STUDY XI. ÏI7 



This partial divifion has led them into the 

 ftrangeft confufion ; for, by confidering the flowers 

 as the principal characters of vegetation, and by 

 comprehending in the fame clafs thofe which were 

 fimilar, they have united plants entirely foreign to 

 each other, and have feparated, on the contrary, 

 many which are evidently of the fame genus. 

 Such is, in the firft cafe, the fullers-thiftle, called 

 dipfacus, which they clafs with the fcabious, be- 

 caufe of the refemblance of fome parts of it's 

 flower; though it prefents in it's branches, it's 

 leaves, it's fmell, it's feed, it's prickles, and the 

 reft of it's qualities, a real thiftle : and fuch is, 

 in the fécond, the great cheftnut of India, which 

 they exclude from the clafs of cheflnut-trees, be- 

 caufe if has different flowers. To clafs plants 

 from the flowers, that is, from the, parts of their 

 fecundation, is the fame thing with claffing ani- 

 mals from thofe of generation. 



However, though they have referred the charac- 

 ter of a plant to it's flower, they mifunderftand 

 the ufe of it's moil: fliining part, which is that of 

 the corolla. They call that the corolla, which is, 

 in common language, denominated the leaves of 

 a flower. It is a Latin word, flgnifying a little 

 crown, from the difpofition of the leaves, in many 

 fpecies, in the form of coronets, and they have 

 given the name of petals to the divifions of that 



1 % crown. 



