The BRITISH HERBAL- 
47 
GENUS XIV. 
WINTER WOLFSBANE; 
C A M M A RV M. 
npHE flower ftands in the centre of the leaf, and has no other cup ; it Is compofed of fix pe- 
tals : the feeds are contained in capfules, in an uncertain number, properly fix, but mors 
frequently only four or five, after every flower. 
No plant has been called by fo many names, or refeiTed to fo many different genera, as this j and 
alt improperly. The error has been in the authors not perceiving that it was a fui generis ■> and 
belonged to none. 
LinniEus places it among his pclyandria foJygynia^ making it a fpecies of hellebore : but it has fix 
petals to the flower \ whereas the hr'Iebores have but five. This is a vrry efiential diftinilion. 
C. Bauhine calls it sti flfCH/;^ ; but the aconites hav;- only five petals in the flower, and thofe dif- 
pofc-d in a particular manner: whereas in this there are fix j and they are equal, and fliand regu- 
larly. 
J. Bauhine makes it a mmvailus, forgetting tli..f the rnnnncuU have naked feeds, and this plahc 
capfules. By fomc It is called buJbus urr.folius\ a very uncertain name, and alfo improp r \ the root 
being not bulbous, but tuberous: and by others it 'is'calkd an ellebortne; a genus from which it 
differs in foim and charafters more than from all. 
In this uncertainty and impropriety of a name, I have given !c a new one, f'iflinfl: as the plant it- 
fe!f from all the other genera : this is ccmntanm, from an oid G. *;u< word ytc/.-.'^a^ou, ufed by Dio- 
fcorides and others as a diftintflion to fome of their aconites \ tho ^ii, from their Ihortnefs, it is not 
eafy to fay which. In Diofcorides it fecms to me^in the f:^ine with Sis pard-ilianches ; but in others it 
rather apgears to point at this plant ; which there is alfo reafon fi beiieve is the real and proper 
aconite of Theophraftus, and the earlier Greeks. I have however pr'eferved its common Knglifli 
name. 
We fee, though commonly called by the name of zvc!/f/:'me, it is a plar.t altogether different from 
that genus, and properly contlitutes one of its own •, I hzve thereior- cal'ed it by a new one. But 
as the plant is fo perfectly known by its old Englifh name, and by the Latin one, of which that 
is a tranflation, accnitnm hyemak, and is one which, from its power ot doing harm, fhould not be 
rendered liable to be miflaken, great danger, as well as the lofs of great ^ood, being neceflarily to be 
guarded againft in the confideration of changing of names, I h ive prefcrvcd its common with its new 
one ; and wifh, in cafes of this icind, the fame praflice may be ioitowed by others. 
Of this fmgular genus there is but one known fpecies, which is very common in our gardens. 
Winter Wolffl^ane. 
Q:!f?m<7rum. 
TIic root is thick, tuberous, and large ; black 
on the outfide, white within, and of a violently 
acrid and burning tafl:e. It has a few fibres ; 
and, when it has flood fome time on the ground, 
has other tuberous pieces growing from it. 
The leaf and plant are one thing, for there is 
no other ftalic. 
Many footftalks rife from different parts of the 
root, each of which has at its top one leaf. The 
footftalk is inferted at the centre j and the leaf is 
of a rounded figure, but very deeply divided into 
narrow fegments* 
The flower grows in the centre of the leaf, 
and is large and yellow. It confifts of fix pe- 
tals, with a great tuft of threads in the middle, 
and among them the rudiments of feveral cap- 
fules. 
When the flower falls, thefe ripen, and con- 
tain feveral yellowifli, rounded, and flat feeds. 
It is a native of Germany, and flowers in the 
tjcpth of winter. 
The root is a violent cathartick in a very 
fmall dofe ; and in any thing a larger quantity it 
is to be Gonfidered as a fatal pdifon. 
GENUS XV. 
P 1 O N Y. 
P CE O N I A. 
THE leaves are divided into many parts. The flowers are large, and confift of five petals : they 
ftand in a five-leavcd cup, and are fucceeded by large capfules, two after every flower; The 
roots are tuberous. 
Linnfeus places this among \-\\^ polymuiria digynia, there being numerous filaments, and the ru- 
diments of the two capfules in the centre of every flower. In this, however, he acknowledges there 
is no certainty; for, inftead of two, thefe rudiments are in fome fpecjes three, four, or fivt, to each 
flower. 
