BOTANY

IN the utmost extent of the word, signifies a knowledge of plants, and of the uses to which they may be applied, either in medicine, chemistry, or in the different arts.—But as the medical virtues of plants fall properly under the province of the physician, their chemical properties belong to the chemist, &c.; hence the science of botany is commonly restricted to a bare knowledge of the different plants themselves, and of the distinguishing marks whereby each individual species may be known from every other. This knowledge is indispensably necessary for those who propose to apply plants to any useful purpose: for example, though we should suppose a physician ever so well acquainted with the virtues of opium, and a chemist ever so well acquainted with the method of preparing it, yet if both of them were entirely ignorant of botany, so as to be unable to distinguish the particular species of poppy which produces opium from others of the same genus, it is evident their medicinal and chemical skill could be of no use.

The utility of botanical classifications may be further illustrated from the following considerations.

1. With regard to Food. Many animals are endowed with an instinctive faculty of distinguishing with certainty whether the food presented to them be salutary or noxious. Mankind have no such instinct. They must have recourse to experience and observation. But these are not sufficient to guide us in every case. The traveller is often allured by the agreeableness of smell and taste to eat poisonous fruits. Neither will a general caution not to eat any thing but what we know from experience to be salutary, answer in every emergency. A ship's company, in want of provisions, may be thrown upon an uninhabited coast or a desert island. Totally ignorant of the nature of the plants they meet with, diseases, or scarcity of animals, may make it absolutely necessary to use vegetable food. The consequence is dreadful: they must first eat before any certain conclusion can be formed. This is not the description of danger arising from an imaginary situation. Before the vegetables that grow in America, the East and West Indies, &c. became familiar to our sailors, many lives were lost by trials of this kind: neither has all the information received from experience been sufficient to prevent individuals from still falling a prey to ignorance or rashness.—If the whole science of botany were as complete as some of its branches, very little skill in it would be sufficient to guard us infallibly from committing such fatal mistakes. There are certain orders and classes which are called natural, because every genus and species comprehended under them are not only distinguished by the same characteristic marks, but likewise possess the same qualities, though not in an equal degree. For example: Shew a botanist the flower of a plant whose calix is a double valved glume, with three stamens, two pistils, and one naked seed; he can pronounce with absolute certainty, that the plant from which the flower was taken, bears seeds of a farinaceous quality, and that they may be safely used as food. In like manner, shew him a flower with 12 or more stamens all inserted into the internal side of the calix, tho'

it belonged to a plant growing in Japan, he can pronounce without hesitation, that the fruit of it may be eat with safety. On the other hand, shew him a plant whose flower has five stamens, one pistil, one petal, or flower-leaf, and whose fruit is of the berry kind, he will tell you to abstain from it, because it is poisonous. Facts of this kind render botany not only a respectable, but a most interesting, science.

2. With respect to Medicine, the same thing holds good. It is found by experience, that plants which are distinguished by the same characters in the flower and fruit, have the same qualities, though not always in an equal degree as to strength or weakness; so that, upon inspection of the flower and fruit, a botanist can determine a priori the effects that will result when taken into the stomach. In order, therefore, to determine the medical virtues of all the plants belonging to a natural class, the physician has nothing to do but to ascertain by a set of clear and unquestionable experiments, the virtues of any one of them. This greatly shortens the labour of investigation. Supposing the number of known species to be 20,000; by ascertaining the virtues of one genus, at a medium, you determine the virtues of 12 species. But by ascertaining the virtues of one genus belonging to a natural order, the virtues of perhaps 300 or 400 species are ascertained.

THE origin of this science, like that of most others, cannot be found out from the most ancient histories; but it is very probable, that some degree of botanical knowledge has existed in every age of the world. The first botanical writings of which we have any account are those of Solomon, who we are informed by scripture did write a treatise upon this subject; but that is absolutely lost, not being quoted by any ancient author, nor the least fragment of the treatise itself remaining. Among the Greeks, Anaxagoras, Pythagoras, and other ancient philosophers, wrote treatises on plants; but their works are also lost; and from the quotations that yet remain in the works of Theophrastus, Dioscorides, and Pliny, we learn, that those first botanical writings could convey but very little knowledge.

The historical era of botany, therefore, commences with Theophrastus the disciple of Aristotle. He was born at Eresium, in the island of Lesbos; and flourished in the third century before the Christian era, being about 100 years posterior to Hippocrates. His work is entitled The History of Plants, and treats of their origin, propagation, anatomy, and contraction; of vegetable life, and of vegetation. It consisted originally of ten books; but of these only nine are now extant. In these, vegetables are distributed into seven classes or primary divisions; which have for their object, the generation of plants; their place of growth; their size as trees and shrubs; their use as pot herbs and esculent grains; and their lactescence, or the liquor of whatever colour, that flows from plants when cut. In his work, about 500 different plants are described.

The next botanist of any note was Dioscorides, a Grecian by birth, but under the Roman empire, being near

near 400 years posterior to Theophrastus. He describes about 600 plants; and these he has arranged, from their uses in medicine and domestic economy, into four classes, which are thus designed: aromatics; alimentary vegetables, or such as serve for food; medicinal, and vinous plants.

Almost contemporary with Dioscorides flourished Antonius Musa, Cato, Varro, Virgil, and Columella; the first, author of a treatise still extant on the plant betony; the four others celebrated for their useful tracts on agriculture and rural economy.

Pliny the Elder, in his voluminous work intitled The History of the World, hath a botanical part which is contained in 15 books. In these, besides the plants of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, he has given descriptions of several new species, extracted probably from works which would otherwise have been totally lost. Pliny uses scarce any mode of arrangement, except the ancient, but very incorrect, distinction into trees, shrubs, and herbs. His plan, however, extends not only to botanical distinctions, but to gardening, agriculture, and whatever is connected either more nearly or remotely with the science of plants. He gives descriptions of above 1000 different species; but from the want of a proper systematic arrangement, it is often difficult, and perhaps impossible, to determine what plants he or other ancient botanists do really describe.

This want of precision in properly arranging their plants was the reason why the botany of the ancients was always very limited, and after the time of Pliny declined so rapidly. On the destruction of the western empire by the Goths and other barbarous nations, it is not to be thought that botany could survive any more than the other sciences. It was not till near the close of the eighth century, that the ancient botany began again to appear in Arabia. Serapion, well known in medicine, stands first in the Arabian catalogue of botanists; to him succeeded Razis, Avicenna, Averrhoes, Actuarus, &c. An author known by the name of Plato Apuleius, or Apoleius, of whose herbarium very old manuscript copies are preserved in some curious libraries, is supposed to have lived near this period. The works of most of these botanists, however, were only translations and compilations from the Greek writers; so that, for want of a proper systematic arrangement, the science sunk a second time into total oblivion. For near 400 years after Abenguefit, an Arabian physician who flourished in the end of the 12^th century, scarce any attempts were made in the botanical way. Some obscure writers indeed appeared in several parts of Europe; as, Arnoldus de Villa Nova; Platearius; Matthæus Sylvaticus; and Bartholomew Glanvil, commonly called Bartholomeus Anglus, a Franciscan monk, descended of the family of the earls of Suffolk, who lived in the reign of King Edward III. and wrote a book of natural history, intitled De proprietatibus rerum, which was translated into English by John de Trevisa in 1398: but though all these wrote of plants, they were so totally destitute of method, that their works remain one great chaos, from whence it is impossible to extract any thing.

On the revival of letters in the beginning of the 16^th century, the botany of the ancients was restored a second time. The Greek writings were translated into Latin, the common language of Europe. Gaza, a

Greek refugee at Rome, made elegant translations of Aristotle and Theophrastus, who afterwards were commented upon by Scaliger and Stapel. Dioscorides was also translated and commented on. His best commentators are Hermolaus Barbarus, Fuchsius, Ruellus Cordus, Gesner, and Matthiulus. The most distinguished commentators of Pliny are Dalechamp in 1604, Salmasius in 1689, Harduin, and Guilandinus. Meursius and Ursinus have written commentaries upon Cato; Campegius and Monardes upon Mesue the Arabian, and Lonicer upon Avicenna. This last hath been translated by several writers, particularly Alpagus, Costæus, and Plempius, into Latin; and by one writer, Amaithæus, into Hebrew.

Hieronymus Bock, or Bouc, a German, generally known by the name of Tragus, is the first modern who has given a methodical distribution of vegetables. In 1532, he published a History of Plants, in which he describes 800 species; and these he divides into three classes, founded on the qualities of vegetables, their figure, habit, and size. The same method of arrangement was followed by Lonicer, Dodonæus, L'Obel, Cluius, Brunsfelius, Monordes, Cordus, and some other botanists of this period. How far such a method was deficient, shall be considered in the following section; however, it was not till 1560 that Conrad Gesner first proposed to the world an arrangement of vegetables from the parts of the flower and fruit. He did not establish any plan founded upon this principle; but, having suggested the idea, left the application to be made by others: and in 1582, Dr Andrew Cæsalpinus, physician at Pisa, and afterwards professor of botany at Padua, first availing himself of the ingenuity of his predecessor, proposed a method of arrangement which has the fruit for its basis; and thus gave origin to systematic botany, the second grand era in the history of that science.

Even this improved method of Cæsalpinus was not without very great inconveniences, which shall be taken notice of hereafter. As it was, however, so greatly superior to every thing that had appeared before, it might have been expected that the learned would have immediately adopted it, and that all the former equivocal and insufficient characters would have been rejected. But the fact was otherwise. Cæsalpinus's method of arrangement died with him; and it was not till near a century after, that Dr Robert Morison of Aberdeen, attaching himself to the principles of Gesner and Cæsalpinus, re-established scientific arrangement upon a solid foundation; so that, from being only the restorer of system, he has been generally celebrated as its founder. In the long interval between Cæsalpinus and Morison, flourished some eminent botanists. The most noted are, Dalechamp, author of a general history of plants; Theodore, surnamed Tabernæmontanus, and Thalius, two German writers; Porta, an Italian, famous for an arrangement of plants from their relations to the stars, to men, and other animals; Prosper Alpinus, author of a Catalogue of the plants of Egypt; Fabius Columna, inventor of many of the botanical terms now used; the two Bauhins; Gerard and Parkinson; Zaluzianiski, a Pole, author of an arrangement from the qualities and habit of plants; Marcgrave and Piso, celebrated for their Natural History of Brazil; Hernandez, equally celebrated for his history of Mexi-

co; Pallas, or Du Pas, author of an arrangement of plants from the time of flowering, of all characters the most uncertain and insufficient; Johnston; Bontius, a Dutchman, author of a Natural History of the East Indies; Aldrovandus, the celebrated naturalist; and Rheed, governor of Malabar, and author of the well-known Hortus Malabaricus.

The method proposed by Morison has the fruit for its basis, as well as that of Cæsalpinus; to which, however, it is greatly inferior both in the plan and execution. It is indeed of all others the most difficult in practice; and was therefore not adopted by any succeeding writer, except Bobart who in 1699 completed Morison's Universal History of Plants, and an anonymous author whose work appeared in 1720. Imperfect, however, as his method is, it furnished many useful hints, which succeeding botanists have not failed to improve. Ray and Tournefort have owed him much, and are not ashamed to own the obligation. The same has been done even by Linnæus; who hath established the science of botany on the most solid foundation, by introducing a method of arrangement, if not absolutely perfect, at least as nearly approaching to perfection as can be expected; and therefore hath been deservedly followed, in preference to every other, by all botanists, since its first publication. But to give a particular account of all the different botanical systems, with the particular advantages and disadvantages attending each, shall be the business of the subsequent sections.

Sect. II. Of the Ancient Method of arranging Vegetables.

In giving an account of the works of Theophrastus and Dioscorides, we have already taken notice that the former chose seven distinguishing characters, viz. the generation of plants; their place of growth; their size, as trees and shrubs; their use, as pot-herbs and esculent grains; and their lactescence, or liquor that flows from them when cut. Dioscorides divided them into aromatics, alimentary, medicinal, and vinous plants. The good properties of this method are, that the botanist, as it were, comes to the point at once; and when he knows the plant, knows also its virtues and uses, or at least part of them: but this convenience is greatly overbalanced by innumerable disadvantages; for the qualities and virtues of plants are neither fixed and invariable, nor are they impressed in legible characters on the plants themselves. The different parts of a plant often possess different and even opposite virtues; so that, supposing the virtues to be known, and applied to the purpose of vegetable arrangement, the root must frequently fall under one division, the leaves under a second, and the flower and fruit under a third. Besides, if we reflect that the sole end of such arrangement is to facilitate the knowledge of plants to others, the insufficiency and even absurdity of methods founded upon their virtues will immediately appear. A stalk of vervain, for instance, is presented to me, which I am to investigate from a presupposed knowledge of the virtues of plants. Before I can settle the class to which it belongs, I must discover whether or not it has the virtues belonging to any of the plants I know; and this discovery being the result of repeated experiments on various parts of the human body, may require many years

for its accomplishment.

The same causes which render methods founded on the virtues of plants unfavourable for the purpose of investigation, must evidently disqualify all their other variable qualities and accidents from having a place in a genuine systematic arrangement. The natale folium of plants, which is one of Theophrastus's divisions, affords no better distinctive characters than their powers and virtues. Many countries as well as many soils produce the same individual plants. The same species which crown the mountains, frequently cover the fens; and plants which have long been reckoned the peculiar inhabitants of some parts of Asia and America, are now found to grow naturally in equal perfection in the very different climates of Lapland and Siberia. The size of plants, which suggested the ancient division into trees and shrubs, is no less an equivocal mark of distinction than the circumstances already mentioned. The vine, which modern botanists denominate a shrub, was ranged by Theophrastus in his third class containing trees. In fact, every thing respecting size is so much affected by differences of soil, climate, and culture, that the same plant, in different circumstances, shall differ exceedingly in height; and in a method founded upon the size, would sometimes be ranged as a tree, and sometimes as a shrub, or even an under shrub, according as it happens to exceed, equal, or fall short of, a given standard. No less insufficient are characteristical marks drawn from the colour, taste, and smell of plants. Of all the attributes of vegetable nature, colour is perhaps the most inconstant. Heat, climate, culture, soil, &c. contribute to the production of endless diversities of colour, and render the transition from one to another natural and easy. Red and blue pass easily into white, white into purple; yellow into white; red into blue; blue into yellow, &c. In the same leaf or flower, different colours are frequently observed. Variations too in point of colour, are frequently observed to take place not only in different individuals of the same species, but even in similar parts of the same plant. Marvel of Peru and Sweet William produce flowers of different colour upon the same stalk. Objections equally valid lie against characteristical marks drawn from the taste and smell. The former varies in different individuals from differences of age, and even in the same individual at different times, according to the morbid or sound state of the organ. The latter is different in different subjects, and varies in each; nor are the effluvia sent forth from the same body always of equal intensity. In plants, taste is subject to continual variations from differences of climate, soil, and culture. Garlic in some climates, particularly in Greece, is said to lose its rankness: apples and pears, that grow naturally in the woods, are intolerably acid; celery and lettuce, which culture renders sweet and palatable, are in their wild uncultivated state, bitter, disagreeable, and in some cases noxious.

These considerations are abundantly sufficient to shew the imperfection of the ancient system of botany; and indeed, considering the vague and uncertain marks by which they distinguished one plant from another, we may rather wonder how such a science as botany came to have an existence among them, than that they arrived at no greater perfection in it, or suffered it so soon to fall into oblivion.

THE insufficiency of the ancient botanical system being so fully shewn in the last section, we think it needless to take much notice of the methods used by Traugus and his contemporaries and followers. The virtues of plants being found an insufficient characteristic, succeeding botanists had taken in the root, stem, and leaves; but these being also found insufficient and variable, Gesner turned his eye to the flower and fruit, as being the most permanent and unchangeable parts of the plant. In proposing the parts of fructification, however, as the most proper for arranging plants, he communicated no hints respecting the choice of some of those parts in preference to others. Each particular organ of the flower and fruit furnishes sufficient variety to serve as the foundation of a method; but all of them are not equally proper for this purpose. Cæsalpinus, the first follower of Gesner, made a mistake in his choice, and took his distinguishing characteristics only from the fruit. The parts of the flower, therefore, being employed by the first systematic writers only as subaltern distinctions in finding out orders and genera, it is evident that the plant could not be fully investigated for several months. Suppose a plant ripens its fruit in October, and does not produce flowers till the following May; the class, upon inspection of the fruit in the month of October, is immediately ascertained; but the plant still remains unknown, and will continue so upwards of six months after, if the characters of the order and genus have been made to depend on any part of the flower. Methods founded on the fruit have another inconvenience; plants constantly ripen their fruit in those countries where they grow naturally, but not always in the countries to which they may be accidentally transported. So far from this, many plants that are natives of a warm climate neither ripen, nor form fruit, in a cold one. Few of the African, Asiatic, and West-Indian plants produce fruit in Britain. A method, therefore, founded upon the fruit, could only facilitate the knowledge of such plants to the inhabitants of those countries where they grow: to the English botanist they could be of little or no service. The same objection cannot reasonably be urged against methods founded on the flower, since the influence of climates much colder than that of Britain has not been able to destroy the faculty of producing flowers in many, perhaps in most, of the plants just mentioned.

Cæsalpinus sets out with an ancient distinction of vegetables, from their duration, into trees and herbs. With the former he combines shrubs; with the latter, undershrubs; and distributes his plants into the 15 following classes. 1. Trees with the germ, (radicle or principle of life in the seed) on the point of the seed. 2. Trees with the germ on the base of the seed. 3. Herbs having one seed only. 4. Herbs having two seeds. 5. Herbs having four seeds. 6. Herbs having many seeds. 7. Herbs having one grain or kernel. 8. Herbs having one capsule. 9. Herbs having two capsules. 10. Herbs having fibrous roots. 11. Herbs having bulbous roots. 12. Herbs having succory or endive-like flowers. 13. Herbs having a common flower. 14. Herbs having several follicles or seed-bags.

15. Herbs having neither flower nor seed.

The inconveniences of this method have been already pointed out pretty fully, and will evidently appear upon an attempt to refer any common plant to one of the 15 abovementioned classes. His sections, orders, or secondary divisions, are 47 in number, and depend upon a variety of parts and circumstances. The principal of these are, the disposition, situation, and figure, of the flowers; the nature of the seed-vessel, or cover of the seeds; the situation of the radicle in the seed; the number of seed-lobes, or seminal leaves; the disposition of the leaves, and colour of the flowers. The lactescence too, or milkiness, which is observed in the compound flowers with flat florets, is made a characteristic distinction, and discriminates the first order of the 12^th class. Thus, in the first systematic arrangements, the characters of the classes only were borrowed from the parts of fructification; while those of the subaltern divisions were very numerous, and respected every part of the plant; but that such divisions might be perfect, they should be constituted, like the classes, from the modifications of a single part of the fructification.

The great object had in view by Morison, who comes next in order to Cæsalpinus, was to investigate the order of nature, not to fabricate an easy method of arranging plants. Hence his system is devoid of uniformity, and clogged with a multiplicity of characters; his classes are frequently not sufficiently distinguished from one another, and the key of arrangement seems totally lost. He sets out with a division of plants, from their consistence, into ligneous or woody, and herbaceous. He finds his system on the fruit, the corolla or blossoms, and the habit of the plants. His classes are as follow. 1. Trees. 2. Shrubs. 3. Undershrubs. 4. Herbs climbing. 5. Herbs leguminous or papilionaceous. 6. Herbs podded. 7. Herbs tricapular, or with three capsules. 8. Herbs with four or five capsules. 9. Herbs corymbiferous. 10. Herbs having a milky juice, or downy tops. 11. Herbs culmiferous, as grasses. 12. Herbs umbelliferous. 13. Herbs having three kernels. 14. Herbs having helmet-shaped flowers. 15. Herbs having many capsules. 16. Herbs berry-bearing. 17. Herbs called capillary plants, as the fern kind. 18. Anomalous or irregular herbs.

Of these classes, the fourth and eighth possess no genuine distinctive character; nor are the ninth and tenth classes sufficiently distinguished; the fifteenth class is not sufficiently distinguished from the eighth, nor the 16^th from the fourth. His sections or secondary divisions, which are 108 in number, arise from the figure and substance of the fruit; the number of seeds, leaves, and petals; the figure of the root; the direction of the stem; the colour of the flowers; the place of growth; and, in one class, from the medicinal virtues of some of the plants that compose it.

In 1682, Ray proposed his method to the world, two years after the publication of Morison's, which served in some measure as its basis. It consisted originally of the following 25 classes. 1. Trees. 2. Shrubs. 3. Herbs imperfect. 4. Herbs having no flower. 5. Capillary plants. 6. Staminal herbs having only the staminal. 7. Those having one naked seed. 8. Umbelliferous herbs. 9. Verticillated, annular, or ring-shaped ones. 10. Rough-leaved plants. 11. Stellated or star-shaped ones. 12. Apple-bearing herbs. 13. Berry-bearing

bearing herbs. 14. Herbs having many pods. 15. Monopetalous uniform, or regular herbs. 16. Monopetalous irregular, or having different forms. 17. Tetrapetalous, having large pods. 18. Tetrapetalous, having small pods. 19. Papilionaceous. 20. Pentapetalous herbs. 21. Corns. 22. Grasses. 23. Grass-leaved plants. 24. Bulbous-rooted plants. 25. Plants near akin to the bulbous.

This method Ray carefully corrected and amended at different times; so that the plan of arrangement which now bears the name of that author, and was first published in 1700, is entirely different from what had appeared in 1682. It now consists of 33 classes. Their distinguishing marks are taken from the part or habit of the plants; their greater or less degree of perfection; their place of growth; the number of seed-lobes, or feminal leaves, petals, capsules, and seeds; the situation and disposition of the flowers, flower-cup, and leaves; the absence or presence of the buds, flower-cup, and petals; the substance of the leaves and fruit; and the difficulty of classing certain plants. They are as follow. 1. Submarine, or sea-plants. 2. Fungi. 3. Mosses. 4. Capillary plants. 5. Those without petals. 6. Plani-petale, those with compound flowers; semi-flosculous, or half-florets. 7. Those with compound flowers radiated. 8. Those with compound flowers, flosculous, or with whole florets. 9. Plants with one seed. 10. Plants umbellated. 11. Those stellated or star-shaped. 12. Rough-leaved plants. 13. Plants verticillate or whorled. 14. Those with many seeds. 15. Apple-bearing herbs. 16. Berry-bearing herbs. 17. Those with many pods. 18. Monopetalous herbs. 19. Those with two and three petals. 20. Those with great and small, or long and short, pods. 21. Leguminous plants. 22. Pentapetalous ones. 23. Bulbs, and bulbous-like plants. 24. Stamineous ones, or those having only the staminal. 25. Anomalous plants, or those of an uncertain family. 26. The palms. 27. Trees without petals. 28. Trees with an umbilicated fruit. 29. Trees with fruit not umbilicated. 30. Trees with a dry fruit. 31. Trees with podded fruit. 32. Anomalous, or irregular trees.

