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XX. Characters of two Species of Tordylium. By Sir James 
Edward Smith, M.D. F.R.S. P.L.S. 
Read March 18, 1817. 
I wave lately had occasion to remark, in preparing for the Lin- 
nean Society a botanical essay on Tofieldia, that scarcely any 
considerable genus could be taken at random, which would not 
afford matter for such a dissertation. I had not proceeded far in 
the alphabetical course of my botanical labours for Dr. Rees's 
. Cyclopedia, before an instance of this presented itself, in the long- 
established and well-known genus Tordylium, some of whose spe- 
cies have hitherto never been clearly determined. Our popular 
guides, such as Willdenow, have left the subject in the same state 
in which they found it. The details into which I find myself 
obliged to enter, are beyond the scope of the work above men- 
tioned, and may not prove unworthy of the notice of the learned 
body whose attention I shall now, for a few minutes, solicit. 
The species of Tordylium which will come under our examina- 
tion at present, are chiefly officinale and apulum, with the humile 
of Desfontaines ; except some incidental notice of the Linnæan 
peregrinum, and of Scopoli's si/folium. — 
T. apulum is mentioned by Linnzus in his Hortus Cliffortianus 
90. 2. 3, under the following character and synonyms. 
T. umbellalis remotis, foliis pinnatis, pinnis subrotundis lacini- 
' atis. 
T. apulum. Rivin. Pentap. Irr. t. 2. | 
T. apulum 
