a roundilh capfule, compreffed, bilocular, and has a furrowed edge: the feeds are of an oblong figure, and ftand fingle. This genu~ comprehends the 'Stellaria of Dillenius, the Corifpermum of J uffieu, and the Rhagrofhs o~ Buxbaum. It is liable, however, to great variation in fome of the parts : the effenttal and certain difiinction is in the corolla. The fruit fometimes varies in being bilocular and tetrafpermous, and it is fometimes gymnofpermous ; and the fex The Hifiory of P L A N T S:. {ex varies yet more, it being fometimes hermaphrodite, fometimes monrecious; ferne._ times direcious, fometimes polygamis. As the corolla, however, is invariable, the genus may always be di!tinguilhed. Cor!JPermum foliis oppojitis. The Corifperm,um, with leaves placed opfojite. The root of this fpecies is frnall, and creeping, and is ufually affixed in the mud at the bottom of waters not very deep ; from this grows feveral fialks very thin, tender, and flexile, which rife up till they reach the furface of the water, where great tufts df them ufually appear together, and the upper leaves of each difpofe themfelves in a fort of radiated manner, fo as to refemble a fiar; and hence it obtained the name of Stellaria Aquatica, and Water Starwort, among the ordinary botanical writers. The leaves fiand in pairs on the fialks, oppofite to one another, and every pair at the difiance of about three quarters of an inch from the other; from the fame joints, whence the leaves Hfue; there ufually grow alfo a few white fibrous roots. The fialks grow, according to .the different depth of th~ water, to a foot or two in length, or to no more than five or fix inches; they are ufually fimple, fometimes branche~. The leaves are of a bright green colour, about half an inch in length, and a fixth of an inch in breadth. They are broade11: in the middle, and thence gradually grow fmaller toward each extremity.· The clufters of leaves on the furface of the water confift of feveralleaves, broader than the others, and laid in a radiated manner over one another, the inner ones growing gradually fhorter and lhorrer to the center. The flowers fiand in the alre of the leaves, two at a joint. They are [mall, white, ahd the petals are fo bent, that they almoft meet one another. The whole plant is of a very tender and delicate firucture. It grows abundantly in almoft all our ponds and ditches, covering fpots of them often of two or three yards diameter. Parkinfon, Gerrard, and the refi, call it> Stellaria aquatica ; ·and J. Bauhine, Alfine aquis innatans foliis longiufculis ~ It varies in it's manner of growth fo extrearnly, as to have been mifiaken by authors for feveral fpecies; and defcribed by them as fuch. The plant, in it's mofi natural fiate, produces leaves of an elliptic,. oblong figure. One of the varieties, efteemed a different fpecies by authors, is that with leaves bifid at the ends. The authors, who erected a new fpecies out. of this variety, did not give themfelves the pains to examine the plant in it's common fiate, in whicfu it's lower leaves are always bifid in this manner at the extremity; anrl the whole difference between the new fpecies and that was, that in the ·one only the lower leaves were thus emarginated, in the others all: This variety is ufually found in autumn, in ponds, where it has grown under water in the fpring, and the water; in the heat of fummer, has been dried up; and the plant defrroyed down to the root : in this cafe it grows again on the ponds filling with fi·e!h water; and it's firft lhoots in this .fiate always have narrow linear leaves, bifid at. the end, like the lower leaves of the other pla.nts. Another variety is the !horter and rounder-leaved plant; in this ftate it is fmall, and creeps on the fur£1ce of the · mud, in places where the water has _been dried up, or in places where the feeds have been received, though never covered with water in thefe places : in this cafe the ftalk takes root at every joint, and it's leaves are frnaller, lhorter, and roundi01. The firft of thefe varieties is defcribed in the Fl. Pr. under the name of Lenticula palufiris anguftifolia folio in apice di!feCl:o; and by Petiver, in Ray's Synopfis, under that of 5tellaria aquatica longifolia; and by Ray, under that of Stellaria aquatica foliis longis tenuiffimis. The other is called by Dillenius, Cat. Gi1f. Stellaria minor et repens; by C. Bauhine, Lenticula paluftris bifolia fruCl:u tetragono; and by Pliny, Callitriche. Thcfe are evident varieties of the common Corifpermum, firft defcribed ; but there are, however, two really diftintl: fpecies, which will be ealily diftinguilhed by their names. The fid1: is the Corifpermum foliis alternis, called by Joffieu, Cor11permum hyffopifolium ; and by Buxbaum, Rhagroftis femine pafiinachre. This grows on the fandy lhores in Tartary, about the Volga. The fecond is the Corifpermum glabrum majus longiffimis foliis of Amman; the Rhagroftis foliis arundinaceis of Buxbaum, found alfo on the {bores of the Volga, and in many other places in Tartary. Linnreus calls the firft of thefe two, Corifpermum floribus lateralibus; the latter, Corifpermum fpicis fquarrofis. They are both annual, but the latter is larger and more procumbent; it's ftalk fmooth, whereas it is rough in the other : the leaves not only larger, but |