Ehe, aR DT -11S- Ei ER BAA 
253 
thriving very well among bufhes, but it is not a 
native. The dead ftalks have been thrown out 
of fome adjacent garden, and the tubercles from 
the leaves have furnifhed thefe plants. 
C. Bauhine calls it Dextaria beptaphyllos bacci- 
fera, Berry-bearing feven leaved toothwort. He 
gives the name of Jderries to thofe tubercles juft 
named ; but they are nor properly fuch. A berry 
is a regular fruit fucceeding a fower : thefe are 
a kind of fuckers; no flower has ftocd in the 
place. 
3. Five-leaved Toothwort. 
. Dentaria pentaphyllea. 
The root is long, thick, of an irregular form, 
and lies obliquely at a fmall depth under the fur- 
face: the firft leaves are fupported on long, flen- 
der footftalks : they are placed five on each; and 
they are not difpofed in the pinnated manner, 
but fpread out like fingers. They are oblong, 
narrow, fharp-pointed, ferrated at the edges, and 
of a {trong and pleafant green. : 
The ftalk is flender, upright, green or redifh, 
and a foot high. f 
The leaves ftand irregularly, and are perfeétly 
like thofe from the root, five placed on each 
footftalk, narrow, long, and ferrated. 
The flowers are large, and of a beautiful pale 
purple; in fhape and colour they very much re- 
femble thofe of the common hefperis, which our 
gardeners call fingle rocket, 
The feed-veffel is long and flender, and the 
feeds are numerous, fmall, and ‘round. ’ 
It is a native of Italy, and flowers in Auguft. 
C. Bauhine calls it Dentaria pentaphyllos, and 
moft others copy that name. When this grows 
in loofe ground very much fhaded, the root be- 
comes more fcaly, and the leaves are of 1a paler 
green, and are foft to the touch. In this ftate it 
has béen defcribed by Clufius. under the name of 
Dentaria pentaphyllos altera, as if a diftin& fpecies; 
but thefe errors the ftudent muft carefully avoid. 
4. Single-leaved Toothwort, 
Dentaria foliis fimplicibus. 
The root is thick, and of an irregular figure, 
and runs obliquely under the furface. 
Got NY yg 
The firft leaves are oblong, natrow, undivided; 
and of a pale green: they have fhort footftalks, 
and rife in little tufts. 
The ftallk is round, flender, upright, and of a 
pale green : it is not at.all branched, and is a foot 
and a half high. «alt { 
The leaves are placed alternately on it from the 
bottom to the top, and they refemble thofe from 
the rooc: they have fhort footftalks’;. and they 
are long, narrow, fharp-pointed, a little undu= 
lated at the edges, and of a pale teen. 
The flowers ftand in‘a fhort {pike at the top of 
the flalk; and as the top ufually droops, they 
commonly hang all on one fide: they are large 
and white, with a fainter or deper blufh of 
purple. 
The feed-Vveffel is long and fender, and the 
feeds are large and round. . 
It is common in the Harts foreft in‘ Germany, 
ahd flowers in Auguft. 
C.Bauhine calls it Dentaria baccifera foliis 
ptarmica. 
There are frequently tubercles like thofe of the 
feven-leaved kind in the bofoms of ‘the leaves of 
this fpecies ; and when they are numerous, and 
fwell kindly, the flower often falls without any 
fucceeding feed-veffel, Nature contenting herfelf 
with this method of encreafing and continuing 
the fpecies; 
The feven-leaved toothwort is accounted a good 
vulnerary ; but this feems an opinion not wel] 
founded.\ The tafte is acrid, and almoft cauftic, 
Probably a confufion of names between this 
plant, and the coral toothwort has occafioned thé 
opinion. 
Linnzus accounts the fingle-leaved toothwor} 
to be only a variety of the feven-leaved kind, 
fome of the leaves toward the top of which aré 
often fingle: but the lateft obfervations thew the 
leaves of this are fingle from the root ; fo that it 
is altogether a diftiné&t fpecies. And indeed the 
whole afpect of the plant fpeaks it. There has 
been alfo much confufion about the bulbiferous 
kind, fome defcribing one fpecies, and others 
another for it; but this is owing to the uncer- 
tainty of the bulbs or tubercles appearing, for they 
are not conftant in all the plants. 
Il z 
ASR AUB Tas, 
THE flower is compofed of four petals, regularly difpofed crofs-ways: they are of an oval, ob- 
tufe form, and have fmall bottoms of the length of the cup. The cup is compofed of four 
little leaves ; two of thefe are very narrow, and ftand ereét; the other two are broader, and thick — 
at the bafe, and of an oval fhape, but fharp-pointed and hollow. ‘The feed-veffel is very long, flatted, 
and {welling where the feeds lie: thefe are numerous, and of a rounded fotm, but fomewhat flatted. 
Linnzzus places this among the tetradynamia filiquofo ; the threads in the flower being fix, of which 
four are longer than the other two, and the feed-veffel being a regular pod. But he introduces, 
among the plants rightly belonging to it fome that more properly claim their place in other ge- 
nera. We have endeavoured here to place them as Nature direéts. 
N° XXVI. dealt 1. Broad- 
