ii6 
The BRITISH HERBAL. 
The leaves ftand uRially in pairs, but fome- 
times three rife from the fame point. 
They are of a hcart-fafhioned fliape, (liort and 
broad, and dented round the edges. 
The flowers Hand feveral together on fliort 
footflallis rifing/rom the bofoms of the leaves ; 
and they are fmall and yellow. 
The feed-veflel is large and roundifh ; and the 
feeds are numerous and fmall. 
It is a native of Italy, and flowers in June. 
C. Bauhine calls it Scrophularia flors hiteo. 
Clufius makes it a kind of dead nettle : he calls it 
Lmmum pannomcum fecitndum. 
2. Jagged yellow Figwort. 
Scrsphiilaria lutea laciniata. 
The root is long, thick, oblique, and fur- 
nifhed with numerous fibres. 
The leaves that rife firfl from it are very large, 
and deeply divided: they ftand on long fuot- 
ftalks, and are of a Vieautiful green. 
The ftalk is firm, creft, brown, and two feet 
and a half high. 
The leaves ftand in pairs, and are large, and 
deeply fcrrated : they have frequently two ap- 
pendages or fmall leaves growing on their foot- 
ftalk near the bafe, in the manner of thofe of the 
common water figwort. 
Thofe toward the bottom of the ftalk approach 
more to the divifions of thofe from the root i and 
thofe near the top are longer and narrower, and 
very deeply and fharply jagged. 
The flowers are large and yellow, and ftand 
feveral together on footftalks rifing from the bo- 
foms of the leaves. 
The feed velTels are large and roundilh ; and 
the feeds are numerous and fmall. 
It is a native of Spain and Portugal, and 
flowers in July. 
C. Bauhine calls it Scrophularia foUis laciniatis. 
Others, Scrophularia famhuci folio fiore magna. 
4. Nettle-leaved Figwort. 
Scrophularia urtica folio. 
The root is long and thick, and has many 
large fibres. 
The ftalk is fquare, firm, and lightly hairy, 
very much branched, and two feet high. 
The leaves ftand in pairs, and have long foot- 
ftalks ; they are large, and of a Ibining green, 
broad at the bale, narrower to the point, anJ 
indented ftiarply all the way on the edges. 
The flowers are placed all the way up the ftalk 
and branches, and have long footftalks -, each of 
which fplits toward the top, and holds two 
flowers: they are la-ge, and of a bright red. 
The feed-veflel is large, roundifti, and point- 
ed ; and the feeds are numerous and fi^iail. 
It is a native of Italy, and flowers in May. 
C. Bauhine calls it Scrophularia urlicf folio j 
and moft others have followed hini. 
5. Pinnated Figwort. 
Scrophularia foliis pinmiis. 
The root is long, thick, and hung with many 
large fibres. 
The leaves that rife firft from it are long, nar- 
row, and deeply divided at the edges, the cuts 
going almoft to the middle rib : they have no 
footftalks, and are of a llrining, deep green. 
The ftalks are numerous, firm, upright, and 
of a deep brown : they are fcarce at all branched, 
and are a foot and half high. 
The leaves ftand on them in pairs, and are 
deeply divided; fo that they appear pinnated; 
each feems compofed of about three pair of pin- 
n,T, w-jth an odd one at the end, and thefe are 
deeply jagged. 
The flowers ftand on the tops of the ftalks, 
and are very ni.mcrous, fmall, and of a dark 
purple colour. 
The feed-veflels are large, roundifti, and 
pointed i and the feeds are fmall and brown. 
It a native of Italy and Germany ; and flowers 
in July. 
C. 13auhine calls it Scrophulai-ia ruta canira 
dicta. The common writers calllt Ruia canina, 
and Dogs rue. . 
All thcfe fpeciesof figwort have the fame kind 
of taftc, and moft of .them the fame fmcU 
with our common wild kind;' and they are cele- 
brated for the fame virrties. They are accounted 
great medicines againft fcorbutick and other foul- 
nefles ; and pultices of their leaves are made for 
the piles. The common wild kind of our woods 
feems to have more virtue than any of them, 
though natives of warmer climates. 
G E N U S Vlf. 
F O X L O V F. 
DIGITALIS. 
THE flower confifts of a fingle petal, which is long and hollow like the finger of a glove, and 
is divided into four fegmcnts at the edge, remotely approaching to the labiated °for.m'; the 
upper lip is broad and divided, and the under one larger: the cup is divided into five fegmcnts; 
• and the feed-veflel is large, of an oval form, and pointed at the top. ° 
Linnsus places this among his didynamia angiofpertnia ; the threads in each flower being four, two 
of which are longer and two ftiorter, and the feeds contained in a capfule. 
This diftinSion of that celebrated author comprifes fo many of the plants properly of our prefent 
clafs, that it fliews how nature is fimilar, even in the fmalleft parts, in plants allied to one another : but 
this is all that fliould have been inferred from the curious and juft obfervation of that writer, of the 
threads in each flower being four, and two of them longer and twofliorler: when he carried this obfer- 
vation into a larger ufe, and made it the foundation of a clafs, it failed him, and mifled his readers. 
4 We 
