20 Mn. JAMES Sowergvy’s Account of the 
diftinét from thofe above mentioned, which perhaps may ferve as 
conduétors, or help to fcreen or fecure that juice. Their particu- 
lar ufes remain, as far as I know, to be inveftigated, and probably 
may be among the arcana of nature. There is alfo another fort 
which ferves as an operculum under various forms, fometimes 
plaited, or plaited and fringed, befides a kind of imperfect rays in 
different fituations and fhapes, which have not yet been noticed, 
and might afford good fpecific diftinétions. Even Profeffor Jacquin 
has left his P. minima undetermined for want of the fructification, 
which I prefume might have perfectly fettled it; for I have a 
fpecimen (which I cannot get pofitively determined) that refembles 
itin general appearance, with a plaited ruffle between the germen 
and the filaments, which I have not yet feen in any other Pafi- 
fora; but it cannot from the figure be known whether his minima 
has this ruffle or not. 
Perhaps I fhould not have been thus particular, if there had not 
been fo much difficulty in finding a character to diftinguifh the 
quadrangularis from the alata. It is well known that fome good gar- 
deners and botanifts did not know the differences, and even thought 
them one and the fame plant. They are certainly very much alike 
as to general appearance before bloffoming, excepting the leaves 
in the quadrangularis, which have generally twice as many fide veins, 
by which it is diftinguifhed in the Hortus Kewenfis; yet who that 
‘has not feen both can with certainty determine them? The flower- 
bud even at a diftance will diftinguifh them pretty eafily, the qua- 
drangularis being rather compreffed and never oblong, as that of 
the elata always is; the former being alfo deftitute of awns: upon 
a nearer infpeétion the difference is more obvious, and I will en- 
deavour to make it clearly underftood. 
I was once told that the guadrangularis had the narroweft leaves. 
1 have feen it in different plants and places with narrower and 
2 broader 
