THE 
BRITISH HERBAL. 
CLASS ir. 
Plants whofe flower is compofed of several petals, wth numerous thre.ads 
in the centre, and "whofe feeds are contained in several pods. 
THIS, like the former, is a clafs perfeflly diflinguillied by nature ; akhougli the plants of 
which it confifts have been feparated from one another, and joined with fuch as are unlike 
them, by the fafhionablc form of this fcience; Mr. Ray, who followed nature carefully, has 
kept thefc together, as the preceding. He calls them berb^ muUifiliqii<e , five corniculatx. 
The plants of this clafs are fewer than in many others ; and we fee how regularly, naturally, 
and obvioully they are connefted together ; yet Linnaeus has difperfed them over all his works. We 
join them, becaufe feveral fcparate feed-velTels follow every flower. This charafter they all have, and 
this no other have ; it is therefore a very plain and perfeft mark for their diftinflion : that author fepa- 
rates them, becaufe though all have feveral threads in the centre ; yet fome have a greater, fome a 
fmaller number. Becaufe hellebore has twenty or more of thefe threads, he places that, and, for 
the fame rcafon, columbine and larkfpur, among his folyartdria foljgynia, joining them with the 
plants of our laft clafs. Becaufe in the greater houieleek thefe threads are twelve, and in the Icffer ff e- 
cies ten, thofe plants are feparated from the preceding, and from one another, and placed in two dif- 
tinfl: claflis ; the former among his dodncmdria, and the other among his decandria. The flowering 
rulh, for bearing but nine threads in every flower, is fent into a clafs different from all the others, 
among his enneandria : and the periwinkle, having but five threads in each flower, is joined with ivy, 
currants, and the vine, whofe fruits are berries, under the clafs of pentandria. 
Thus we fee the plants of whiclr this clafs is compofed, and which are fo perfeilly allied to 
one another, dlfl:ributed by this author throughout every part of his fyllem ; fcarce any two of them 
are to be found together. 
The queftion here is, whether a nuniber of plants are to be treated of together, becaufe they all have 
their feeds placed in feveral capfules after every flower, a characfter no others enjoy in common with 
them ; or whether they are to be feparated into difi^erent clafles, becaufe one has ten, and another has 
but nine threads in the centre ? Such is the fyftem of Linna:us. Novelty made it pleafe, and its 
obfcurity rendered it admired j but it cannot be lalfing. 
Tournefort judged better in this cafe : erroneous as he has been with refpecT: to the plants of the 
preceding clafs, he determined rightly of thefe. The Angular charaifler of feveral feparate capfules 
after every flower, could not efcape him •, though Linnieus, who knew, would not obferve it. 
Tournefort keeps them together, as Mr. Ray has done, under that charafter. The inftances we have 
given of Linna?us's unnaturally feparating thefe plants from one another, and unnaturally joining 
them with others, are from the Englifli wild kinds. We fliall fliew greater force put upon nature, 
when we come to foreign genera; if there can be greater than joining the periwinkle and the vine, one 
having for its fruit a berry, the other feveral feparate dry pods ; becaufe in each the flower has five 
threads in the centre. 
S E- 