The distinction into herbs and trees with which Ray's method sets out, acknowledges a different, though not more certain, principle than that of Cæsalpinus and Morison. The former, in making this distinction, had an eye to the duration of the stem; the latter, to its consistence. Ray called in the buds as an auxiliary; and denominates trees, "all such plants as bear buds;" herbs, "such as bear none." But against this auxiliary there lies an unanswerable objection; namely, that though all herbaceous plants rise without buds, all trees are not furnished with them: many of the largest trees in warm countries, and some shrubby plants in every country, being totally destitute of that scaly appearance which constitutes the essence of a bud. In other respects, it is evident that neither Mr Ray's plan nor execution is in any degree calculated to facilitate the knowledge of plants. In fact, it seems to have been Ray's great object, no less than Morison's, to collect as many natural classes as possible; and these being separately investigated, a multiplicity of characters and steps was necessarily required to connect them: and hence the intricacy complained of in both these methods, which must always take place where the classes give rise to the connecting characters, and not the cha-

acters to the classes. The characters of the orders, or secondary divisions, in Ray's method, are no less multifarious than those of the classes. They respect the place of growth of plants; their qualities; the figure of the stem; the number, situation, substance, and division, of the leaves; the situation and disposition of the flowers and calix; the number and regularity of the petals; with the number and figure of the fruit. In his improved method, Ray has adopted Tournefort's characters of the genera, wherever his plan would permit. His general History of Plants contains 18,655 species and varieties. The third volume, which was not published till 1704, and was designed as a supplement to the two former, contains the plants discovered by Tournefort in the Levant, and by Camelli at Luzon one of the Philippin islands. Ray's method was followed by Sir Hans Sloane, in his Natural History of Jamaica; by Petiver, in his British Herbal; by Dillenius, in his Synopsis of British plants; and by Martyn, in his Catalogue of plants that grow in the neighbourhood of Cambridge.

To Ray's original method succeeded that of Christopher Knaut, a German; which acknowledges the same principle, and is manifestly founded upon it. In his enumeration of the plants that grow round Höl in Saxony, published in 1687, he divides vegetables into 17 classes, which have for their basis the size and duration of plants, the presence or absence of the petals, the disposition of the flowers, the substance of the fruit, the number of capsules or seeds, the number and figure of the petals, and the presence, absence, or figure of the calix. His classes are, 1. Herbs berry-bearing. 2. Monopetalous, or with one flower-leaf. 3. Tetrapetalous and regular, with four petals. 4. Tetrapetalous and irregular. 5. Pentapetalous, or with five petals. 6. Hexapetalous, or six petals. 7. Polypetalous, or many petals. 8. Multicapular, or many capsules. 9. Naked seeds. 10. Solid, or not downy. 11. Downy seeds. 12. Without petals. 13. Stamineous, without petals or calix. 14. Imperceptible. 15. Imperfect. 16. Trees. 17. Shrubs.

The sections or subdivisions of the classes in Knaut's method are 62 in number; and arise from the figure of the stem and petals, the number of capsules and cells, their figure, the number of seeds and leaves, and situation of the flowers.

In 1696, a new method proposed by Dr Herman professor of botany at Leyden, was published by Zumbac, who arranged according to it the plants contained in the public garden of Leyden. Rudbeckius the Younger, in a dissertation published the same year, on the fundamental knowledge of plants, adopted Herman's method with a few inconsiderable variations. The classes of Dr Herman are 25 in number. They are founded on the size and duration of the plants; the presence or absence of the petals and calix; the number of capsules, cells, and naked seeds; the substance of the leaves and fruit; the form and consistence of the roots; the situation and disposition of the flowers, leaves, and calix; and figure of the fruit. 1. Herbs having one naked seed and a simple flower. 2. Having one naked seed and a compound flower. 3. With two naked seeds, and stellated or star-shaped. 4. Two naked seeds, and umbelliferous. 5. Four naked seeds, and rough leaves. 6. Four naked seeds, and verticillated or whorl-shaped. 7. With many

many naked seeds. 8. Having feed-vessels, bulbous and tricapsular. 9. Having one feed-vessel. 10. With two feed-vessels. 11. With three feed-vessels. 12. With four feed-vessels. 13. With five feed-vessels. 14. Podded, which are always tetrapetalous. 15. Leguminous and papilionaceous. 16. With many capules. 17. Having fleshy fruit, berry-bearing. 18. With fleshy fruit, apple-bearing. 19. Without petals, but having a calix. 20. Without petals, chaffy or flamineous. 21. Without petals, calix, chaff, or lamina, i. e. a naked anthera, as the mosses. 22. Trees. Imperfect fructification, bearing catkins. 23. Trees with a fleshy fruit umbilicated. 24. Trees with a fleshy fruit not umbilicated. 25. Trees with a dry fruit.

The classes in Herman's method are subdivided into 82 sections or orders; which have for their basis the number of petals, seeds, capsules, and cells, the figure of the seeds and petals, and disposition of the flowers.

To the method of Dr Herman succeeded that of Dr Boerhaave, who succeeded to the botanical chair of Leyden in 1709. His method is that of Herman, blended with part of the systems of Tournefort and Ray; and contains the following classes. 1. Herbs sub-marine, or sea-plants. 2. Imperfect land-plants. 3. Capillary plants, or the fern kind. 4. Many naked seeds. 5. Four naked seeds, and verticillated. 6. Four naked seeds, and rough leaves. 7. Four naked seeds, and four petals. 8. Plants having one feed-vessel. 9. Two feed-vessels. 10. Three feed-vessels. 11. Four feed-vessels. 12. Five feed-vessels. 13. Many feed-vessels. 14. Two naked seeds, and umbelliferous. 15. Two naked seeds, and star-shaped. 16. One naked seed, and a simple flower. 17. One naked seed, and compound flowers semifoliosculous. 18. One naked seed, and compound flowers radiated. 19. One naked seed and compound flowers corymbiferous. 20. One naked seed, and compound flowers, stoloniferous. 21. Berry-bearing herbs. 22. Apple-bearing herbs. 23. Without petals. 24. One cotyledon, and having petals. 25. One cotyledon and without petals. 26. Trees having one cotyledon. 27. Many podded. 28. Podded. 29. Tetrapetalous and cruciform. 30. Leguminous. 31. Having no petals. 32. Bearing catkins. 33. Monopetalous flowers. 34. Rosaceous flowers.

These 34 classes of Dr Boerhaave are subdivided into 104 sections, which have for their characters, the figure of the leaves, stem, calix, petals, and seeds; the number of petals, seeds, and capsules; the substance of the leaves; the situation of the flowers, and their difference in point of sex. By this method, Dr Boerhaave arranged near 6000 plants, the produce of the botanical garden at Leyden, which he carefully superintended for the space of 20 years, and left to his successor Dr Adrien Royen, in a much more flourishing state than he himself had received it. His Index or Catalogue of the Leyden plants was published in octavo in 1710; and afterwards, with great additions, in quarto, in 1720. This last edition contains descriptions of 5650 plants; of which number upwards of two thirds had been introduced into the garden since the time of Herman, by his illustrious successor. Boerhaave's characters are derived from the habit or general appearance of plants combined with all the parts of fructification; so that, as Linnæus very properly observes, he was the first who employed the calix, lamina, and style, in de-

termining the genus. About 17 new genera were established by this author; among others, the very splendid family of the protea and silver-tree, which, although partly described by Morison, had remained generally unknown till this period. His method was adopted by one Emeling, a German, in a treatise intitled The first principles of Botany, published in octavo at Wolfenbutter, in 1748.

Hitherto all the botanists had been intent upon investigating the order of nature, rather than facilitating the arrangement of vegetables: therefore their methods were very intricate and perplexed; and their writings, however entertaining to the learned, could afford but very little instruction to the young botanist. In 1690, however, Augustus Quirinus Rivinus, a German, professor of botany at Leipzig, relinquishing the pursuit of natural affinities, and convinced of the insufficiency of characteristic marks drawn only from the fruit, attached himself to the flower, which, he was sensible would furnish characters no less numerous, permanent, and conspicuous, than those drawn from the fruit. The calix, petals, lamina, and style or pointal, which constitute the flower, are sufficiently diversified in point of number, figure, proportion, and situation, to serve as the basis of a mode of arrangement; yet all are not equally proper for this purpose. Rivinus made use of the petals as the largest and most beautiful part, and that from which the flower itself is commonly characterized. His method consists of the following 18 classes, which have for their basis the perfection and disposition of the flowers, and regularity and number of the petals. 1. Regular monopetalous, or having one petal. 2. Dipetalous. 3. Tripetalous. 4. Tetrapetalous. 5. Pentapetalous. 6. Hexapetalous. 7. Polypetalous, or having many petals. 8. Irregular monopetalous. 9. Irregular dipetalous. 10. Irregular tripetalous. 11. Irregular tetrapetalous. 12. Irregular pentapetalous. 13. Irregular hexapetalous. 14. Irregular polypetalous. 15. Compound flowers of regular florets. 16. Compound flowers of regular and irregular florets. 17. Compound flowers of irregular florets only. 18. Incomplete, or imperfect plants.

As Rivinus set out with the professed design of imparting facility to botany, he judged very properly in divesting his method of all extraneous matter, and rendering it as simple and uniform as the nature of the science would admit. The distinction into herbs and trees had been adopted by every writer on plants since the time of Aristotle. Rendered in some measure sacred by its antiquity, this distinction maintained a kind of importance to which it was by no means essentially intitled. Rivinus was the first who in this matter dared to think for himself. He was early sensible of the inconveniences to which those had submitted who employed it as a primary division; and therefore resolved at once to get rid of a distinction that is frequently uncertain, always destructive to uniformity, and in its nature repugnant to the genuine spirit of system, because totally unconnected with the parts of fructification. In the uniformity of its orders or secondary divisions, which are 91 in number, and acknowledge the fruit for their principle, Rivinus's method equals, perhaps exceeds, all that went before or succeeded it. Only three classes of his method were published by Rivinus himself. These are the 11^th, 14^th and 15^th, which were offered

offered to the public at different times, illustrated with very splendid figures. The method was completed and published entire by Heucher, in a work intitled Hortus Wittenbergensis, printed in quarto at Wittenberg in 1711.

Several German authors have followed Rivinus's method, either wholly or in part, without offering any considerable amendment. The principal of these are, Koenig, in a work on vegetables, published at Basel in 1696; Welch in his Basis Botanica, printed at Leipzig in octavo, in 1697; Gemeinhart, in a catalogue of plants published in 1725; Kramer, in a work intitled Tentamen Botanicum, published at Dresden in 1728, and afterwards reprinted with additions at Vienna in 1744; and Hecker, in a dissertation on botany published at Hal in Saxony, in 1734. To these may be added Hebenstreit, an ingenious botanist, who in a treatise on plants published at Leipzig in 1731, just before his famous African expedition, established general characters, which had hitherto been wanting in Rivinus's method.

The writers who have attempted to improve upon Rivinus's method are Bernard Ruppius, Christopher Ludwig, and Christian Knaut. Ruppius in his Flora Frenensis, published at Frankfurt in 1718, has arranged the 1200 plants there described by a method partly Rivinus's, and partly his own. It consists of 17 classes, and sets out with the same divisions and subdivisions as that of Rivinus; with this difference, however, that, whereas in Rivinus's method all perfect flowers are divided into simple and compound, in Ruppius the division of regular and irregular flowers precedes that just mentioned, and simple and compound flowers are made subdivisions of the regular flowers only.

Christopher Ludwig's method, which was published in 1737, and consists of 20 classes, differs but little from that of Rivinus. The author accompanied Hebenstreit on his expedition into Africa, and seems to have made plants his favourite study. The improvement, however, which he has made on Rivinus's plan, consists only in rendering it more universal, having enriched it with a multitude of genera collected from the works of Tournefort, Ray, Boerhaave, Dillenius, and other eminent botanists, whose general characters he has likewise adopted. His plan of arrangement has been followed by two succeeding writers; M. Wedel, in a botanical essay published in 1747; and three years after by M. Boehmer, in his catalogue of the plants which grow in the garden of Leipzig.

The method of Christian Knaut is much more properly his own, and departs in a much greater degree from that of Rivinus than either of the two former. The regularity and number of the petals furnished the classical divisions in Rivinus's method: in that of Knaut, number takes place of regularity; so that it is very properly termed by Linnaeus, "The system of Rivinus inverted." This method was published in 1716; and sets out with a division into flowers which have one petal, and such as have more than one. It consists of the 17 following classes. 1. Monopetalous uniform or regular. 2. Monopetalous disform or irregular. 3. Monopetalous compound uniform or regular. 4. Monopetalous compound disform or irregular. 5. Monopetalous compound uniform and disform together. 6. Dipetalous uniform or regular. 7. Dipetalous disform or irregular. 8. Tripetalous uniform or regular. 9. Tripeta-

lous disform or irregular. 10. Tetrapetalous uniform or regular. 11. Tetrapetalous disform or irregular. 12. Pentapetalous uniform or regular. 13. Pentapetalous disform or irregular. 14. Hexapetalous uniform or regular. 15. Hexapetalous disform or irregular. 16. Polypetalous uniform or regular. 17. Polypetalous disform or irregular.

The sections or secondary divisions in Knaut's method are 121, and depend upon the internal divisions of the fruit; and upon this his opinions are somewhat singular. Every kind of fruit, whether pulpy or membranaceous, is termed by our author a capsule. Neither is the term restricted to fruits properly so called: it is extended also to those termed by botanists naked seeds, the existence of which Knaut absolutely denies. Agreeable to this opinion, capsules, he says, with respect to their consistence or substance, are of two sorts; pulpy, or membranaceous. The former correspond to the fruits of the apple, berry, and cherry kind; the latter to the capsules properly so called, and naked seeds of other botanists. Again, with respect to their cells or internal divisions, capsules are either simple or compound. Simple capsules have an undivided cavity or a single cell; compound capsules are internally divided into two or more cells. With other botanists, the umbelliferous flowers bear two, the lip-flowers four, naked seeds; according to Knaut, the former produce two, the latter four, simple capsules. Ranunculus, adonis, anemony, herb-bennet, and some other plants, have their flowers succeeded by a number of naked seeds collected into an aggregate or head: each of these seeds passes with Knaut for a simple capsule; so that the whole is an aggregate of several capsules with an undivided cavity or single cell. In numbering the cells or internal divisions of the pulpy fruits, our author has adopted a very singular method. Some fruits of the apple kind inclose a capsule that is divided into five membranaceous cells. It might then be very reasonably expected to find such fruits arranged with compound capsules of five cells; but, instead of this, the author whimsically enough combines in their arrangement the idea both of a simple and compound capsule. The pulpy part is undivided; in other words, it is a simple capsule furnished with one cell; the compound capsule inclosed contains five cells, which added to that of the pulp make the number six; and thus these kinds of fruits are arranged with those having capsules of six cells. By the same kind of reasoning, the fruit of the dogwood, which is of the cherry kind, and contains a stone with two cells or cavities, is placed by Knaut among compound capsules with three cells; the pulp passing for one division, and cavities of the stone or nut for the remaining two. This method of calculation is not the only singularity for which Knaut is remarkable. The essence of the flower is made by Ray, Tournefort, Rivinus, and most other botanists, to consist in the stamens and style. This position Knaut absolutely denies; and has established for a principle, that the flower is essentially constituted by the petals only. With him, the flower-cup, stamens, and style, are of little significance: their presence does not constitute a flower if the petals are wanting; neither is their absence sufficient to destroy its existence if the petals are present. From this it follows, 1. That there can be no flowers without petals; and, 2. That the regularity or irregularity

gularity of the flower can never depend on the stamens and style, which are only occasionally present, and nowhere essential to its existence; both of which are evidently false to every botanical reader.

Since the time of Rivinus, no leading method in botany has appeared except that of Tournefort and Linnaeus. Tournefort sets out with reviving the distinction of plants into herbs and trees, which had been exploded by Rivinus. His system is founded on the regularity and figure of the petals, together with the two-fold situation of the receptacle of the flowers; his orders, on the pistillum or calix. The classes are, 1. Herbs with simple flowers monopetalous, and bell-shaped. 2. Simple flowers monopetalous, tunnel and wheel-shaped. 3. Simple flowers monopetalous, labiated or lipped. 4. Simple flowers monopetalous, anomalous, or irregular. 5. Simple flowers polypetalous, cruciform or cross-shaped. 6. Simple flowers polypetalous, and roseeous or like a rose. 7. Simple flowers polypetalous, umbellated. 8. Simple flowers polypetalous, caryophyllaceous, clove-form. 9. Simple flowers polypetalous, liliaceous or lily-form. 10. Simple flowers polypetalous, papilionaceous, or butterfly form. 11. Simple flowers polypetalous, anomalous or irregular. 12. Compound flowers, flosculous, tubular or whole florets. 13. Compound flowers semiflosculous, flat or half florets. 14. Compound flowers radiated, like the spokes of a wheel. 15. Apetalous, having no petals. 16. No flower, but bearing seed. 17. No flower nor seed, in the vulgar estimation. 18. Trees with no petals, but bare stamens. 19. Trees with no petals, bearing catkins. 20. Trees monopetalous. 21. Trees roseeous. 22. Trees papilionaceous.

The secondary divisions in Tournefort's method, which are 122 in number, have obtained the name of sections. Their general distinctions are founded principally upon the fruit, as those of the classes are upon the flower.

Tournefort hath been followed by a vast number of botanical writers, of whom the most considerable are, Dr William Sherard, an eminent botanist of the last and present centuries. In 1689, he published the first sketch of Tournefort's method, under the title of Schola Botanice; or a catalogue of the plants demonstrated by Dr Tournefort, in the royal garden at Paris. It was not till five years after, that the Elementa Botanica, a work which contains the rudiments and illustration of his method, was published by Tournefort himself.— Father Plumier, termed by way of eminence, the Tournefort of America, published in 1703, at Paris, a description of American plants, which he has arranged according to the system of Tournefort. In this work he accurately characterized 96 new genera. Falugi, an Italian, has described, in pretty elegant Latin verse, all the genera of Tournefort, in a work intitled Prosopopoeia Botanica, published at Florence, 12^mo, 1705. Several celebrated French academicians, particularly Marchant, Dodart, Niffole, Jussieu, and Vaillant, have also occasionally paid their tribute of acknowledgment to this author, from the year 1700 to 1740. The other authors of note who have followed Tournefort's method, are, M. Petit, an ingenious French botanist; Johren, a German, author of a treatise published at Colberg in 1710, entitled Vade mecum Botanicum, seu Odeus Botanicus; Feuille, in his description of the

plants of Chili and Peru, published at Paris in quarto, 1714; Christopher Valentin, a German, author of a book intitled Tournefortius Contrastus, published at Francfort, in folio, in 1715; Ripa, an Italian, in a work intitled Historia Universalis Plantarum Conserbendi Propositum, published in quarto, at Padua, in 1718; Michael Valentin, a German, in his Viridarium Reformatum, published in folio, at Francfort, in 1719; the celebrated Dillenius, professor of botany at Oxford, and author of several much esteemed publications on botany, particularly the Hortus Elthamensis, and History of Mosses, in his Flora Giffensis, printed at Francfort in 1719; Pontedera, an Italian, author of the delineation of a method which combines those of Tournefort and Rivinus, published at Padua, in his botanical dissertations, in 1720; Monti, an Italian, in a work published at Bologna in 1724, under the title of Indices Plantarum Varii; Lindem, a German, in his Tournefortius Alsatius, first published in 1728; Signior Micheli, author of several curious discoveries respecting mosses and mushrooms, in his Nova Genera Plantarum, published in folio at Florence, in 1729; Elvebemes, a Swede, in a work published in the Swedish language, at Upsal, in 1730; Fabricius, a German, author of a work intitled Primitiva Flora Butiacaensis, seu sex Decades Plantarum Rariorum, published in 1743; Sabbati, an Italian, in his catalogue of the plants that grow in the neighbourhood of Rome, printed at Rome in 1745; and the ingenious Dr Charles Alston, late professor of botany at Edinburgh, in his Tyrecinum Botanicum, published at Edinburgh in 1753.

Of all this numerous list of writers, Father Plumier and Pontedera alone have ventured to quit the track pointed out by Tournefort. The former, in his arrangement of American plants, has relinquished the distinction into herbs and trees; but the latter has attempted more considerable variations. His classes are, 1. Uncertain. 2. Having no flowers. 3. Without buds, imperfect plants. 4. Anomalous or irregular. 5. Labiated. 6. Bell-shaped. 7. Saucer-shaped. 8. Wheel-shaped. 9. Tunnel-shaped. 10. Flosculous. 11. Semiflosculous. 12. Radiated. 13. Irregular. 14. Papilionaceous. 15. Liliaceous. 16. Caryophyllaceous. 17. Cruciform, or cross-shaped. 18. Umbellated. 19. Staminous, or with naked stamens. 20. Bearing buds, apetalous, or without petals. 21. Bearing buds irregular. 22. Bearing buds bell-shaped. 23. Bearing buds wheel-shaped. 24. Bearing buds tunnel-shaped. 25. Bearing buds, papilionaceous. 26. Bearing buds, roseeous.

Besides all these methods, there have been invented two others, founded upon the calix. The first of these was the invention of Peter Magnol, a celebrated professor of botany at Montpellier, and published in 1720, five years after the author's death. The other was delineated by Linnaeus, and published in his Classes Plantarum, in 1738, three years after the publication of the sexual system. Magnol distinguishes two kinds of calix; one external, which envelops and sustains the flower, and is the flower-cup properly so called; the other internal, which is the feed vessel or fruit. According to this idea, all plants, whether herbaceous or woody, are furnished with either the external calix only, or with both. His classes are, 1. Herbs with the calix external, including a flower unknown. 2. Calix external, including a flower staminous. 3. Calix external, including

including a flower monopetalous. 4. Calix external, including a flower polypetalous. 5. Calix external, including a flower compound. 6. Calix external, supporting a flower monopetalous. 7. Calix external, supporting a flower polypetalous. 8. Calix internal only, which is the corolla. 9. Calix external and internal, flower monopetalous. 10. Calix external and internal, flower with two and three petals. 11. Calix external and internal, tetrapetalous. 12. Calix external and internal, polypetalous. 13. Trees with the calix external only. 14. Calix internal only. 15. Calix external and internal both.

The characters of the orders, or secondary divisions, in Magnol's method, are derived chiefly from the figure of the calix, petals, and seeds; from the disposition of the flowers, from the number of petals, and substance of the fruit. Fifty-five sections or orders arise from the combination of these characters with those of the classes; and these are again subdivided into genera, which possess this singularity, that, in place of distinctive characters hitherto employed, they exhibit complete descriptions of all the parts of fructification of one or two species of each genus. From this improvement Linnæus manifestly borrowed the hint of his generical characters.

Sir John Hill, in his vegetable system, endeavours to class plants according to their internal structure. "Perhaps, (says he), upon the foundation of a true anatomy of plants a natural method may be established: for it is certain, the forms of all the external parts of vegetables depend on the disposition of the internal; and all their differences are founded there. On the different inner structure of the vegetable body under certain courses of its vessels evidently depend the differences which characterize the seven first families, to the distinctions of which all classes are subordinate; and as these original distinctions are truly natural, we may here begin very safely.

"The seven families are these, 1. The mushrooms. 2. The algæ, or foliaceous sea and land plants. 3. The mosses. 4. The ferns. 5. The grasses. 6. The palms. 7. The common race of plants. Their distinctions one from another are these:

"1. The mushrooms are fleshy; and are destitute of leaves and visible flowers. 2. The algæ are merely foliaceous, the entire plant consisting of a leafy matter without other visible parts. 3. The mosses have processes of the inner rhizoid for leaves. 4. The ferns consist of a single leaf raised on a stalk; and bear their flowers upon its back. 5. The grasses have jointed stalks and undivided leaves, and husks to hold the seeds. 6. The palms have a simple trunk, with leaves only on the top, and have the flowers and fruit in divided ears."

Lastly, the seventh class, which he calls the common

race of plants, are such as have their roots, leaves, stalks, flowers, and fruits, distinct and obvious; and have not the characters of any of the other six families.

To this natural method his artificial one, consisting of 43 classes, and which takes up the whole of his voluminous work, is designed only as an index; but as this is universally allowed to be inferior to Linnæus's, tho' he pretends to improve that system, we think it needless to take any farther notice of it.

