os vi 
The BRITISH “HER Te 
1719 
DIVISION I. 
Narrow-leaved Hedge Hyflop. 
Gratiola anguftifolia. 
The root is long, flender, and white: it fpreads 
under the furface, and fends up numerous fhoots. 
The ftalk is round, thick, upright, and eight 
or ten inches high: it is not at all branched, and 
is ufually of a redifh colour near the ground, and 
of a pale green elfewhere. 
The leaves ftand in pairs: they have no foot- 
ftalks: they are oblong, ferrated at the edges, 
and fharp pointed. 
The flowers ftand fingly on long, flender foot- 
{talks rifing from the bofoms of the leaves ; and 
are of a mixed white and yellow colour. 
The feed-veffel is large, oval, and pointed ; 
and the feeds are numerous, fmall, and dufky. 
It is a native of the north of Scotland, but 
not common, It grows in places where waters 
have ftagnated in winter. 
It flowers in June. 
C. Bauhine calls it Gratiola centauroides. O- 
thers, Gratiola vulgaris. 
Ic is but lately we have the notice of its being 
a native of Britain; nor have we any other fpecies 
of it: that which is called the fimaller hedge byffop, 
falicaria byf[opifolia by C. Bauhine, and by lefs 
accurate writers gratiola anguftifolia, is properly 
a fpecies of falicaria, not of this plant. 
There are alfo two other plants called by the 
name gratiola, which are fpecies of caffida, and 
Will be found under that head. 
This is fuch a fource of error to the young 
ftudent, that there cannot be tod much care in 
avoiding it: he is to know, that till this proper 
DIVISION ft, 
Blunt-leaved Hedge Hyfop, 
Gratiolis foliis obtufis. 
The root is flender and creeping: it is white, 
tough, furnifhed with many fibres, and of a 
bitter tafte. 
The ftalk is round, upright, and of a pale 
gteen; often redith toward the ground, as alfo at 
the infertions of the leaves. 
The leaves ftand in pairs, and are oblong, nar- 
row, and of a dead green: they are very flightly 
and irregularly notched at the edges, and obtufe 
at the ends. 
BRITISH SPECIES, 
gratiola, which is here deferibed, was found in 
Scotland, it was not known that any fpecies of 
that genus. was native of Britain; and, he mutt 
obferve, that the plants named by Mr. Kay with 
thefe fynonyma of £ratiola are neither of them of 
that kind; nor fo underftood by Mr, Ray, who 
» has placed them feverally in their proper genera, 
though he has added the different names by which 
they have been called by other writers, and 
thefe among them, 
Hedge hyffop, though not known before wild in 
Britain, is very common in France, and is greatly 
efteemed for its medicinal virtues, 
It approaches to the nature of the foxglove in 
qualities as well as form. Taken in a mode- 
rate dofe, it operates very brifkly by ftool; and, 
in a fomewhat larger, by vomit alfo ; and in this 
manner, for conftitutions that can beur it, carries 
off watery humours and diflodges obftrudting 
matter in a furprifing manner. { 
The juice is given in dropfies : a ftrong decoc- 
tion in the jaundices and in flighter cafes an 
infufion. Either way itis bitter, and difagree- 
able in the higheft degree, to the tafte ; but its 
virtues are fo well) known among the French 
péafants that it is called there poor mens phyfick. 
The root; dried and powdered, is given in the 
fciatica, dnd with fuaccefs, In fmall dofes it ig 
alfo excellent againft worms : its extream bitter 
tafte deftroys them, and by its purging quality 
it takes off all that matter from the Coats of the 
inteftines which ufed to harbour and ferve for 
lodging of them. : 
FOREIGN SP EC. Tees: 
The flowers are large. 
The feed-veffels are alfo large, and the feeds 
are {mall and brown. 
It is a native of many parts of North America, 
and flowers from May to O&ober, 
Gronovius calls it Gratiolo Soltis lanceolatis ob- 
tufis fubdentatis. 
It is very much of the fame tafte with the 
common kind, and probably poffefles the fame 
virtues. The Indians extol it againft poifons, 
Ge Beha Ne | Wise 186 2 Bey 
COXCOMB. 
REP IGWU LAR TS. 
HE flower confifts of a fingle petal, and approaches to the labiated kind: it is formed into a 
tube, and two lips: the tube is crooked, and the lips differ from one another greatly: the up- 
per lip is narrow, compreffed, dented, and galeated ; the lower lip is divided into three fegments, of 
which the middle one is the natrowelt : the cup is roundifh and fwelled, and is divided into five feg-' 
ments at the rim: the feed-veffel is roundifh, and pointed at the top. \ 
8 
Linnzus 
