542 



in a dried state, as their acrimony and medical virtues are 

 destroyed by drying. Boiling likewise is destructive of 

 acrimony, especially in these plants ; they ought there- 

 fore to be taken recent. Their diuretic powers render 

 them eminently serviceable for evacuating water in the 

 dropsy. Yet their use ought not to be too long conti- 

 nued, as their acrimony abrades the minuter fibres, ren- 

 dering the vessels, and the intestines, in a manner, cal- 

 lous. This appears from the rigidity and torpidity of 

 stomach induced by too much use of mustard." 



" There is scarcely any thing odoriferous about these 

 plants, except in their flowers. When they are bruised, 

 indeed, something volatile ascends, of an acrid, rather 

 than odorous nature, irritating the coats of the nerves, 

 and inducing spasms, which do not originate in the me- 

 dullary substance of the nervous system, but in its coats." 



No alteration or addition respecting the genera of the 

 Tetradynamia occurs in the Linnaean manuscript. 



Order 40. Person ATiE. There is no commentary 

 on this order in the lectures of Linnaeus. Giseke has 

 given a synoptical arrangement of the genera, according 

 to the shape of the corolla, which is not in every part pre- 

 cisely correct. He justly expresses his doubts respecting 

 Melaleuca, of which we have spoken under the 19th 

 order ; and he truly observes that there is no order in 

 which so many genera are named after botanists as in the 

 present. 



The only manuscript additions or corrections, which 

 occur in the Genera Plant arum of Linnceus, are the fol- 

 lowing : Martynia, Craniolaria, Torenia and Scrophu- 

 laria are pointed out as akin to Pedalium, in order 28th ; 

 Hyobanche, hinder nia, Paderota, Manulea, Premna and 

 Calceolaria are inserted, with a question, certainly not 

 well founded, whether the latter should not rather be re- 

 ferred to the 24th order. Brunfelsia also is placed among 

 the Personatcc, at the suggestion of Van Royen. 



Order 41. Asperifolije. " These plants were first 



