The BRITISH HERBAL. 
2l 
Icribed as different fpecies by authors 5 but they 
are only accidental varieties. 
The roots of pileitiort are cooling and foften- 
ing. They are an excellent remedy in the pain of 
the piles ; bruifed, and applied to the part : hence 
they obtained the name. A decoftion of them 
in red wine is alfo excellent in the fame diforder 
when they bleed too much. 
A cataplasm made of the roots and leaves 
bruifed, and laid on fcrophulous tumors, has 
been known to do great fervice. 
Inwardly a ftrong decoction is good In the 
j^ndice. 
Having thus feen the form and virtues of this 
plant, the reader will be able to pafs a more per- 
feft judgment on that method, which propofes 
making it a fpecies of crowfoot. 
Here is an herb different in form, ffiape, and 
virtues, from crowfoot, and diftinguiftied by the 
moll: obvious and effcntia! parts, on a nearer in- 
fpeftion. Can it be reafonable, therefore, when 
the flower and its cup fiiew a manifefl: difference, 
we ftiould look for a hole in the bottom of the pe- 
tals, to unite this and the crowfoot ? Or can it be 
proper to join together a plant with a cooling roor, 
and a whole feries of others which arc of a burn- 
ing and cauftick nature This is confounding 
what Nature has widely feparatcd ; and v/e fee 
file has given marks enough of that diftinaion. 
GENUS XIV. 
ARROWHEAD, ; 
S A G I T t A R I A. 
THE fiower cnnfifls of three petals, and has a three-leaved cup : the feeds ffand in 3 round 
naked duller : the leaves have long footftalks, and are Ihaped like the bearded head of an arrow. 
There are two forts of flowers on this plant, male and female. The male ftand uppcrmoft on the 
ftalks. Their general form is alike ; but in the centre of the male flowers there are only threads topp'd 
■with buttons : in the female, none of ^thefe but the rudiments of the future feeds, with their appen- 
dages, a kind of filaments for the reception of the duft from the buttons. 
Linnajus places this among the Moncaia PaJyandria, fcparating it far from the other naked feeded 
plants ; and joining it with the oak, hazel, and walnut tree. The reafon of this is, that there are 
the different male and female flowers. His explanation of the clafs of Monxda is this : It confifts of 
plants, in which the males mi females live in the fame hoiife, hit fleep in different beds * ; that is, there 
are male and female flowers on the fame plant. 
This is an inftance how unnatural the method of that author is. In our plain courfe, in this part 
marked out by IMr. Ray, the arrowbeaii is jomed to thofe plants to which its flowers and feeds fliew 
it naturally belongs ; and the mentioning the feparate flowers in the account is luflicient. 
DIVISION I. BRITISH SPECIES. 
I, Common Arrowhead. 
Sagittaria vulgaris. 
The root is large, thick, white, and hung 
with long fibres. 
The firfb leaves are long, narrow, and grafly i 
and thefe, till better known, were mifl;aken for 
a feparate plant •, and called the great-rooted wa- 
ter grafs. 
The following leaves are thofe which charac- 
terife the plant. They are placed on very long 
footftalks, reaching from the bottom to the fur- 
face often where there is a great depth : thefe are 
thick, loft, fpungy, and of an obtufely angulated 
form. The leaves are large, and formed like the 
bearded head of an arrow, tolerably fharp at the 
point, and at the two beards. They are of a 
gloffy furlace, and fine green. 
The ftalks rife two or three together from the 
centre of the clufter of leaves : they are naked 
two, three, or four feet high, thick, and fpungy, 
and of a fmooth furface. 
The flowers fl:and on long footftalks, and are 
large and white : they grow three or four from 
the fame place, furcounding the ftalk. 
The feeds follow the lemale, which are the 
lower flowers, and ftand in large roundifli naked 
clufters. 
It is common in waters, and flowers in July. 
All authors call itSaptta,!LnA Sagittaria aqitatica; 
but they idly divide it into a larger and fmaller 
kind, from the difference of fize in the leaves : 
there is alfo another variety, which they delcribe 
as a diftinft fpecies, under the name of the nar- 
rovi-ka-ved fmaller arrowhead. All thefe grow 
promifcuoufly together, and are no more than 
accidental changes ; but there is one froall fpecies, 
the form of whofe leaves and flowers fhcws it to 
be diftinft. 
2. Little Arrowhead, with pointed leaves, and 
large flowers. 
Sagittaria minor foliis aeutiorihus Jlore majore. 
The root confifts of a great clufter of whitifli 
fibres. 
The leaves that rife firft are narrow, fliort, and 
deeply ribbed. They have no footftalks, and 
are in fome degree grafly. 
The leaves that follow thefe rife in a little 
clufter : their footftalks are fmall and firm ; and 
they are very narrow, and very fharp-pointed^ of 
a pale green, and highly ribbed. 
* Mares habitant cum faraiiiibus in eadtm tltjmo, fed diveifo thatamo. 
N" III. 
G 
The 
