The BR IT: 1 § H }H-B R B ALL, 
83 
leaves, as the cup in the common kind is; and 
have at.the top a double creft that has a feather- 
ed afpeét: the colour of the flower is a lively 
purple. 
It is a native of Ethiopia, and flowers in 
May. : 
Burman calls it Polygala fruétefcens foliis linea- 
vibus flore majore purpureo. 
There are feveral {pecies of polygala that are 
abfolute fhrubs and trees: thefe we thall treat of 
in their place: this. approaches to them, and 
may ferve as the laft of the others, and to fhew 
the gradation. 
3. The Sennekka Rattle-fnake Plant. 
Polygala radice marginata. 
The root is long, flender, and divided into 
feveral parts: it fpreads irregularly under, the 
furface, and is of a brown colour: it is very 
fingular in that there runs an edge or margin of 
a membranaceous fubftance on each fide all the 
way along it. 
The firft fhoots are numerous and full of 
leaves: thefe are fhort, narrow, and fharp- 
pointed. 
The ftalks are a foot high: they are round, 
weak, and of a pale green. 
The leaves ftand irregularly on them,. and are 
Ge 
Nos U.S 
oblong, narrow, of a pale green, and pointed af 
thejenda 4 ~ : 
The flowers ftand in a long, loofe fpike, and 
are white or bluith. 
The feed-veffel is flat, and the feeds ate nume- 
tous, yellowifh, and {mall, 
At is a native of North America, and has been 
of late introduced into medicine, under the name 
of radix fenekka, or the rattle fuake root. 
The knowledge of its virtues was fiéft owing 
to the Indians, who have recourfe to it againft 
venomous bites, that of the rattle-fnake not ex- 
cepted, from which it took its name, ; 
Tt is excellent in pleurefies and quinzies, and 
all other diforders of that kind. lt has had the 
fate of many good things, to be talked too high | 
- at firft. . Dr. Tennent, who introduced it here, 
recommended it with the warmth natural to the 
inventor of a new method of cure ; and from 
his faying too much in its praife people came to 
fuppofe it deferved lefs than it really does, Ir is 
truly a great medicine, though now fallen into 
difufe. 
The common milkwort is a purge. A handful 
of the leaves boiled in ale is a dofe fora ftrong: 
man: it works brifkly, and without any ill effect, 
The root dried and powdered is a fudorifick ; 
ten grains is a dofe, 
. XXIL 
DODDER; 
CUTS C20" BMA, 
HE flower confifts of a fingle petal, tubular at the bafe, and divided into four fegments at the 
edge: the feed-veffel is a fingle, roundith capfille, containing two feeds: the cup is divided 
into four fegments. 
Linnzus places this among his tetrandria digynia; there being four threads in every flower, and 
the rudiment of the capfule giving origin to two ftyles. 
That author, in his Genera Plantarum, improperly joins the dafélla with this genus: the da/el/a hav- 
ing, as himfelf acknowledges, a fingle feed after every flower, not, contained in any capfule, but fur= 
rounded in the lower part by a fucculent cup: neither do the other charaéters of cufeuta agree witli 
this plant. 
In his Species Plantarum he places them feparate, making the Ja/élla, as it properly is, one of his 
pentandria trigynia; for in that genus the threads are only five, and the ftylesthree. Of this Linneus 
was fenfible, when he ranked it with cu/cwta, whofe threads are only four, and whofe ftyles two. 
We have given fufficient inftances, that this method of claffing plants is frivolous; heré is a proof 
its author thought it fo: why therefore d 
felf found infufficient ? 
id he endeavour,to recommend to others what he had him- 
We have obferved that the feed of ba/élla ftands in a flefhy cup, otherwife uncovered, - ‘The reader 
will therefore fee plainly why we do not add it to the genus)of cu/cuta: it is not fo much as of this 
clafs, for it-has no capfule. 
iD. [sVad STsOuN 2 L 
Common Dodder. 
Cufcuta vulgaris. 
This ftrange plant confifts only of filaments, 
or long, tough threads, winding themfelves about 
other herbs, and here and there ornamented 
with flowers: it has no leaves, and has been fup-. 
pofed to have no root; but better obfervation 
will fhew that to be an error. 
Its firft appearance, though little regarded, is 
on the ground, 
BR UTebSd: $ Pb 61k ¢, 
Its root confifts of a few fender, long, and 
branched, redifh fibres. bh 2ir 
From thefe rife ten or twelve ftalks, in form of 
fmall red threads. - r oig = 
Thefe rifing in height, lay hold of fome plant 
that is near them, and climb-up on it : if there is 
none ‘near, they pine, and; the root. dies with 
them; fo the plant fading while fmall, is not at 
all regarded. - When there is a plant in the way, 
which is ufually the cafe, the young fhoots rifing 
from feeds dropped from the old herb as it hangs 
4 
among 
