The BRITISH HERBAL. 
fiender, and hairy : the whole afpe£t of them, 
at a diftance, is not unlike chac of feme of the 
kinds of . heath in their young fhoots ; but, when 
handled, they are prickly. 
The flowers are large and very beautiful : they 
ftand fingiy on the tops of the branches, and are 
of a pale purple, fometinries of a deep violet co- 
lour, and' fometimes almoft white. 
The feed-veiTel is very fhort, and the cup con- 
tinues on it enlarged. 
It is a native of Africa, and principally about 
the fea coaft. 
Commelin _cails it Campanula Afrkana fpinofa 
fiore "Jiolaceo. 
It virtues are not known. 
GENUS xiir,, . ' 
FLOWERINGREED. 
CANNACORUS. 
THE flower confifts of a fingle petal, and is divided into fix parts irregu'arly dilpofed ; the fruit 
is a fihgle c'apfule, which is large, rough, and contains three cells: the c-up is compofed of 
three leaves, which are fmall, coloured, and permanent. 
Linnseus places this genus among his ??;(??;fl?;<^r/i3 «;(?Hi?g"_)'/;/<^ ; there being only a fingle filament or 
thread in each flower, and the rudiment of the capfule being alfo fingle. 
He reduces the old name camiacsrus to a fliorter, calling it canna. 
Broad-leaved Flowering Reed. 
Cannacorus latifolitis. 
■ The root'is t'ubercus, and of an irregulat fi- " 
gure, full of thick parts, and of long and large 
fibres. 
The firfl: leaves are very large, long, and 
broad; of a frelh and beautiful green, and placed 
on hollow footftalks ; they are pDinted at the 
tnd, and waved at the edges. 
■ The ftalk is round, firm, upright, and three 
or four feet high, and is covered the grcatcft part 
of the way up, by the fcabbards of the leaves. 
The leaves ftand irregularly on it, and are, 
like thofe from the root, broad, large, of a frefh 
green, and fharp pointed. 
The flowers are large, and of a beautiful red ; 
long, and very fingular in their ftrudure : they 
are divided to the bafe, the fegments adhering 
to one another only there-, and thefe are irregu- 
lar in form, as well as difpofition : three of them 
ftand outward, and aYe ercd and fhorter ; the 
other three Hand inward, and are longer ; and of 
thefe, two are ereft and one is reflex. 
The feed-vefl"el is large,- and very rough on 
the furface ; and the feeds are large and few. 
It is a native of Afia and Africa, and of the 
warmer parts of America ; and flowers in June. ■ 
C. Bauhine calls it Amnio indica latifolia. O- 
thers, Cannacorus, and Canna. 
Its virtues are not known with certainty. 
TT may appear, to thofe ivho a?-e unacquainted with the praBlce of phyfick, that the virtues 
_ - -attributed to plants in this ivork are too few ; and the detail too Jliort on that head. 
To obviate this objeBioUt it will be proper once to obferve^ that the error of moft books 
•written on this JubjeB is afcribhig too much to mojl plants. Whoever Jljall turn over the writ- 
ings of Gerard a?jd Parkinfgn, in this view^ will fee that almojl every herb is faid to be a cure 
for almojl every difeafe ; and the fame Jault runs through moji others, in a greater or lejfer 
degree, 
Hence^ the young phyfician, unable to judge what he is to regard, and what negleBj has in a 
manner rejeSled all : becaufe too much has been wi'itten of the virtues of plajits, too little is be- 
lieved. From this, chemical medicines, made principally jrom minerals, have come fo generally 
■into life, and. the galenical^ obtained moftly fromplants, have been and are fo much negleBed. 
To remedy this evil, the utmoji care has been taken, throughout the courfe of the prefent work, 
i& dijli?iguifj the real from the imagi^mry virtues of plants : the fonner have been carefully 
preferved; and thejatter rejeSled. 
For this reafo}t the catalogues of virtues will appear Jhorter in this than in other books of a 
like kind ; but, it is apprehe?ided, it will therefore be more ufefuL 
This is a point that has demanded the author's principal attention j and deferves that of every 
writer ?nore than any other part in a work on this fubjeB : the refl is amufe?ne?it, but in this 
the healths and lives of mankind are concerned. 
The E ND fif the F O U K r H CLASS. 
THE 
