606 
A COMPE RA 3 oy 
a = 
Sept. 
- oppolite. 
Breadth, and cut into ae Segments, or at the 
ern Seat. CEG notched at the Se and” fharp 
pointed. 
The lower Leaves fometimes have thefe Seg- 
ments expanded flat and regularly ; fo we have 
reprefented them in the lower Leaf of the annexed 
Figure to fhew the real Form; but the general 
Difpofition is much otherwife. The Form of 
the Leaf is the fame, but nothing is fo wild as 
the Arrangement. of their Segments; they fall 
againft and over one another, and they expand 
Sed twift themfelves in various odd Directions. 
The Flowers are extremely elegant ; they are 
humerous, and they terminate the main Stalk, and 
all the Branches in a Kind, of fhort Spikes. “Ech | 
has its Footftalk, and their Colour is a very 
fingular pale, and°as it were whitifh yellow. 
Their Form is properly that of the Aconite Flower, 
extravagant, ‘but too common to have the ‘due | 
Admiration. 
There is no Cup. | The Body of the Flower i is 
compofed of five Petals, one of which is placed | 
above, two below, and two fideways. The upper 
Petal is tubulate and ealeated, inverted or placed 
with the Back upwards, and is obtufe, the Head 
bent back to the Bafe, and pointed: to this 
Head, the Bafe, where the Conneétion is, ftands 
This is the ftrange Form of the up- 
per Petal, not eafily idecttidi Ble by Words alone, 
but familiar by Comparifon of the Flower; the 
two fide Petals are broad, rounded, placed op- 
pofite and convergent; the two loweft are ob- 
long and narrower, and they hang downward. 
There are two Nettaria very fingularly dif- 
pofed; hid as it were under the upper Petal. 
‘Fhey are hollow, and have an oblique Mouth, 
and they ftand nodding ; and havea crooked Tail : 
thefe fingular Parts are plac: d on long F gortialks, 
‘flenderer pane the Lop... 
The Filaments are numerous and fhort, they at are 
lender, and they turn toward the upper Petal : 
they are broad at the Bafe, and they have 
fmall upright Buttons. In the midft of thefe 
ftand five Styles of the Length of the Fila- 
ments, rifing from fo many Rudiments of Seed- 
veflels, and terminated by fimple reflex Heads. 
The Fruit is compofed of fo many Seed- 
veffels, and each contains feveral rough angu- 
lated Seeds. 
The numerous Filaments are inferted on the Re 
ceptacle, and this fhews the Plant one of the Poly- 
The Styles being five, as plainly refer it 
ondria, 
‘to the Pentagynia. 
It is needful to obferve, that in the Linnean 
Genera, the Place. of this Plant is among the 
Polyandria trigynia : that Author was induced, by 
the Neceffity of his Method, to mifplace the Plant. 
It has not been done by Overfight, but knowingly; 
for he has named its five Rudiments and -five 
Styles: the reft of the Aconites have only three ; 
and thofe he was obliged to place among the J7i- 
gynia by that abfolute Character. 
This and the common yellow /conite have five 
Styles, and fo many Rudiments of Fruit; but 
they are perfect Aconites, for they agree in all 
other Characters with the reft of that Genus. 
To have feparated thefe two by an intermediate =~ 
Order from the reft of the Aconites, would. 
have been moft unjuftifiable ; for it is againft all 
Rule to divide a Genus, and difplace forme of its 
Species. — | on Ay 
Linnaus faw this, and he faked: to the 
Neceffity of joining thefe to the other 4conites ; al- 
lowing them of the fame.Genus, tho’ of a different 
Order or fuperior Divifion. It is One of the In- 
{tances of Imperfection i in his Method, and juttifies 
what I have had Occafion to obferve in another 
Work, and what the World will one Time own > 
univerfally of the Imperfection, to ule no harder 
Term, of the claffical Diftribution by minute Parts. 
Let our Student underftand the Merits of Lrn- 
His Characters of Genera are. 
accurate and moft {cientifick ; and his Nantes of 
Species happily diftinctive. In thefe, which 
are the two great Articles of botanical Improve- 
ment, he has oy aes all Men, and has more ad- 
vanced the Science than the whole Catalogue of 
Names, great as they are, who went Before him. 
This is his Merit, but the claffical sie lan 
does too much Violence to Nature. 
N AUS properly. 
Culture of this Acontte. 
It is a Native of the northern Parts of Europe; 
and many other ‘cool Parts of the World. The Soil 
which beft fuits it is a moift rich Mould, and it 
fucceeds beft in Expofure; the Shade of Trees 
| does not deftroy the Plant, but it never flowers 
{o well under it, nor is fo healthy. 
The common and eafy Way of propagating it 
is by parting the Roots in Autumn; but ’tis 
very eafy to raife it from Seed, and in that State 
it always fucceeds better. : 
Let fome good Seed be procured from a Plant 
in an open rich Soil, which has not been fuf- 
fered to produce too large a Quantity. No Side- 
fhoots fhould in thefe Seed Plants be fuffered to 
flower, and the Top of the Spike fhould be 
nip’d off to prevent the upper Flowers.’ Thus 
the Seed-veffels of fix or eight of the lower ones 
will fill with perfeét Seeds. 
Let thefe be dried in the ufual Manner, and 
kept during Winter. 
In the Beginning of March let a Bed be dug in 
an expofed Part of the Sue and thefe Seeds 
featter’>don. Let a Finger’s Breadth of Monid be 
fifted over them. 
When the Plants appear, thin them to five 
Inches Diftance, leaving only the ftrongeft; and 
in May tranfplant thefe into another Border in the 
Nurfery at eight Inches afunder. 
take them up with good Balls of Earth, .and re- 
move them into the Garden. ‘They will flower in 
full Perfection the following Seafon. 
Seeds fhould be faved (ae the fineft Plants 
with the Care above directed, and fown every 
Year: the Trouble is little, and the Advantage 
will be the keeping the Plant in its full Perfec- 
tion, and perhaps improving it every Seafon. ° 
In September’ 
