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Show The BE BRB AL. BRITISH Common Frogbit. Aydt The root confifts of feveral very long and thick fibres. From thefe rife alfo clufters of leaves and laft are long and flender; and, fide-fhoots: thefe as they fpread every way from the central root, theyfend up alfo tufts of leaves, and, downwards, roots like the firft. The leaves rife tenor twelve together, and are fupported on long, thick footftalks of a fpungy fubftance. They are round, but indented in a heartfafhioned «manner -at. the infertion. of the. ftalk, and are thick, fmooth, and of a dead green. The flowers are large and white: they ftand on long, flenderfootftalks. GaeraN, The feed: veflels are largeand rounded; and the feeds are numerous and {mall. It is commonin ditches {wiming on the water, It flowers in July. C. Bauhine calls it Nymphaea alba minima. Others, Theleaft waterlilly, Frogbit, andMorfus rane. It has fometimes double flowers, andis in that condition defcribed by fome as a diftin& fpecies ; but this is only a variety from rich and abundant nourifhment.» I ‘bferved a whole ditch near Therny inthe ifle of Ely covered with ‘this double-flowered kind; the water was thick and redith, he us hufk compofed of two membranes, which remains with the feed-veffel; the other is formed ofa fingleileaf, divided inte three fegments, and falls off with the.flower: the :{eed-yeffel -is-oval, but marked with fix edges; and is divided, within in to. ix, cells, and.contains numerous feeds. Linnzus' places this among, the -palyandria bexagynia; the threads being numerous, and the ftyles from the rudiment of the capfule fix, anfwering to the fix feparate cells or divifions in the fruit; the feeds are crooked. } ) The root is compofedof feveral long, thick, white fibres with tufted ends: they are naked from “the top’ to the bottom’ but juft at the extremity they have feveral fmall, fhort filaments, which {pread every way. Fromthis root rife numerous leaves of a. fingular figure: they are long and narrow, thickeft and broadeft at the bafe, and fharp at the point : they are fiefhy, firm, of a deep green colour, and armed with flight prickles along the edges. The ftalks rife among’ thefe,-and are naked, round, thick, and of a pale green. ett § 1G ey I. HE flower is compofed of three petals, which are broad: there are two cups, the one is a 2N.,* / Gi Plants whofefloweris compofed of rouR PETALS, and is fucceeded by @ SINGLE REGULAR CAPSULE. §8T RATLO FES. Stratiotes Oulgaris. “72° Bie RAB AL. SEESEPAPERSREPPaSe The country people make a pultice ofthe frefh leaves-boiled in-milk, which they Jay to {wellings: but nothing is knownfartherofits virtues. It is not ufed in the fhops. WATE RS O45 DD. LER: Common Water Soldier; PAC ET TST. The flowers are'large: and white, with a tuft of yellow threads in the centre, Thefeed-veffel is large, and the feeds are long, crooked, and, as it were, winged. It is common in the fen countries, the ifle of Ely, and elfewhere and flowers in-July: It fwims upon the water, or is fometimes half way buried in it; and, though the roots are THESE are plants as evidently allied to one another, and as evidently diftinguifhed from the reft as thofe of the precedingclafs, fince nothing can be a plainer claffical charaéter than four petals in a flower, and a fingle capfule fucceeding; yet they are difperfed over feveral parts of the works of Linnzus, and all the modern writers, The ftudent, in this method of ours, needs only examine the number of petals and the feedveflel, to know to what clafs to refer, or where to look for a plant of this defignation ; in thofe he will receive no information on either head from fuch an obfervation; but fatft count' the threads in the plaintain, and thofe in willow-herb, to find where to feek them in his thor, and to > to that of difcover, that one having four belongs to the clafs of tetrandia, and the other havi 2 pentandria ; while the poppy, becaufe it has them more numerous, and fixed to the receptacle is to : be fought for among the polyandria, in a very diftant part of the book. The ftudent will here find all the plants’ which have four petals, and a fingle regular capfule, together: but let him obferve here the diftinétion between the capfule and the pod. As thefe ae inét in Englifh, fo they are in other languages. The Latin writers conftantly exprefs one by 2, the other by /iqua; and though bothare feed-veffels, they are perfectly diftinguithed, is the more needful to be obferved hete, becaufe there is another great family to be diftin. by having fourpetals in the flower, and a podor /i qua following. tion will be fhewn when we come‘to treat of that clafs, What is containedin the preit is that family ofplants in which 'the petals are four, and the feed-veflel is a capfule, fuch as thofe of the feveral preceding clafles, and not a pod. confiderably long, they rarely reach the bottom, C.Bauhine calls it Aloe paluftris, Others, Aizoon paluftre, and Militaris aizoides, and Aloides. Nothing is known of a certainty ofits virtues; but; the old women’ ufe it externally as cooling and repellent. Natives of BRITAIN. The END of th SEV ETH Thofe of which one or more fpecies are wild in this country. CLAS S. E PAP Ook OOK, HE flower is compofed of four large, broad, petals: the cup is a hufk, compofed of two ova} leaves : the feed-veffel is crowned with a top, under which there are feveral {mall openings; 1€ feeds are numerous. us places this amongthe po/) fixed to the receptacle, and the rudiment of the fruit fing with er being numerous, gle top, without any DIVi |