Besides the sexual system of Linnæus, which is now almost universally followed, he formed another, which, like that of Magnol, had the calix for its basis; but greatly superior both in the idea and execution, being indeed singularly serviceable to the novice in botany, by familiarizing to him various appearances of an organ so important in its nature, and so diversified in its form, as the calix is. The classes are, 1. Spathaceous like a sheath or hose. 2. Glumose or chaffy. 3. Amentaceous, or catkins. 4. Umbellated. 5. Common calix or flower-cup. 6. Double calix. 7. Flowering; the petals and stamens inserted into the flower-cup. 8. Crowned, or crown-shaped, with a radius. 9. Irregular. 10. Difform, or different shapes. 11. Caducous, which fall off or shed their leaves. 12. Not caducous, uniform and monopetalous. 13. Not caducous, uniform and polypetalous. 14. Not caducous, difform and monopetalous. 15. Not caducous, difform and polypetalous. 16. Incomplete calix. 17. Apetalous, or a bare calix without petals. 18. Naked, or neither petals nor calix.

SECT. IV. Of the Method of reducing Plants to Classes, Orders, Genera, and Species, according to Linnæus's Sexual System.

THIS method of reducing plants to classes, genera, and species, is founded upon the supposition that vegetables propagate their species in a manner similar to that of animals. Linnæus endeavours to support this hypothesis by the many analogies that subsist between plants and animals, which shall be more particularly pointed out in the next section. It is from this circumstance that Linnæus's system of botany has got the name of the sexual system. The names of his classes, orders, &c. are all derived from this theory. He calls the stamens of flowers the males, or the male parts of generation; and the pistils females, or the female parts of generation. Plants whose flowers contain both male and female parts, are said to be hermaphrodites, &c. His classes, orders, and genera, are all derived from the number, situation, proportion, and other circumstances attending these parts, as will appear from the following

PLANTS celebrate their nuptials

Either publicly, i. e. have visible flowers.

• Monoclinia, males and females in the same bed:—i. e. The flowers are all hermaphrodite, having stamens and pistils in the same flower.
• Diffinitas, the males or stamens unconnected with each other.
• Indifferentissimus, the males or stamens having no determinate proportion betwixt each other as to length.
  1. 1. MONANDRIA, i. e. one male or stamen in a hermaphrodite flower.
  2. 2. DIANDRIA, — two males or stamens.
  3. 3. TRIANDRIA, — three males.
  4. 4. TETRANDRIA, — four males.
  5. 5. PENTANDRIA, — five males.
  6. 6. HEXANDRIA, — six males.
  7. 7. HEPTANDRIA, — seven males.
  8. 8. OCTANDRIA, — eight males.
  9. 9. ENNEANDRIA, — nine males.
  10. 10. DECANDRIA, — ten males.
  11. 11. DODECANDRIA, — eleven males.
  12. 12. ICOSANDRIA, — twenty, or more males inserted into the calix, and not into the receptacle.
  13. 13. POLYANDRIA, — all above twenty males inserted into the receptacle.
• Subordinatio, two of the males or stamens uniformly shorter than the rest.
  1. 14. DIDYNAMIA, — four males, two of them uniformly shorter than the other two.
  2. 15. TETRADYNAMIA, — six males, two of which are uniformly shorter than the rest.
• Affinitas, the males or stamens either connected to each other, or to the pistillum.
  1. 16. MONODELPHIA, the males or stamens united into one body by the filaments.
  2. 17. DIADELPHIA, the stamens united into two bodies or bundles by the filaments.
  3. 18. POLYADELPHIA, the stamens united into three or more bundles by the filaments.
  4. 19. SYNGENESIA, the stamens united in a cylindrical form by the antheræ.
  5. 20. GYNANDRIA, the stamens inserted into the pistillum.
• Dielinia, males and females in separate beds; i. e. plants that have male and female flowers in the same species.
  1. 21. MONOECIA, male and female flowers in the same plant.
  2. 22. DIOECIA, male flowers in one plant, and females in another, of the same species.
  3. 23. POLYGAMIA, male, female, and hermaphrodite flowers in the same species.

Or clandestinely, i. e. whose parts of fructification are invisible.

1. 24. CRYPTOGAMIA, the flowers invisible, so that they cannot be ranked according to the parts of fructification.

These 24 classes comprehend every known genus and species. It is an easy matter to class a plant belonging to any of the first 11 classes, as they all depend on the number of stamens or male parts, without regard to any other circumstance. The 12^th class requires more attention. When the stamens amount to above 20, a tyro will be apt to imagine that the plant belongs to the polyandria class. In reducing plants of this kind to their classes, particular regard must be had to the insertion of the stamens. If they are inserted into the calix or cup, the plant belongs to the icosandria class; if to the receptacle or basis of the flower, it belongs to the polyandria.

The 14^th class is likewise in danger of being confounded with the 4^th. In the 4^th, the number of stamens is the same with that of the 14^th: But, in the 14^th, two of the stamens are uniformly much shorter than the other two; at the same time each particular stamen belonging to the different pairs stands directly opposite to one another.

The 15^th class may be mistaken for the 6^th, as they consist of the same number of stamens. But in the 15^th, four of the stamens are uniformly longer than the other two; and these two are always opposite to each other.

In the first 13 classes, the orders, which are inferior divisions, and lead us a step nearer the genus, are taken from the pistils or female parts, in the same manner as the classes from the stamens: monogynia, digynia, trigynia, tetragynia, &c. i. e. one, two, three, four, &c. female parts: when the pistils or female parts have no stalk or filament like the stamens, they are numbered by the stigmata or tops of the pistils, which in that case adhere to the capsule in the form of small protuberances, as may be observed in the flowers of the poppy, &c.

The orders of the 14^th class are derived from a different source. The plants belonging to it have their seeds either enclosed in a capsule, or altogether uncovered. Hence they naturally admit of a division into the following orders, viz. gymnosperma, comprehending such as have naked seeds; and angiosperma, which comprehends such as have their seeds covered, or enclosed in a capsule.

The 15^th class is divided into two orders, viz. the siliculosa, or those which have a short filiqua or pod; and the siliquosa, or those which have a longer filiqua. The

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The orders of the 16^th, 17^th, 18^th, and 20^th classes, are taken from the number of stamina; e. g. monodelphia pentandria, decandria, polyandria, &c.

The SYNGENESIA, or 19^th class, consists of plants whose flowers are compounded of a great number of small flowers or floscules inclosed in one common calix. The orders of this class are,

Polygamia equalis, or such whose floscules are all furnished with stamina and pistils.

Polygamia spuria, comprehends those which have hermaphrodite floscules in the disk, and female floscules in the margin. This circumstance is made the foundation of the three following orders. 1. Polygamia superflua, includes all those whose hermaphrodite flowers in the disk are furnished with stigmata, and bear seed; and whose female flowers in the radius likewise produce seeds. 2. Polygamia frustranea, include such as have hermaphrodite feed-bearing floscules in the disk; but whose floscules in the radius, having no stigmata, are barren. 3. Polygamia necessaria, is the reverse of the former: the hermaphrodite flowers in the disk want stigmata, and are barren; but the female floscules in the radius are furnished with stigmata, and produce seeds.

Polygamia segregata, many floscules inclosed in one common calix, and each of the floscules likewise furnished with a perianthium proper to itself.

Monogamia. This order consists only of seven genera, viz. the strumphia, seriphium, corymbium, jasione, lobelia, viola, and impatiens; none of which have properly compound flowers, but are ranked under this class purely from the circumstance of having their stamina united by the anthera.

The orders of the 21^st class are partly taken from the number of stamina, and partly from the names and characters peculiar to some of the other classes; e. g. monœcia triandria, monœcia syngenesia, monœcia gynandria.

The orders of the 23^d are all taken from classical characters; e. g. polygamia monœcia, polygamia diœcia, and polygamia triœcia.

The 24^th, or CRYPTOGAMIA class, is divided into the four following orders: 1. Filices, comprehending all plants that bear their seed in the back or edges of the leaf, and those that are called capillary plants. 2. Musci, which comprehends all the moss kind. 3. Algae, including the lichens, fuci, and many others whose parts of fructification are either altogether invisible or exceedingly obscure. 4. Fungi, comprehending all the mushroom tribe.

Having thus explained the method of reducing plants to their classes and orders, we shall proceed to inform the young botanist how to investigate the genus. This depends upon minuter distinctions, and requires more attention. But it is impossible to investigate the genera, without being previously acquainted with a considerable number of terms. All the terms necessary for this purpose belong to the parts of fructification. To attempt to give an idea by words of the parts to which particular terms are applied, would not only be difficult, but, in a great measure, useless, especially to such as are totally ignorant of botany. We shall therefore give a list of the terms themselves, with proper references to the figures of the things signified by them,

VOL. II.

which will both be shorter, and more intelligible than the most accurate description that language is capable of.

List of Terms belonging to the Flowers and Parts of Fructification. See Plate LX.

FIG. 1. Spatha, a species of calix opening longitudinally when the flower breaks through it.

2. Spadix, a species of receptacle peculiar to palm-trees, which consists of fruit-bearing branches included in a spatha.

3. a, Gluma, another species of calix, belonging chiefly to grasses and corns, and consists of different valves; b, arista, or awn.

4. a a, Umbella universalis, comprehends the whole flowers, &c. arising from a common centre, and resembling a large fan. b, Umbella partialis, or a smaller parcel of the flowers, &c. resembling a small fan. c c, Involucrum universale, a species of calix in which the whole flowers were inclosed before their blowing. d d, Involucrum partiale, a lesser calix, which includes a smaller bundle of flowers, and which, before their blowing, is inclosed in the involucrum universale. Examples of these are found in the Hemlock, Carrot, &c.

5. c, Calyptera; b, operculum; a, capitulum. These terms are peculiar to mosses.

6. Amentum, a species of calix, e. g. in the Willow, Birch-tree, &c.

7. Strobilus, a pericarpium or capsule composed of an amentum, an example of which occurs in the magnolia.

8. Fungi. a, Pileus; b, volva; c, stipes. These terms are mostly applied to the parts of mushrooms.

9. a, Receptaculum commune nudum, the common receptacle, or base of the flower, when the stamina, pistil, capsule, &c. are taken off.

10. Receptaculum commune paleis imbricatum, or common receptacle imbricated or tiled with paleæ, or membranaceous lamellæ.

11. Corolla monopetalæ. a, Tubus; b, limbus; i. e. a, the tube; b, the edge or margin of a monopetalous corolla. The corolla signifies the flower-leaf, when it consists but of one, and the whole flower-leaves, when it consists of more.

12. Is a flower laid in a proper position for shewing its different parts. a, Germen, which includes the seeds and capsule in which they are inclosed; b, stylus, which is a continuation of the germin; c, stigma, or top of the stylus; d d d d d, filamenta, or threads; e e e e e, antheræ. The filamenta and antheræ, considered as a whole, are called stamina; and the germin, stylus, and stigma, as a whole, are called pistillum. f f f f f, Petala, or flower-leaves.

13. a, The ungues, or claws; b, the lamineæ, or plates of a polypetalous corolla, or corolla consisting of several flower-leaves.

14. a, Nectarium campanulatum in narcisso, or bell-shaped nectarium of the narcissus. Nectarium is applied to every glandular part of a flower which secretes a sweet juice. Their structure is very different in different plants.

15. Nectaria cornuta in aconito, horned nectaria of the monkshood.

16. Horned nectarium in the calix of the tropæolus.

17. a a a, Nectarium in parnassia; the nectaria of the parnassia grass are six in number, each of which have 13 styli, with round buttons on their tops.

18. a, Perianthium, that species of calix which is contiguous to the fructification; b, germen; c, stylus; d, stigma; e e, filamenta; f f, antheræ dehifcentes, or antheræ shedding the pollen or dust; g, anthera integra, i. e. the appearance of the anthera before it sheds the pollen.

19. a, The filament, and b, the anthera, separated from the flower.

20. a, One grain of the pollen magnified by a microscope; b, halitus elasticus, i. e. an elastic aura supposed to be necessary for impregnating the seeds.

21. a, Germin; b, stylus; c c, stigma.

22. Folliculus; i. e. a pericarpium consisting only of one valve, opening longitudinally, and in which the seeds do not adhere to the future, but are inclosed in a particular receptacle a.

23. Legumen, is a double-valved pericarpium, having the seeds fixed only to one of the futures a a.

24. Silqua, is a double-valved pericarpium with the seeds fixed to both futures or margins a b.

25. Pomum, a pericarpium without any valve, but made up of a pulpy substance, and containing a capsule in which the seeds are inclosed, as in the apple, &c. a, The pericarpium; b, the capsule, or seed-case.

26. a, Drupa, or a pericarpium containing a nut or stone, and having no valve, e. g. plums, &c. b, The nucleus, or stone.

27. Bacca, or berry, is a pericarpium containing naked seeds dispersed through the pulpy part.

28. Capsula apice dehifcens, a capsule opening at the top to allow the seeds to fall out.

29. Four capsules included in a common pericarpium. a a, The valves; b b, the dissepimentum, or partition which separates the different seed-capsules from one another; c, columella, or central column, by which the capsules are connected.

30. A capsule cut open longitudinally, to show the receptacle of the seeds.

31. Pappus, a kind of corona or crown which is either hairy or penniform, and connected to the seeds of some plants, by means of which they are blown about by the wind. a, Pappus pilosus, or pappus resembling a hair; b, pappus plumosus, or feathered pappus; c, semen; d, stipes. The Dandelion, and many plants of the syngenesia class, afford examples of these parts.

Terms belonging to the Pedunculus or Footstalks of Flowers. Plate LXI.

32. Corymbus, i. e. flowers upon alternate pedunculi and foot-stalks, elevated proportionally above each other.

33. Racemus, a pedunculus or foot-stalk furnished with lateral branches.

34. Spica, alternate sessile flowers [i. e. flowers without any particular foot-stalk, but inserted directly into one common to the whole], upon a common foot-stalk; as in the Scirpus.

35. Verticillus. This term is applied to such plants as have clusters of flowers at different distances surrounding the caulis or stem; as in several species of Mint.

36. Panicula, i. e. flowers placed sparsely upon separate foot-stalks; as in Oats, &c.

When these terms are understood, the genus may be easily investigated. But, in order still further to assist the young botanist, we shall give a systematic description of a few common plants belonging to different classes.

DIANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

VERONICA, or SPEEDWELL.

THE CALIX is a perianthium (18) divided into four parts or segments, and persistent (i. e. does not fall off till the seeds are ripe); the segments are sharp and lance-shaped.

THE COROLLA (11) consists of one rotated petal; the tubus (11) is about the same length with the calix; the limbus (11) is plane, and divided into four oval segments, the lowest of which is narrower than the rest, and the one immediately opposite broader.

THE STAMINA (12) are two, narrower below, and inclined upwards; the antheræ (12) are oblong.

THE PISTILLUM (12) has a compressed germen (12), a filiform or thread-like stylus (12), about the same length with the stamina, and a little declined to one side: the stigma (12) is simple.

THE PERICARPium (12) is a heart-shaped capsule, compressed at the top, and having two cells or partitions, and four valves.

The SEEDS are roundish and numerous.

ICOSANDRIA POLYGAMIA.

FRAGARIA, or STRAWBERRY.

THE CALIX is a perianthium, consisting of one plain leaf, divided into ten segments, each alternately narrower.

THE COROLLA has five roundish open petals inserted into the calix.

THE STAMINA are 20 in number, subulated or tapering, shorter than the corolla, and inserted into the calix. The antheræ are lunulated, or shaped like a crescent.

THE PISTILLUM consists of many small germina, collected into a little head or knob. The styli are simple, and inserted into the sides of their respective germina. The stigmata are simple.

THE PERICARPium is wanting in this plant. But the common receptacle of the seeds, which supplies the place of a pericarpium, is a roundish oval berry, plain at the base, pretty large, soft, pulpy, coloured, and deciduous, i. e. falls off before the seeds be ripe.

The SEEDS are small, pointed, very numerous, and dispersed through the superficial part of the receptacle.

DIDYNAMIA ANGIOSPERMIA.

DIGITALIS, or FOX-GLOVE.

THE CALIX is a perianthium, divided into four deep-cut segments, which are roundish, sharp at the top, persistent, and the highest one is narrower than the rest.

THE COROLLA consists of one bell-shaped petal; the tubus is large, open, ventricose or bellied at the back-side; the base is cylindrical and narrow: the limbus is small, and divided into four segments; the superior seg-

This botanical plate, labeled 'Plate LX.', contains 31 numbered figures illustrating various plant structures. The figures are arranged as follows:

• Fig. 1: A single flower with a long, curved pedicel and a bell-shaped corolla.
• Fig. 2: A leaf with a serrated margin and a prominent midrib.
• Fig. 3: A leaf with a long petiole and a deeply lobed blade.
• Fig. 4: A compound umbel with several small flowers.
• Fig. 5: A single flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 6: A long, narrow, serrated leaf.
• Fig. 7: A leaf with a serrated margin and a prominent midrib.
• Fig. 8: A flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 9: A flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 10: A flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 11: A flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 12: A flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 13: A flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 14: A flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 15: A flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 16: A flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 17: A flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 18: A cluster of flowers with long, slender pedicels.
• Fig. 19: A single flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 20: A spherical, textured structure, possibly a fruit or seed pod.
• Fig. 21: A single flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 22: A leaf with a long petiole and a deeply lobed blade.
• Fig. 23: A pair of seed pods (legumes) with seeds inside.
• Fig. 24: A pair of seed pods (legumes) with seeds inside.
• Fig. 25: A cross-section of a fruit showing internal structure.
• Fig. 26: A cross-section of a fruit showing internal structure.
• Fig. 27: A cross-section of a fruit showing internal structure.
• Fig. 28: A single seed or fruit segment.
• Fig. 29: A cross-section of a fruit showing internal structure.
• Fig. 30: A single flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.
• Fig. 31: A single flower with a long, slender pedicel and a small, tubular corolla.

The figures are labeled with letters 'a', 'b', 'c', 'd', 'e', 'f', 'g', 'h', 'i', 'k', 'l', 'm', 'n', 'o', 'p', 'q', 'r', 's', 't', 'u', 'v', 'w', 'x', 'y', 'z', 'aa', 'bb', 'cc', 'dd', 'ee', 'ff', 'gg', 'hh', 'ii', 'jj', 'kk', 'll', 'mm', 'nn', 'oo', 'pp', 'qq', 'rr', 'ss', 'tt', 'uu', 'vv', 'ww', 'xx', 'yy', 'zz'.

segment is more open and more emarginated than the rest.

The STAMINA are four, subulated (44), inserted into the base of the corolla, and inclined to the same side; two of them are longer than the other two: the antheræ are divided into two parts, and pointed at the top.

The PISTILLUM consists of a germen sharp at the top, a simple stylus situate like the stamina, and an acute stigma.

The PERICARPUM has an oval capsule, of the same length with the calix, sharp at the top, having two cells, and two valves which burst open at both sides.

The SEEDS are many and small.

TETRADYNAMIA SILIQUOSA.

SINAPIS, OR MUSTARD.

THE CALIX is a perianthium consisting of four open or spreading leaves; the leaves are linear (43), concave, furrowed, disposed in the form of a cross, and deciduous.

The COROLLA consists of four cruciform petals: the petals are roundish, plain, open, entire or not emarginated, with erect linear unguæ (13) scarcely so long as the calix.

The NECTARIA (14, &c.), or glandula nectarifera, are four, of an oval figure, one of which is situate on each side betwixt the short stamina and stylus, and likewise one on each side between the long stamina and the calix.

The STAMINA have six subulated erect filaments, two of which are of the same length with the calix, and always opposite to each other, and the other four are uniformly longer: the antheræ are erect, and sharp at the top.

The PISTILLUM has a cylindrical germen; the stylus is of the same length with the germen, and the same height with the stamina; the stigma is entire, with a little knob or button.

The PERICARPUM is an oblong, scabrous, double-celled, two-valved pod, gibbous, and full of little protuberances on the under parts: the dissepimentum (29) is large, compressed, and often twice the length of the valves.

The SEEDS are many and round.

MONODELPHIA POLYANDRIA.

MALVA, OR COMMON MALLOW.

THE CALIX is a double perianthium: the exterior one consists of three lanceolated, loose, persistent leaves; the interior has but one large, broad, persistent leaf, divided into five segments.

The COROLLA has five plain leaves, united at the base, heart-shaped, and premorse (54).

The STAMINA consist of numerous filaments, united into a cylindrical form below, loose above, and inserted into the corolla: the antheræ are kidney-shaped.

The PISTILLUM has an orbicular germen, a cylindrical short stylus, and many bristly stigmata of an equal length with the stylus.

The PERICARPUM consists of several distinct capsules joined by an articulation, resembling a depressed globe, and opening from within when ripe: the receptaculum is a kind of column binding the capsules together.

The SEEDS are solitary, and kidney-shaped.

SYNGENESIA POLYGAMIA ÆQUALIS.

LEONTODON, OR DANDELION.

THE common CALIX is oblong, and imbricated: the interior scales are linear, parallel, equal, and open at the top; the exterior scales are fewer in number, and frequently reflected at the base.

The compound COROLLA is uniform and imbricated.

The small hermaphrodite corolla are very numerous and equal.

The corolla proper to each floscule consists of one ligulated (i. e. plain and expanded outwards), linear, truncated (i. e. terminated by a transverse line), and five-toothed petal.

The STAMINA consist of five very small capillary filaments: the antheræ are connected together, and form a cylindrical tube.

The GERMEN of the pistillum is situate below the proper corolla. The stylus is filiform, and nearly of the same length with the corolla: the stigmata are two, and turned back in a spiral form.

This plant has no pericarpium.

The SEEDS are solitary, oblong, rough, and terminated by a long pappous stipes (31).

The receptacle, or common base of the floscules (9), is naked, and full of small hollow points.

GYANDRIA PENTANDRIA.

PASSIFLORA, OR PASSION-FLOWER.

THE CALIX is a perianthium consisting of five plain, coloured leaves, similar to those of the corolla.

The COROLLA consists of five plain obtuse semi-lanceolated leaves, of the same magnitude and figure with those of the calix.

The NECTARIUM is a triple corona, the exterior of which is longest, surrounding the stylus within the petals, and straitened above.

The STAMINA are five, subulated, open, and connected to the stylus at the base of the germen: the antheræ are oblong, obtuse, and incumbent.

The PISTILLUM consists of an erect cylindrical stylus, upon the top of which an oval germen is placed: the styli are three, thicker, and wider above: the stigmata are roundish knobs.

The PERICARPUM is a fleshy, suboval, one-celled berry, resting upon the stylus.

The SEEDS are numerous, oval, and each of them inclosed in a small membrane.

MONOECIA TETRANDRIA.

URTICA, OR COMMON NETTLE.

THE CALIX of the male flowers is a four-leaved perianthium; the leaves are roundish, concave, and obtuse.

The COROLLA has no petals; but there is a small urceolated (i. e. an inflated skin, gibbous on each side) nectarium in the centre of the flower.

The STAMINA consists of four subulated open filaments, of an equal length with the calix, and one of them is placed between each leaf of the calix: the antheræ have no cells.

The CALIX of the female flowers is a double-valved, oval, concave, erect, persistent perianthium.

The COROLLA is wanting.

The PISTILLUM has an oval germen, no stylus, and

a downy stigma.

They have no pericarpium.

The Seed is single, oval, shining, and a little compressed.

These examples will not only illustrate most of the generic terms, but will likewise fix them in the mind more successfully than any formal explanation.

