General Natural History Vol. 2 - A History of Plants

xQH15H551748 v.2 89

Tbe Hijlory if p· L really of the fame firuB:ure wit~ the refi of the plant; in all hollow, and made up 0£ feveral joints, or !hort tubes-; inferted into one another like fo many cups. All we are able to diftinguiih~ as to the fruB:ification, is, that the parts of it are ar ... ran~ed into a kind of fpike, of an oblong oval form, and are orbicular in figure, and pel­tated, and tnat they divide irregu,larly, and in v-arious angles from the bafe. Many ·very ~minent authors fay that thefe flowers are produced on fome plants, and, on other~ of the fame fpecies, feeds naked, or without capfules; but this arifes from the error of confounding the charre with the equifeta, and fuppofing them to have male plants with fpikes of flowers, which is not the ·cafe. Moll of the botanical writers have called the feveral fpecies of this genus by the proper name of Equifcta, but they have alfo, in general, comprehended under it the feveral fpecies of two other difiinB: genera, the chara and the hippuris. I. Equ![etum durius caule nudo fcabro. The bard, naked Hoifetail. The root of this fpecies is long, flender, roundjih, and creeping; of a duiky colour and infipid tafte. It creeps a long way under the furface of the eanh, and fends up, at feveral parts, the plants. The ftalk is fimple, rounded, largeft at the bafe, and gradu.ally fmaller. to .t~e top, where it terminates in an obtufe point. It is of ;:t dufky purp~dh colour, mclmmg to blacknefs at the bafe, but, in all other parts, of a pale ":hmfh green. It grows .to two or three feet in height, ufually, without the leafi: ru­di'? ent of leaf or branch m any .part, a mere ftrait, fingle column ; it's furface is deeply ftnate~, and the whole ftalk 1s compofed of a number of ihort tubular joints, in­ferted mto one another. Wh~n in the fiate of fruB:ific~tion,. the top of the ftalk is termina~ed by an oblong oyal fp1ke, thr~e 9uarters of an mch m length, and more than a th1rd of an inch in diameter. This IS ?rown, hard, and forrp.ed of little roundiih peltre : in this ftate alfo, the plant fometlmes pu.ihes forth a kind of little leaves at the joints, toward th~ top of. t~e ftalk; and fomet1mes a fingle twig arifes from fame one of the lower joint , ~mt th1~ IS more rare. The whole plant is extremely hard and har!h to the touch, and It contmues frelh the whole ~ear. It grows in wet, boggy places, in fome parts of ~nglan~, but m~re freque~tly In Germany. Our workmen uie it very much in 1inooth­mg the1r works m wood, ~vory, &c. they call it Rujh, and Shavegrafs; it will even take effeB: up.on brafs and uon. C. Bauhine calls it, Equifetum foliis nudum non ra-mofum, five JUnceum. ' 2. Equi.[etum caule crafo, verticilis denf.lftmis, Jetis Jimplicibus. The tbrck-flalked Equtfetum, with very tbickjet, Jimple Jetce. . This is a very fi:ately plant, and is by much the largeft of the Equifetum kind It's roots a.re fibrous, and f~read horizontally, under the furface of the ground. . From thefe, m feveral places, nfe the fialks ; they grow to be three four or five feet high and of near half an inch in diameter. They are round, holl~w, a~d white in colour: and are compofed of a number of !hort tubular joints, infected into one another. They are ~mooth on the fu.rface, or, at the utmofi:, fo lightly fi:riated, that it is fcarce dif­cermble .. At every J0111t of the fialk t~ere grow a vafi number of fetre; thefe are reen, ?f thhe thlcknefs fofha packthread, ftnated, and not branched, but compofed of J~oints m t he' . manfn erh o t e main fi al k '· th e1r.e a;e. m•n e or ten m• ches long, and from twenty' tbo t t~~tyl 0fi t em 1 are. produced at every JOint, ·ro that the whole plant makes a very eau .l lU gurhe . . t IS h'n ot u nc a mmon lo f.c e e a thoufand, or more of thefe pbnts growmg togct er, m w 1ch cafe th k · fi 1 ' Th ft lk . h ey rna e a very mgu ar and very pretty appearance bl ek '{ha s, a1s t ey o~T ow old , oft en 1O rJ.e t h e'u w h"I te co1 o ur, and turn of a dufky· ac l -purp :, efp~cially on the fide next the fun. . . We have th1s fpec1es in our woods d · h 1 it produces it's fruCtifications the fi:, ~n m o~ er wet P ~ces, not unfreq uently ; where hine calls this, Equifetum p;lufir~ lo~~io~~u~a fe~~ ~~~~~r;,n ~~~~f~~~!