IyNoTr Re-@ Dy WW @ TH 17 Oy Ni 7 
tions ; and therefore the Plants; which fhould in that way conneét the two Clafles, are not 
at equal diftance from both: but taking the Aggregate; we fee the exact proportion: The 
Affociate Clafs alfo: makes an advance between the three firft; and this fifth. Its Floret 
opening into range seamente, and its Chives; though they ftand near; not being united. 
THE lenoth of F ootftalk to the Flower, though an accidental and uncertain mark, yet 
is the ftriking and obvious character by which the Aggregates differ from the Affociates 
one way, and from the Umbelliferous Plants the other: let us fee the confequence of 
giving more or le{s to this part: 
SuorTEN the Footftalks of the feparate Flowers of an Aggres: te, and it will refemble 
an affociate ; lengthen them, and it will refemblé an Umbrella’d Plant: but in the one | 
cafe, it will not be an Affociate, for each Flower will ftill have its diftine Cup; ; and inthe 
other it will not be an Umbelliferous Plant, for there will be no fecond divifion of the 
Footitalks. It will thus be, even in an artificial fyitem, juft what we have thewn it truly 
isin nature; it will refemble the two Clafles, but it can be of neither ; it is feparate from 
both, and at equal diftance between them: It is therefore the thing we fought ; the true 
connecting Clafs: its diftin@ions from both are certain, evident, and invariable ; and 
while we thus trace its place in Nature, it fixes the true Characters of thofe feveral Claf- 
fes diftinlly i in our minds. 
‘Tue Clak af A apréwates thus Satealic: iid ting didtndioads rhetsGeerkiet admits into its 
limits many Plants, which have before been arranged under different Claffes ; but it ex- 
cludes none that have ever been numbered amon ¢ thofe related to any of its branches. 
Tur feveral Genera which it bie Hehehe might be found capable of various diftribu- 
tions ; but to us the moft obvious, always will appear the beft. Among thofe who are» 
fond of feeking deep for Charaéters, the thicknefs, the flichtnefs, or the abfolute want of 
a Receptacle, or the length, the fhortnefs, or total deficience of Footftalks to the feparate | 
Flowers, might ferve as Characters of Orders, Se€tions and Subdivifions; but the one of 
thefe methods requires the tearing the head to pieces, and the other the cutting it afunder, | 
to know the diftinctions. We profefs a diflike to thefe torturings of Nature, and to all? 
Characters which the eye does not at once diftin guifh ; but if it were otherwife, thefe far’ 
fought and deep laid Characters of mii Bese would be rejected here as indeterminate, 
and therefore ufelefs. | 
| _ As to the Receptacle, it confifts of two fkins sei a {pungy matter between. Its sha 
~— nefs or flightnefs are only terms of more and lefs, not marks of true diftinGion, neither is 
it ever totally abfent. It is very great in Teafell, it is fcarce to be {een at all in Thrift, 
yet both thefe have it; and all Aggregates haveit. The Stalk terminates in a head, fur- 
rounded bya Cup, within which, rife the feparate Flowets. This Cup i is formed of the 
outer Rind of the Stalk. The inner Rind and Blea terminate juft within it in a kind of 
Button : this Button is the Receptacle, and from this the Flowers rife. In_ fome, as in 
Scabious, the outer part of the Blea, rifing up loofe and light, forms a kind of fpungy 
matter between the two parts; in others, there is f{carce any thing of this, as in the Thrift, 
yet even here there is fome ; and the Structure is the fame always. 
‘In refpect of the Footftalks of the feparate Flowers, they are in fome fons which is 
ufually where the Receptacle is thick, and in others longer, where that part is thinner ; 3 
what would otherwife make the thicknefs of the Receptacle running up into thefe Foot~ 
{talks ; but the difference of longer or fhorter, is, like the former, only a mark of more or 
~lefs, and can have no place in true diftinction. 
THE 