But the young botanist, after advancing thus far, must still be conducted a step further. Though he may be able to reduce plants to their classes, orders, and genera, he is hitherto totally ignorant of the specific characters. Before he be able to investigate the species, he must again submit to learn a considerable number of terms necessary for that purpose.

List of Terms necessary for investigating the Species of Plants. Plate LXI.

1. 37. Orbiculatum, of a circular figure.
2. 38. Subrondum, roundish or nearly circular.
3. 39. Ovatum, ovate; or having its longitudinal diameter longer than the transverse, with its base forming a segment of a circle, and the top also roundish, but narrower.
4. 40. Ovale, see Ellipticum, oval or elliptical.
5. 41. Oblongum, oblong; or having its longitudinal diameter exceeding the transverse any number of times, as twice, thrice, &c.
6. 42. Lanceolatum, lanceolate, or oblong, and drawing to a point at each end.
7. 43. Lineare, linear, or every where of the same breadth.
8. 44. Subulatum, subulate, linear at the base, and afterwards tapering to a point, like an awl.
9. 45. Reniforme, reniform, kidney-shaped; i. e. roundish, with the base hollow, and having no sharp points behind.
10. 46. Cordatum, cordate, heart-shaped, i. e. nearly ovate, with a sinus, or hollow at the foot-stalk, but no sharp points or angles behind.
11. 47. Lunulatum, lunulate, resembling a crescent or half-moon.
12. 48. Triangulare, triangular, or three cornered.
13. 49. Sagittatum, sagittate, like an arrow head, i. e. triangular, with a sinus or hollow betwixt the two hinder angles or points.
14. 50. Cordato-sagittatum, heart-shaped behind and sharp like the point of an arrow before.
15. 51. Hastatum, halberd-shaped; i. e. like an arrow-head, with a sinus or hollow betwixt the hinder angles, and the angles themselves projecting out on each side.
16. 52. Fissum, notched, nicked, or cut in at the top, so as to have the bottom of the notch or cut sharp, and its sides straight.
17. 53. Trilobum, three-lobed, or having three (55) lobes.
18. 54. Præmorsum, fore-bitten, or as if a piece were bitten out of the fore-part of it.
19. 55. Lobatum, lobed; or divided, down to the middle, into parts or segments standing asunder from one another.
20. 56. Quinquiangulare, having five points or angles.
21. 57. Erosum, eroded, or as if it had bits irregularly gnawed out of the fore-part of it.
22. 58. Palmatum, palmated; divided down, lower than the middle, into nearly equal lobes.

Fig.

1. 59. Pinnatum, pinnated, or having any number of feuillets or small leaves connected on each side to one simple petiole.
2. 60. Laciniatum, laciniated; having the disc variously cut, or as it were slit downwards, into parts of no determinate or regular figure.
3. 61. Sinuatum, sinuated; having wide sinuses or hollows in the sides.
4. 62. Dentato-sinuatum, sinuated so that the segments betwixt the sinuses resemble teeth.
5. 63. Retorsum-sinuatum; sinuated, with the parts betwixt the sinuses turned towards the base.
6. 64. Partitum, partite; divided almost to the base.
7. 65. Repandum, having a serpentine edge and the disc plain.
8. 66. Dentatum, dentated; toothed, or having the tops of the segments patent or remote from each other.
9. 67. Serratum, serrated, or having all the points of the teeth turned towards the fore-part.
10. 68. Duplicato-serratum, doubly serrated, or having the larger serratures or teeth surrounded with smaller ones.
11. 69. Duplicato-crenatum, doubly crenated, or having the larger crenæ or notches surrounded with smaller ones (74).
12. 70. Cartilagineum, cartilaginous, the margin of which is griffly.
13. 71. Acute-crenatum, acutely crenated, or having the crenæ or notches sharp at the top.
14. 72. Obtuse-crenatum, obtusely crenated, or having the tops of the crenæ or notches blunt.
15. 73. Plicatum, plaited, having the disc towards the edge raised and depressed so that each turn forms an angle: Alchemilla.
16. 74. Crenatum, crenated, cut in or notched so that the notches turn towards neither extremity.
17. 75. Crispum, curled; when the margin grows larger than the disc, and runs into irregular waves.
18. 76. Obtusum, obtuse; blunt, or terminated within the segment of a circle.
19. 77. Acutum, acute; sharp, or terminated by an acute angle.
20. 78. Acuminatum, acuminated, or terminated by a subulate or sharp point.
21. 79. Obtusum cum acumine, obtuse with a sharp point superadded.
22. 80. Emarginatum acute, acutely emarginated, or having a sharp notch at the top.
23. 81. Cuneiforme-emarginatum, cuneiform, and emarginated; or wedge-shaped, with a notch at the top.
24. 82. Retusum, retuse, terminated by an obtuse sinus or notch.
25. 83. Pilosum, hairy; covered with long distinct hairs.
26. 84. Tomentosum, tomentose; covered with fine downy hairs interwoven together and scarcely discernible, like flax silk.
27. 85. Hispidum, bristly, having brittle and hard bristles scattered over its disc.
28. 86. Ciliatum, ciliated; having parallel bristles, resembling eye-lashes, round the margin.
29. 87. Rugosum, wrinkly, or full of wrinkles.
30. 88. Venosum, venose; having veins or nerves with many ramifications.

89. Nervosum, nervose, with veins or nerves extending from the base to the top without any branches.
90. Papillosum, papillose, covered with minute fleshy points convex or elevated above the disc.
91. Linguiforme, linguiform, tongue-shaped, i. e. fleshy, linear, obtuse, and convex below.
92. Acinaciforme, cimex-shaped; i. e. compressed, fleshy, with the one edge convex and thin, and the other thicker and straighter.
93. Dolabriforme, hatchet-shaped; compressed, roundish above, and gibbous on the foreside with a sharp edge, and somewhat cylindrical below.
94. Deltoides, deltoid; of an irregular rhomboidal figure, of which the two side-angles are nearer the base than the top. See the leaf of the black Poplar.
95. Triquetrum, prismatical, or having three plain sides.
96. Canaliculatum, channelled, or having a deep longitudinal furrow.
97. Sulcatum, having more deep furrows than one.
98. Teret, cylindrical.
Plate LXII. 99. Binatum, binate, or having a simple petiole with two leaves connected to its apex.
100. Ternatum foliis petiolatis, ternated with sessile feuilletts; or having three sessile leaves (i. e. without petioles) connected to the apex of one common petiole.
101. Ternatum foliis petiolatis, ternated with petiolated feuilletts, or having three leaves upon a common petiole, and each of these having at the same time a petiole of its own.
102. Digitatum, digitated, fingered, i. e. when a simple petiole has two, three, four, or more leaves connected to its apex.
103. Pedatum, pedated; having a bifid or forked petiole, with two or more small leaves connected to the interior side of the forks.
104. Pinnatum cum impari, pinnated with an odd feuillet, or small leaf, at the top.
105. Pinnatum abrupte, abruptly pinnated, or pinnated without any odd leaf or cirrhus at the top.
106. ——— alternatum, pinnated alternately, or having the feuilletts placed alternately on each side of the petiole.
107. ——— interrupte, pinnated with the feuilletts alternately larger and smaller.
108. ——— cirrhosum, pinnated with a cirrhus or clasper at the end of the petiole.
109. ——— conjugatum, pinnated with only two feuilletts.
110. ——— decursivum, pinnated with feuilletts running down the sides of the petiole in the form of a web or membrane.
111. ——— articulatum, pinnated with an articulated or jointed petiole.
112. Lyratum, lyre-shaped; i. e. divided transversely into oblong horizontal segments, of which the lower ones are lesser and more distant from each other than the upper ones.
113. Biternatum, or duplicate-ternatum, biternate, or double-ternate, or having three ternated (100) leaves upon one petiole. See Epimedium.
114. Bipinnatum, or duplicate-pinnatum, bipinnated, or

double pinnated, i. e. having the primary pinnæ pinnated again a second time.

115. Triternatum, or triplicate-ternatum, triple ternated, or consisting of three biternated (113) leaves.
116. Tri-pinnatum sine impari, triple-pinnated without an odd feuillet, or having the secondary pinnæ pinnated again, and these last pinnæ not terminated by an odd feuillet.
117. ——— cum impari, triple-pinnated with an odd feuillet.
TERMS respecting the Determination of Leaves.
118. Inflexum, incurved; bending upwards, with the point leaning towards the stem.
119. Erectum, erect; upright, or making a very acute angle with the stem.
120. Patens, patent; forming any angle with the stem greater than the former and less than half a right angle.
121. Horizontale, horizontal, or standing at a right angle with the stem.
122. Reclinatum, or reflexum, reclined or reflex, bending down arch-wise till the apex be lower than the base.
123. Revolutum, revolute, or rolled backwards in a spiral form.
124. Seminale, seminal leaves, or seed-leaves; i. e. the lobes of the seed, which in many plants arise entirely out of the ground, are always the first that appear, and generally of a form or consistency different from those that succeed them.
125. Caulinum, cauline, or rising immediately from the stem or stalk.
126. Rameum, a branch-leaf, or rising out of a branch.
127. Florale, floral; leaf next the flower, and differing in its form from the other leaves of the plant. This is also termed a bractea, or spangle.
128. Peltatum, peltated; or having the petiole inserted not into the base, but into the inferior disc, at or near its centre.
129. Petiolatum, petiolated; connected with the plant by a petiole, or foot-stalk, inserted into the margin of its base.
130. Sessile, sessile; or connected immediately with the plant, without the intervention of a petiole.
131. Decurrens, decurrent, or having its base running down along the stalk; as in the Verbena, Carduus, &c.
132. Amplexicaule, amplexicaule; embracing the stalk on all sides with its base.
133. Perfoliatum, perfoliate; having its base entirely surrounding the stalk, or the stalk perforating, or appearing to perforate it. See the Thoroughwax.
134. Connatum, connate; having its base united, or so close to its opposite as to form, or appear to form, with it but a single leaf, with the stem rising up through it.
135. Vaginant, sheathing, or with its base forming a cylindrical tube investing the stem. See Polygonum; Rumex.
136. Articulatum, articulated, or jointed, having one leaf growing out of the top of another.
137. Stellatum, stellated, or verticillated, when more than two leaves surround the stem at the same height like

138. Quaterna, quina, sena, &c. are only different species of stellated, or verticillated leaves, when there are four, five, six, &c. leaves in one verticillus or whirl.

139. Opposita, opposite; or when two leaves stand exactly opposite to each other, and each pair stands at right angles with the pairs immediately above and below it.

140. Alternata, alternate, or rising one above another by degrees.

141. Acrospata, linear and perisiling; as in the Pine, Fir, Juniper, and Yew.

142. Imbricata, imbricated; erect, and so thick set as partly to cover one another like tiles or slates on a roof.

143. Fasciculata, fasciculated, or rising in a pencil from the same point; as in the Larix.

144. Frans. This term is applied to a species of stalk or trunk, consisting of branches and leaves, and sometimes the fructifications, all united together; and is peculiar to the Filices or Ferns, and the Palmæ.

145. Folium spatulatum, (Sauv.) spatulated, or roundish above, with a long linear base.

146. parabolicum, parabolic; having its longitudinal diameter longer than the transverse, and growing narrower from the base till it terminate somewhat like an oval.

147. Culmus squamosus, a scaly culm or stalk. Culmus is peculiarly appropriated to corns and grasses.

148. Caulis repens, a repent or creeping stalk or stem, giving out small roots here and there as it runs along the surface of the ground or upon another plant. Caulis is appropriated to denote the trunk of an herbaceous plant.

149. Scapus, is a species of trunk, which supports the parts of fructification, but has no leaves. See Narcissus, Pyrola, Convallaria, Hyacinthus.

150. Culmus articulatus, a jointed culm (147) or stalk.

151. Caulis volubilis, a twining stem, or which ascends by twisting itself like a spiral round the stem or branches of another plant.

152. dichotomus, a dichotomous stem, or which is first divided into two, and each of these divisions into other two, and so on regularly for any number of times.

153. brachiatus; having each pair of branches opposite the one to the other, and standing at right angles with the pairs next them, either above or below; so that, when viewed lengthwise, the whole branches appear to go out at right angles four different ways.

154. a, Cirrhus, a clasper, tendril, or spiral thread, by which a plant fixes itself to any other body. b, Stipula, or little scales at the base of the petiole, or foot-stalk of the leaf, or at the base of the peduncle, or flower-stalk. c, Glandula concava, small hollow glands for the secretion of some particular fluid.

155. a, Glandula pedicellata, small pedicellate glands.

156. a, Bractea, a spangle, or flower-leaf, differing

157. a, Spina simplex, a simple or one-pointed spine. b, Spina triplex, a triple or three-pointed spine. Spina is appropriated to such spines or sharp points as are protruded from the wood or inner substance of the plant.

158. Aculeus simplex, a simple or one-pointed prickle. An aculeus, or prickle, differs from a spine in being only fixed to the bark, and not protruded from the wood or internal substance.

159. Aculeus triplex, a triple or three-pointed prickle.

160. Folia opposita, opposite leaves. a, the Axilla, or angle betwixt the leaf and the stalk.

161. Bulbus squamosus, a scaly bulb, or a root composed of scales imbricated, or lying over one another; as in that of the White Lily.

162. solidus, a solid bulb, or of one uniform substance throughout; as in the Hyacinth.

163. tunicatus, a tunicated or coated bulb, or consisting of coats lying above one another; as in the Onion.

164. Radix tuberosa, a tuberous root, or consisting of many little knots, or roundish bodies, collected into a bunch; as in the Filipendula.

165. fusiforme, fusiform, or spindle-shaped; i. e. oblong, thick, and tapering downwards; as in the Carrot, and Parsnip.

166. ramosa, a branchy root, or which is divided into many lateral branches.

167. repens, a repent or creeping root, or which runs out to a great length, and sends off small roots at different distances.

These are the principal terms necessary for understanding LINNÆUS's description of the specific characters of plants.—To make the reader acquainted with the manner in which these terms are used, we shall give a few examples.

Species, Veronica arvensis, has solitary flowers; cut, sessile (130), and cordated (46) leaves.
Veronica agrestis, has solitary flowers; cut, cordated (46), and petiolated (129) leaves.

Species, Malva spicata, has tomentose (84), crenated (74), and cordated (46) leaves, and oblong hairy spicæ (34).
Malva sylvestris, has an erect (119) herbaceous caulis (148), with acute (74), seven-lobed (50) leaves, and hairy pedunculi and petioli (129).

Species, Carduus helenoides, or melancholy thistle, has

104

1240

124

125

125

126

127

121

122

129

128

131

130

132

133

134

135

130

138

139

140

140

141

142

143

145

140

This botanical plate, labeled Plate LXIII, contains 18 numbered figures illustrating various plant structures and parts:

• 147: A tall, slender stem with a small, pointed structure at the top.
• 148: A close-up of a stem with several small, oval-shaped structures attached.
• 149: A stem with a small, pointed structure at the top and a small, oval-shaped structure at the base.
• 150: A simple, straight stem with a single, pointed leaf at the top.
• 151: A stem with several small, oval-shaped leaves.
• 152: A branching structure with several small, oval-shaped leaves.
• 153: A simple, straight stem with several small, oval-shaped leaves.
• 154: A stem with a small, pointed structure at the top and several small, oval-shaped leaves.
• 155: A stem with several small, oval-shaped leaves and a small, pointed structure at the top.
• 156: A stem with several small, oval-shaped leaves and a small, pointed structure at the top.
• 157: A stem with several small, oval-shaped leaves and a small, pointed structure at the top.
• 158: A stem with several small, oval-shaped leaves and a small, pointed structure at the top.
• 159: A stem with several small, oval-shaped leaves and a small, pointed structure at the top.
• 160: A stem with several small, oval-shaped leaves and a small, pointed structure at the top.
• 161: A large, oval-shaped structure with several small, oval-shaped leaves.
• 162: A small, oval-shaped structure with several small, oval-shaped leaves.
• 163: A cross-section of a stem showing concentric rings, with several small, oval-shaped leaves below.
• 164: A stem with several small, oval-shaped leaves and a small, pointed structure at the top.
• 165: A long, thin stem with several small, oval-shaped leaves.
• 166: A complex root system with several small, oval-shaped leaves.
• 167: A long, thin stem with several small, oval-shaped leaves.

HERBACEA
ET
FLORIFERA

A d f g

RHEUM PALMATUM
or
TRUE RHUBARB.

has lanceolated (42), teathed (66), amplexicaule (132) leaves; with unequal, ciliated (86), small spines (157).

Class XXIV. CRYPTOGAMIA.
Order, FILICES.
Genus, ASPLENIUM, or MAIDENHAIR.
Species, Asplenium trichomanes, has a pinnated (104) frons (144); the pinnae are roundish (38) and crenated (74).

To these examples we shall add a complete description of a plant reduced to its class, order, genus, and species, with figures of all the parts necessary for that purpose.

Plate LXIV RHEUM PALMATUM, or True Rhubarb.

The flower of this plant has no CALIX.

The COROLLA dd, consists of one petal, narrower at the base, not perforated, and divided in the margin into six obtuse segments, one less and one larger alternately; the petal is marcescent, i. e. decays, but does not fall off till the seeds be ripe.

The STAMINA ee, consist of nine capillary filaments inserted into the corolla, and about the same length with it. The antheræ are didymous, (i. e. appear to be double), oblong, and obtuse.

The PISTILLUM f, has a short three-sided germen. It can hardly be said to have any styli; but has three reflected plumose stigmata.

The PERICARPUM is wanting.

Each flower contains but one large, three-sided, acute seed g, with a membranaceous edge.

The number of stamina determines this plant to belong to the ENNEANDRIA Class; and the number of STIGMATA fixes its Order to be TRIGYNIA. The other parts of the above description clearly demonstrate the genus to be the Rheum or Rubarb, and sufficiently distinguish it from the Laurus, Tinus, Caffyta, and Butomus; the only other genera belonging to this class.

The SPECIFIC mark is taken from the leaves, which are PALMATED (58), and sharp and tapering at the points. There are but five species of Rheum, none of whose leaves are palmated, except the species now described.

SECT. V. Of the Sexes of Plants.

As many philosophers and botanists deny that such a thing as the distinction of sexes takes place in vegetables, it will be necessary to give a narration of the arguments employed by both parties on this subject. We shall begin with the arguments in favour of the sexes.

I. Linnæus is at great pains in tracing the notion of sexes in plants to the remotest periods of antiquity. He informs us, that Empedocles, Anaxagoras, and other ancient philosophers, not only attributed the distinction of sexes to plants, but maintained that they were capable of perceiving pleasure and pain.

Hippocrates and Theophrastus are next introduced as distinguishing the conya, the abies, the filix, &c. into male and female. The latter of these writers affirms that the fruit of the male palm will not germinate, unless the pollen of the male be shaken over the spatha of the female previous to the ripening of the feed.

Dioscorides takes notice of a male and female mandragora, mercurialis, cistus, &c.

Pliny does not confine his views of sex to animals, but exclaims, that every thing this earth produces is characterized by the distinction of sex.

From the days of Pliny to those of Cæsalpinus, who lived in the 16^th century, the analogy between the vegetable and animal seems to have been entirely neglected. Cæsalpinus tells us, that the males of the oxycedrus, taxus, mercurialis, urtica, and cannabis, are barren; and that the females of these plants only bear fruit.

After Cæsalpinus, we find Dr Grew and Sir Thomas Millington engaged in a conversation concerning the utility of the stamina and styli of plants. The result of this conversation was the mutual agreement of these two eminent naturalists, that the stamina and styli of vegetables were analogous to the organs of generation in animals, and that they were adapted by nature to answer the same purposes. Dr Grew in his anatomy of plants, after enumerating the analogies between plants and animals, concludes, that the pollen probably emits certain vivific effluvia, which may serve for the impregnation of the seeds.

Mr Ray gave a further sanction to the doctrine of sexes, by concurring with Grew, and adding some further illustrations from analogy.

In the year 1695, Camerarius attempted to prove the sexes of plants. But, as he trusted solely to the palm-tree, and which seemed to be doubtful as to the authenticity of the fact, he cannot be considered as having done any thing in confirmation of the sexual hypothesis.

Mr Morland, in the year 1703, adopted the same hypothesis; but gave it a new modification, by supposing that the pollen contained the seminal plant in miniature, and consequently that one pollen at least behoved to be conveyed into every separate seed before it could be properly impregnated. Analogy and the structure of the parts are the only arguments he employs.

Some years after this, Mr Geoffry wrote a treatise on the sexes of plants: but as he advanced nothing new, we shall take no further notice of him.

Vaillant, in the year 1717, judiciously considering that the canal in the stylus of most plants was too narrow to admit the pollen itself, republished Dr Grew's theory of impregnation by means of a subtle seminal aura.

These are the sentiments of the principal botanists with regard to the generation of plants, till the celebrated Linnæus made his appearance as a botanical writer, who has extended the idea so far as to compose a complete system upon it.

Although Linnæus can have no claim to the supposed discovery of the sexual hypothesis, his being precisely the same with that of Dr Grew; yet, as he is the chief supporter and improver of this doctrine, we shall give a succinct narration of the arguments he makes use of in order to prove that vegetables propagate their species by a regular commerce of sexes.

In a treatise, intitled Sponfalia Plantarum, published as an inaugural dissertation by Wahlbom, in the first volume of the Ammenitates Academice, all the arguments made use of by Linnæus in his Fundamenta Botanica and other works, are collected and arranged in one view. But as Wahlbom honestly attributes all the merit

rit of this dissertation to his great master, we shall here drop his name altogether, and give the arguments as the property of Linnaeus, by whom they were originally employed.

Linnaeus, then, first attempts to show, that vegetables are endowed with a certain degree of life; and, secondly, that they propagate their species in a manner similar to that of animals.

"That vegetables are really living beings, (says he), must be obvious at first sight; because they possess all the properties contained in that accurate definition of life laid down by the great Dr. Harvey, namely, Vita est spontanea propulsio humorum. But universal experience teaches, that vegetables propel humours or juices: hence it is plain that vegetables must be endowed with a certain degree of life."

Not trusting solely to a syllogism founded on a definition, Linnaeus proceeds to support the life of vegetables by arguments drawn from the following particulars in their economy; the first of which he intitles

"Nutritio."—The very idea of nutrition implies a propulsion of humours, and, of course, the idea of life. But vegetables derive their nourishment from the earth, air, &c. and consequently must be considered as living creatures.

"2. Etas."—Every animal must not only begin to exist, and have that existence dissolved by death, but must likewise pass through a number of intermediate changes in its appearance and affections. Infancy, youth, manhood, old age, are characterized by imbecility, beauty, fertility, dotage; are not all these vicissitudes conspicuous in the vegetable world? Weak and tender in infancy; beautiful, and falacious in youth; grave, robust, and fruitful, in manhood; and when old age approaches, the head droops, the springs of life dry up, and, in fine, the poor tottering vegetable returns to that dust from whence it sprung.

"3. Motus."—No inanimate body is capable of self-motion. Whatever moves spontaneously, is endowed with a living principle: for motion depends on the spontaneous propulsion of humours; and where-ever there is a spontaneous propulsion of humours, there also is life. That vegetables are capable of motion, is evident from the following facts: plants, when confined within doors, always bend towards the light, and some of them even attempt to make their escape by the windows. The flowers of many plants, especially those of the syngenesia class, pursue the sun from east to west, rejoicing in his beams. Who then can deny that vegetables are possessed of living and self-moving powers?

"4. Morbus."—The term disease means nothing more than a certain corruption of life. It is well known, that vegetables are subject to diseases, as well as animals: when over-heated, they turn thirsty, languish, and fall to the ground; when too cold, they are tormented with the chilblain, and not unfrequently expire: they are sometimes afflicted with cancers; and every plant is infested with lice peculiar to its species.

