* 
The BIRT 1S H HiERRGBA MS © 63" 
have the female parts double. One fhould fmile at the perplexity that rifes from this unfubftantial, 
method, but that it has mifled fo many. Whatisan author to do, who has fet up a fyftem dependent 
on complex, as well as minute parts, when one portion of the fame objeét, as in this inftance, deter- 
mines the plant to one affortment, and another to another. It is to this we owe thofe frequent ex- 
ceptions the author has himfelf made to his generical characters ; and the many others, thofe who fhall 
obferve nature heedfully, muft make for him. 
DIVISION I. B Role FS oHe #SoPe EC danse 
Small Periwinkle. 
Pervinca minor. 
The root is long, tough, flender, and full of 
fibres. 
The ftalks are long, but weak. They are 
tough, but want firmnefs; fo that they lie upon 
the ground, and frequently take root at the joints : 
hence, when the plant has ftood any time we 
commonly fee a thick tuft of it. 
The leaves ftand in pairs: they are oblong, 
broad, even at the edges, pointed at the ends, and 
have no footftalks. They are of a firm ftub- 
ftance, and deep green colour, - 
The flowers ftand on long footftalks, which rife 
from'the bofoms of the leaves: they are large, 
and of a beautiful blue. 
The feed-veflels are tharp-pointed, two follow 
every flower, and there are in them many large, 
oblong feeds. 
It is a native of our woods, but not common, 
It flowers in June. ‘ 
C. Bauhine calls it Clematis daphnoides minor. 
Others, fimply, Clematis daphnoides, or Vinca 
pervinca. 
DivVilS 1.0:Ne 1: TiO R E'L-GN: S\P EYColzEs: 
Great Periwinkle. 
Pervinca major. 
The root is a great tuft of fibres, — 
The ftalks are numerous, firm, woody, and 
tolerably erect. 
The leaves ftand in pairs, and are placed on 
fhort footftalks; they are broader than thofe of 
the fmall kind in proportion to their length, and 
are more of an oval figure ; they are even at the 
edges, and broad at the bafe, and pointed at the 
ends. | 
The flowers ftand on long footftalks, rifing 
from the bofoms of the leaves, and are large 
and blue. / 
The feeds follow in two long cap’ 
at the-ends. _ 
It is frequent in the woods of Germany, and 
flowers in July. : 
C. Bauhine calls it Clematis daphnoides major. 
Others, Vinca pervinca major. 
Some have fuppofed this a variety of the pre- 
ceding fpecies, imagining that it only differed 
in fize; but they fhould have obferved the foot- 
ftalks and form of the leaves, and they would 
have found that the fize of the plants, though 
the moft obvious, is not the moft effential mark 
of their diftin&tion. 
fules, pointed 
Gi Bee NS. Ue Sto TT. 
SENGREEN. 
AIZOON. 
HE flower is large, and confifts of a fingle petal flightly divided into ten fegments. The feeds 
are contained in capfules, a great number of which fucceed every fower. The leaves grow in 
round clufters in the manner of thefe of houfeleek ; which the plant in its general form greatly re. 
fembles. 
No author has feparated this, perfectly fingular as it is, or allowed it a diftiné genus: it has been 
univerfally ranked as a fpecies of houfeleek, though it belongs to a feparate clafs, 
Linnazus makes it a fpecies of fempervivum , though he has eftablifhed, in the generical character, 
that fempervivum has a flower confifting of twelve petals, whereas the fower of this plant has but 
one. This refers it plainly and neceffarily to the prefent clafs, and renders a new name necef- 
fary for it; but, to avoid perplexity, I have given it one that has always been. fuppofed to belong, 
though in an undetermined manner, to the houfeleek kind: it is very well applicable to this plant ; 
the leaves continuing all the year frefh and green, 
Of this genus there is but one known fpecies, 
Sengreen. 
Aizoon. 
The root is long, flender, and edged with 
fibres. 
The leaves that rife from it are flefhy, oblong, 
and pointed : they grow in natural clufters, butina 
N° VI 
very fingular manner. The clufters are of a roundifh 
form, asin the common houfeleek, but have not 
that open divifion: they are rather globular. In 
winter they are of a greyifh green, and ftand fe- 
parate, as in other plants of this kind; but to- 
ward fpring they affume another form: they have 
a multitude of long, fine, and flender hairs grow- 
19 ing 
