Tot E 
BRITISH HERB Ad. 
SELOTOLIEHOG SHIGA ASTOR SOP LORS SSSR REEE 
C LA S+S-eXVil- 
Plants which have the flower compofed of rour PETas, placed one up- 
ward, two fideways, and one downward; and the feed-veffel long, and 
formed of two fides, united by a frrait future above, and another be- 
low, containing Jeveral ROUND SEEDS. 
term refers to the flower, the other to the feed-veflel. 
The flower is called papilionaceous, becaufe it is fuppofed to reprefen ‘lio). 
or other fuch winged infect, in the ftate of fying. Be Se Aaa 
The fruit is called Jeguminous, from the Latin word /egumen, fignifying a feed-veflel of this kind 
and no other. 2 
We are unhappy in the Englifh language, that we have no particular name or term for this 
feed-veffel, which, according to the defcription we have given of it, is as diftin& from all others 
as that of the former clafs. We have lamented the want of a term to diftinguifh between the /iigu 
and /ilicula in the two preceding claffes; and we are as much at a lofs here, the fame Englith word q : 
being the only name we have for all of them. ' 2B 
Ags there is a commonly known Latin name, it will be ufeful to introduce it, and call this feed- 
veflel a legume. j } - 
This is a clafs plainly of Nature’s forming, and the plants belonging to it are by the ftru@ure of th 
flower and feed-veffel perfectly diftinguifhed from all others : fo that nothing but blindnefs to the i 
obvious charaéters of Nature, or an obftinacy fuperior to all reafon, could induce authors to oe 
other plants among thefe, or to feparate any of’ thefe into other claffes. Yet inftances of fuch blind- 
nefs and fuch obftinacy are not wanting among thefe men of {cience, as will be feen in the defcriptions 
of the feveral genera. Indeed there feems no error too abfurd for fome, and I am forry to f 7 
of name in this ftudy, to have committed. eee 
Linnzus keeps thefe plants together: for Nature, in whatever manner fhe i Nedire? 
that; and he has followed her, though oddly: but chufing to eftablifh the peg one 
not upon this plain and obvious ftructure of the flower and feed-veffel, but on the peculiar arran ey 
ment of the threads in the flower, he has introduced among thefe fome which do not belong to then 
‘This is the confequence of his attachment to the leffer parts of flowers inftead of the greater ; nd 
this has led him here,~ as elfewhere, to contradict in many particular articles the abfolute eftablithed 
characters in his diftribution. Species thus frequently contradict the characters of their genus, and genera 
thofe of their clafs. In Nature there is nothing of this: there all is conftant, uniform aha Ee alar 
It is therefore unhappy for thofe who have a defire to underftand the fcience, that the fyitein fied 
now recommends to their ufe, directs them, inftead of regarding the large ‘and confpicuous parts of 
flowers, to examine for diftinétions of genera, and even of claffes, the leffer and more obfcure; and 
by that perplexed courfe carry themfelves out of the plain road of Nature, into uncertainty and innu- 
merable contradictions. 
In the prefent inftance, the great inventor of this modern fyftem allows, that the firft character of - 
the clafs is, to have four petals in the flower, enumerating the diftinct names by which they are 
called; yet the very firft genus he introduces is Fwmaria, which has but one. : 
In the fame manner the polygala, which by no means belongs to the /eguminous clafs, is brought 
ito it by this author. His Heifferia alfo has a flower formed of a fingle petal, and yet it is introduced 
among thefe ; the firft character of which isto have four: and the fame objection lies againft his 
2 amorpha, 
[Trees are the plants which botanic authors call papilionaceous and leguminous. "The firft 
