The BRITISH HERBAL. 
OCS 
Geer 
No POURS 
IV. 
SINAPISTRUM. 
HE flower is compofed of four petals, very fingularly arranged 
crofs-ways, as the others of this clafs; but all incline upwards 
other : two of thefe petals are fmaller than the others. 
open, the lower leaf feparated asic were from the others; and ‘the 
the bafes of the three other leaves of the cup. The feed-veffel is long and rounde 
of two fides, but contains only a fingle cell : the feeds are numerous and round, 
3 they do not expand themfélves 
» and fpread out from one an- 
The cup is formed of four little leaves fpread 
te are three little glandules at 
d, and is compofed 
Linnzus places this among the tetradynamia filiquofa, but with fome tepugnance to the characters 
of that clafs. - . 
He fays, in the tetradynamia four threads are longer than the reft, and he gives them here as placed 
in the common manner: but he is obliged to acknowledge, that, in one fpecies of this genus, there 
are twelve threads of equal length, fo that the character of tetradynamia is wanting ; and in another 
the threads grow upon the ftyle: fo that the plant, according to his diftinétions, belongs to the 
gynandria, a particular and altogether diftiné clafs, 
This fhews that no proper foundation of claffes is to be found in thele {mall parts of flowers ; 
for himfelf is obliged to arrange the two plants we here fpeak of as fpecies of the fame genus, 
though, according to his fyftem, they ‘belong to two utterly diftin@ clafies, 
This author alfo takes away the eftablifhed name of the clafs, and calls it cleome. 
We are no 
friends to thefe innovations, and have kept things here in their old channel. 
Red, five-leaved Sinapiftrum. 
Sinapiftrum pent apbylleum flore rubente: 
The root is.compofed of many flender fibres. 
The firft leaves are numerous, and have long 
and weak footftalks: they ftand five together on 
each of thefe, and are.difpofed in a fingered man- 
ner: they are narrow, fharp-pointed, and. of a 
pale green. 
The ftalk is round, weak, redith, and two feet 
high. 
The leaves on it have long footftalks, in the 
fame manner as thofe from the root; and they 
alfo ftand five together; and are oblong, narrow, 
and of a faint green, ; 
-The flowers grow in a long fpike, with the 
pods at the top of the ftalks: they are large, and 
| of a beautiful pale red. 
The feed-veffel is long and flender, and eafily 
burfts with a touch, its valves or fides being very 
weakly joined ; the feeds are numerous, large, and 
roundifh, K 
It is a native of Aftica, and flowers in June: 
C. Bauhine calls it Quinguefolium lupini Solio. 
Others, Sinapiftrum pentaphyllum, 
The feeds are accounted a fovereign remedy 
in obftructions of the urinary paffages ; but they 
are in this refpeét confined to the natural place of 
the plant’s growth, We have it in gardens; but 
its virtues are not regarded. zs 
Th END of te FIFTEENTH CLASS, 
THE 
