“The BRITISH HERBAL, 
219 
Water Purflain. 
Portula, 
The root is compofed of a few fmall fibres. 
The ftalks are numerous, round, and weak : 
they are flethy, and of a pale green, and fome- 
times purplifh: many of them lie upon the 
ground, and take root at the joints: but others 
ftand erect; and they are in general about three 
inches in length, and rarely at all branched. 
The leaves are placed in pairs: they are oblong, 
broad, of an inverted oval figure, and have no 
footftalks : their fubftance is flefhy, and their co- 
lour a pale green, though, like the ftalks, they 
are alfo fometimes redith. 
The flowers are fmall and purple, and ftand 
in the bofoms of the leaves. 
The -feed-veflels are alfo fmall, and the feeds 
very minute; but the Cups are large and very 
confpicuous. 4 
It is common in damp places, and flowers in 
ay. 
Authors have been much perplexed where to 
place this little plant, or by what name to call it. 
Ray calls it Portula, from its having fomething 
of the afpe& of purflain. Micheli calls it Glau- 
coides paluftre portulace folio floribus purpureis, 
Lefelius, Glaux aquatica folio fubrotunda. C, 
Bauhine, Ai/fine minor Jerpyllifolia. 
I The People in fome parts of England give the 
Juice of it againft the gravel: it operates brifkly 
by urine, 
Sit peer 
Ss Ae Es Me Se 8% Mig Be Ye ee Ne Oe gtr 
RS ORES AS AIS AR SS AN ANS AS ER RTE 
Be Ge vot Ff, 
ForREIGN GENERA. 
Thofe of which there is no fpecies native of this country. 
Gia Bigg N 
U.S I. 
EITONEIE AF 
LEONTOPETALON. 
HE flower is compofed of fix oval petals, alternately larger and fmaller + the feed-veftel 3s very 
a large, and roundifh: it is inflated, and fomewhat fucculent, and contains a few large feeds: 
the cup is very fmall; it is compofed of fix leaves; and it falls with the flower. 
Linnzus places this among the bexandria monogynia the threads in the flower being fix, and 
the ftyle from the rudiment of the fruit fingle. 
This author takes away its name /eontopetalon, and calls it, by an arbitrary variation, /contice. 
1, Broad-leaved Leontopetalon. 
Leontopetalon foliis latis. 
The root is thick, tuberous, roundifh, and of 
a dufky colour. 
The firft leaves are large, broad, and of the 
compofite kind: each is formed of five princi- 
pal parts; two pairs of thefe are difpofed in the 
) manner of pinnz, and the odd one is at the end. 
on each of the lower pinnz: there are three dif. 
tinét, roundifh leaves; and the upper pair, and 
alfo the odd leaf at the top, have a threefold 
divifion: they are of a tawny green, whence the 
plant has been named, as refembling the colour of 
the lions hair. 
The ftalk rifes in the midft’of a clufter of 
thefe firft leaves, and is firm, upright, and ftri- 
ated: its colour is the fame tawney yellowith, 
but is ftriated with purple. 
The flowers are {mall and yellow: they ftand 
in great numbers on the tops of the ftalk, and 
of the branches. ; 
The feed-veffel is large, and the feeds are 
roundifh, and alfo large. 
It isa native of the Eaft, and of the warmer 
parts of Europe; and flowers in Augult. 
* 
C. Bauhine calls it Leontopetalon; and molt 
follow him, adding no diftin@ion to the name. 
Tournefort calls it Leontapetalon Soliis cote alate 
adnafcentibus. Our people call it Lionsleaf, Lion- 
leaved turnip, and fome of them the Black turnip, 
and Lion turnip. 
2. Narrow-leaved Leontopetalon. 
Leontopetalon foliis anguftioribus. 
The root is very large, thick, tuberous, ir. 
regularly rounded, and of a dufky colour on 
the furface, and redith within. 
The firft leaves are numerous, and of a very 
fingular form: they are pinnated, but each pair 
of pinna are double; and they are fo difpofed 
that they feem to ftand croffwife, and do not give 
the ufual afpect of a pinnated leaf: they are of a 
deep dufky green, and are finuated at the edges ; 
fo that they are fuppofed to have fome refemblance 
to the oak leaf; but that is not very ftriking. 
The ftalks are numerous, round, ftriated, flen- 
der, and toward the top divided into numerous 
branches: they are of a yellowifh colour, and 
ftreaked with red. 
The flowers are large and yellow: they ftand 
at 
