HO STUDIES OF NATURE. 



with a very fmall flower and a large feed 5 he fays 

 that it has it's flowers difpofed in form of an ear 

 of corn, going off in a fcorpion's tail. There are 

 two miftakes in this defcription ; for the flowers 

 of this heliotrope, limilar, from their aggregation, 

 to the flowers of the heliotrope of our climates, 

 and to that of Peru, are not difpofed in form of 

 an ear of corn, for they are arranged on a hori- 

 zontal ftem, and only on one flde „ and they bend 

 downward, like the tail of a fnail, and not upward, 

 like the tail of a feorpipn. 



The fame inaccuracy, in refpect of image, is 

 to be found in the defcription which he gives us 

 of the ftachis Cretica ialifolia, the broad- leaved 

 ftachis of Crete : it's flowers, fays he, are dif- 

 pofed in rings. No one can imagine he intends 

 to convey this meaning, that they are difpofed 

 like the divifions of the king of the chefs-board. 

 Under this form, however, they are reprefented in 

 the drawing of Aubriei, his defigner. I do not 

 know any botanic expreffion which conveys this 

 character of fpherical aggregations in feparate 

 ftories of alternate fwel lings and finkings, and 

 terminating in a pyramid. Barbeu du Bmirg, who 

 poffeflfes much imagination with little exactnefs, 

 calls this form verticillate, for what reafon I know 

 not. If it is from the Latin word vertex, head or 

 fummitjbecaufe thefe flowers, thus aggregated, form 



lèverai 