/~~1~~re ~J:s~- 3. Equifetum The Hiflory of P L A N T S. 133 3· Equifetum Jetis Jimplicibus internodia vix Juperantibus. The Jhort and jingle-branched Equfletum. The root of this fpecies is of the thicknefs of a packthread, jointed, and creeping. It runs a vaft way under the futface, and fends down fibres, in confiderable numbers, at every joint. It's ftalks are green, flender, and very deeply firiated. From every joint there grow fix, eight, or ten fetre, green like the fi:alk, and, like it, compofed of feveral tubular joints, fitted into one another. Thefe fetre are ihort, fcarce longer than the joints of the main ftalk. When the plant flowers, the fpike ftands not upon, a na~ed ftalk, as in mofi, but on the top of the perfect plant. It is not unfrequent with us in rotten, boggy ground. C. Bauhine calls it, Equifetum pa­luftre brevioribus fetis; others, Equifetum paluftre minus. There are, befide thefe fpecies, 1. The foft-fi:alked, naked Horfetail. 2. The corn-field Horfetail, with long fetre, fometimes fending out fecondary ones. 3· The fmall, naked, variegated, Brafilian Horfetail; this grows alfo in England. 4· The wood Horfetail, with very flender, ramofe, fet::e. 5· The mar!h Horfetail, with very long and very flender fete£. 6. The little, mar!h Horfetail, with ihort fet re, and nu­merous heads. 7· The madh Horfetail, with very long, fiender fetre. 8. The branched, ruihy Horfetail. F I C U s. FICUS is a genus of plants, differing, as has been fuppofed, from ail others, in that it's parts of fruB:ification are inclofed within the body of what we call the fruit. Microfcopic obfervations, however, . have ihewn us many parallel infiances among the fungi, delivered in their proper place. The Ficus produces both male and female flowers feparate, and in the different parts of the fruit, the outer part of which is properly the common calyx. This is large, fleihy, of a turbinated figure approaching to oval, hollow, and clofe with numerous ferrated and crooked fquammulre of a femi-lanceolated figure. The inner furface of this cup is every-where covered with flofcules; the exterior ones, or thofe neareft the margin of the calyx, are the male flowers, and are few in number,; the others are female ones, and are much more numerous. The male flowers ftand each on it's own peduncle : the cup is a perianthium, erect, divided into three, four, or five parts, lanceolated in figure, equal in fize, and erect. There is no corolla. The fiamina are three filaments, flender, and of the length of the tup. The anthera~ are double : there is among thefe a crooked and periD1ing rudi-ment of a pifl:il. . . The female flowers alfo fi:and each on it's own feparate peduncle ; in thefe the calyx is a perianthium; divided into five lanceolated-pointed fegments, nearly equal in fize, and ereB:. There is no corolla. The germen of the pifiil is oval, of the fize of the perianthium. The ftyle is fubulated, bent, and grows fi·om one fide of the germen, not from it's point. The ftigmata are two in number, both bent back and pointed, but one longer than the other. There is no pericarpium to this flower, but the cup. contains the feed, which is fingle and roundiili. 1. Ficus foliis palmatis. The Fig-tree, with palmated leaves. This grows to fifteen or twenty feet high, and fends out a number of lohg and large branches, naturally fpreading a great way. It's trunk is as thick as a man's thigh, or more, and does not rife erect, but is ufually tortuous. It's bark is fmooth, while it is young, but, in the old branches ahd trunk, fomewhat rough. The wood is .white, foft, and fcarce fit for any ufe.· The leaves are very large, and of a palmated figurej divided into five parts: they are rough to the touch, and of a deep green colour. The fruit, in which are contained all the parts of fruB:ification, arifes near the fetting on of the leaves ; it is green, at firfi, but purplifb, when ripe, and full of large roundi{h feeds. The unripe fruit, or the tender bark, or young leaves, wounded, emit a milky juice of an acrid and bitter tafte. The whole fruit in this tree is properly the common calyx of the fruB:ification. Mm This