4l6 THILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO I699. 



England higher than the year 1 1 33 ; but meeting with an undeniable instance 

 of their exceeding that age amongst us by 43 years, I thought the communi- 

 cation of it to you could not but prove satisfactory. Over against our market 

 place at Colchester, stands a house, the back part of which is an ancient Roman 

 building, but the front is of later date. On the bottom sill (which is almost in 

 the form of a triangular prism) of one of the windows of the front, between 

 two carved lions stands an escutcheon^ containing only these figures lOgo. 



Thomas LufFkin. 



Some Attempts to prove that Herbs of the same Make or Class have generally the 

 like Virtues. By Mr. James Peiiver, F.R.S. N° 253, p. 289. 



That plants of the same figure or likeness have generally much the same 

 virtues and uses, will not be thought an improbable conjecture ; especially if 

 we consider, that the organs and structure of all plants of the same family, or 

 class, must have much the same vessels and ducts to complete their regular 

 formation, and consequently the juices circulated and strained through them 

 cannot be very heterogeneous ; and that as the scent and taste have great 

 affinity, so of course their virtues likewise cannot be very dissonant. 1. As for 

 instance, the tribe of umbelliferous herbs. It is the property of these herbs 

 to have the position of tlieir flower-branches in such a manner as to proceed 

 from one basis or centre, from which they expand themselves into an umbella 

 or tuft, whose flowers consist of five irregular, or rather unequal, (that is, 

 differing in shape and size,) pentapetalous leaves, from whence their seed is pro- 

 duced, which are naked and double, or by their splitting seem to be so. This 

 genus I generally observe to be endowed with a carminative taste and smell: they 

 are powerful expellers of wind, and are therefore good in all flatulent disorders, 

 and of great use in the colic, &c. as anise, carraway, cummin, angelica, smallage, 

 parsley, lovage, &c. The chief virtue of these plants lies in the seed, next in 

 the roots, and in the leaves of some (ew of them. 



2. The plantae galeata3 and verticillatae, are a species of plants which bear 

 their flowers in rundles or whorles, at more or less distances round the stalk, 

 whose monopetalous flowers (if we may so call them, being such at the bottom) 

 are tubulous, contrary to the last, and are generally divided into five unequal 

 segments, as the umbels ; but with this distinction, that the two greater petala 

 or flower-leaves in this tribe are sometimes above, and at other times below ; 

 whereas the others are constantly the same, that is, always lie in the same 

 place, being expanded on a flat or plain surface : the flowers of verticillated 

 plants, from the different position of their petala, are therefore distinguished 

 into florse galeatse seu labiatae. The calyx or case to the lower, or tubulous 



