8 eNO het OD) Ut GT PON. 
| Tue Receptacle in thefe Plants ts therefore of no importance ; and all that truly relate 
to the Footftalks of the Flowers as diftinétive, is that they are always fimple and un- 
divided: whether they are long, fhort, or feem wanting, is of no impottance; but if 
they were divided, it would indeed be of confequence, for it. would remove > the Plant out 
of the Clafs, placing it among the Umbelliferous kinds. 
Ir is needful that a Clafs comprehending fo large a number of Plants, fhould have its 
 Qrders or Subdivifions. Thefe we fhall take, as in other inftances, from differences which 
are obvious, in parts open to the eye ; and dependent not on degree, but abfolute form. 
Art Ageregate Plants have the general Cup leafy in fome degree ; therefore no accurate 
diftinétion can be made from that ; but every Flower having its feparate Cup; and thefe 
differing effentially in their form, compolition, and divifion, and being always prefent 
‘while the Plant is in Flower, and very evident and open to the fight, the Characters of 
our néeceflary Subdivifions or Orders, may be properly taken from them. 
 Tuar the form, fteece. and compofition of the head of an Aggregate Plant, may be 
perfecily laid before the eye, we have reprefented it in the firft eight F igures, Pl. 1. in two 
very different Plants, the Scabioys and the Teafell. In the one of thefe, the Scabious, Fi ig. 
I, 2, 2, 4. the compofition is very evident, and the parts all large and proportioned in the 
ufual way ; the Receptacle rifing but a little, and the feparate Cups of the Flower being very 
obvious : in the other, the Teafell, Fig. 5, 6, 7, 8. the Receptacle {wells to fo immoderate 
a length, and the Chaffs which are placed between the Flowers, confufe the view fo much, 
that the eye of a ftudent might be at firft fight perplexed. However, when the regular 
- form of the Scabious head is firft known, the length of the Receptacle in the other will 
be confidered only as a difference of degree, not of kind; and the Chaffs between the 
Flowers in thefe heads, being of no importance to the Claflic Character, will give no con- 
fufion. The cautious eye being thus informed in one inftance, the moft diffimilar in afpect 
of all that can occur, will find no difficulty in any other. Let it only be remembered on 
this and all other occafions, that the greater alliances of Plants, as Claffes, take in only 
‘their greateft Characters, not all of them: the reft remain for a variety of fubordinate 
diftinGions of Order, Genus, and Species. Thus the Chaffs of the Receptacle here 
negleéted in the Claffic Charaéter, are fo obvious as to make part of a very diftinét Generic 
~ mark; and fo it will be found of all the others. If we received all into the Charater of 
Clafies, thefe would fhrink from their ufe and nature, and we fhould have only Genera. 
seyeee premifed, Sup the whole fcheme of ra ie may be familiar, let us lead the 
ftudent by the hand, from a view of the exterior form, to the compofition and conftruétion 
of the Aggregate Head thus inftanced, at Pl. 1. Fig. 1. he fees the Scabious Head en- 
tire, as it fhews itfelf upon the Plant while growing, he perceives this is a Clufter of 
Flowers a. furrounded by a Common Cup 6. and thus conceives diftinétly enough the 
general idea. 
Let him blow thefe afunder with his breath, or part them with his finger, and he im- 
mediately fees, as at Fig. 2. that every one of thefe leffer F lowers is perfect i in itfelf; he 
perceives that each has its own Cup, Fig. 2. a. that the Body of it, 2. 6. no where j joins, 
or is connected with any other, and that the union of fuch a number of them into one 
head, refults only from their rifing from one Receptacle or Swoln Top of the Stalk, 2. ¢. 
and being enclofed in one great Cup.. 
Lert him proceed farther, by tearing off fome of the F lowers, and he will lay bare the 
Receptacle in part, as at Fig. 3. a. and let him afterwards, if he pleafe, cut open the Head 
perpendicularly, and he will fee that this Receptacle is as reprefented at Fig. 4. a. no- 
thing more than the Swoln Crown or head of the Stalk. 
THIs 
