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Show The 316 BRA DIS white, ftalks and branches; and they are ufually fometimes redifh. The feed-vefiels aré flender and long. AuIt is a native of Spain, and flowers in guft. C. Bauhinecalls it Trifolium albumanguftifalium H HERBAL g. Great fearlet-floweted Lotus, Lotus flore magno coccineo. A The root is long, fpreading, and furnithed with numerous fibres. The root is long and divided. Theftalks are numerous, firm, and not much branched. The ftalks are robuft, upright, and brown; and the plant has a fhrubby appearance, The leaves are large: three ftand on a fhort footftalk, and two at the bafe: they are oblong and obtufe, and ofa greyifh green. The flowers ftand on flender footftalks rifine from the bofoms ofthe leaves, two on each: they are very large, and ofa beautiful fcarler. The feed-veffels are long and brown. It is a native of Africa, and flowers in July. Plakenet calls it Lotus fruticofor Africanafoltis incanis floribus binis amplis coccipeis. The leaves are difpofed in a regular manner, The common kinds of /otus are gently aftrin- froribus veluti in capituliin conjeftis. Others, Spanif dorycnium, Dorycnium Hifpanicum, and Do rycniumflore minore. 8. Long-podded Lotus. Lotus filiquis longiffimis. 7.5.07 7 and placed at agreeable diftances on the plant: three ftand together, and two at their bafe: they are oblong, obtufe, and white. The flowers are long and flender, andtheir coJour is a beautiful gold yellow: three ufually gent. Two or three kinds have beencalled hemorrhoidales, from their effet in ftopping the bleeding of the piles: but. their virtues in that refpect are not very confiderable. The Spanith fland together. poifonous. The feed-vefiel is very large, and the feeds are numerous and brown. It isa native of the Greek iflands, and flowers in Auguft. Plukenet calls it Lotus argentea Cretica ; and others follow him, TH -E PRITISH.. HER BAL eeeTORPRISTONOSEDa Geib: Ale SoS XhX, and French kinds, called doryenium, are accounted Mr. Ray, byan overfight, adds to this clafs the plant called climbing fumitory, the fumaria claviculis donata: but that is properly a fpecies of the genus whofe nameit bears, fwmaria; andwill be defcribed in its place among the plants of that title, which belongto a different clafs. The END of the EIGHTEENTH CLASS. Plants whofe fruit is a berry; confifting of a frin or rind, furrounding @ Soft pulpy or juicy matter, within which are the feeds. Either the flower, nér any other part of thefe herbs, needs to be named for eftablifhing a N claffical character ; this peculiarity of the fruit being the moft obvious, certain, and invariable mark that could be chofen. It happily keeps together the whole numberof thefe plants, feparating them from all others: this is the defign andfole end of claffical divifions ; andit has the advantage of being fhort, plain, and fimple; which is the beft circumftance that can attend them. If the charaéters of all claffes were as natural as this, there would belittle difficulty in forniing a good and perfeét fyftem of botany, or in the attainment ofthe fcience. Mr. Ray, and with him the generality of writers, led by nature and by reafon, have thus conftituted the berry-bearing plants as a diftinct and feparate clafs. But it is not fo in the method of Linnzus ; for they are arranged in the moft different and moft remote claffes, and fcattered over all hig work. Any one wouldfay, from theflighteft obfervation, and nature would confirm it from the deepeft fearch, that nightfhade and bryony, andlilly of the valley and Solomon’s feal, and the reft of thefe were allied to one another; and the ftudent would hope he fhould find them together. It is fit he fhould fo find thern, and he will here: but in that author he muft feek eachinits feparate place. Linneus eftablifhed a fyftem in which the charaéters of claffes were to be taken from the number and arrangement of the threads in the flower: therefore, where Nature, as in the prefent inftance, fixes the charaéter in the fruit, he rejects the diftinction. Accordingly nightfhade ftands among his pentandria monogynia, becaufe the threads are five, and the ftyle fingle; and it is there mixed with henbane, ahd campanula, becaufe their threads are in the fame number ; and bryony is thrown among the monecia fyngenefia, fixteen clafles off, becaufe there are male and female flowers in a peculiar manner onthe fameplant. The dwarf honeyfuckle is placed among the tetrandria, becaufe its threads are only four, and it is there mixed with plantain. The lilly of the valley and afparagus are ranged under the hexandria, becaufe of their fix threads, and mixed among the bulbous plants. The vaccinium, becaufeits flower has eight threads, is joined with rue; the willow-herb is placed under the ofandria, and the mofchatellina in the fame clafs, keeps company with biftort and arfmart. Thefe are Englith plants, and familiar ones: we need carry the fearch no farther. The purpofe of method and fyftemis to introduce regularity into a fcience ; but the refult of fuch combinations cari be only confufion. Nature {ports and wantons in thefe leffer parts; andtherefore, though fit to be regarded in defcription, they are moft improper for the conftruction of claflical characters. No inftance can fhew this more ftrongly than the feparation of the bacciferous plants, SERIES |