BRETPITS H. HER BA 
& 
he Sh Ne Ora te Nhe Ns Ns Ns Sg SM Ss oA oe 
Te A Ne AN AR Ae ONAN ASS ARAN AS OS 
GL AS SX; 
Plants whofe flower is compofed of FOUR PETALS regularly difpofed, in 
form of acrofs, and whofe feeds are contained in @ REGULAR POD, of 
a long and fender shape. 
happily united among themfelves, that moft of the botanical writers have kept them to- 
gether, and in a diftinét clafs. 
Ray calls them erbe tetrapetale filiquofe ; and Tournefort, herbe flore polypetalo cruciformi. Linnzus 
diftinguifhes them by the name of tetradynamia, the threads in the flower being ufually fix, and of 
thefe, four being always longer than the reft: thefe four he efteems more efficacious in the foecundation 
of the feeds; and thence has named the clafs. ; 
This author places in the fame clafs thofe genera which have fhort, and thofe which have long 
pods, only diftinguifhing them as belonging to two feGtions. Mr. Ray has done this etale 
him, and fo have many others : but the diftin@tion between the feveral genera is fo plain, and 
fo well obferved by nature, that they demand in a juft method to be arranged under two difting: 
claffes. ; : 
The very authors who place them together, always feparate them by a fubdivifion ; and they are 
diftinguifhed by eftablithed titles univerfally received, and univerfally underftood ; thofe which have 
long pods being called herbe filiquofe, and thofe which have fhort ones, berbe filiculofe. 
We are unhappy in the Englith language in a dearth of fcientifick terms: we have no names or 
words that diftinétly convey the fenfe of fliqua and filicula, on which this feparation is founded ; we 
only call them long pods and little pods; but the term /ilicwla is not in this cafe fimply a Bin 
tive; for the fhort pod differs in form as well as fize from the other. 
There is an antiquated word, fbale, ufed by fome authors of credit, and adopted by our dictio- 
naries, for a hufk, or covering of feeds: we fhall, in this want of terms for diftinction, appropriate 
it to the fhort feed-veffel, called in Latin Silicula, and call the other only a pod. ae 
ae pene Se words to afcertain our meaning in each article, we fhall follow the fteps 
of nature in the divifion of thefe plants, making thofe wi i i 
Hes fise ee ° g with pods, /ilique, conftitute one clafs; and 
; T's plants of this clafs are fo effentially and obvioufly diftinguifhed from all others, and fo 
SERIES 
