TheA BRITISH ie BR AM 
2S) 
Ge EN Us V. 
PoE A X, 
LT NSU 
HE flower is compofed of five petals, narroweft at the bafe, and broadeft upwards; and it opens 
regularly, and is hollow: the feed-veffel is of a rounded figure, but has five ridges, and a point 
at the top: it is formed of five valves, and has ten cells: the cup is fmall; it is compofed of five 
oblong leaves, and remains when the flower is fallen. 
Linnaeus places this among the pentandria pentagynia; the threads in the centre of the fower being 
five, and the ftyles from the rudiment of the fruit alfo five. a 
That author includes in this genus the /ittle rupturewort, or all feed called radiola. This is confound- 
ing plants alogether diftinét ; for this little herb is quite different in genus, and has its received 
and well known name. ‘ ti 
Linneus contradicts his own fyftem in joining this plant with the /ixum, for he eftablithes the 
claffical charaéter under which that genus is arranged to be the having five threads in the flowers 
and five ftyles; whereas the threads in this, and the ftyles alfo, are only four. 
Of this Linnzus was not ignorant: he: has mentioned that one fpecies wants a fifth part of the 
number in thefe parts of the flower: indeed, it wants, not only one of each of thefe parts, but one 
of the petals alfo; for it has only four of thefe, as of the others, 
It is, from this, evident that the plant neither is of the fame genus, which is determined by the 
petals, nor of the fame clafs, which is. fixed by Linnzeus ftom the threads, with flax wherewith he 
confounds it. He fays, fome have been defirous, becaufe of it difference in the number of the 
petals, threads, and ftyles, to conftitute a new genus of it, and feparate it from thé flax; but he 
adds, this nature abbors. 1 mutt utterly differ with him in this matter: it is what nature diGtates 
and direéts, in the plaineft manner, and under the moft obvious characters. This determination of that 
author is therefore rafh and contradictory to reafon in itfelf, and it is very unhappy in its con- 
fequences for his fyftem; for if nature abhors the feparating plants that are in obvious characters 
allied to one another, on account of fome difference in the number of the threads, and other minute 
parts of the flower, then nature abhors his whole fyftem of botany. We have fhewn in every 
clafs how he removes and feparates plants perfectly allied to one another, becaufe they happen to 
differ in the number of threads in the flower. This is that making a fepatation from the variation 
of number in like plants of which we have complained fo often; which his method impofes; and 
which, he fays here, is abhorrent to nature. : L 
This is not the only inftance wherein the prefent genus of plants fhews us the uncertainty and 
error of Linnzus’s method : others, which he has in his laft work, his Species Plantarum, attributed 
to the prefent clafs, as perfectly differ from its laws. 
He has there introduced the yellow bellflower among the fpecies of flax, though he has eftablifhed 
in the generical character, that the flax has five petals in the flower, ahd in that plant it confifts only 
of one: he calls this doubtful; but three could be no doubt, from this plain circumftance. ' 
The little yellow flax is alfo placed here among the reft, and properly enough in nature, but un- 
happily by this author, who has attributed five ftyles to the fax, whereas this has but ‘three. 
J fhall enter no farther into this difquifition : I am to write a hiftory of plants, and not a criticifm 
upon the works of Linnaus ; though fo much as this, though written with pain, cannot be avoided. 
DliVuh St OLN. BRITISH SPECTES. 
1. Common Flax. The feed-veffel is large, and the feeds are alfo 
large, numerous, and of a glofly brown. 
We fee it naturally in our paftures, and about 
road-fides in fome parts of the kingdom, and 
cultivated in fields in many others +. whether the 
Linum vulgare. 
The root is long, flender, and hung with a 
few fibres. ‘ 
The ftalk is round, firm, upright, and of a 
pale green: it has fcarce any branches, and is 
three feet high, and very upright. 
The leaves ftand irregularly, and are nume- 
rous: they are long, narrow, and of a frefh 
green: they have no footftalks ; they are not at 
all divided at the edges ; and they are pointed at 
the ends. 
The flowers are large, and of a beautiful fky- 
blue. 
They grow in confiderable numbers on the 
tops of the ftalks, and on fhort branches rifing 
for their fupport juft below the top of it. 
pen SN OREN 
wild plants are properly native of this ifland or 
rife from fcattered feeds it is not eafy to fay. 
Some have divided the common flax into two 
fpecies on this account, calling the one the ma- 
nured flax, and the other the wild flaw; but the 
plant is the fame, whether it grow naturally, or 
be raifed by art; that which is cultivated will be 
larger : there is no other difference. 
C. Bauhine and others call it Linum fativum. 
The ufe of the flalks of this plant in making 
linen is fufficiently known. The thready part is 
feparated from the reft, beat and combed till it 
Ddd hangs 
