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Show “ThBRITIS# i DAY A S.1,0,N 1, 11h EO.RE IGN Perennial-rooted Adonis. Adauis radice perenni. The root is compofedof a fmall head, divi number of thick fibres. Jtis ofa deep blackith -| brown colour, and a bitterifh and acrimonious tafte. The firft leaves are two inches Jong, and compoled of a great numberofvery flender fine fegments. They ftand on fhort footftalks, and are of a dufky greencolour. The ftalks are numerous, ftriated, flender, and eight inches high. The leaves ftand irregularly on them, and they refemble thofe from the root; but they are fmaller. They have a bitterifh tafle, and’ when rubbedan unpleafant fmell: The flowers ftand at the tops ofthe ftalks ; and are large, beautiful, and yellow. They confif eachof fixteen ftriated petals, indented, and of- ten turning backat the points. The feeds ftand in an oblongclutter, large, and naked. It is a native of Bohemia, and other parts .of Europe, and flowersin July. C. Bauhine calls ic Helleborus niger tenuifolius iS Pi C red that. name. It is acrid and poifonous: it has f mes been fold in the ftead of black hellebore, or mixed among black hellebore, and, it is faid, withfatal confequences. into feveral parts, and furnifhed with a great It has the tharpnefs of the moft violent of the ctow-foots, and its juice will eat away warts. 2. Great flowered Adonis. Adonis flore maximo. The root is compofed of a fimall heac a vaft number of Jong and thick fibres. black, and ofan acrid and difagreeable tafte. The firft leaves are fmall: they have very fh footftalks, and are divided into a few flender lo: fegments. BrRo 1,7 16 Hs Moufetail. Myofuros. Z The root is compofed of a great number of whitifh fibres, The leaves are very numerous. Theyrife in athick tuft, and refemble the fhoots of grafs. They are three inches long, extremely narrow, and fmalleft toward the bottom, for they grow fomewhat broader toward the end: theyare of a frefh green, andfoft. The ftalks are numerous alfo: they rif the centre of the tuft of leaves, and are flender; naked, andof apale green. At the topofeach flandsafingle flower; which is fmall and greenith, compofed of five little pe- tals, and ftanding in a cup compofedof five leaves H ERB AGL. alfo, which though {mall are fomewhat larger thar the flower. In the centre ftand feveral threads in an uncertain number, and on their tops are placed oblong buttons. When the flower is fallen, the feeds placed with great regularity in a long der head, the whole refembling the It is not uncommonin dry places: dington we have it in abundance. It flowers in May. Authors call i and Cauda muris. The tafte of the whole plant is fiery a in this alfo it agrees with the crowfoot kind. Its virtues are not known ; but it appears one of thofe plants which are not to be given intern Their Acre. colour is a pale green, an they are of anacridtaite. : The ftalks are fhort, thick, and flefhy : they have large joints, and at each one leaf divided into very nawoWs but not numerous fegments. , Genta U8 XI. CROWFOOT. ReAONSUN COL Y's. of the plant, and ftands at the top of the ftalk. 1 of feveral petals, and has a large tuft of paler yellow threads in the centre. he feeds ftand ina naked oval head. It is foundin fome parts of Germany, and flowers in July and Av SHE dowerconfifts offive petals, with a tuft of fhort threads in the centre, and ftands in a cup compofedof five leaves: the feeds ftand naked, andin roundifh clufters. Linnzus places this genus among the polyandria polygynia, and {peaks with great warmth of the confufion and uncertainty to which it was liable, till he difcovered the neétarium of the flower. It appears to me, on the contrary, that this, though an ingenious: and curious obfervation, is not of great ufe ; that the genus is fufficiently difting without it, and little liable to anyother confufion than fuch as mayarife fromlearnedtrifli The parts of fruétification in this genus, Linnzus obferves, are always inconftant anduncer Hie means that the filaments in the middle of the flower are fo. This is not fingular in crow we have juft fhewnit is fo in moufetail, and fhall fhew the fame in many others. If any thingis to hi is, that thefe, though the foundation ofthat author’s fyftem, a upon his r fuch a purpofe. The charaéters we eftablith from the flower in g ject to this inconftancy orirregularity ; and therefore they are more proper, The ne¢tarium which that authorhere calls in to the affiftance of his diftin@tions, is alittle Hollow , fometimes clofed up, in the bottom of every petal ofthe flower. is, and numerous other inftances, that a method founded more on the obviousparts ole to uncertainty, and more agreeable to the diftinGtions made by nature, The flower is yellow, verylarge for the bignefs s dohelleborus caule geniculato flor Laphthalmi flores The root refembles that of black hellebore in afpect; whence the plant, thoughaltogether unTOR ipl: The. Its virtues are unknown, Go Nears MOUSEFAI MYLOSUROS. XI, HE flower confifts of five fmall petals, and is placed in a five-leaved cup. The feeds ftand naked in a long head; and the leaves are graffy. Linnzus places this among the pentandria polygynia, {eparating it, by manyclaffes, from the rangyculus, adonis, and other of the plants belonging to this, although he acknowledges it is very nearly allied to them*. This may fhew the imperfeétion of his method, even upon his own confeffion.. The reafon ofhis feparating this plant fromthe others, is that there are in them greattufts of threads in the middle of the flower; and in this only five: Let us appeal'to nature, whether this plant, which agrees with the others of the prefent clafs in the form and ftructure of its fower, and in the fingular difpofition and arrangement ofits feeds, fhould be taken from among them, and placed in a far diftant clafs, only becaufe the filaments or threads in the flower are in a fmaller number, Reafon declares utterly againft this 5 nor is there the juft authority of obfervation for placing it in any other, This author, though, from its having five filaments, he has ranked it among the pentendrias yet is obliged to confefs, that the number of thofe threads is fubject in, this genus to great variation +. This acknowledgment not only fhews he has put the prefent plant out of its place, but fhakes the very foundation of his method: for it depends upon the numbering of thefe filaments. In the arrangement we have made of thefe feveral genera, the moufetail appears plainly to belong to them, and to have its proper place. We have given the difpofition of the feeds in a naked head, as the great character of the clafs; and in fomethat headis fhorter, in others longer. In moft of the genera firft named here it is round; in the adonis it is oblong and thick; and in the motfebail, which we place next, it is long and thin. There is no moredifference. OF this genus there is but one known fpecies, and that is a native of England. BRI is a fall round | Its colour is w from the root are la 1 dividedinto three parts, each of w " ftand on long “ long > round, upright, and branched. vat grow on thefe: mall and few deep fe and of at cautiful yelofed each of five rou es ‘ a tuft of threads in thecentre. nakedin a {mal 1 head. x pcan tie anc n in our’paftures, and SP BCE os Theleaves that rife from ic are large, deeply ivided the edges, and often {potted. Each compofed as it were of three diftin@ parts. e colour is a dead green, and they are fomewhat hairy: they ftand on jlong hollowedfootflalks, The ftalks are flender and weak: fome run upon the ground, and take root at the joints 4 a 5 5 others are more erect, and fupport the flowers. The leaves on thefe are fmall, and deeply divided. The flowers are large andyellow, The feeds follow in naked heads. It is common in meadows, and flowers May. C. Bauhine calls it Ranunculus pratenfis 1 repens j 3. Pale-leaved Crowfoot. Ranuner b > root is compofedoffibres. leaves ftand on long hollow footfta : divided into three parts, and each deep! they are large, y, and of a © Myofuri fumma eft affinitas cum ranunculo. + Numerus flaminumin hoc genere valde variat.- : L: Moufe |