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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 HAVE lately had occasion to remark, in preparing for the Lin- 

 naean 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 cuter, 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 jjresent, are chiefly officinale and apulum, with the humile 

 of Desfontaines ; except some incidental notice of the Linnaean 

 peregrinum, and of Scopoli's 5ij/b//i/?n. 



T. apulum is mentioned by Linnaeus in his Hortus Cliffortianiis 

 90. n. 3, under the following character and synonyms. 



T. umbellulis remotis, foliis pinnatis, pinnis subrotundis lacini- 



atis. 



T. apulum. Rivin. Pentap. Irr. t. 2. 



T. apulum 



