— 
264. 
C. Bauhine calls it’ Myagrum fativum. Others, 
Myagrum vulgare, and Myagrum fylueftre. 
In fome of thofe parts of England where they 
raife flax, the plant is very common: the feeds 
of'it pafs unnoticed among’ thofe of that herb, 
and confequently it rifes with the crop from one 
year to another. 
DekVel SdvOsNoall. 
1. Broad-leaved Myagrum. 
Myagrum latifolium majus. 
The root is long, flender, and furnifhed with 
tnany fibres. 
The firft leaves rife in a numerous clufters 
and they are oblong, confiderably broad, and of 
a deep green: they have no footftalks: they are 
very little and very irregularly’ finuated ‘at’ the 
edges, and obtufe at the end. 
The ftalk is round, firm, upright, and two 
feet high: itis divided into many branches. 
The leaves on this are placed irregularly, and 
ate broad, and fomewhat heart-fafhioned: ‘they 
furround the ftalk at the bafe, and thence termi- 
* nate in an obtufe end. 
The flowers ftand at the tops of the’ branches, 
and are fmall and yellow. 
The feed -veffels are fhort, hard, and terminated 
by a point ; and in each there is only a fingle feed. 
The veftel has three cells, but two of them 
are empty. ia 
It is a native of France and Italy, where it is 
common in their corn-fields, as ours is here. It 
| Others, Myagrum birfutum. 
C. Bauhine calls it Myagrum monofpernum lats- 
Others have followed the fame name, | 
flowers in June. ~ ; : 
folium. 
and fome have called it fimply Myagrum majus. 
2. Myagrum with flat, dotted pods. 
Myagrum filiculis compreffis punttatis: 
The root is long, flender, and furnifhed with 
a few fibres. fetes 
G ie Eee 
The BRITISH H E-’R‘B AL. 
The feeds of this plant afford a fweét and’ ufe- 
ful oiPin’very confiderable quantity’: it is greatly 
inferior to the common olive-oil,’ but'there are 
many purpofes it will anfwer very well in its 
place. 
PORE IGN ?S PE CPES: 
The firtt leaves rife in a great clufters and 
they are large, oblong, and confiderably broad : 
they are placed irregularly, fome ftanding up, 
others lying on the eround ; and they are not at 
all indented at the edges. 
The ftalk rifes in the midft, and is round, up- 
right, of a whitith colour, firm, and a foot and 
a half high: it is‘ divided into many branches, 
and fet thick with leaves toward the top, though 
there be fewer near the bottom. 
Thefe are oblong, broad, and of a pale green, 
they furround the ftalk at the bafe, and are there 
broad, and fomewhat heart-fathioned ; and they 
grow gradually fmall from_ thence till they ‘ter- 
minate in a point. : 
~The flowers grow in little tufts at the tops of 
‘the ftalks, and they are {mall and white. 
The feed-veffel is of a roundifh form, and ofa 
firm fubftance, dotted, and rough on the fur 
face, and terminated by a ftiff point. 
The feed is large, yellow, and oily. 
It is common about the borders of vineyards 
in France and Italy, and flowers in July. © ' 
C.Bauhine calls it Myagro fimilis filiqua rotunda. 
The feeds of ‘this’ kind are excellent ‘againft the 
gravel : they have an oily foftnefs, and a power- 
ful diuretic quality. The peafants in Italy efteem 
it; but there, like many good medicines here, 
it istrieglected in regular practice. 
Wok ER 1 Roy DL Siddetaga a 
RADTICULY. fai 
THE flower is compofed of ‘four petals, ‘regularly opening in a crofs: direétion ; they are oblong, 
obtufe; and have very {mall bottoms: ‘the cup is formed of four narrow, fharp~pointed leaves, 
that gapeafunder ; and itis coloured, and ‘falls with the flower «the feed-veffel is fhort, and ‘of a 
figure approaching to oval, with a fmall, weak point: the feeds are numerous and fmall. 
Linneus places this among the sefradynamia Jiliquofa ; but he has not arranged it well. Itis a fili- 
culofe, not a filiquofe plant, ‘as appears by the form and ftruéture of the feed-veffel ; therefore it be- 
longs to the other divifion, the zetradynamia filiculofa. But this is not all that will miflead the ftudent 
in his|arrangement of it.’ He has taken away its generical and received name, and’ makes it a fpecies 
of fifymbrium, joining it in with: the ladyfmock and watercre/s. He callsitthe fifymbrium with pods of an 
oval, oblong. figure. i 
This author’s generical character? of the /ifymibrium fays,’ that the pod is’ Jong; therefore the very 
terms are difcordant. Tt sis ‘a range force! upon method, to introduce thefe plants, which he‘is 
obliged to diftinguifh by the fhortnefs of: their ‘pods, into a genus, ‘the character of which is to have 
Jong ones. ; atats : i390 » Hak > bas id ied 
The fpecies of /ifpmbrium are very numerous, and confequently the road to knowledge very much 
perplexed according to that difpofition,. We fhall clear’ it’ farther,’ by: reducing’ more of the plants 
to their diftinét and “proper genera, and.reftoring them to their uftial and received names. 44 
9. 2 ; pIVL 
