ADs Eas 
BRITISH HERBAL 
HoQRASRESDEOsERIegoogoeseseronsoeeooneeonneanaanens 
CL A S..S... VE. 
Plants whofe flower is compofed of rwo vetats, and is followed by a sincLE 
CAPSULE, 
> HIS is a clafs extreamly diftin& ; and characterifed by the moft plain and obvious marks, - 
. i It contains but a very fmall number of plants; but one would imagine no fyftem could 
err fo far from the path of nature as to add. any more to it, or to feparate thefe 5 the 
characters by which they are diftinguifhed from all other plants, and allied to one another, being fo ex- 
tremely fingular and ftriking: yet, in the modern methods and fyftems of botany, there is no place 
appropriated to thefe ; but they ftand at random among others. : és 
Linnzeus has placed the water ffarwort in his clafs of monandria, and the enchanter’s night/bade in 
his clafs of diandria , becaufe there is but a fingle thread in the flower of the former, whereas theré 
are two in that of the latter: on thefe minute parts is the attention of that author fo fixed, that thefe 
plants, are feparated by the means of the threads; although they agree with one another in the flower 
and feed-veffel ; and have in both a character which is in common with few others. 
Thefe are the moft ufeful diftinctive marks: the more confpicuous fuch charaéters are, and the 
fewer plants they unite, the clearer and more familiar will be the method, and the eafier and plainer. 
the ftudents road to the fcience. 
Mr. Ray includes thefe plants and thofe which have three petals to the flower, and a fingle 
capfule for the feed, together in one clafs. He feems in this to have been influenced only by the 
{mall number there are of plants belonging to each ; but this, as we have obferved, isa happinefs, or 
thing to be fought, not avoided : we fhould obferve nature ftri€tly where it is found; and not confound 
her diftinGtions, by joining plants where fhe has feparated them fo plainly. Mr. Ray makes the 
~ number of petals a mark of diftinétion for a clafs in other cafes where the feéd-veffel is fingle; and 
there is the fame caufe here. If the pentapetake vafculifere, or thofe which have five petals and a 
fingle feed-veffel, be claffically diftinét from the dipetale and tripetale, thofe which have two, and 
three petals and a fingle feed-veffel ; fo are thefe two kinds, the dipetale, and tripetale, from one 
another : the reafon is exaétly the fame, and he who ufed the charaéter taken from the number of 
petals as a claffical mark in one place, fhould not have refufed it in another, 
‘ 
bobo aea Stam EOL LaRosa Loko bo oro Loto Lonoto ronatetotetebotato atu topatoter to yet oy 
od mea \oihida Wie Naa 
Natives of BRiTArn. 
Thofe of which there are one or more {pecies native or wild in this kingdom. 
elgg Dinan S Eaten Uae, |, 
WA TOE RS fA Rw, 0 Rr 
STELLA RZ. 
HE flower is compofed of two petals, and has no cup: the feed-veffel is round and comprefied: 
Linnzus places this among his monandria digynia ; there being only one thread in each flower, 
and the ftyles, or filaments, from the rudiment of the capfule being two. . 
This author takes away its ufual name ftellaria, and calls the genus corifpermum ; uniting with it, 
. ball "nA: . . 
under that name, the rhagrofis, a diftin& genus, as we fhall thew in its place. 
DIvi- 
