The BRITISH HERBAL. 
53 
have the female parts double. One fhould fmile at the perplexity that rifes from this unfubftantial 
method, but that it has milled fo many. What is an author to do, who has fet up a fyftem dependent 
on complex, as well as minute parts, when one portion of the fame objeiS, as in this inllance, deter- 
mines the plant to one afTorrment, and another to another. It is to this we owe thofe frequent ex- 
ceptions the author has himfelf made to his generical charai^ers and the many others, thofe who fhall 
obfcrve nature heedfuUy, mufl: make for him. 
DIVISION I. 
BRITISH SPECIES. 
Small Periwinkle. 
Pervinca minor. 
The root is long, tough, flendcr, and full of 
fibres. 
The ftalks are long, but weak. They are 
tough, but want firmnefs ■, fo that they lie upon 
the ground, and frequently take root at liie joints : 
hence, when the plant has ftood any time we 
commonly fee a thick tuft of it. 
The leaves fland in pairs : they are oblong, 
broad, even at the edges, pointed at the ends, and 
have no footRalk^. They are of a firm (lub- 
ftance, and deep green coiour. 
The flowers (land on long foocftalks, which rife 
from [the bofoms ot the leaves ; they are large, 
and of a beautiful blue. 
The feed- velTels are fiiarp-polnted, two 'follow 
every flower, and there are in them many large^ 
oblong feeds. 
It is a native of our woods, but not common. 
It flowers in June. 
C. Bauhine calls it Cletmtis daphnoides minor. 
Others, Amply, Clematis dafhnoideSi or Vinca 
■pervinca. 
DIVISION II. 
FOREIGN SPECIES. 
Great Periwinkle. 
Pervinca major. 
1' he root is a great tuft of fibres. 
The ftalks are numerous, firm, woody, and 
tolerably ereft. 
The leaves ftand in pairs, and are placed on 
fhort footftalks ; they are broader than thofe of 
ihe fmall kind in proportion to their length, and 
are more of an oval figure ; they are even at the 
edges, and broad at the bafe, and pointed at the 
ends. 
The flowers ftand on long footftalks, rlfing 
from the bofoms oi: the leaves, and are large 
and blue. 
The feeds follow in two long capfules, pointed 
at the ends. 
It is frequent in the woods of Germany, and 
flowers in July. 
C. Bauhine calls tt Clematis daphnoides major. 
Others, Vinca pervinca major. 
Some have fuppofed this a variety of the pre- 
ceding fpecies, imagining that it only difl"ercd 
in fize; but they fhould have obferved the foot- 
ftalks and form of the leaves, and they would 
have found that the fize of the plants, though 
the moft obvious, is not the moft cfTential mark 
of their diftin£lion. 
GENUS II. 
SENGREEN. 
A I Z 0 0 N. 
THE flower is large, and confifts of a fingle petal flightly divided into ten fegments. The feeds 
are contained in capfules, a great number of which fucceed every flower. The leaves grow in 
round clufters in the manner of thefe ot houfeleek ; which the plant in its general form greatly re- 
fembles. 
No author has feparated this, perfciflly Angular as it is, or allowed it a diftind genus : it has been 
univerfally ranked as a fpecies of houfeleek, though it belongs to a fcparate clafs. 
Linnseus makes it a fpecies of fempervivum ; though he has eftablilhed, in the generical character, 
that fempervivum has a flower confifting of twelve petals, whereas the flower of this plant has bu^ 
one. This refers it plainly and necefiarily to the prefent clafs, and renders a new name necef. 
fary for it ; but, to avoid perplexity, I have given it one that has always been fuppofed to belong, 
though in an undetermined manner, to the houfeleek kind : it is very well applicable to this plant ; 
the leaves continuing all the year frefh and green. 
Of this genus there is but one known fpecies. 
Sengreen. 
Aizoon. 
The root is long, flender, and edged with 
fibres. 
The leaver that rife from it are flefliy, oblong, 
and pointed: thfygrow in natural clufters, but in a 
VL 
veryfingularmanner. Theclufters areof aroundifli 
form, as in the common houfeleek, but have not 
that open divifion : they are rather globular. In 
winter they are of a greyifli green, and ftand fe- 
parate, as in onher plants of this kind ; but to- 
ward fpring they affume another form : they have 
a multitude of long, fine, and flender hairs grow- 
P ing 
