50 T HB PBR WE IPS Hl AE ARSB OAL. 
I can without much cenfure reconcile this contradi&ion: there are plants of the darba capre that have 
flowers with both the threads, and rudiments of the capfules in them; though there are others that have 
only male, and others that have only fernale fowers. This is the languages6f the modern botanifts ; 
and according to thé fame dialect, thofe fowers which have both the threads and rudiments of capfules 
are called hermaphrodites : thefe led Linnzeus to place the plant among his ico/endria, againit his 
former judgment. He had truth on his fide in both cafes; for it is nature varies: but we have hence 
this leffon, Thofe accidents are unfit for the claffical diftinGtions of plants, which are not conftant and 
certain; this is not the only genus in which there are fometimes male flowers on one plant and fe- 
male on another, though there are alfo in fome plants of this kind hermaphrodite flowers: it is a 
proof added to the many we have had occafion to mention before, and which will be ftrengthened by 
many others hereafter, that this method was taken up too haftily, and that upon better knowledge 
of nature, men will be obliged to lay it down. 
Of this genus there is but one known fpecies. . It has much the afpect of the common mea- 
dowfweet, except in the difpofition of the flowers. Moft authors have joined it with that plant ; 
and indeed it comes very near its nature. The feeds of meadowfweet are covered, as we have fhewn, 
with a kind of cruft; and in this plant they have but very rude capfules. However, the diftinétion 
is preferved: nature on all occafions goes off gradually from one clafs to another: this would have 
been feen if men had regarded the greater and more diftinétive parts of plants with that attention 
they have ill beftowéd upon the more minute and frivolous. It is here the gentle ftep is made from 
the herbs with feveral naked feeds after every flower, to thofe in which each flower is followed by fe- 
veral capfules. 
Sweetbeard. C. Bauhine calls it Barba capre floribus oblongis, 
Barba Capra. J. Bauhine, Barba capri. We in Englith fome- 
; times tranflating the Latin name, call it goats- 
The root is large, thick, long, and furnifhed beard; but as that is with us the name of another 
with many fibres. It has a redifh bark, a woody | plant, I have taken the liberty of varying it a 
fubftance within that, and in the central part a little, preferving the word beard, and addin, 
fpungy pith. for its farther charaéter, its fragrant {cent ; mane 
The leaves rife in a great tuft, but commonly | of the common writers have called it ulmaria m, y 
wither when the ftalk. gets ftrength. They are Jor, the greater meadowfweet. i: 
placed on long footftalks, and are compofed of 
three principal parts, each of which confifts of The flowers are efteemed cordial and fudorifick 
about five fmaller leaves, difpofed in the pinnated The bark of the root alfo poffefies the fine 
manner in two pairs, with an odd one at the | virtue, with a mixture of aftringency. This re- 
end: thefe are oblong, ferrated, and pointed at | commends it among the country practifers where 
the ends. common, in fevers attended with diarthoeas 
The ftalks are four feet high, round, ftriated, Thefe are the plants properly and diftingl 
erect, and but little branched. They have the | belonging to the prefent clafs; from which nd 
fame kind of leaves on them, and at their tops | are to advance to another, which is very com- 
bear numerous flowers in long ftrings, feveral | prehenfive, containing the plants, with a lowes 
connected toward the bottom, or rifing fo near confifting of one petal, and fucceeded by a fine] 
one another that they form a ‘tuft refembling a | capfule: but in our way we are to regard an a 
long, white beard. termediate genus, which happily connects thefe 
_ The flowers are white, little, and of a flight | two, or according to the cuftom of nature. 
but agreeable fmell. : often remarked, makes the Progreffion eaf; ; 
It is a native of the warmer parts of Europe, /, 
and flowers in July. : 
here 
Th END of the SECOND CLASS. 