"5. Mors."—Death is opposed to life, the former being only a privation of the latter. Experience shows, that every living creature must die. But, as vegetables are daily cut off by internal diseases and external injuries; as they are subject to death from the attacks of hunger, thirst, heat, cold, &c. with what propriety could vegetables be thus said to die, unless we allow

that they previously lived?

"6. Anatomia."—Under this article we are referred to Malpighius and Grew for the organic fibres, membranes, canals, vessels, &c. of plants, as additional proofs of their living powers.

"7. Organizatio."—Vegetables not only propel humours, but also prepare and secrete a number of different juices for the fruit, the nectar, &c. analogous to the various secretions in animal bodies."

From these facts and observations, Linnaeus concludes, that plants are unquestionably endowed with life as well as animals; and then proceeds in the following manner to show how these animated vegetables propagate their species.

After discussing the long exploded doctrine of equivocal generation, he lays hold of another maxim of Dr. Harvey, viz. Omne vivum ex ovo.—"It being fully evident, (says he), from the foregoing chain of reasoning, that vegetables are endowed with life, it necessarily follows, agreeable to this maxim of Harvey's, that every vegetable must in like manner derive its existence from an egg. But as vegetables proceed from eggs, and as it is the distinguishing property of an egg to give birth to a being similar to that which produced it, the seeds must of course be the eggs of vegetables."

"Granting then that the seeds of vegetables are intended by nature to answer the same end as the eggs of animals, and considering at the same time that no egg can be fecundated without receiving an impregnation from the male, it follows, that the seed or eggs of vegetables cannot be fecundated by any other means. Hence also the necessity of vegetables being provided with organs of generation. But where are these organs situated? The answer is easy:—We have already found impregnated seeds within the flowers of plants; and it is natural to expect that the genitalia should not be at a greater distance. Now, as copulation always precedes birth, and every flower precedes the fruit, the generating faculty must be ascribed to the flower, and the birth to the fruit. Again, as the antheræ and stigmata are the only essential parts of flowers, these parts must necessarily be the organs of generation."

Being thus far advanced, Linnaeus affirms, that the antheræ are the testes, and that the pollen performs the office of the male semen. These affirmations he attempts to establish by the following arguments; the first of which he terms,

"1. Precedentia."—The antheræ, or vegetable testes, always precede the fruit; and as soon as the antheræ come to maturity, which constantly happens before the maturity of the fruit, they continue to throw out their pollen as long as the flower lasts; but decay and fall off whenever the fruit comes to perfection.

"2. Situs."—The antheræ of all plants are uniformly situate in such a manner that the pollen may with the greatest facility fall upon the stigma or female organ.

"3. Tempus."—The antheræ and stigmata always flourish at the same time, whether the flowers be of the hermaphrodite or dioecious kind.

"4. Localimenta."—When the antheræ are dissected, they discover as great a variety of structure as the pericarpia or seed capsules: for some of them have one cell, as the mercury; some two, as the hellebore, &c.

"5. Cassatio."—If all the antheræ be cut off from an hermaphrodite plant, just before the flowers begin to expand

expand, taking care at the same time that no plant of the same species grows near it, the fruit will either prove entirely abortive, or produce barren seeds.

“ 6. Figura.—When the pollen of different plants is examined by the microscope, it exhibits as great a variety of figures as is discoverable in the seeds themselves.

“ The accumulated force of these arguments (concludes Linnæus) amounts to a full demonstration that the antheræ are the testes, and that the pollen is the semen or genitura, of vegetables.

“ The male organ being thus investigated, we hope, (says Linnæus), that none will hesitate to pronounce the stigma to be the female organ, especially when the following observations are sufficiently attended to.

“ The pistillum is composed of the germen, stylus, and stigma. The germen, being only a kind of rudiment of the future foetus or seed, ceases to exist as soon as the flower comes to maturity. Neither is the stylus an essential part, as many flowers have no stylus. But no fruit ever comes to maturity without the assistance of the stigma. It follows, that the stigma must be the female organ adapted by nature for the reception of the pollen or impregnating substance. This will appear still clearer from the following chain of reasoning.

“ 1. Situs.—The stigmata are always situate so that the pollen may with most ease fall upon them. Besides, it is remarkable, that in most plants (though not in all) the number of the stigmata exactly corresponds with the loculamenta or cells of the pericarpium.

“ 2. Tempus.—Here the observation, that the stigmata and antheræ constantly flourish at the same time, is repeated.

“ 3. Decidentia.—The stigmata of most plants, like the antheræ, decay and fall off as soon as they have discharged their proper function; which evidently shows, that their office is not to ripen the fruit, but solely to answer the important purpose of impregnation.

“ 4. Abscisso.—The argument here is precisely the same with the castration of the antheræ; and the result is likewise the same, namely, the destruction of the fruit.

“ These arguments (concludes Linnæus) are sufficient to demonstrate, that the stigma is the female organ of generation, or that organ which is suited for the reception and conveyance of the semen to the vegetable eggs. Hence, plants may be said to be in actu veneris, when the antheræ, or testiculi, spread their pollen over the stigma or female vulva.”

To show how the coitus of vegetables is effected, is our author's next object of investigation. He affirms, that the pollen is conveyed, by means of the wind or insects, to the moist stigma, where it remains until it discharges a subtile fluid, which being absorbed by the vessels of the stigma, is carried to the seeds or ova, and impregnates them. His proofs are taken from the following particulars.

“ 1. Oculus.—When the flowers are in full blow, and the pollen flying about, every one may then see the pollen adhering to the stigma. This he illustrates by mentioning as examples the viola tricolor, iris, campanula, &c.

“ 2. Proportio.—The staminal and pistillal, in most plants, are of equal heights, that the pollen, by the intervention of the wind, may, with the greater facility,

fall upon the stigma.

“ 3. Locus.—The staminal of most plants surround the pistillum, to give the pollen an opportunity of falling upon the stigma at every breeze of wind. Even in the monocœcia class, the male flowers stand generally above the female ones, to afford an easier conveyance of the pollen to the stigma.

“ 4. Tempus.—It is remarkable that the staminal and pistillal constantly appear at the same time, even in plants belonging to the monocœcia class.

“ 5. Pluvie.—The flowers of most plants expand by the heat of the sun, and shut themselves up in the evening or in rainy weather. The final cause of this must be to keep the moisture from the pollen, lest it should be thereby coagulated, and of course prevented from being blown upon the stigma.

“ 6. Palmicole.—That the cultivators of palm-trees were in use to pull off the spadices from the males, and suspend them over the spathe of the females, is attested by Theophrastus, Pliny, Prosper Alpinus, Kempfer, and many others. If this operation happened to be neglected, the dates were sour and destitute of nuts. Kempfer adds this singular circumstance, that the male spadix, after being thoroughly dried and kept till next season, still retained its impregnating virtue.

“ 7. Flores nutantes.—As the pollen is specifically heavier than air, such flowers as have their pistillum longer than the staminal, hang down, or incline to one side, e.g. the fruticularia, campanula, &c. An easy admission of the pollen to the stigma is the final cause of this appearance.

“ 8. Submersi.—Many plants that grow below water, emerge when their flowers begin to blow, and swim upon the surface till they receive their impregnation, and then sink down.

“ 9. Omnium florum genuina consideratio.—Here a number of particulars are recited. We shall confine ourselves to those that are most striking and applicable to the subject.

“ When the flowers of the male hemp are pulled off before those of the female are fully expanded, the females do not produce fertile seeds. But as a male flower is sometimes found upon a female plant, this may be the reason why fertile seeds are sometimes produced even after this precaution has been observed.

“ The tulip affords another experiment to the same purpose.—Cut off all the antheræ of a red tulip before the pollen is emitted; then take the ripe antheræ of a white tulip, and throw the pollen of the white one upon the stigma of the red; the seeds of the red tulip being thus impregnated by one of a different complexion, will next season produce some red, some white, but most variegated flowers.”

In the year 1744, Linnæus published a description of a new genus, which he called peloria, on the supposition of its being a hybrid or mule plant, i. e. a plant produced by an unnatural commixture of two different genera. The root, leaves, caulis, &c. of this plant are exceedingly similar to those of the antirrhinum linaria; but the flower and other parts of the fructification are totally different. On account of its similarity to the linaria in every part but the flower, Linnæus imagined it to have been produced by a fortuitous commixture of the linaria with some other plant, although he has never yet been able to point out the father. This doctrine

of the production of mule plants has since been greatly prized and carefully propagated by Linnæus and the other supporters of the sexual hypothesis. In the third volume of the Annalitates Academicae, there is a complete dissertation, intitled Plantæ Hybridæ, wherein the doctrine of vegetable mules is much improved and extended. This dissertation contains a list of 47 mules, with their supposed fathers and mothers. For example,

The VERONICA SPURIA is said to be a mule plant begot by the verbena officinalis upon the veronica maritima.

The delphinium hybridum, a mule begot by the aconitum napellus upon the delphinium elatum.

The arctotis calendula, a mule begot by the calendula pluvialis upon the arctotis trititis.

The asclepias nigra, a mule begot by the cynanchum acutum upon the asclepias vincetoxicum, &c.

From the examples given in this dissertation, Linnæus draws this conclusion, that only two species of each genus existed ab origine; and that all the variety of species which now appear have been produced by unnatural embraces betwixt species of different genera.

Under this head, Linnæus likewise quotes from Ray the story of Richard Baal gardener at Brentford. This Baal sold a large quantity of the seeds of the brassica florida to several gardeners in the suburbs of London. These gardeners, after sowing their seeds in the usual manner, were surprised to find them turn out to be plants of a different species from that which Baal made them believe they had purchased; for, instead of the brassica florida, the plants turned out to be the brassica longifolia. The gardeners, upon making the discovery, commenced a prosecution of fraud against Baal in Westminster-hall. The court found Baal guilty of fraud, and decreed him not only to restore the price of the seeds, but likewise to pay the gardeners for their lost time, and the use of their ground. "Had these judges (says Linnæus) been acquainted with the sexual hypothesis, they would not have found Baal guilty of any crime, but would have ascribed the accident to the fortuitous impregnation of the brassica florida by the pollen of the brassica longifolia."

Linnæus next proceeds to celebrate the utility of insects, because they convey the pollen of the male to the stigma of the female. "In this way, (says he), it is reasonable to think that many dioecious plants are impregnated. Nay, even the hermaphrodites themselves are greatly obliged to the different tribes of insects, which, by fluttering and treading in the corolla, are constantly scattering the pollen about the stigma."

"Upon the whole, then, (concludes Linnæus), the coitus of vegetables is evident to a demonstration. This coitus is nothing more than the conveyance of the pollen to the stigma, to which it adheres till it bursts and discharges a subtle elastic fluid. This fluid or aura is absorbed by the vessels of the style, and carried directly to the ovarium or germin, where the mysterious work of impregnation is fully completed."

These are the arguments employed by Linnæus and other advocates for the sexual commerce of vegetables. Let us next attend to those employed by the opposers of this hypothesis.

It is admitted by Pontedera, Dr Alston, &c. that

some of the ancients applied the terms male and female to several plants. But then they deny that these terms conveyed the same ideas to the ancients that they do to the moderns. Male and female, when applied to plants, were to the ancients mere terms of distinction, serving only as trivial names to distinguish one species or variety from another. The ancients were ignorant of the very characters which constitute the difference between what is called a male and female plant among the moderns. Theophrastus, Diocorides, Pliny, and, in a word, the whole ancient botanical writers, confound the very notion of the modern sexes: they call the real female, or feed-bearing plant, the male; and the male, or barren plant, the female. Nay, they have even applied the terms male and female to many plants which bear nothing but hermaphrodite flowers.

Such is the nature of this controversy, that it cannot be determined with any degree of certainty, but by experiments made upon dioecious plants. If a female plant can produce fertile seeds without having any communication with the pollen of the male, the use of this pollen with respect to the impregnation of seeds must of necessity be entirely superfluous.

Now, both Camerarius and Dr Alston tried these experiments with the same success. Those two eminent botanists took female plants of the mercury, spinge, and hemp; transplanted them at a great distance from any males of the same genus, and besides had them inclosed by double rows of hedges. The result was, that each of these plants produced great quantities of fertile seeds. Tournefort made the same trial upon the lupulus, Miller upon the bryony, and Geoffroy upon the mays; and all of them declare that the seeds of these plants were as fertile as if they had been surrounded by a thousand males.

Linnæus, in his first argument for the coitus of plants, refers every man to the evidence of his senses.

"Do we not see (says he) the stigma of almost every hermaphrodite flower covered over with the pollen or impregnating substance? Do not we see the parietaria, the urtica, &c. by violent explosions, discharging their pollen in the open air, that it may be carried in that vehicle to the stigmata of their respective females?"—All this is admitted by the opposers of the sexes: but then they deny that these explosions, &c. are intended to create any intercourse between the male and the female; and further allege, that this ejection of the pollen is intended by nature to throw off something excrementitious, or at least something which, if retained, would prove noxious to the fructification.

Linnæus takes his second argument from the proportion which the stamina bear to the stylus, alleging that they are generally of the same height.—This observation (say the anti-sexualists) is not only contrary to experience, but, allowing it to be universal, no conclusion can be drawn from it either for or against the sexual hypothesis.

The third argument is taken from the locus or situation of the stamina with respect to the stylus: "and as the male flowers in the monœcia class stand always above the female flowers, it must be concluded (says Linnæus) that the intention of nature, in this disposition of the parts, is to allow a free and easy access of the pollen to the stigma.—But the stamina cannot be said to surround the pistillum in the monandria and diandria

andria classes: and the position of the male flowers in the monoceria class is a mere chimera; for in the ricinus, one of the examples which Linnæus mentions in confirmation of his doctrine, the female flowers stand uniformly some inches above the males.

That the stamina and pistilla generally come to perfection at the same time, and that this happens even in the dioicous plants, is Linnæus's fourth argument. But, as it is acknowledged by Linnæus himself, that there are many exceptions with respect to this fact, the opposers of the sexual hypothesis allege that it carries the best answer in its own bosom.

The fifth argument is founded on the circumstance of some flowers shutting up their petals in rainy or moist evenings.—But many flowers do not shut themselves up, either in the night or moist weather, as the passion-flower, &c. The lychnis noctiflora, mirabilis peruviana, &c. open their flowers in the night, and shut them at the approach of the sun. Hence this is another final cause (say the anti-sexualists) perverted to support a favourite hypothesis.

We come now to the culture of the palm-tree, which is the sixth and most plausible argument employed by the sexualists. Of this, the most authentic account we have is the following by Dr Hasselquist, in one of his letters to Linnæus, dated Alexandria May 18^th, 1750. "The first thing I did after my arrival was to see the date-tree, the ornament and a great part of the riches of this country. It had already blossomed; but I had, nevertheless, the pleasure of seeing how the Arabs assist its fecundation, and by that means secure to themselves a plentiful harvest of a vegetable, which was so important to them, and known to them many centuries before any botanist dreamed of the difference of sexes in vegetables. The gardener informed me of this before I had time to inquire; and would shew me, as a very curious thing, the male and female of the date or palm-trees: nor could he conceive how I, a Frank, lately arrived, could know it before; for, says he, all who have yet come from Europe to see this country, have regarded this relation either as a fable or miracle. The Arab seeing me inclined to be further informed, accompanied me and my French interpreter to a palm-tree, which was very full of young fruit, and had by him been wedded or fecundated with the male when both were in blossom. This the Arabs do in the following manner: When the spadix has female flowers, that come out of its spatha, they search on a tree that has male flowers, which they know by experience, for a spadix which has not yet burst out of its spatha: this they open, take out the spadix, and cut it lengthwise in several pieces, but take care not to hurt the flowers. A piece of this spadix with male flowers they put lengthwise between the small branches of the spadix which hath female flowers, and then lay the leaf of a palm over the branches. In this situation I yet saw the greatest part of the spadices which bore their young fruit; but the male flowers which were put between were withered. The Arab besides gave me the following anecdotes: First, unless they, in this manner, wed and fecundate the date-tree, it bears no fruit. Secondly, they always take the precaution to preserve some unopened spathe with male flowers from one year to another, to be applied for this purpose, in case the male flowers should miscarry or suffer damage. Third-

ly, if they permit the spadix of the male flowers to burst or come out, it becomes useless for fecundation: it must have its maidenhead, (these were the words of the Arab), which is lost in the same moment the blossoms burst out of their case. Therefore the person who cultivates date-trees must be careful to hit the right time of assisting their fecundation, which is almost the only article in their cultivation. Fourthly, on opening the spathe, he finds all the male flowers full of a liquid which resembles the finest dew; it is of a sweet and pleasant taste, resembling much the taste of fresh dates, but much more refined and aromatic: this was likewise confirmed by my interpreter, who hath lived 32 years in Egypt, and therefore had opportunities enough of tasting both the nectar of the blossoms, and the fresh dates."

Now, though this account seems fully to confirm the fact, viz. that such a practice obtains among the Arabs, and that they assert its efficacy in fecundating the trees, it is certain (say the opposers of this doctrine) that no intelligent person, who is not already wedded to an hypothesis, will attempt to found an argument upon the assertions of a people so full of ridiculous superstitions. Before Dr Hasselquist, or any other person, can draw any argument from the abovementioned account, he ought to see the experiment several times repeated, with his own eyes, and not take it upon the word of a people who, besides their superstition, may very probably find it their interest to impose upon travellers.

Mr Milne, author of the Botanical Dictionary, however, relates an experiment, near akin to the abovementioned, which merits some attention: "In the garden of M. de la Serre, of the Rue S. Jacques at Paris, was a female turpentine tree, which flowered every year, without furnishing any fruit capable of vegetation. This was a sensible mortification to the owner, who greatly desired to have the tree increased. Messieurs Duhamel and Jussieu very properly judged that they might procure him that pleasure by the assistance of a male pistachio tree. They sent him one very much loaded with flowers. It was planted in the garden of M. de la Serre, very near the female turpentine tree, which the same year produced a great quantity of fruits, that were well-conditioned, and rose with facility. The male plant was then removed; the consequence of which was, that the turpentine-tree of M. de la Serre in none of the succeeding years bore any fruit that, upon examination, was found to germinate."

Upon this experiment it is observed by the antifexualists, that, though it were a thousand times repeated, it never could be decisive. The nature of the controversy, say they, is such, that one experiment is more decisive in favour of their opinion, than 10,000 can be against them. The reason is plain: If there is such a thing as a sexual intercourse in vegetables, it is as wonderful that any seeds should be perfected without that intercourse, as that a virgin should have a child; the last is not in the least more extraordinary than the first. One experiment, therefore, which shews that seeds may be perfected without such sexual intercourse, is either to be resolved into a miracle, or must prove absolutely decisive against the sexual system; while numberless experiments such as that abovementioned could prove nothing,

thing, because we know not what effect vegetables may have by growing in each others neighbourhood, independent of any sexual intercourse.

In Milne's Botanical Dictionary, under the article Sexus Plantarum, the author quotes Dr Allson's experiments partially. The facts recorded by Dr Allson are as follow. 1. Three sets of spinach, planted at a great distance from each other, proved all of them fertile, and ripened plenty of seeds, which were found to answer as well as other spinach seed. 2. A plant of hemp growing by itself, being taken care of, produced about 30 good seeds, though in a situation very much exposed, and plucked up too soon, on account of bad weather, in the autumn. 3. This experiment, which is the most remarkable of the three, we shall give in the Doctor's own words. "In the spring of 1741, I carried two young feeding plants of the French mercury, long before there was any in, from the city physic-garden, the only place where it was then to be found in this country, to the king's garden at the Abbey; which are more than 700 yards distant from one another, with many high houses, trees, hedges, and part of a high hill, between them: and planted one of them in one inclosure, where it was shaded from the sun the greatest part of the day; and the other in another, 25 yards distant, exposed to the south and west. Both plants ripened fertile seeds; and the last shed them so plentifully, that it proved a troublesome weed for several years, though none of the species was to be found in that garden for more than 20 years preceding."

This experiment Mr Milne hath thought proper not to take any notice of, though he quotes the other two, and on them has the following remark. "The result of these, and such like experiments, can be accounted for, on the principle of the sexes, in no other way than on the supposition that some male flowers have been intermixed with the female, and operated the fecundation in question. This appears the more probable, as only a part of the seeds in the above experiments attained to perfect maturity, so as to be capable of vegetation."

The seventh argument of Linnæus is taken from the flores mutantes.—The pistils of these flowers, according to Linnæus, are always longer than the stamina; and nature has assigned them this penile posture, that the pollen, which is specifically heavier than air, may the more conveniently fall upon the stigma.—But the pistils of the campanula, lilium, and many other flores mutantes, are not longer than the stamina. Besides, granting this were uniformly the case; yet, as the pollen is heavier than air, this posture must of necessity either make the pollen miss the pistillum altogether, or, at any rate, it can only fall upon the back part of the pistil in place of the stigma; and, of course, such a direction would rather tend to frustrate than promote the impregnation of the seed.

The eighth argument is taken from the planta submersa, which are said to emerge as soon as their flowers begin to blow, lest the pollen should be coagulated or washed off by the water.—But many submarine and aquatic plants fructify entirely below water; and, supposing they did not, the same argument would equally prove it to be the intention of nature, that the pollen should be blown away by the winds, as that it should be subservient to the impregnation of the seed.

The ninth and last argument is intitled Omnium florum genuina consideratio; which (say the antifexualists) is nothing more than a collection of vague observations upon the structure and economy of particular plants, some of them true, others false, but all of them evidently thrust in as supports to a favourite hypothesis.

Thus we have given a short view of the fundamental principles of the sexual system; of the arguments made use of, and the facts adduced to support it: to these we have subjoined the principal arguments brought against it; together with the most noted experiments made by its opposers; and shall now, according to our general plan, leave the reader to determine for himself. Only, before putting a period to this section, we shall beg leave to observe, that, in our humble opinion, the facts hitherto brought in support of the sexual system are, on the one hand, too few, and those not so fully authenticated as could be wished; and, on the other hand, that the experiments adduced by its opposers seem neither to have been made with sufficient accuracy, nor perhaps upon such plants as would have been most proper for determining the point in dispute. In the mean time, we make no doubt but the gentlemen on both sides will continue to make the most exact and careful inquiries and experiments in order to bring it to a final determination; though from the nature of the question itself, as well as the remoteness of place where some of the plants grow that may be thought necessary to be subjected to experiment, and the difficulty of getting access to perform those experiments in a proper manner, it is not improbable that many years may yet elapse before the world be favoured with that determination.

SECT. VI. Of the Natural Method of Classification.

BESIDES all the abovementioned methods of classing and distributing plants into their different orders, genera, &c. which are deduced from the fructification, and are therefore called artificial, Linnæus and most other botanists are of opinion that there is a natural method, or nature's system, which we should diligently endeavour to find out. That this system, say they, is no chimera, as some imagine, will appear particularly from hence, That all plants, of what order soever, show an affinity to some others; and thus, as formerly observed, not only the virtues of a great number of species may be ascertained, but we may know with certainty how to find a proper succedaneum for plants which cannot easily be had.—Linnæus divides vegetables into the 59 natural orders following.

