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Show 192 The white: fta The points. It is The flowers are large, be autiful, and fnow the they grow in a tuft at the top of { feed-veflel is fmall, and ends in two The feeds are very{1 It is a native of Switzerland, and flowers in April. Plukenet call 5 full of {mall browa { 5 BRITISH’ Goo Ne) 3. and flowers in July. Morifon calls it Sedum J us argenteis. Uo V. FLSA. x. fere u in Germany, It is a native of the mountains HER‘'B #E. LiINU™M. Kidneywort, with tufted flowers. rpHE flower is compofed of five petals, narroweft at the bafe, and broadeft upwards; andit opens The root is compofed of a number of black . 2. Kidneywort, with w hite dotted flowers but The root is compofed of a fewflender, from a fmall] very longg and tough g fibres, rifing head, ground The leaves fpread themfelves upon the broad, and very hey are oblon in little cuft bafe, deeply ferrated: they are narrow at the te in a broad toward the other end, and termina fharp point. es in the centre, andis round, firm, The ftal upright, and little hairy, as are alfo the leaves. There are no leaves on the ftalk. The flowers are fmall, but very beautiful : they ftand in a little tuft at the top of the ftalk, and are of a {nowwhite, beautifully {potted. GioxE= N fib _ The leaves rife i ofa pale green, The ftalk is round, upri colour, and is in a manne leaves on its lower part, and or of leaves where the branches rife tha A are fmall, white, tufts at the ends ofthe fev from the upper part of the f The feed-veffel is oval, plit at the end into two parts, and the feeds are fmall. It is a native of North America, and flowers in Auguit. Plukenet calls it Sanicula oblongo nuceronato. Di bres IV. GRASS or PARNASSUS, HIE flower confifts of five petals, which are broad, and regularly fpread open: the feed-veffel is of an oval thape, but marked;with four flight ridges, and is compofedof four valves: the cup is formed of a fingle piece, divided into five long fegments, and remains when the flower is fallen. 3 the threads fuftaining the buttons in the Linnzus places this. among the petandria tet7 flower being five, and the ftigmata rifing from the rudiment of the fruit four. The ufual name of the genus was gramen Parnaffi, and this Linnzus has very judicioufly fet afide, A } CAYLEY i } + 3 the word gramen having no alliance with the reducing it, after C. Bavhine, to one word, Pa; nature of the plant. Ofthis genus there is but one knownfpecies, and that is a native of Britain, as well as moft parts of Europe. The root .confifts of a fmall head, andanin1 flender fibres. aumerable quantityof lo! The leaves are numerous, and extremely beautiful ; each has its long, flender footftalk, and the is heart-fafhioned: theyrife pretty upright fh in a large tuft, and are of a deepgreen. The ftalks are numerous, flender, round, upright, anda foot high. tach has only a fingle leaf upon it, and fuftains ngle flower. The leaf grows about the middle of the ftalk, and furrounds it at the bafe: its fhape is the fame with thar of thofe from tie root, but it has no footftalk. The flower is very large and beautiful: it is white, ‘and* elegantly ftriated; and there are a multitude of filaments, no lefs than fixty-three in all, ‘befide the proper threads, which are only five: thefe are a great addition to the beauty of the flower. Linnaeus places this among the pentandria pentagynia; the threads in the centre of the flower being five, and the ftyles from the rudiment of the fruit alfofive. Thatauthor includes in this genus the ttle rupturewort, or all feed called radiola. This is confounding plants alogether difting ; for this little herb is quite different in genus, and hasits received and well known name. Linnzus contradiéts his own fyftem in joining this plant with the ; for he eftablifhes the claffical character under which that genus is arranged to be the having five threads in the flowers and five ftyles; whereas the threads in this, and the ftyles alfo, are only four, Of this Linnzus was not ignorant: he has mentioned that one fpecies wants a fifth part of the numberin thefe parts of the flower: indeed, it wants, not only one of each of thefe parts, but one of the petals alfo; for it has only four of thefe, as of the others. It is, from this, evident that the plant neither is of the fame genus, which is determined by the petals, nor of the fame clafs, which is fixed by Linnzeus from the threads, with flax wherewith he confounds