T a E 
BRITISH HERBAL: 
Heeeeseone cgegnonensooreecooonseeooedeeosbedeoaoe 
GLAS, $.: xxi 
Plants whofe flower is. compofed of fix petals, or has fix Segments 5 whofe 
Jeed-veffel is divided into three cells, containing each a double Series of 
feeds; whofe leaves are graffy, and whofe root confifs of a figle, rgundife 
lump, with fibres from the bafe. 
road of Nature in forming fyftems of botany, have therefore kept them in one clafs, and 
feparated all others from them. Ray calls them the bulbous rooted plants; this kind of root 
being univerfally underftood by the term éu/b; and the leaves from all of them are long, flender, 
and without footftalks, which is the fenfe of the term graff. 
Linnzeus, as is his cuftom, takes the charaGter of the claffes in which thefe plants are arranged, 
from the number of filaments in the flower; and in this inftance, as in every other, he feparates thofe 
genera which Nature has allied into the moft remote parts of his fyftem; and joins with every divi. 
fion of them thofe which fhe feparates moft widely from them. Thus, in his method, the colcbicum 
and crocus, allied as clofely as two difting genera ‘can be, are feparated by three clafles; the crocus 
being one of his third, becaufe there are but three threads in the flower 3 and the colchicum one of his 
fixth clafs, becaufe there are in that fix filaments, . 
Let the unprejudiced examine’ thefe two plants, and judge between us, whether Linneus have ~ 
‘done well in feparating, or I in bringing them again together. The refpect I have for this author, 
notwithftanding my diflike to his fyftem, makes it difagreeable to me to accumulate cenfures upon 
him: but, in fupport of the exceptions made to his method in this refpect, I muft add, thats 
befide feparating thefe plants from one another, he has joined in the fame clafs with the crocus the 
tamarind-tree, and with the colcbicum and tulip he has placed the 4fparagus and berberry-bufp, 
T= are a numerous and very beautiful feries of plants; and all who have taken the plain 
SOHC Gr eH eS eee eam 
eye Jin ics Gobo TS ae a 
Britrisn Genera, 
Thofe of which one or more {pecies are naturally wild in this country. 
G a6 EB eiNe Ue § I. 
GYA RY Lares 
4 LL PUR Ms 
Ai Pic flower is compofed of fix petals, and the feed-veffel ig very broad and fhort. A number 
of thefe fowers are contained in a common fcabbard, which is roundifh, and terminates in a 
fingle or double point. The feeds are numerous, and roundifh. 
Linnzus ranges this among the hexandria monogynia ; the threads being fix, and the ftyle finele. 
4 DIVI- 