1. Palme. These are perennial, and mostly of the shrub and tree kind. The stem is in height from 2 to 100 feet and upwards. The roots form a mass of fibres which are commonly simple and without any ramifications. The stem is generally simple, without branches, cylindrical, and composed of strong longitudinal fibres. The leaves, which are a composition of a leaf and a branch, by Linnæus called frondes, are of different forms; being sometimes shaped like an umbrella or fan; sometimes singly or doubly winged; the small or partial leaves, which are often three feet in length, being ranged alternately. The branches, or principal leaves, are six, eight, ten, or twelve feet long; the length varying according to the age and size of the plant. They are

are covered at first with a thick brown dust, like those of the ferns. The base of the leaves frequently embraces the greater part of the stem. The flowers are male and female upon the same or different roots; except in stratiotes, which bears hermaphrodite flowers only; and palmetto, in which the flowers are hermaphrodite and male upon distinct roots. The flowers are all disposed in a panicle or diffused spike, except in the hydrocharis, stratiotes, and valliseria; in which they proceed singly from the wings or angles of the leaves. The common calix, in this order, is that termed a spatha or sheath, and has either one or two valves. The spadix, or head of flowers protruded from the sheath, is generally branched. Each flower is generally furnished with a perianthium or proper flower-cup, consisting of three leaves or divisions that are small and permanent. The petals are three in number, of a substance like leather, and permanent like the leaves of the calix. The flowers of zamia have no petals. The stamens are from 2 to 20 and upwards, cohering slightly at their base. The seed-buds are from one to three in number, placed in the middle of the flower, and supporting a like number of styles which are very short. The seed-vessel is generally a pulpy fruit of the berry or cherry kind, containing one cell filled with fibrous flesh, and covered with a skin which is of a substance like leather. The seeds are in number from one to three in each pulpy fruit, of a hard bony substance, round or oval, and attached by their base to the bottom of the fruit.—These plants, particularly the seeds, are astringent, and of efficacy in dysenteries.

2. Piperitæ. These plants are mostly herbaceous and perennial. The stalks of pothos creep along rocks and trees, into which they strike root at certain distances. The greatest height which any of them is known to attain, is 15 feet; the greater part do not exceed three or four. The fleshy roots of many of these plants are extremely acrid when fresh. They lose this pungent quality, however, by being dried, and become of a soapy nature. The smell of many of them is extremely fetid, frequently resembling that of human excrements. The flowers, however, of an Ethiopian dracunculus or arum, and the cover in which they are involved, are said to emit a very fragrant odour. With regard to their virtues, these plants are commonly astringent.

3. Calamaritæ. In this class the base of the leaf, which embraces the stalk like a glove, has no longitudinal aperture, but is perfectly entire. The stalk is generally triangular, and without knots or joints. The roots of some are long and knotty; in others, they are composed of fleshy fibres which pierce deep into the ground; and in others, of a bulb. The flowers are either hermaphrodite, or male and female upon the same root. The mode of inflorescence in this order is generally a spike; sometimes a capitulum or head. The calix is either a gluma or an amentum. The corolla is wanting. The filaments of the stamens are three in number, short, slender like a hair, and sometimes bristly. The antheræ are generally long, slender, and erect. The seed-bud is very small, blunt, and sometimes three-cornered. The style is thread-shaped, and of the length of the scaly calix. The stigmata are generally three in number; slender, hairy, and sometimes permanent. The virtues, uses, and sensible qualities, of this order

of plants are the same with those of the following.

4. Gramina. Most of these plants are annual or perennial herbs; some of them creep upon the ground, others are erect. The roots, in the greatest number, are creeping, and emit fibres from each knot or joint; in others they are simply branching and fibrous. The stems and branches are round. The leaves are simple, alternate, entire, very long, and commonly narrow. They form below a sort of sheath, which embraces or surrounds the stem, and is generally cleft or divided on one side through its whole length. The flowers are either hermaphrodite, male and female on the same root, or hermaphrodite and male on the same root. They proceed either singly from the sheath of the leaves, or are formed into a panicle or loose spike. The calix and corolla in this order are not sufficiently ascertained; in some a single scale or husk, in others two, supply the place of both covers; some grasses have four husky scales, two of which serve for the calix, and the other two for the corolla; some have five; others six, four of which constitute the calix, and the other two are termed improperly enough the husky petals. The corolla is sometimes composed of one petal with two divisions; and in general the husks of the calix are always placed opposite to those of the corolla. The stamens are generally three in number, and placed irregularly with regard to the situation of the calix and corolla. The antheræ are long, furnished with two cells, and slightly attached to the filaments. The seed-bud is placed upon the same receptacle as the calix, corolla, and stamens. The style is generally double, and crowned with a hairy stigma or summit. The seed-vessel is wanting. The seeds are single, oval, and attached below to the bottom of the flower.—The roots of the grasses are opening; such as have an aromatic smell are stomachic; their seeds are mealy, mucilaginous, and nourishing. All the parts of these plants are wholesome.

5. Tripetaloidæ, (from tres, three; and petalum, a petal). These plants have no very striking characters, and are nearly allied to the grasses. All the genera of this order have not the circumstance expressed in the title.

6. Ensatæ. This order, which is very nearly allied to the grasses and liliaceous plants, furnishes a very beautiful collection of perennial herbs, which are of different heights, from one inch to 15 feet. The roots are tuberous or fleshy, and garnished with fibres; the stalks are simple, and commonly flat or compressed on the sides. The leaves are simple, alternate, entire, sword-shaped, and, like the liliaceous plants, form at their origin a sheath or glove, which in the greatest number is cleft or divided through the whole length, except at the base, where it is entire, and embraces the stalk like a ring. The flowers are hermaphrodite, and generally proceed from the summit of the stalks either singly, in an umbel, a spike, or in a panicle. In pontederia they proceed from the wings or angles of the leaves either singly or in an umbel. Most of these plants want the perianthium or flower-cup; the flowers burst from a common cover or sheath, termed by Linnaeus spatha, which in this order is frequently permanent. The petals are in number from one to six. The stamens are generally three. The seed-bud is placed sometimes above the flower, sometimes below it. The style is generally single, and crowned with a triple stigma.

stigma. The feed-vessel is a dry capsule, generally of an oblong shape, and opens at three valves, discovering the same number of cells, each inclosing a quantity of roundish seeds.—These plants resemble the liliaceous in their powers and sensible qualities; very few of them, however, are used in medicine.

7. Orchideæ. The roots of many of these plants are composed of one or more fleshy tubercles or knobs, attached to the lower part of the stem, and sending forth fibres from the top. Those of orchis bear an obvious resemblance to the scrotum in animals: from which circumstance the genus has derived its name. The leaves are of a moderate size, inscribed with a number of longitudinal nerves or ribs, and without any footstalk. At their origin they form, round the stalk, a kind of sheath, which is long, entire, cylindrical, but not furnished, like the grasses and some other plants, with a crown at top. The flowers are hermaphrodite, and placed at the summit of the stalk either in a spike or in a panicle. The calix is that sort termed by Linnaeus a spatha or sheath, that bursting open protrudes a head or cluster of flowers, termed the spadix, which have no perianthium or flower-cup. The petals are five in number, and very irregular. The nectarium in this order is remarkably conspicuous; yet so different in the different genera, that Linnaeus has employed it for his principal character, or mark of distinction, instead of the root, which had chiefly engaged the attention of former botanists. It has the appearance of a sixth petal. The filaments are always two in number, and placed upon the pistillum or female organ. The antheræ are erect, and generally covered by the upper lip of the nectarium. The feed-bud is either oblong or pillar-shaped, twisted like a screw, and universally placed below the receptacle of the flower. The style is single, very short, and forms one substance with the inner margin of the nectarium. The feed-vessel is generally a capsule with one cavity or cell, and three valves or openings, which are keel-shaped, and open on the angular sides, being jointed both at the bottom and top. The seeds are numerous; very small, like sawdust; and attached, without footstalks, to a slender receptacle or rib, which extends itself lengthwise in the middle of each inclosure or valve. The plants of this order are reckoned strong aphrodisiacs.

8. Scitamineæ. This class consists of beautiful exotic plants, all natives of very warm countries. Some of them furnish exquisite fruits; but though the plants rise very high, they are perennial only by their roots. Those which have only one filament, have in all their parts an aromatic odour, and an acrid or poignant taste; qualities, however, possessed in a much greater degree by the roots, which are hot and resinous.

9. Spathaceæ, so called because their flowers are protruded from a spatha or sheath. They are nearly allied in habit and structure to the liliaceous plants, from which they are chiefly distinguished by the spatha out of which their flowers are protruded.

10. Coronarieæ. These plants are herbaceous, perennial, and from one inch to 15 feet high. The roots are either bulbous, fibrous, or composed of small fleshy knots, which are jointed at top. The bulbs either consist of scales laid over each other like tiles, or are solid. The stem of the liliaceous bulbous plants is properly wanting; what supplies its place being nothing else than the base of the leaves, which, wrapping or enfold-

ing each other, form at bottom a roundish fleshy bulb hitherto distinguished, though perhaps improperly, by the name of root. In the others the stem is simple, that is, has few branches, and is either furnished with leaves, or rises naked. The branches are alternate and cylindrical. The leaves are simple, alternate, and entire. Those next the root, termed radical leaves, generally form at their origin a sheath, which in a great number is entire; that is, goes all round; whilst in others, it is cleft or divided longitudinally on one side. The flowers are universally hermaphrodite, except in white hellebore, which has both male and hermaphrodite flowers mixed together on the same root. The flowers are sometimes single, and terminate the stem; sometimes they form an umbel, sometimes a spike, and sometimes a panicle. The calix or flower-cup, in this order, according to Linnaeus, is generally wanting. In strict propriety, however, the single cover that is present in most of these plants, though beautifully coloured, ought to be denominated a calix; as its divisions, generally six in number, are placed opposite to the flamina. The petals, or, to speak more properly, the coloured leaves of the flower, are in number from one to six. Plants which have a single petal, have the limb or upper part split into six divisions or segments. The petals in some species are rolled or turned back. The nectarium is various; in the lily it is a longitudinal line which runs through each petal, and reaches from the base to the middle. In crown imperial, it is a small hollow or pore, formed at the base of each petal; in asphodel it consists of six very small valves, which, approaching, form a globe, and are inserted into the base of the petal; in hyacinth, it is composed of three melliferous pores, situated on the top of the feed-bud. In pineapple, it is a small scale lying within the substance of each petal above the base; and in albuca, or bastard star of Bethlehem, it consists of two sharp-pointed bodies proceeding from the furrows of the feed-bud, and covered by the broader base of the three fertile filaments. In some species of lily the nectarium is hairy; in others it is naked. The flamina are six in number; erect, and inserted into the common receptacle, if the flower consists of many petals; into the tube, or divisions of the corolla, if it consists of one. The antheræ are long, commonly divided below, and slightly attached by their sides to the filaments on which they turn like a vane or the needle of a compass. The feed-bud is single, and placed either within the flower-cup, or below it. The style is single, thread-shaped, and generally of the length of the petals. The stigma is generally single, of a conic form, and shaggy or hairy at the extremity. The feed-vessel is generally a capsule, divided externally into three valves, internally into three cells.—With respect to the powers of the plants of this order, it may be affirmed in general, that such as have little taste or smell, as the roots of tulip, and star of Bethlehem, are perfectly innocent; whilst those which have a heavy nauseous smell, as squill, hyacinth, crown imperial, and spider-wort, are at least suspicious, and frequently prove noxious.

11. Sarmentoseæ, (from farmentum, a long shoot, like that of a vine). This order consists of plants which have climbing stems and branches, that, like the vine, attach themselves to the bodies in their neighbourhood for the purpose of support. These plants are far

far from being a true natural assemblage; in fact they scarce agree in a single circumstance, except that expressed in the title, which is far from being peculiar to this order.

12. Holeraceæ. This order consists of plants which are used for the table, and enter into the economy of domestic affairs: it contains trees, shrubs, perennial, and annual herbs. Some of the woody vegetables retain their green leaves during the winter. The roots are very long, and frequently spindle-shaped; from the knots on the stems and branches of such plants as creep on the ground, or float on the water, proceed fibrous and branching roots. The stems and young branches are cylindric; and in the greatest part of the aquatic plants of this order, the stalks are hollow within. The buds are of a conic form, and naked; that is, not accompanied with scales. The leaves are generally simple, entire, alternate, and attached to the branches by a cylindric foot-stalk, which is sometimes very long, but commonly very short. Some plants of this kind have two stipule or scales which are attached to the branches near the origin of the foot-stalk of each leaf. In many others, instead of stipule, each leaf bears on its foot-stalk a membranaceous sheath, which is cylindric, frequently fringed on the margin, and pierced or penetrated by the stem. The flowers are either hermaphrodite; male and female upon the same root; male and female upon different roots; hermaphrodite and male on the same root; hermaphrodite and female on the same root; or hermaphrodite and male on different roots.

13. Succulentæ. This order consists of flat, fleshy, and juicy plants, most of them ever-greens. They are asstringent, refreshing, and very wholesome.

14. Gruinales, from grus a crane. These consist of geranium, vulgarly called cranes-bill, and a few other genera which Linnaeus considers as allied to it in their habit and external structure. This order furnishes both herbaceous and woody plants. The roots are sometimes fibrous, sometimes tuberous. In some species of wood-forrel they are jointed. The stems are cylindric; the young branches, in some, nearly square. The buds are of a conic form, and covered with scales. The leaves are either simple or compound. The flowers are hermaphrodite; they proceed from the wings of the leaves either singly or in clusters. The calix or flower-cup consists of five distinct leaves, or of one leaf divided almost to the bottom into five parts. It generally accompanies the feed-bud to its maturity. The petals are five in number, spreading, and frequently funnel-shaped. The stamens are generally ten in number, awl-shaped, erect, and of the length of the petals. The stamens are generally oblong; and frequently attached to the filaments by the middle, so as to lie, and sometimes to veer about, upon them. The feed-bud is either oblong, or five-cornered. The number of styles is either one, or five. In tribulus, the style is wanting. The feed-vessel is generally a five-cornered capsule, with one, three, five, or ten cells. The seeds are generally equal in number to the internal divisions or the cells of the feed-vessel; one seed being placed in each cell.

15. Inundatæ. The plants of this order are aquatic, of low stature, herbaceous, and mostly perennial. The roots are fibrous. The stem is generally wanting.

In its place are an assemblage of leaves, which wrapping or enfolding each other mutually form a sheath; and from the middle of this sheath is produced the foot-stalk of the flower. The leaves are sometimes alternate, sometimes placed in whorls round the stem. In a great many genera the foot-stalk is extended at its origin into a membranaceous substance, which forms a sheath that is cleft through the whole length, on the side opposite to the leaf. The flowers are hermaphrodite, or male and female on the same root. The flower-cup is either wanting, or consists of three, four, or five divisions or leaves, which accompany the feed-bud to its maturity. The petals are generally wanting. The stamens are in number from one to 16 and upwards. The filaments in some genera are so short, that they seem wanting. The anthers are short, and generally marked with four longitudinal furrows. The feed-buds are in number from one to four, the style is frequently wanting. The feed-vessel is universally wanting, except in Elatine, which has a dry capsule, with four external openings, and the same number of cells. The seeds are generally four in number.

16. Calycifloræ, (from calix the flower-cup, and flor the flower), consisting of such plants as have the stamens (the flower inserted into the calix). All the plants of this order are of the shrub and tree kind. Some of them rise to the height of 12 or 14 feet; others not above two or three. The roots are branching, fibrous, and woody. The stems are cylindric. The branches, when young, are cornered; the buds of a conic form, and without scales. The leaves are simple, alternate, and attached to the branches by a very short foot-stalk. The flowers are either male or female upon distinct roots, or hermaphrodite and male on the same root. The calix is a perianthium composed of one leaf divided into two, three, or four segments. It is commonly placed upon the germ or feed-bud, which accompanies it to maturity. The corolla is universally wanting, except in trophis, the male plants of which, according to Linnaeus, have four obtuse and spreading petals. The stamens are generally four in number, slender like a hair, short, placed at a considerable distance from the style, and inserted into the tube of the calix. The pistillum is composed of a roundish germ, crowned with the calix; a single thread-shaped style; and a cylindric stigma. The feed-vessel is either an obtuse oval fruit of the cherry kind, or a globular berry with one cell, containing a roundish seed. The plants of this order are asstringent.

17. Calycanthæ, (from calix the flower-cup, and flor the flower); consisting of plants, which, among other characters, have the corolla and stamens inserted in the calix. This order furnishes trees, shrubs, and annual, biennial, and perennial herbs. The herbaceous annuals are by much the most numerous. The roots are branching and fibrous; the stems and branches cylindric, square, or four-cornered while young. The buds are of a conic form, and without scales. The leaves are generally either alternate, simple, and attached to the branches by a short foot-stalk, or opposite at the bottom of the stem; and in some, alternate towards the top. They are universally sessile; that is, attached to the branches, without any footstalk. The calix is universally a perianthium, and generally monophyllous, or composed of one leaf. The corolla consists of four, five, and

and six petals, which are attached to the tube of the calix, and are sometimes placed alternate, sometimes opposite to the divisions of the limb. The stamens, which are in number from 4 to 20 and upwards, are attached to the tube of the calix either on its margin, or lower down. When the number of stamens is double the divisions of the calix, the stamens which stand opposite to these divisions are a little longer than the rest. The anthers are generally of a hemispherical figure; frequently cleft or slit below; and by that aperture attached slightly to the filaments, on which they often veer about like a vane or needle. They are surrounded longitudinally, and open on the sides into two loculi or cells. The pollen, or male dust, consists of a number of minute particles, of an oval figure, yellow and transparent. The germin or feed-bud is placed either above or under the receptacle of the flower. The style is single, thread-shaped, and of the length of the stamens. The stigma is generally single and undivided. The feed-vessel is a capsule, which is generally divided internally into four loculi or cells. The seeds are numerous, minute, and frequently three-cornered. The plants of this order are reckoned astringent.

18. Bicornes, (from bis twice, and cornu a horn), plants whose anthers have the appearance of two horns. This appearance, however, is not very conspicuous, unless in a few genera. The plants of this order are all of the shrub and tree kind. The roots are branching and fibrous. The stems and branches are cylindrical. The buds conic, sometimes covered with scales, and sometimes naked. The leaves are generally alternate. In most plants of this order they are either sessile, or supported by a very short foot-stalk, which is femicylindrical, and flat above. The flowers are universally hermaphrodite, except in one genus, the Indian date-plumb, where hermaphrodite and male flowers are produced in the same species upon distinct roots. They proceed either solitary, or in a corymbus from the angles formed by the leaves and branches; or hang down in spikes and clusters at the end of the branches; each flower having a small scale or floral leaf placed under it. In most plants of this order the calix is placed around or below the germin. The calix is universally a perianthium, and generally monophyllous or of one piece, deeply divided into four or five segments, which are permanent, that is, accompany the germin to its maturity. The segments are often acute, and sometimes coloured. The corolla is generally monopetalous, and bell or funnel shaped; the figure, however, is not very constant, even in plants of the same genus. The limb, or upper part of the petal, is generally divided into four or five segments, which are sometimes rolled back, sometimes bent inwards. The limb too is sometimes slightly cut, sometimes divided almost to the bottom. The tube, or lower part of the petal, is cylindrical, and generally of the same length with the calix. The number of stamens is from 4 to 20. These are generally erect, and attached to the lower part of the tube of the corolla. The anthers are bifid or forked below, and, being slightly attached to the filaments, are frequently inverted in such a manner as to exhibit the appearance of two horns at top. The germin or feed-bud is generally roundish, and seated above the receptacle. The style is single, thread-shaped, of the same length with the corolla, and in a few genera permanent.

The feed-vessel is either a capsule with five cells, a roundish berry, or an oblong four-cornered nut with two cells.—The plants of this order are astringent.

19. Hesperideæ, (from the Hesperides, whose orchards are said to have produced golden apples). The plants of this order are of the shrub and tree kind, and mostly evergreen. The bark of the stalks is slender, and comes off in thin plates. The leaves are generally opposite, and covered with small transparent points. In some, the leaves are placed opposite at the bottom of the stalks, and alternate above. The buds are of a conic form, the flowers generally hermaphrodite; they proceed from the wings of the leaves either singly, or in clusters like ivy-berries. The calix is placed above the feed-bud, and accompanies it to its maturity. The petals are three, four, or five in number, and stand upon the brims of the tube of the calix. The feed-bud is large, oblong, and placed below the receptacle of the flower. The style is single, awl-shaped, of the length of the stamens, and terminated with a single stigma. The feed-vessel in some genera is a berry furnished with one or three cells; a capsule with four cells, or of the nature of a cherry, containing a stone. The seeds are generally numerous, small and oblong. The leaves and fruits are astringent, the berries esculent.

20. Rostaceæ, (from rosta, a wheel), consisting of plants with one wheel-shaped petal without a tube. These resemble in quality those of the order of precia, to which they are in all respects very nearly allied; but very few of them can be said in strict propriety to possess the character specified in the title.

21. Precia, (from precus early). These consist of primrose, an early flowering plant, and some others which agree with it in habit and structure, though not always in the character or circumstance expressed in the title. These plants, which possess no striking uniform characters, are, in general, innocent in their quality; yet the root of sow-bread is dangerous, if taken internally.

22. Caryophyllæ. All the plants of this order are herbaceous, and mostly annual. Some of the creeping kinds do not rise above an inch, and the tallest exceed not seven or eight feet. The roots are branching, fibrous, and of a moderate length. The stems are cylindrical. The branches proceed from the wings or angles of the leaves, and are generally opposite, and as it were jointed at each knot. In some species of cerastrum the branches are square. The leaves are generally placed opposite in pairs, so as to resemble a cross; and are slightly united at the bottom by their foot-stalks, which form a sort of glove round the stem. The hairs are simple, like silk. The flowers are hermaphrodite; but some have male and female flowers upon distinct roots. They either stand single on their foot-stalks, and proceed from the wings or angles of the leaves and branches, or are disposed in a spike, corymbus, umbel, or panicle. The calix is permanent, and composed either of one piece with five indentments, or of four or five distinct leaves. The corolla generally consists of five petals, which have claws of the length of the calix; and a spreading limb, sometimes entire, but oftener cleft or divided in two. The stamens are in number from 3 to 15, and of a moderate length. When their number is double the divisions of the calix, they are attached alternately to the claws of the petals, those

those so attached being shorter than the rest; the remaining stamens are inserted into the common receptacle, and stand opposite to the segments of the calix. In some genera of this order the number of stamens is found to vary, even in the different flowers of the same plant. The anthers are short, hemispherical, marked with four longitudinal furrows, frequently divided or cleft below, most commonly erect; sometimes, however, incumbent, that is, fastened to the filaments by the sides. The pointal is composed of a single feed-bud, which is generally roundish, sometimes cornered. The styles are thread-shaped, of the length of the stamens, and crowned with a simple stigma, which is sleek or smooth externally, and slightly hollowed or vaulted within. The feed-vessel is a dry capsule, of an oval form, of the length of the calix, and consists of one or three cells. The plants of this order are innocent in their quality; they abound in a watery sort of phlegm, and have bitter seeds. With respect to their virtues, they are reckoned astringent, attenuating, and detersive.

23. Trihilata, (from tres three, and hilum an external mark on the seed); consisting of plants with three seeds, which are marked distinctly with an external cicatrix or scar, where they were fastened within to the fruit.

