Cuslen &- 8.05 
Plants which have a perfect flower, of a plain and régular firu€lure; and 
~, 
have one feed after every flowers ftanding naked in the cup. 
_ many of the reft, by the modern fyftemis of botany. The two efféntial requifites to a gene- 
Hical charaéter are, that it be certain, and that it be obvious: the firtt prevents error, the 
other perplexity ; and there i8 no where in Nature a ‘character more happily eftablifhed to anfwer thefe 
purpofes than in the prefent inftance, 
Mr. Ray, who followed Nature clofely, perceived it; and has founded one of his claffical diftinc- 
tions upon it. He has therefore kept together thefe plants, fo truly allied, and fo perfectly fepa- 
ratéd from all others: but thofe who have limited thénifelves for the claffick chara@ters folely to the 
threads in the flowers of plants, have thrown the genera,’ thus conneéted together by Nature, into 
inany different parts of their works, and joined them with plants to which they have no affinity. 
Linnéus led the way to this, compélled by the very foundation of his fyftem: but when that 
abe S is a clafs plainly diftinguithable by Nature from all others, but confounded, like too 
author faw the neceflity of thus feparating plants evidently joined by Nature in the courfe of his ent 
quiry; he thould have given up the method, not Violated her laws. No plants have fhewn the great 
cofiftraint his fyftem lays upon Nattie equally with thefe, which are thus, by means of the fingle 
feed, clafied fo eafily and fo regularly. ; 
SSDP Be Seo se oe Be De ee sere a Doe Be ese os eo ee ea este a ce i oe cle Dacca Doiha Os Geena 
rR Ree Se 
Thofe of which one or thoré fpécies are naturally wild in this country. 
GQ Tete Ue 8.4. 
VALERIAN. 
PAE RR TAN A. 
HE flower is fortned of a fingle petal, hollowed, and crooked at the bottom, and divided into 
five feoments at the edge. The cup is very fmall, and is divided in an extremely flight 
manner into five fegments: in fome fpecies the divifion is fearce perceptible, The feed is naked, 
fingles and of an oblong form; and winged with down. The leaves ftand in pairs, 
In fome fpecies the outer fin of the feed is loofe ; and in thefe lefs accurate obfervers have {poke 
of a feed-veffel,, fuppofing this fin a capfule ; but their difference from the réft ig more than this. 
Linus places this genus among the ériandtia mondgyhid the threads in the flower being three, 
’ and the ftyle from the rudiment of the fruit fingle: But he is obliged to acknowledge vaft variations 
in fome of the fpecies in this refpeét; fiich indeed as {peak very plainly the inipropriéty of the fyftém 
he has eftablifhed. In fome fpecies there. are. but two threads in the flower, in others there is only one, 
: in 
8 
