The BRITISH HERBAL. 
3. Purple bulbous Wood Sorrel. 
Oxys purpurea bulbofa. 
The»root is a little bulb, compofed of feveral 
parts, in the manner of that of a lilly, and has a 
tuft of tender fibres growing from its bottom. 
The leaves (land three on a footftalk, as in the 
common kind, and are of the heart-falhioned 
fhape : the footftalk is flender, weak, and re- 
difh. 
The flowers (land feveral together on the top 
of a naked ilalk ; this is taller and more ro- 
buil than the footilalks of the leaves, but no: at 
all branched ; nor are there any leaves on it. 
The flowers are large, and of a beautiful 
purple. 
The feed vefTcl is long, edged, and angulated. 
It is a native of Virginia, and flowers in 
April. 
PJukenet calls it Oxys purpurea Virginiana ra- 
dice lillii more nuclmta. 
4, Small-leaved Wood Sorrel. 
Oxys foUis miniorihus ramofa. 
The root is roundifli, large, and made up of 
feveral heads, like the lilly-root. 
The firft leaves are fmal), and very numerous : 
they rife in a little duller, without any vifib'e 
footflialk three ftand together, and they are 
fmall, fliarp-pointed, and yellow'ini. 
In the centre of thefe rifes the ftalk, and they 
foon after wither \ fo that there does not renlain 
the leaft mark there ever were any. 
The flialk is upright, firm, branched, and four 
or five inches high. 
The leaves ftand thick upon it from top to 
bottom : they grow three together without any 
footftalk, and are Ihort and pointed. 
From the bofoms of the upper leaves rife fmall 
and flender footftalks of a confiderable length ; 
on each of which there is a fmgle flower : this is 
large, and of a beautiful purple. 
The feed-veffel is long, ridged, and pointed. 
It is a native of ^Ethiopia, and flowers in 
May. 
^ Burman calls it Oxalh hidhofa folih angufth ter - 
nh hirtis flare purpurea. 
5. Great-flowered Wood Sorrel. 
Oxys flare maxima. 
The root is long and flender : it runs obliquely 
under the furface, and has frequent little bulbous 
heads growing to it, and numerous clufters of 
fibres. 
The leaves arc numerous, and not unlike thofe 
of our common ivsad Jorrcl : they ftand three to- 
gether on long, tender footftalks, and are heart- 
fafhioned, and of a pale green. 
Among thefe rife feveral tender, naked ftaiks. 
taller than thofe of many of the leaves ; and on 
each of thefe ftands a Angle flower. 
This-is of a pale purple, very large, and very 
beautiful ; and confifts, like the others, of a 
Angle petal, fo deeply cut into five fegments, that 
thty feem abfolutcly diftindl. 
The feed-vefTcl is long and pointed. 
It is a native of ^Tithiopi:], and flowers in May. 
Commelin calls it Oxys bulbofa JEth'iopka minor 
folio cordato. Others, Great-flc-wered oxys. 
The leaves of all thefe foreign kinds have the 
fame four tafle with thofe of the caimnon oxys, 
fome in a greater, feme in a lefTer degree i but 
not one of them excels our own. They pro- 
bably have all the fame virtues, differing only in 
proportion to the degree of acidity we perceive in 
their taftes. 
GENUS XXI. 
MILKWORT. 
P 0 L r G A LA. 
npHE Hower confifls of a fingle petal, divided to the bottom into four parts ; fo that it appears to 
be formed of fo many diftinft petals : the feed-veffel is a capfule of a compreffed, heart- falhioned 
(hapc : the cup is compofed of three leaves, two of which ftand below, and the other three above the 
flower. 
This is a perplexing plant to moft of the fyftem -makers. Its flower is very fingular in form ; 
therefore it has been called an irregular one, and mofl: have fuppofed the fegments fo many diftindt 
petals. 
Linnsus places it among his diaiclpUa oSandria, the threads in the flower being ei^ht ; and col- 
leded into two clufters, as if they rofe from two heads. 
Ray has ranged it better than any : he found that the fegments united at the bottom, and the 
flower truly confifted of a fingle petal, and that the feed-ve£fel was fingle; he therefore juftlv made 
it one of his HerbxfruSiu ficco fmgulari flore mompstak. 
DIVISION I. BRITISH SPECIES. 
I. Blue-flowered Milkwort. 
Folygala uulgarh. 
The root is long, flender, divided into many 
parts, fpreading, and furniflied with numerous 
iibres. 
N' 8. 
The firfl: leaves are numerous, broad, and 
Ihort : they grow in little clufters upon the young 
flioots, and have no footftalks. 
The ftaiks rife among thefe, and often thofe 
flioots themfelves lengthen into ftaiks : they are 
numerous, weak, procumbent, and of a pale 
Y green : 