24. Corydales, (from corone a helmet); consisting of plants which have irregular flowers, somewhat resembling a helmet or hood. These plants are mostly herbaceous and perennial. The roots are tuberous or knobby. The stems are generally branching. The leaves are alternate, sometimes simple, but most commonly winged. The foot-stalk of the leaves is strait or narrow, except in epimedium, where it is large, and has a membranaceous edge or border. The flowers are universally hermaphrodite. They proceed either singly from the wings or angles of the leaves, or are collected in clusters at the end of the branches. The calix consists of two, four, five, or six leaves, which are frequently coloured, and commonly fall off immediately before or very soon after the expansion of the petals. The corolla is generally irregular; of one, or many pieces; gaping; and furnished with a nectarium, which is very different in the different genera. The stamens are in number from two to six, and of a proportionate length, except in honey-flower, which has two shorter than the rest. The filaments are distinct, except in two genera, fumitory and monnieria, which have two sets of strings or filaments united in a cylinder. The anthers are universally distinct, except in impatiens, where they are formed into a cylinder divided at the base. The feed-bud is generally roundish, but sometimes angular or cornered. The style is commonly single, extremely short, slender, or thread-shaped, and crowned with a simple stigma. The feed-vessel is either a hollow blown-up berry, a capsule of one cell, a longish, or a roundish pod. The seeds are generally numerous and round.

25. Putaminee, (from putamen a shell); consisting of a few genera of plants allied in habit, whose fleshy feed-vessel or fruit is frequently covered with a hard woody shell. Most of these plants are acrid and penetrating; and yield, by burning, a great quantity of fixed alkali. With respect to their virtues, they are powerful aperients. The Indians pretend that the fruit of a species of caper-bush, which they call baducca,

extinguishes the flames of love.

26. Multiflora, (from multus many, and filia a pod); consisting of plants which have more feed-vessels than one. From the etymology of the term, one would naturally imagine that the feed-vessels in question were of that kind called by Linnæus filia, or pod: but the fact is, that not a single plant of this order bears pods; the greater part having many dry capsules, and the remainder being furnished properly with no feed-vessel, but bearing numerous distinct seeds. Plants of this order are mostly perennial herbs; the stems of some are erect; others creep upon the ground, and produce roots near the origin of each leaf; lastly, others climb, and attach themselves to the bodies in their neighbourhood, either by the footstalk of the leaves, or by tendrils and clasps which terminate the footstalk. The greatest height of those which rise erect, seldom exceeds eight feet. Those which climb rarely exceed 15 or 20 feet. The roots are generally fleshy. In some they are hand-shaped; in others finger-shaped, or cylindric. In some species of hellebore and ranunculus they are divided into spherical knobs. Lastly, in some plants of this order, the roots are fibrous. The stems and young branches are cylindric. The leaves, which are of different forms, being sometimes simple and entire, sometimes hand-shaped or winged, are generally alternate. The footstalk, which is sometimes cylindric, sometimes angular, is membranous, and very large at its origin, surrounding a great part of the stem from which it proceeds. The flowers are hermaphrodite. They proceed either singly from the wings of the leaves or termination of the branches, or terminate the branches in a spike, panicle, or head. The calix in some is wanting; in others it is generally composed of five pieces, which fall off with the petals. The petals are in number from 4 to 15; generally equal, and sometimes disposed in two or three series; five is the prevailing number. The stamens are in number from 5 to 300, distinct, and attached generally in several rows or series to the receptacle. The feed-buds are generally numerous; the style is frequently wanting. In some the feed-vessel is wanting; in others it is composed of several dry capsules, each containing a single cell. The seeds are numerous, and frequently angular. Most of these plants are acrid, and many of them poisonous. In general, plants that have a great number of stamens are noxious in their quality. When burnt, these plants furnish a fixed alkali; by distillation there is drawn from them a kind of nitrous and aluminous substance. With respect to their virtues, they are caustic and purgative.

27. Rhedeæ, consisting of poppy, and a few genera which resemble it in habit and structure. These plants, upon being cut, emit plentifully a juice, which is white in poppy, and yellow in the others. With respect to their virtues, they seem to operate principally upon the nerves. Their juice is soporific and narcotic, their seeds less so, their roots aperient. Applied externally, they are slightly corrosive.

28. Luridæ, consisting of plants whose pale and o-minous appearance seems to indicate something baleful and noxious in their nature and quality. Most of these plants are herbaceous and perennial. Many of them are of the masked tribe of flowers; others resemble these in their general appearance, but differ from them

essentially in the equality of their stamens. The roots are generally branched, sometimes tuberous. The stems and branches are cylindric. The leaves are generally simple, and placed alternate. The flowers are hermaphrodite. They proceed either singly or in clusters from the angle formed by the leaves and branches. In some species of lycium, they terminate the branches. The calix is generally of one piece deeply divided into five parts. The corolla consists of one petal, which is either bell, funnel, or wheel shaped. The stamens are four or five in number; and those either of equal lengths, as in the greater, or unequal. The feed-bud is placed above the receptacle of the flower. The style is single; and is terminated by a summit which is hemispherical, and frequently channelled or furrowed. The feed-vessel, in such as have equal stamens, is a berry; in the rest, it is generally a capsule. The seeds are numerous, and frequently kidney-shaped.—These plants in general are poisonous. They have an insipid taste, and a nauseous disagreeable smell.

29. Campanacee (from campana a bell); plants with bell-shaped flowers. The plants of this order are herbaceous and perennial. The roots are either spindle-shaped, or branching and fibrous. The stems are round. The branches are generally alternate. The leaves are simple, alternate, and commonly attached to the branches by a semi-cylindric foot-stalk, which is furrowed above. The indentments are terminated by a small white tubercle or knob, which renders them conspicuous. The flowers are hermaphrodite; and proceed either solitary from the wings of the leaves, or are collected into a spike and head at the end of the flower-stalk. The calix is universally a perianthium situated upon or round the germen, and generally composed of one leaf deeply divided into five segments. The corolla is monopetalous, and of the bell, funnel, or wheel shape. The tube, in flowers of the bell and wheel shape, is very short; in those of the funnel-shape, very long. In Greek valerian, the tube is shut with five valves, which are placed on its apex or top. The limb or upper part of the corolla is deeply divided into five segments, which spread, and are alternate with the divisions of the calix. The corolla is generally permanent. The stamens are five in number, attached to the base of the tube of the corolla, alternate with its divisions, and opposite to those of the calix. The filaments are distinct; very large at their origin; and frequently approach so as to form a sort of vault, which covers the summit of the germen. They are slender and awl-shaped above. The anthers are very long; oval; marked with four longitudinal furrows, either distinct, or united in a cylinder. The pollen is composed of very small, spherical, white, shining, and transparent particles. The germen is roundish, and situated either wholly or in part under the flower. The style is generally single, and of the length of the stamens or corolla. The stigma is commonly single, but deeply divided. The feed-vessel is a roundish capsule, generally divided into three cells, and furnished externally with the same number of valves. The seeds are small, numerous, attached to a receptacle in the centre of the fruit, generally rounded, and sometimes cornered.—This order furnishes many excellent medicines. The plants abound with a white milky juice, which, upon the stalk being cut, flows out in great quantities.

30. Contortæ, (from con together, and torqueo to twist); consisting of plants which have a single petal that is twisted, or bent towards one side. This order furnishes trees, shrubs, and fat succulent plants, some of which retain their leaves during the winter. The herbaceous vegetables in this order are generally perennial. The roots are sometimes branching, but commonly fleshy, succulent, and garnished with fibres or strings like those of turnip. The stems are round, and in some genera pulpy and succulent. The branches are sometimes placed alternate, and sometimes opposite. The buds are of a conic form, and naked or without scales. The leaves are sometimes alternate, sometimes placed opposite in pairs, and not seldom surround the stem in whorls. They are attached to the branches by a cylindrical foot-stalk, which is short, and frequently united to the foot-stalk of the opposite leaf. The defensive and offensive weapons in this order are a downy sort of pubescence, and simple, or forked prickles, which, in some genera, issue from the wings of the leaves. The flowers are hermaphrodite; and stand either singly upon their foot-stalks, or are collected into umbels and clusters. These bunches or collections of flowers sometimes terminate the branches, sometimes proceed from the angles of the branches, and sometimes stand at the side of the wings without issuing from them. The flower-cup is composed of one leaf divided almost to the base in five unequal segments, which embrace each other, and are permanent, or accompany the feed-bud to its maturity. The corolla consists of one petal, which in the different genera is bell, salver, funnel, or wheel shaped. The limb, or upper spreading part of the petal, is generally divided into five equal parts, which are slightly bent or twisted to the left, and embrace or enfold each other like the petals of the mallow tribe. The tube is generally long and cylindrical; sometimes club-shaped, and often wanting. In several flowers of this order the petal is accompanied with that species of superfluity termed a nectarium. In the different genera, however, it assumes very different appearances. The stamens are five in number, short, equal, attached at the same height to the tube of the petal, alternate with its divisions, and opposite to those of the calix. The anthers are generally erect, and frequently approach so as to form a compact body in the middle of the flower. The feed-bud is either single or double. In some the style is wanting. The stigma is frequently double. The feed-vessel in some genera is a pulpy fruit, of the berry and cherry kind; but most frequently that species termed by Linnaeus conceptaculum, and folliculus, which has one valve or external inclosure, opens lengthways on one side, and has not the seeds fastened to it. Two of these dry fruits, with a single cell, compose the feed-vessel of most plants of this order. The seeds are generally numerous, and in several genera crowned with a long pappus or downy wing like that of the compound flowers, by means of which they easily disperse and sow themselves.—The plants of this order being cut, emit a juice which is generally milky, and sometimes of a greenish white. From the circumstance of their abounding in this milky juice, the greater part are deemed poisonous; repeated observations having established this aphorism. That milky plants, except those of the plain compound flowers, are generally of a baneful destructive nature, and ought

at least to be administered with caution. With respect to their sensible qualities, they are bitter; particularly the seeds, roots, and bark, in which resides their principal virtue.

31. Vespereule, (from vespres a briar or bramble), consisting of plants resembling the daphne, dirca, gnidia, &c. but which, however, do not constitute a true natural assemblage.

32. Papilionace, plants that have papilionaceous flowers, i. e. somewhat resembling a butterfly in shape; of which number are all the leguminous plants. The plants of this order are of very different duration; some of them being herbaceous, and those either annual or perennial; others woody vegetables of the shrub and tree kind, a few of which rise to the height of 70 feet and upwards. The herbaceous plants of this order generally climb; for, being weak and as it were helpless of themselves, they are provided by nature with tendrils, and even sharp-pointed hooks, at their extremities, to fasten upon the neighbouring trees or rocks; or the stalks are endowed with a faculty of twisting themselves, for the purpose of support, around the bodies in their neighbourhood. The pea, vetch, and kidney-bean, afford familiar examples of this appearance. The shrubs and trees of this order are mostly armed with strong spines. The roots are very long, and furnished with fibres; but some genera have fleshy knobs or tubercles placed at proper intervals along the fibres. The stems are cylindric, as likewise the young branches, which are placed alternately; those which climb, twist themselves from right to left, in a direction opposite to the apparent motion of the sun. The bark of the large trees is extremely thick and wrinkled, so as to resemble a net with long meshes; the wood is very hard in the middle, and commonly coloured or veined. The buds are hemispherical, without scales, and proceed from the branches horizontally a little above the angle which they form with the leaves. The leaves are alternate, and of different forms, being either simple, finger-shaped, or winged. This last form is very common; the lobes or lesser leaves are entire, and sometimes placed in pairs, but most commonly the winged leaf is terminated by an odd lobe. The winged or pinnated leaves of this order have a daily or periodical motion, depending upon the progress of the sun in his diurnal course. The common footstalk of the winged and compound leaves is marked on the upper surface with a cavity or furrow which runs through its whole length. The flowers are hermaphrodite; and proceed either from the wings of the leaves, or from the extremity of the branches. The calix is a perianthium of one leaf, bell-shaped, bunching out at the bottom, and cut on its brim or margin into five irregular divisions or teeth; the lowermost of which, being the odd one, is longer than the rest: the other four stand in pairs, of which the uppermost is shortest, and stands farthest afunder. The bottom of the calix is moistened with a sweet liquor like honey, so may be deemed the nectarium of these plants. The petals are four or five in number, very irregular, and from their figure and position bear an obvious resemblance to a butterfly expanding its wings for flight. These petals have been characterized by distinct names: the upper one, which is commonly the largest, is termed the standard, (vexillum); the two side petals, the wings, (ala); and the lowermost, which is generally united

at top, and divided at bottom, the keel, (carina). The stamens are generally ten: these are either totally distinct, or united by the filaments into one or two bundles involving the seed-bud. In the latter case, where there are two sets of united filaments, one of the sets is composed of 9 stamens, which are united into a crooked cylinder, that is cleft on one side thro' its whole length; along this cleft lies the tenth filament or stamen, which constitutes the second set, and is often so closely attached to the second bundle, that it cannot be separated without some difficulty. The antheræ are small, round, marked with four longitudinal furrows, and slightly attached to the filaments. In lupine, the antheræ are alternately round and oblong. The seed-bud is single, placed upon the receptacle of the flower, oblong, cylindrical, slightly compressed, of the length of the cylinder of the united stamens by which it is involved, and sometimes elevated by a slender footstalk which issues from the centre of the calix. The style is single, slender, and generally crooked or bent. The stigma is commonly covered with a beautiful down, and placed immediately under the antheræ. The seed-vessel is that sort of pod termed a legumen, which is of an oblong figure, more or less compressed, with two valves, and one, two, or more cavities. These cavities are often separated, when ripe, by a sort of joints. The seeds are generally few in number, round, smooth, and fleshy. Jointed pods have generally a single seed in each articulation. The seeds are all fastened along one future, and not alternately to both, as in the other species of pod termed silqua.—The plants of this family are, in general, mucilaginous. From the inner bark of most of them flows, either naturally or by incision, a clammy liquor, which dries and hardens like gum; the juice of others is sweet like sugar; some taste bitter, and are purgative, emetic, or even mortal. A species of eastern astragalus, with goats-rue leaves, is said to be remarkably caustic, and to burn the tongue excessively when chewed. In general, however, these plants are soft and clammy. With respect to their virtues, the plants of this order are highly emollient; some of them are vulnerary and astringent; and the root of anonis, or rest-harrow, is diuretic.

33. Lomentaceæ; (from lomentum, a colour used by painters). Many of these plants furnish beautiful tinctures, and some of them are much used in dyeing. They very much resemble the last order, differing only in the following particulars. 1. In all plants of this order, except milk-wort, the stamens are distinct. The flower is not shaped like a butterfly, but is less irregular, and frequently consists but of one petal. The leaves are sometimes simple, but most commonly winged. The seeds are generally marked with a circular furrow on both sides. Like those of the leguminous tribe, the plants of this order are generally mucilaginous. From the inner bark of the greater number exudes, either naturally or by incision, a mucilaginous liquor, which sometimes dries upon the plant, and becomes a gummy substance.

34. Cucurbitaceæ, (from cucurbita a gourd); consisting of plants which resemble the gourd in external figure, habit, virtues, and sensible qualities.—The plants of this order, which generally climb, and have long diffused branches, are mostly herbaceous and perennial. The roots in the perennial plants of this or-

der are shaped like those of the turnip; in the annuals, they are branching and fibrous. The stems are cylindric and succulent. The young branches have generally five corners. In some species of passion-flower they are square. The leaves are alternate, angular, and sometimes hand-shaped. They are attached to the branches by a foot-stalk, which is pretty long and cylindrical, without any furrow. From the wing or angle of each of the upper leaves proceeds a tendril, which is either simple, or branching, and twists itself spirally round the different bodies in its neighbourhood, for the purpose of supporting and training of the branches. The lower leaves have no tendril. The flowers are either hermaphrodite, or male and female. In this last, the male flowers are generally separated from the female upon the same root; and that either in the same wing or angle of the leaves, or in different angles. The flower-cup, in the female flowers, is placed upon the feed-bud; and generally consists of one bell-shaped leaf, that is deeply divided into five unequal segments, and, unlike the other plants which have the calix seated upon the fruit, falls off with the petals and the other parts of the flower. The corolla consists of one petal, with five equal divisions, which adhere to the tube of the calix, as if glued to it. A species of passion-flower, termed by Linnaeus passiflora suberosa, wants the petals. The stamens are in number from one to five, short, and generally inserted into the calix. The filaments are distinct; the antheræ of many genera are united in a cylinder. In the passion-flower they are slightly attached to the filaments, on which they turn like a vane or the needle of a compass. The feed-bud is single, and placed below the receptacle of the flower. The style is generally single, cylindrical, of the length of the calix, and crowned with a triple stigma. The feed-vessel is generally pulpy, of the apple or berry kind, and consists of one, two, or three cells. The seeds are numerous, generally flat or compressed, and sometimes covered with that kind of proper coat called by Linnaeus arillus.—The fruit of these plants is generally purgative and refreshing; that of some of them proves a very violent emetic when used too freely.

35. Senticosæ, (from sentis a briar or bramble); consisting of the rose, bramble, and other plants which resemble them in part and external structure. These plants are so nearly allied in form, habit, and structure, to those of the natural order Pomaceæ, that they ought never to have been separated from it. The leaves have a styptic taste; the fruits are acid and cooling. With respect to their virtues, the leaves are vulnerary and astringent, the roots are diuretic. The acid fruits, as strawberry and raspberry, are used with success in putrid and bilious fevers, as likewise in contagious and epidemic dysenteries, which prevail in summer and autumn, and are occasioned by a sudden transition from a hot to a cold air, or by the acrid humour which flows into the intestines.

36. Pomaceæ, (from pomum an apple); consisting of those which have a pulpy esculent fruit, of the apple, berry, or cherry kind. The plants of this order, which furnishes many of our most esteemed fruits, are mostly of the shrub and tree kind. The roots are branched, fibrous, and in the greater part very long. The stems and branches are cylindric. These last are placed alternate; and when young, are, in some genera, angu-

lar. The bark is thick and wrinkled. The buds are of a conic form, placed in the angles of the leaves, and covered with scales which lie over each other like tiles. The leaves, which differ in form, being in some genera simple, in others winged, are, in the greater number, placed alternate. The footstalk of the leaves is furrowed above, and frequently accompanied by a number of knobs like glands. Most of these plants are furnished with two stipulæ at the origin of the young footstalks of the leaves. These, in some genera, are pretty large; in others, they are so small as scarce to be perceived; and in cocoa-plumb in particular, they by their minuteness resemble hairs. The flowers are universally hermaphrodite, except in spiræa aruncus, in which male and female flowers are produced on distinct plants. In the greater number of genera they are produced in clusters or heads at the end of the branches. The calix is of one piece, with five segments or divisions, which are permanent, and placed above the feed-bud in some; in the rest, they either fall off with the flower, or wither upon the stalk. The petals are five in number, and are inserted into the tube of the calix. The stamens are generally 20 and upwards, and attached like the petals to the margin of the tube of the calix. The antheræ are short, and slightly attached to the filaments. The feed-bud is single; and in those genera which have the calix permanent, it is placed below the receptacle of the flower. The feed-vessel is a pulpy fruit of the apple, berry, or cherry kind. Those of the apple kind are divided internally into a number of cavities or cells. The seeds are numerous.—The pulpy fruits of this order are acid, esculent, and of great efficacy in putrid and bilious fevers.

37. Columniferæ, (from columna a pillar, and ferre to bear); consisting of plants whose stamens and pistil have the appearance of a column or pillar in the centre of the flower. This order furnishes a choice collection of herbs both annual and perennial, shrubs, and trees. These are very different in size and height, from the creeping mallows, and low shrubby tea-tree, to the fleshy limes, and the more lofty silk-cotton trees, which by some modern writers are affirmed to be so large as not to be fathomed by 16 men, and so tall that an arrow cannot reach their top. The shrubs and trees of this order are deciduous, pretty thick, of a beautiful appearance, with an erect stem, which is formed by its branches and foliage into a round head. The roots are extremely long, branch but little, and either run perpendicularly downwards, or extend themselves horizontally below the surface. The stems are cylindric. The young branches, though commonly of the same figure, are sometimes angular. The bark is thick and pliant. The wood, in general, very soft and light. The buds are of a conic form, naked, or without scales; and situated either at the extremity of the branches, or in the angle formed by the branch and leaf. The leaves are alternate, simple, divided into several lobes, and frequently hand or finger shaped. The ribs or nerves on the back of the leaf, in some genera of this order, are provided near their origin with a number of hollow furrows or glands, which, being filled with a clammy honey-like liquor, have been considered as so many vessels of secretion. The footstalk of the leaves is cylindric, swelled at its origin, and appears jointed at its junction with the branch. The flowers are universally hermaphrodite,

phrodite, except in biggleria, and a species of Virginian marshmallow, called by Linnaeus napaea dioica; the former of which bears male and female, the latter male and hermaphrodite, flowers on different roots. In many plants of this order, the flowers generally open about nine in the morning, and remain expanded till one in the afternoon. The flowers either terminate the branches, proceed from the angles of the leaves, or are disposed either singly or in a corymbus along the branches or stem. In most of these genera the calix is single, but in others frequently double. In these last the inner calix is always of one piece, generally divided into five segments; the outer consists either of one leaf, of three distinct leaves, or of many. The calix, when single, is sometimes composed of one leaf which is permanent, or of several distinct leaves which are generally coloured, and fall off with the petals. In plants that have a double calix, both flower-cups are generally permanent. The petals in this order are from four to nine; five is the prevailing number. The stamens, which are in number from 5 to 20 and upwards, are generally inserted into the common receptacle of the calix, or into the pistillum or seed-bud. The filaments are either distinct, or united in a cylinder, which, proceeding from the receptacle of the calix, surrounds the seed-bud, and attaches itself to the base of the petals, with which it slightly unites. The antheræ are frequently roundish, and placed erect on the filament; most commonly, however, they are oblong or kidney-shaped, and slightly attached by the middle, or sides, to the filaments, on which they turn like a vane or needle. This last is particularly the characteristic of all the mallow tribe. The seed-bud is generally roundish or conic; and sometimes, as in the tea-tree, angular. The seed-vessel is generally a capsule; sometimes a pulpy fruit of the berry or cherry kind. In some, it is a woody or membranous capsule, divided into as many cells internally as there were partitions in the seed-bud. The seeds are generally solitary, sometimes angular, and sometimes kidney-shaped.—These plants are mucilaginous and lubricating.

38. Tricocceæ, (from tricus three, and grain); consisting of plants with a single three-cornered capsule, having three cells or internal divisions, each containing a single seed. The single seed-vessel of these plants is of a singular form, and resembles three capsules, which adhere to one common footstalk as a centre, but are divided externally into three pretty deep partitions. This family is not completely natural. It must be observed, however, that the character expressed in the title is a striking one; and that tho' the plants which possess it are not connected by such numerous relations as to form a true natural assemblage, yet they are by that circumstance distinguished from all other plants with as great, nay greater facility, than by any artificial character yet known. But all the genera of this order have not the striking character just mentioned.