it. He fays, fome have been defirous, becaufe of it difference in the number of the petals, threads, and ftyles, to conftitute anew genus of it, and feparate it from the flax; but he adds, ibis nature abbors. I muft utterly differ with him in this matter: it is what nature dictates and directs, in the plaineft manner, and under the moft obvious characters. This determination of that author is therefore rafh and contradi€tory to reafon in itfelf, and it is very unhappy in its confequences for his fyftem for if nature abhors the feparating plants that are in obvious characters allied to-one another, on account of fomedifference in the number of the threads, and other minute parts of the flower, then nature abhors his whole fyftem of botany. We have fhewn in every clafs how he removes and feparates plants perfectly allied to one another, becaufe they happen to PARN ASSIA, They rife from certain glandules in the lower Grafs of Parr regularly, and is hollow: the feed-veffel is of a rounded figure, but has five ridges, and a point at the top: it is formedoffive valves, andhas ten cells: the cup is fmall; it is compofed offive oblong leaves, and remains when the flower is fallen, part of the flower: there is one on each petal, andit is hollow, and heart-fathioned ; and from this there rife thirteen of thefe threads, taller as they proceed up the margin, and each having its top terminated bya little globe. Thefe glands Linnzus calls the weéfaria, and makesthe effential character ofthe genus: they ; 4 e: are, indeed, extremely fingular, as well1 as beautiful. The feed-veffel is oval, and edged in four places ; and the feeds are {mall and oval. It is sooad on boggy groundin manyparts of the kingdom, andflowers in June. C. Bauhinecalls it Pa Store albo fimpliti. he ay Others, Gramen Parnaff yulgare, and Gramen t minuc T + Parnaffi minus. The Aower is fometimes naturally double. D differ in the number of threads in the flower. This is that making a feparation from the variation of numberin like plants of which we have complained fo often; which his method impofes; and which, he fays here, is abhorrent to nature. This is not the only inftance wherein the prefent genus of plants fhews us the uncertainty and error of Linnzus’s method: others, which he has in his laft work, his Species Plantarum, attributed to the prefent clafs, as perfectly differ from its laws. He has there introduced the yellow bellflower among the fpecies of flax, though he has eftablifhed in the generical character, that the flax has five petals in the fower, and in that plant it confifts only of one: he calls this doubtful ; but three could be no doubt, fromthis plain circumftance. The Jittle yellow flax is alfo placed here among the reft, and properly enough in nature, but unhappily by this author, who has attributed five ftyles to the fax, whereas this has but three. 1 fhalk enter no farther into this difquifition : I amto write a hiftory of plants, andnot a criticifm upon the works of Linnzeus ; though fo much as this, though written with pain, cannot be avoided. DIVISION 1. CommonFlax. inum vulear Linum vulgare. , The root is long, flender, and hung with a r The ftalk is round, firm, upright, and of a een: it has ‘fearce any branches, and is feet ‘high, and very upright. e leaves ftand irregularly, and are numerous: ‘they are long, narrow, and of a freth : ‘they have nofootftalks; they are not at és ; and they are pointed at , and of a beautiful fky- The flowersare | The virtues of this plant have not been tried; but the farmers think it hurts their fheep. blue. They grow in SPECIES. The feed-veffel is large, and the feeds are alfo large, numerous, and of a glofly brown. We fee it naturally in our paftures, and about road-fides in fome parts of the kingdom, and cultivated in fields in many others: whether the wild plants are properly native of this ifland or rife fromfcatteredfeeds it is not eafy to fay. Some have divided the common flax into two f{pecies on this account, calling the one the maxured flax, and the other the aiid flax; but the plant isthe fame, whether it grow naturally, or be raifed by art ; that whichis cultivated willbe la : there is no other difference. C. Bauhine andotherscall it Z, confiderable numbers on the The ufe of the ftalks of this plant in making s, and on fhort branches rifing inenis fufficiently known. The thready part is ated from the reft, beat and combedtill it Ddd hangs juft belowthe topof it. GENUS BRITISH |