INTRODUCTION TO 
it therefore with the Generic description of Spartium, and still 
further confirmed. by the Efsential-Character, we find it must 
be the Spartium scoparium, or common Broom which happens 
‘to be the only English Species belonging to that Genus. 
aA 
EXAMPLE XVII. 
LEON'TODON. .(Dandelion,) ~ 
Or Pifs-abed. This plant is ‘in Blofsom during great part 
of the spring and summer; it grows in pastures, road sides, 
and the uncultivated parts of gardens. At the first view we 
perceive its structure to be very different from any we have 
examined before; we hardly know what to call Stamens, or 
what Pistils. The fact is this: it is a true Compounn 
FLoweEr, or a flower formed of a number of little flowers (or 
florets) sitting upon one common Receptacle, and inclosed by 
one common Calyx. Turning to Comvounn FLowrrs and 
Frorers in the Dictionary, and reading the explanation of 
Compound Flowers, with references to the fourth plate, we soon 
attain atruevidea of the matter ; and therefore separating one 
of the Florets, and examining it carefully, we find 5 Stamens 
with the Anthers united ; and the Pistil pafsing through the 
cylinder formed by the union of the Anthers. We therefore — 
refer it to the Clafs Syngenesia. By carefully studying the 
introduction to that Clafs, weunderstand still more clearly the 
nature of Compound Flowers, and the Florets which compose 
them. We learn too how the Orders are constituted ; and, 
"upon examining the Flower before us, and finding that all the 
Florets are furnished with Stamens and Pistils, we perceive 
that it belongs to the first Order. From the shape of the 
Blofsoms of the Florets, which are all long and narrow, we 
know that we must look in the first subdivision of that Order. | 
Perceiving that the Receptacle is an important circumstance 
in the character of Compound. Flowers, we pull off all the | 
Florets in one of the Flowers, and expose the Receptacle to _ 
- view. We find it naked; that is, not beset with chafly or 
bristly substances. We find too, a sort of down adhering to 
the Seeds ;* and observe the scales of the Calyx laid one over 
* The Doww attached to the Seeds in the Compound Flowers is either 
formed of simple hairs, or of hairs set with other finer hairs; in the 
