126 THE BRITISH HERBAL. 
The feed-veffel is very large and round; and 
the feeds are fmall. 
It is a native of Nerth America, and flowers 
in Auguft. 
Plumier calls it Linaria paluftris feniculi folio. 
thofe from the root: thefe are beautifully divided, 
and of a blackifh green. 
The flowers grow toward the tops of the 
ftalks, and are large and yellow. 
GE Ee ONG eeu ee rs XIV. 
WATER GLADIOLE. 
DORTMANNA. 
HE flower confifts of a fingle petal, and approaches in fome degree to the galeated Kind, but not 
nearly fo much as the others in general of this clafs : it is formed into a fhort tube fplit in the upper 
part, and two irregular lips: the upper lip confifts of two fegments, which are narrower and fmaller 5 
and the lower one of three, which are broader and larger; but when the flower is perfectly open this 
form is lefs obfervable: the feed-veffel is round and large; and the cup is divided into five flight: 
fegments. The leaves of the plant are hollow and divided within. 2 
Linnzus places this-among his /yngenafia polygamia monogamia; but he does not allow it to be a 
diftin& genus: he places it among the rapuaculi, which he arranges there under the name of Jobelja. 
The fhape of the feed-veffel diftinguithes it from 
all other plants. None is more properly of a genus 
his /obelia, and the ftru€ture of its leaves from 
feparate from all others. 
There is but one known fpecies of this plant, and that is a native of Britain and other parts of 
the north of Europe, 
Water Gladiole. 
Dortmanna. 
The root is a clufter of long, thick fibres, 
which penetrate deep into the mud at the bottom 
of thofe waters where it delights to grow. 
The leaves rife in a tuft twelve or fourteen to- 
gether: they are long, narrow, and of a pale 
green, hollow within, and divided, in the man- 
ner of a pod of fome of the wallflower kinds, 
into two feparate empty fpaces, by a membrane 
that runs lengthwife from the bafe to the point. 
The ftalk rifes in the midft, and is yellowith 
and round: it rifes to a great height when the 
water is deep ; but with us, as it generally grows 
in fhallow places, its length is about a foot: 
fometimes it is naked, fometimes there grow on 
it a leaf or two like thofe from the root. 
The flowers ftand at the top, in a kind of loofe 
fpike, but they hang on their footftalks, and ge- 
nerally fall all on one fide: five or fix is the ufual 
number: but they rarely open together: they are 
of a pale purple. 
Gwiebo aN 1 U 
BROOM 
OR OT il 
HIE flower is made of a fingle petal, and approaches to the labiated form: 
and two lips: the tube is crooked, thick, and fhort : 
indented ; and the lower lip is divided into three unequal fe 
divided lightly into four fegments 
and pointed at the end. 
Linneus places this among the didynamia angiofpermia ; there bein 
‘which two are longer and two fhorter, and the feeds being contained 
3 and the feed-veffel is of an oval figure, 
The feed-veffel is large and round; and the 
feeds are numerous and fmall. 
It is common in waters on the hills in the 
north of England; and flowers in July. 
Ray led Linneus into the calling this a {pecies 
of rapuntium; for he fays its flower makes it 
fuch, though the feed-veffel fhews a difference : 
but if the feed-veffel had been as like that of 
rapuntium as the flower, ftill the whole plant is 
fo perfectly unlike, and its leaves are fo extreamly 
fingular, that there is. reafon enough to keep it 
as a diftinét genus. 
Clufius calls it Gladiolus lacuftris Dortmanni, 
from the name of Dortman a German apothecary, 
from whom he firft received it: but, as gladiolus 
is the name of a diftin& genus, it is better to call 
it, as Rudbeck does, dortmanna. C. Bauhine calls 
it Leucoium paluftre flore fubceruleo. Others, 
Gladiolus paluftris. 
There is nothing known of the virtues of this 
or of the preceding plant: they are food for 
ducks and other water-fowl. 
S XV. 
RAPE, 
NCH EF, 
it confifts of a tube 
the upper lip is broad, hollow, and 
gments, and turns back : the cup is 
but fomewhat oblong, 
g four threads in the flower, of 
in a capfule. 
DIVI- 
