AND ITS DIFFERENT KINDS. 83 



proper secreted juices of the plant, and throws out 

 numerous fibres or radicles, which are in fact the 

 real roots, for they alone imbibe nourishment. 



4. Radix pr&morsciyf. 8. An Abrupt Root, is natu- 

 rally inclined to the last-mentioned form, but from 

 some decay or interruption in its descending point, 

 it becomes abrupt, or as it were bitten off. Scabiosa 

 succisa, Devil's Bit Scabious, Engl. Eot. t. 878,. 

 Hedypnois hirta, t.555, and some other Hawkweeds,. 

 have this kind of root, the old opinion concerning 

 which cannot be better described than in Gerarde's- 

 Herbal, under the plant first named,/;. 79,6. 



" The great part of the root seemeth to be bitten 

 away : old fantasticke charmers report, that the 

 divel did bite it for envie, because it is an herbe that 

 hath so many good vertues, and is so beneficial to 

 mankinde." The malice of the devil has unhap- 

 pily been so successful that no virtues can now be 

 found in the remainder of the root or herb. 



5. Radix tuberosa, f. 9. A Tuberous or Knobbed 

 Root, is of many different kinds. The most genuine 

 consists of fleshy knobs, various in form, connect- 

 ed by common stalks or fibres, as in the Potatoe, 

 Solatium tuberosum, and Jerusalem Artichoke*, 



* A corruption, as I presume, of the Italian name Girasole Arti- 

 ciocco, Sun-flower Artichoke, as the plant was first brought from Peru 

 to Italy, and thence propagated throughout Europe. 



G 2 