39. Siliquosæ, (from siliqua a pod), consisting of plants which have a pod for their seed-vessel. This order chiefly furnishes biennial and perennial herbs of an irregular figure. The roots are long, branched, crooked, and fibrous. In some they are succulent and fleshy, in others jointed. The stems and young branches are cylindric. The leaves, which differ in point of form, being sometimes simple, sometimes winged, are generally

placed alternate. The flowers are hermaphrodite, and in the greater number disposed in a spike at the extremity of the branches. The flower-cup is composed of four leaves, which are oblong, hollow, blunt, bunched at the base, and fall with the flower. These leaves are sometimes erect, and sometimes spread horizontally. The petals, which are four in number, spread at top, and are disposed like a cross: the claws or lower part of the petals are erect, flat, awl-shaped, and somewhat longer than the calix. The upper part widens outwards. The stamens are six in number; two of which are of the length of the calix, and the remaining four somewhat longer, but shorter than the petals. The antheræ are of an oblong figure, pointed, thicker at the base, and erect. Betwixt the stamens, in plants of this order, are generally lodged one, two, or four, round greenish knots, which in some genera are so small as to elude the sight. These glands, called by Linnaeus glandulae nectariferæ, and used very improperly by that author as an essential character in discriminating the genera, seem to be prominences of the receptacle of the flower, occasioned by the stamens being deeply lodged in its substance. The seed-bud is single, and stands upon the receptacle of the flower. The style, which is either cylindric or flat like a scale, is of the length of the four longer stamens in some genera; in others it is very short, or even wanting. It accompanies the seed-bud to its maturity. The stigma is blunt, and sometimes deeply divided into two parts. The seed-vessel is either a long pod, or a short and round one. Either sort has two valves or external openings, and in a great many genera the same number of internal cavities or cells, the partition of which projects at the top beyond the valves. The seeds are roundish, small, and attached alternately by a slender thread to both sutures or joinings of the valves. These plants have a watery, sharp, lixivial taste; and are charged with a fixed alkaline salt, which is drawn from them by burning, and being distilled without any addition produces a volatile alkali. Most of them have a stinking smell. With respect to their virtues, they are diuretic, attenuating, detersive, and antiscorbutic. These qualities, however, are most eminently possessed by the live plants; when dried, they either entirely disappear, or are greatly diminished. Applied externally, these plants are useful in diseases of the skin, as the itch, leprosy, &c.

40. Personatæ, (from persona, a masque); consisting of a number of plants whose flowers are furnished with an irregular, gaping, or grinning petal, in figure somewhat resembling the snout of an animal. This order furnishes both herbaceous and woody vegetables of the shrub and tree kind. The roots are generally fibrous and branched. The stems and branches are cylindric when young, except in some species of figwort, in which they are square. The leaves are simple, generally placed opposite in pairs at the bottom of the branches, but in many genera stand alternate towards the top. The flowers are universally hermaphrodite; they proceed either singly or in clusters from the wings of the leaves, or terminate the branches in a spike, panicle, or head. The calix is of one leaf, which is cut into two, three, four, or five segments, or divisions, that are permanent. The corolla is composed of one irregular petal, with two lips resembling, as was already observed, the head

or snout of an animal. In some plants the stamens are two or four in number, and of an equal length; in others they are universally four in number, two of which are long, and two short. The feed-bud is single, and placed above the receptacle of the flower. The style is single; thread-shaped; bent in the direction of the stamens; and crowned with a stigma, which is generally blunt, and sometimes divided in two. The feed-vessel is a capsule, generally divided internally into two cavities or cells, and externally into the same number of valves or inclosures. The seeds are numerous, and affixed to a receptacle in the middle of the capsule.—These plants possess nearly the same qualities with the lip-flowers, though in a less degree. With respect to their virtues, many of them are aperient, anodyne, purgative, and even emetic. The internal use of many of them is extremely pernicious; applied externally, they are anodyne, and powerful resolvents.

41. Asperifolia, rough-leaved plants. The greatest part of these are herbaceous and perennial. The roots are branching and fibrous; the stems and branches rounded; the buds of a conic form, naked or without scales. The leaves are simple, alternate, commonly very rough to the touch, and in most of the herbaceous plants sessile or attached to the stem and branches without any foot-stalk. In the few trees, however, of this order, the leaves have a foot-stalk, the lower part of which, after the fall of the leaves, remains like a spine or thorn. The hairs are simple, and generally very rough to the touch. The flowers are in some genera solitary; but commonly collected into a spike or corymbus. They do not proceed from the angle formed by the stem or branch with the leaf, as in many plants; but from the side of the leaf, or from that part of the stem which is opposite to the leaf. They are almost universally hermaphrodite: in a few species of cordia, male and female flowers are produced upon different roots. The calix is composed of one leaf, which is divided from three to ten equal or unequal parts. Those with four naked seeds have the calix deeply divided into five parts which are permanent. The corolla is monopetalous, or composed of one petal, which in different plants is bell, funnel, salver, and wheel shaped. The divisions of the limb or upper part of the petal are generally five, alternate with those of the calix; equal and regular, except in echium. The stamens are five in number, alternate with the divisions of the corolla. They are equal, attached to the tube of the corolla a little above its origin, and of the same height. The antheræ are in some genera connivent; that is, approach, and form a compact body above the filaments. The pistillum is generally composed of a slender style of the same length with the stamens, and crowned with a simple stigma. It proceeds from a germen or feed-bud, which in some plants is undivided, but generally split into four. The seeds are generally four in number, and lodged in the bottom of the calix.—Most of the rough-leaved plants are used in medicine: the flowers are esteemed cordial, the leaves and roots vulnerary and astringent; and the hard bony seeds are reckoned powerful promoters of urine. Externally, these plants are used for burnings and poisonous bites; they extirpate warts, and relieve disorders of the joints.

42. Verticillate, consisting of herbaceous vegetables,

having four naked seeds, and the flowers placed in whorls round the stalk. The roots are branched and fibrous. The stems are round when old, but square when young; as are likewise the young branches, which stand opposite. The leaves are opposite, and in the greater number covered with transparent points. Those which are placed next the flower, generally differ from the stem-leaves. In the greater number of plants of this kind, the leaves are supported upon a long cylindrical foot-stalk that is furrowed above. The flowers are universally hermaphrodite, except in a species of thyme mentioned by Mr Adanson, which appears to have male or barren flowers on one root, and female or fertile flowers on the other. They are disposed round the stem in whorls or small heads with short foot-stalks. The calix is of one piece, that is generally cut into five unequal divisions, whose disposition sometimes represents two lips; the uppermost of which has commonly a less number of divisions: it accompanies the seeds, which it nourishes in its bosom, to their maturity. The petal is of the gaping or lip kind, and in the different genera is more or less irregular or unequal, either in its tube, or in the divisions of the lips; the number of which varies from two to five. These divisions frequently form two lips; of which the uppermost, termed the crest and the helmet, is sometimes entire, sometimes more or less deeply cut into two; the lowermost, termed the beard, generally into three. The stamens are two or four in number. In the greater part there are four stamens of unequal length, two of them being long, and two short. These four unequal stamens are frequently dissimilar, and approach by pairs; they are inclined towards the back of the petal, and parallel; the two innermost being shortest, and attached somewhat lower than the two others to the tube of the flower. The feed-bud, which consists of four distinct ovaries, is placed upon the seat of the flower, and elevates from their centre a common style, which is slender, bent in the same manner as the filaments, which it somewhat exceeds in length, and terminated by a double stigma or summit, the divisions of which are unequal, and turned backwards. The feed-vessel in this order is wanting. The seeds are four in number, and lodged in the bottom of the calix as in a matrix or feed-vessel. Each seed has two covers; the one external, of a cartilaginous or leathery substance; the other internal, membranaceous, of a very fine texture, and placed immediately above the radicle or embryo plant.—The plants of this order are fragrant, warm, penetrating, and accounted cordial and cephalic. Their chief virtue resides in the leaves.

43. Dumose, (from dumus a bush); consisting of a number of shrubby plants, which are thick set with irregular branches, and bushy. The plants of this order are all of the shrub and tree kind, thick and bushy, rising from 6 to 25, 30, and even 40 feet high. Many of them too, as bastard jalapinus, holly, iron-wood, New-Jersey-tea, star-apple, viburnum, winter-berry, and some others, retain their beautiful leaves during the whole year. The roots are branched and fibrous. The stems are cylindric; the young branches sometimes angular. The buds are naked, that is, without scales, in the evergreen shrubs of this order; covered with scales in most of the others. The leaves, which in some genera are simple, in others compound, are placed alternate

ternate in some, and opposite in others. The flowers are mostly hermaphrodite. They proceed from the wings of the leaves either singly or in clusters; or they terminate the stem in that sort of flowering head called a corymbus. The calix is generally very small, placed below or around the feed-bud; and consists of one leaf, with four, five, or six divisions, which are permanent. The rhamus has no calix. The petals are in number from one to five. The stamens are either four, five, six, or ten. The feed-bud is generally roundish, and placed within the flower. The style is commonly single, and sometimes wanting. The stigma is either single or triple. The feed-vessel is generally a berry, sometimes a dry capsule; the seeds are generally single and egg-shaped. The berries, bark, and flowers of many of these plants are purgative, and act particularly on the lymph and bile.

44. Sepiariae, (from sepes a hedge), consisting of a beautiful collection of woody plants, some of which from their size, elegance, and other circumstances, are very proper furniture for hedges. This order furnishes woody plants both of the shrub and tree kind, most of which do not drop their leaves till nearly the time when the new leaves begin to appear.

45. Umbellatae, (from umbella an umbel); consisting of plants whose flowers grow in umbels, with five petals that are often unequal, and two naked seeds that are joined at top and separated below. These plants are herbaceous, and chiefly perennial. The roots are either tuberous or spindle-shaped, and sometimes forked. The stems are cylindric, full of pitch, and frequently hollow. The branches are alternate. The leaves, which like the branches are put on alternately, are very different in point of form; being simple and entire in some; target-shaped, in a species of navel-wort; finger or hand shaped, in some others; and winged or pinnated with numerous minute divisions, as in the greater number. They are supported by a foot-stalk, which is very broad and membranous at its origin, and commonly embraces the whole contour of the stem and branches. The flowers are in general hermaphrodite. There are, however, some that have male or barren flowers in the same umbel. This is particularly the case with those umbelliferous plants which have the petals in the flowers of the circumference large and unequal. In these plants the flowers in the circumference only prove fertile; those in the centre, or disc, proving abortive. Oenanthe and imperatoria, on the contrary, have the flowers in the circumference abortive. In ginseng, hermaphrodite and male flowers are produced upon distinct plants. The flowers are disposed in an umbel, which is either simple or compound. The common calix in this order is that termed very improperly by Linnæus involucrum, or the flower-cover; which in the greater number consists of one or more leaves placed under the partial or universal umbel, or both, for the purpose of support. The presence or absence of one or both of these covers affords excellent marks in discriminating the genera of this very similar order of plants. The proper calix of each flower, in the aggregate, consists of five minute indentments placed upon the feed-bud, which it envelops, and accompanies to its maturity. The petals are five in number, and disposed upon the sides of the flower-cup in form of a rose. In the florets of the

centre, the petals are generally pretty equal and small; in those of the circumference, they are frequently unequal and larger; in the greater number, they are heart-shaped, and cut almost to the middle in two. The stamens are five in number, placed opposite to the divisions of the flower-cup, and alternate with the petals. The feed-bud is universally placed under the seat of the flower, and supports two styles which are turned backwards, and crowned with simple summits which do not differ in appearance from the styles. The feed-vessel in this order is wanting. The seeds are two in number, which, when ripe, separate below, but remain closely attached at top. The plants of this order, which grow in dry places, are sudorific, stomachic, and warming. Their virtue resides chiefly in the seeds and leaves. Those which grow in marshy places are generally poisonous; but, notwithstanding the extremely warm and even caustic quality of most of these plants, many of them are employed in the kitchen, and in the economy of domestic affairs.

46. Hederaceae, (from hedera ivy), consisting of ivy and a few other genera that seem nearly allied to it. This order furnishes both herbaceous and shrubby plants; most of which, particularly ivy and vine, have creeping branches, which attach themselves by roots or tendrils to the bodies in their neighbourhood. The roots are long, with few branches. The stems and young branches are cylindric. In some species of vine they are square. The leaves are alternate; sometimes simple, sometimes winged, in which the surface of the leaves is covered with points. The foot-stalk of the leaves is cylindric, and without any furrow. The buds are of a conic form, and without any scales. The flowers are either hermaphrodite, male and female upon different roots, or hermaphrodite and male upon different roots. In some, they terminate the branches in an umbel; in others, they proceed in clusters from the side opposite to the leaves; and in some, they are produced along the branches. The calix consists of one leaf divided into five parts, which are small and generally permanent. The petals in this order are generally five. The stamens are in number five; awl-shaped, erect, and generally of the length of the petals. Cissus has only four stamens, which are inserted into the nectarium, a sort of border surrounding the feed-bud. The anthers are roundish, and sometimes, as in ivy, attached to the filaments by the sides. The feed-bud is sometimes round, sometimes shaped like a top or pear, and ends in one, two, or five awl-shaped styles, which are crowned with a simple stigma. The flowers of the vine have no style. The feed-vessel is of the berry kind, with one, two, or five styles. The seeds are from one to five in number; placed either in distinct cells, or dispersed through the pulp without any partition.

47. Stellatae, (from stella a star); consisting of plants with two naked seeds, and leaves disposed round the stem in form of a radiant star. This order contains herbs, shrubs, and trees. The herbs, which are most numerous, are chiefly annual, and creep along the surface of the ground. The shrubs and trees are mostly evergreens, which rise erect, and are of an agreeable conic form.—These plants are opening; some of their seeds, particularly those of coffee, are bitter and cordial; some of them are used in dyeing, and others in medicine.

48. Aggregata, (from aggregare, to assemble or collect); comprehending those plants which have aggregate flowers, consisting of a number of florets or small flowers, each of which have a proper and common calix.

49. Compositæ, consisting of plants with compound flowers. In this order Linnæus has constructed his first or primary divisions from the different sexes of the florets, which he terms polygamy; the subaltern divisions are constructed from the figure of the petals, the disposition of the flowers, the pappus or crown of the feed, the common receptacle, and other circumstances which characterize the subaltern divisions in other authors.

50. Amentaceæ, (from amentum a catkin), plants bearing catkins; as salix, populus, platanus, &c.

51. Coniferae, (from conus a cone, and fero to bear); consisting of plants, whose female flowers, placed at a distance from the male, either on the same or distinct roots, are formed into a cone. In this character, the only one expressed in the title, the plants in question seem to be nearly allied to the family of mosses; from which, however, they are easily distinguished by their habit, as well as by the structure of the small flowers, in which the stamens are united below into a cylinder, and distinct at top. The plants of this order are mostly of the shrub and tree kind, and retain their leaves all the year. The form of these plants is generally conic, and extremely beautiful, from the disposition of the branches, which cover the stems even to the roots, extending themselves horizontally and circularly like so many rays. The height of some genera of this order does not exceed half a foot, that of others approaches to a hundred. The roots are short, branching, not very fibrous, and extend horizontally. The stems and branches are cylindric. The bark is thin, and split into slender scales. The wood, except that of the yew-tree, possesses little hardness. The buds are of a conic form, and naked, or without scales. The leaves are entire, small, and thick, frequently triangular, and generally pointed. Juniper has a prickly and thorny leaf. With respect to situation, they admit of great variety, being either alternate, opposite, placed in whirls round the stem, or collected into small bundles which proceed from a single point. They are placed on the branches without any sensible footstalk. The flowers in this order are universally male and female. In some genera, the male flowers are collected into a spike or cone at the end of the branches; in others, they proceed singly from the wings of the leaves, or termination of the branches. The female flowers are generally collected into a cone; but in yew-tree and shrubby horse-tail they are single, and terminate the branches. The calix of the male flowers is a catkin; of the female, a cone. The petals of this order are wanting; except in the female flowers of juniper, which have three sharp, rigid, and permanent petals. The stamens are in number from 3 to 20 and upwards; united by their filaments into a cylinder or pillar, which rises out of the centre of the calix. The antheræ are erect, distinct, of a roundish form, and divided into internal partitions or cells, which, in the different genera, are in number from two to ten. The feed-buds are generally numerous, and placed betwixt the scales of the cone, which serve for a calix. From each feed-bud arises a very short cylindrical style, crowned with a simple stigma,

of a conic form. These plants have probably no feed-vessel or fruit; the seeds being naked, and involved only by the scales of the calix. In some genera, these scales are of a bony nature, and almost united; in others, they are of a substance like leather; in juniper, they are united, and become fleshy and succulent like a berry. The seeds in this order, being nourished, as in a feed-vessel, by the scales of the cone, or common calix, differ in nothing from the germina or feed-buds.—Most of the cone-bearing plants are resinous, or gummy; and the gums proceeding from them have a bitter taste, but generally a very agreeable smell.

52. Coadunata, (from coadunare, to join or gather together); so termed from the general appearance of the feed-vessels, which are numerous, and, being slightly attached below, form all together a single fruit in the shape of a sphere or cone; the parts of which, however, are easily separated from one another. This order, which consists of exotic plants, furnishes a beautiful and choice collection of shrubs and trees, both evergreen and deciduous. The trees are often 60 feet high, and garnished from the bottom to the top with spreading branches and leaves of a bright green colour, which assume a very agreeable conic form. The roots are branching and fibrous. The stems are cylindric, and the wood very hard. The buds are conic, flat, and generally without scales. The leaves are universally simple and alternate. The footstalk is cylindric, without furrows, frequently swelled at its origin, and appears jointed at its insertion into the branch. The flowers are hermaphrodite, and are generally produced either along or at the end of the branches. The calix generally consists of three oblong plain leaves, like petals, which fall off with the flower. The petals are in number from 6 to 18, oblong, concave, and frequently disposed in two or three series or rows, the outermost of which are largest. The stamens are numerous, short, and inserted into the common receptacle in some, and into the feed-bud in others. The filaments are very short and slender, some genera having scarce any at all. The antheræ are numerous, slender, and placed round the feed-bud. The pistillum generally consists of a number of feed-buds disposed in the form of a cone, and seated upon a receptacle which rises like a small pillar above the receptacle of the calix. From each feed-bud generally arises a cylindrical style, which is very short. The stigma is commonly blunt. The feed-vessel is commonly a berry; but in magnolia it is an oval cone, consisting of a number of roundish capsules laid over each other like tiles. The fruits, or feed-vessels, whether of the berry, capsule, or cherry kind, are equal in number to the feed-buds, and generally slightly attached below. The feeds are numerous, hard, roundish, and sometimes cornered. The plants of this order have a strong, agreeable, and aromatic smell; the fruits and feeds have a pungent taste like pepper; the bark and wood are bitter.

53. Scabridæ, (from scaber rough, rugged, or bristly), consisting of plants with rough leaves. There seems to be some impropriety in characterizing these plants by a name expressive of the roughness of their leaves, as that circumstance had previously furnished the classic character of the Asperifoliae. The degree of roughness, however, is much greater in the plants which make the subject of the present article.—The plants of this order are in general of an astringent nature; their taste

is bitter and styptic.

54. Miscellanea, miscellaneous plants. This order consists of such genera as are not connected together by very numerous relations. They are, datifca, poterium, refeda, sanguisorba, lemna, pistia, corisaria, empetrum, achyranthes, amaranthus, celosia, gomphrena, irefine, phytolacca, nymphaea, sarracenia, cedrela, swietenia, corrigoia, limeum, telephium.

55. Filices, ferns; consisting of plants which bear their flower and fruit on the back of the leaf or stalk. These plants, in figure, approach the more perfect vegetables; being furnished, like them, with roots and leaves. The roots creep, and extend themselves horizontally under the earth, throwing out a number of very slender fibres on all sides. The stem is not to be distinguished from the common footstalk, or rather middle rib of the leaves: so that in strict propriety the greater number of ferns may be said to be acaules; that is, to want the stem altogether. In some of them, however, the middle rib, or a stalk proceeding from the root, overtops the leaves, and forms a stem upon which the flowers are supported. The leaves proceed either singly, or in greater numbers from the extremities of the branches of the main root. They are winged or hand-shaped in all the genera, except in adders-tongue, pepper-grass, and some species of spleen-wort. The flowers, whatever be their nature, are, in the greater number of genera, fastened, and as it were glued, to the back of the leaves; in others, they are supported upon a stem which rises above the leaves; but in some, are supported on a flower-stalk, as already mentioned. The stamens are placed apart from the seed-bud in a genus termed by Mr Adanson palma filix: in the other ferns, where we have been able to discover the stamens, they are found within the same covers with the seed-bud. Most of the ferns have a heavy disagreeable smell: as to their virtues, they are opening and attenuating.

56. Musci, mosses. These plants resemble the pines, firs, and other evergreens of that class, in the form and disposition of their leaves, and manner of growth of the female flowers, which are generally formed into a cone. They frequently creep, and extend themselves like a carpet upon the ground, trees, and stones, being generally collected into bunches and tufts; the smallest are only one third of an inch in height, and the largest do not exceed five or six. Few of the mosses are annual; small as they are, the greater number are perennial and evergreens. Their growth is remarkably slow, as may be judged by the time that the antheræ take to ripen. This, reckoning from the first appearance of the antheræ, to the dispersion of its powder or male dust, is generally four or six months. Although preserved dry for several years, these plants have the singular property of resuming their original verdure, upon being moistened. It would be worth while to determine whether they do not also resume their vegetative quality. The roots of plants of this order are fibrous, slender, branched, and short. The stems are cylindric and weak, as are also the branches; they creep upon the ground, and strike root on every side. The leaves are very small and undivided. They differ with respect to situation; being either alternate, opposite, or placed by fours round the stalk. They have no perceptible footstalk nor middle

rib, and are seated immediately upon the stem. The flowers are universally male and female: in some, the male flowers are produced upon the same plants with the female, and stand before them; in others, they are produced sometimes on the same, and sometimes on distinct plants. The male flowers consist entirely of antheræ, and their covering; proceed either singly, or in clusters, from the extremity of the branches, or angles of the leaves; and are either seated immediately upon the branches, or supported by a long footstalk. The female flowers, which generally resemble capsules or cones, are all placed immediately upon the stem or branches, without any footstalk; and proceed singly, either from the wings of the leaves, or summit of the branches; when produced upon the same plant with the male, they are always placed under them. The female cones of the mosses greatly resemble those of the pines, and evergreen trees of that class; the scales which form them are true leaves, each containing in its wing or angle a single seed. When the seeds are ripe, the cones probably open for their dispersion. When shut, they resemble buds, and have sometimes been ignorantly mistaken for such. The calix, in this order, if it can be called such, is that appearance resembling a veil or monk's cawl, which in the male flowers covers or is suspended over the tops of the stamens like an extinguisher, and is termed by Linnaeus calyptra. The petals are universally wanting. The mosses in general are almost tasteless, have few juices, and being once dried do not readily imbibe moisture from the air. Those which grow in water, being thrown into the fire, grow red, and are reduced to ashes without receiving or communicating any flame; on which account some superstitious people, the Siberians in particular, place water moss in their chimnies as a preservative against fire. Most of the mosses are purgative; some violently so, and even emetic. They are all of wonderful efficacy in preserving dry such bodies as are susceptible of moisture; and in retaining, for a long time, the humidity of young plants without exposing them to putrefaction. For this reason, such plants as are to be sent to any considerable distance, are generally wrapped up in them.

57. Algae, flags; consisting of plants whose root, leaf, and stem, are all one. Under this description are comprehended all the sea-weeds, and some other aquatic plants.

58. Fungi, mushrooms. These plants are rarely branched, sometimes creeping, but most commonly erect. Such as are furnished with branches have them of a light spongy substance like cork. Mushrooms differ from the fuci, in that those which, like the fuci, have their seeds contained in capsules, are not branched, as that numerous class of sea-weeds are. The greatest part of mushrooms have no root; some, instead of roots, have a number of fibres, which, by their infoldings, frequently form a net with unequal meshes, some of which produce plants similar to their parent vegetable. The stamens in these plants are still undetermined. The seeds are spread over the surface of the plant, or placed in open holes or cavities, resembling the open capsules of some of the fuci. In mushrooms which are branched, the seeds are frequently visible by the naked eye, and always to be distinctly observed by

the assistance of a good microscope. These plants are very astringent, and some of them are used for stopping violent hæmorrhages. As a vegetable food, they are at best suspicious: some of them are rank poison.

59. Dubii ordinis. Under this name Linnæus classes

all the other genera which cannot be reduced to any of the abovementioned orders, and which are near 120 in number.—In the following Table, the number placed at the end of each generic description points out the natural order to which the genus belongs.

TABLE