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Show T orb BRA RIS Et Soy Ritd Peak ws Ane, 2B 38 I, Natives of BRITAIN, Thofe of which one or more fpecies are naturally wild in this kingdom. BRITISH HERBAL GeeR SAN Orang cow, SUNDEW. ROR £E LL A. AS) 8. ks Plants with the flower compofed of rive vevars regularly difpofed, and the feeds contained in a siNGLE carsuLE; and with the kaves alternate, or not in pairs, upon the fralks. ‘Tee plants, if the flowers and feed-veffels alone were to be confidered in the eftablifhment of clafies, would have been arranged in the fame with thofe of the preceding; yet they are extremely different from them, Thealternate difpofition of the leayes. is an. obvious character, and is univerfal among them ; as the having them in pairs is of the preceding. This may, toa lefs confiderate obferver, appear too trivial an incident for the forming claflical diftinétion ; but nature, whofe fteps alone I follow, fhews it to be otherwife. Let him reflect, and obferve, that of all the genera treated of in the preceding clafs there is not one which has belonging to it a fingle fpecies the leaves of which ftand alternately; and that among thofe which conftitute this clafs, the charaéter of which is to have the leaves alternate, there is not one that has a fingle {pecies -with the leaves in pairs; and he will then find this, which before feemed to him but a cafual incident in the growth of the plants, a regular and univerfal law eftablifhed by nature among thefe plants, and in all the genera not once violated. He wiil from this, not only learn the error of his firft opinion, but will fee that nature made the difpofition of the leaves of plants a certain and regular-part of their eftablifhed diftin@tions, and that Linnaus’s method muft have been imperfect, were it only for that it has not regarded them as anypart of claffical diftinétions, The more ftrict and more general marks of divifion are placed in larger and more obvious parts of the flower and feed-veffel, but as there are in the threads, and other fmaller parts of it alfo, very remarkable particularities, fo there are in the difpofition of the leaves, and the general growth of the plant. Thefe laft, as they are the more obvious of the two fubordinate characters, fo they are the moft certain, and free fromvariation. We find, in many of the particular genera of the preceding clafs, certain fpecies in which the number of the threads vary; and this Linnzus finds himfelf obliged to own, even wherehe is eftablifhing the characters of the genus upon them ; but we do notfee any inftance of the leaves being placed varioufly in the feveral fpecies of any genus therein, This is a point we fhall have occafion to treat more at large when we come to fpeakof the ftellate plants; but thus much may beproper to be obferved here, to eftablith the diftinGtion of the prefents and prepare for that of the fucceeding clafs. THE flower confifts of five petals, regularly difpofed into a hollowed form: the feed-veffél is oval, and hasfive valves at the top, but contains only a fingle cell: the cup is formed of a fingle piece, divided into five fegments, and remains when the flower is fallen. Linneus places this among the pentandriapentag tia; the threads in the flowerbeing five, and the ftyles from the rudiment of the fruit of the fame number. This author has taken away the antient name of this genus, which is ros folis, and calls it drofera, As agenerical name confifting of more than one wordis always improper, and as, befide the name ros folis, there is a familiar one always underftood; and ufed as fynonymous with it, that is rorella, I have chofen this for the name of the genus; every one converfant in the leaft with thefe ftudies knowing it. Dol $oksS HOWBRIT OSH SP CTE 8. onion Sundew a} 3 Rorella vulgaris. Zla 27%. JG The root is compofed of a few, flender crooked fibres: “he Ieaves rife from it in a little clufter ten or a dozen together, and form a very fingular ap- pearance: eachhasits long and flender footftalk ; and both that and the leaf are very hairy: the body of the leaf is roundifh, or a little inclining to oval: the colour is a dingy purple, and the fubftanc efhy. h hat-grew on this, and on the foote long, robuft, and yellowihh ; and they differ greatly from thofe of any other known plant, except the fpecies of the fame genus: they are often waved or crooked, and thereftand on the leaves large midft of the he received i drops of a tra fluidin the : centre of this tuft of gle, undivided, andfix ] 1 it has no 2. Roundifh-leaved perennial Sundew, Rorella rotundifolia perennis The root confifts, not of a few flight fibres, as in the preceding; but of a:thick tuft of them, {preading every way to a confiderable length, from the feveral parts of one principal, flender, andlong |body: The leaves rife in a little clufter, but rarely more than fix or feven together: they have long footftalks, and ftand more upright than in the common fun : the leaves themfelves are roundifh, but approachingtooval, andare of a thick, flefhy fubftance : they are covered with fhort and {tiff, yellow hairs, and generally havedrops of a tranfparent liquot.on them in the heat of the day, Thala se pale ender. upric The ftalk is naked, flender, upright, and four ‘aches hich: Ate” Mavens sqroweabl tha fipeinnemn fer’ of eight or ten together; and they open more freely, and ftand longer, than thofe of common funde tt they are fmall and white. The feed-veffels are oblong, and the feeds numerous and roundith. It is common on bogs, with the former, but is overlooked. ifions, ten or 2 It flowers’ in July. Raycalls ic Rorella rotundifolia perennis. 3. Small longifh-leaved perennial Sundew. w is fometimes obferved to ing to an oblong by Cafpar Bauhine rs, into two {p he latter c ; but that is only a variety y and effentially, and <, black, and The |