Tue VEGETABLE SYSTEM. . 63 
GE NUS) om 
ER YN, GO. 
Mom CY NAGe Tt Uo M. 
Character of the Genus, | : 
The Head:is oval, compact, and formed of many Flowets. The general 
Cup is longer than the Flowers; and is compofed of fix thorny Leaves. 
The feparate Flowers are compofed each of five oblong Petals, turning 
back at the end. 
Plate 48. a. @ bs 
t,o: ft FOCD ER YN G O, 
Plate 48. Fig. 3. 
| | ab Common Erynco.: 
Charaéter of the Species. , : 7 | Eryngium Campeftre. 
The firft Leaves from the Root are oval and undivided; only wav'd at 
the edge ; the reft are pinnatifid, and terminate in three points. 
| Bae ae : ae Fig. 1.4 B. 
Tus is a Perennial, native of our way fides in fome parts of England; and to the 
‘diftrefs of farmers, alfo of our corn-fields; where, when once in pofieffion, it is very 
hardly got out, for the Roots are very difficultly broken, and every piece will grow. 
The Plant is near a yard high, and branches into a multitude of fpreading twigs ; thefe 
are of a pale green. The Leaves are very handfomely cut; and what forms the trifid 
end of them, is no more than the two extream fide Segments, growing to that at the 
end. Their colour is a pale yellowifh green, faint but not difagreeable. The Flowers 
are blue, but it is not a fine or pleafing colour ; and fometimes they become of the 
mere colour of the Leaves, a yellowifh green, They blow from June to September. 
Tuts is the Plant whofe Roots are celebrated in medicine, and they deferve all the 
praife that has been given them. They are excellent in all diforders arifing from ob- | 
{truction : I have feen the jaundice cured by them alone; and in the gravel they are fafe - 
and excellent ; as alfo againft afthmas, and other diforders of the breaft and lungs ; but 
they trifle who eat them candy’d for this purpofe ; the virtue is loft in the preparation. 
Ir has been acuftom to range the Eryngium among the Umbelliferous Plants. Our 
reafon for placing it among the Aggregates, needs no other authority than the view of | 
the Head, or the comparifon of its Figure here, with thofe of Scabious and Dipfacus, 
the avowed Heads of the Aggregate Clafs. | 
ae a FOLD ED 
