THE BRITISH HERBAL. 
thofe from the root: thefe are beautifully divided, 
and of a blackifh green. 
The flowers grow toward the tops of the 
flalks, and are large and yellow. 
The feed- veflei is very Jarge and round i and 
the feeds are fmalh 
It is a native of Ncrlh America, and flowers 
in Augufl:. 
Pluniier calls it Liimria palufiris f&nkuli folic 
GENUS xiv: 
WATER GLADIOLE. 
DORTMANNA. 
'TpHE flower confifls of a Tingle petal, and approaches in fome degree to the galeated kind, but noC 
nearly fo much as'the others in general of this clafs : it is formed into a fliort tube fplit in the upper 
part, and two irregular lips : the upper lip confifts of two fegments, which are narrower and fmaller 3 
and the lower one of three, which are broader and larger; but when the flower Is perfedly open this 
form is Icfs obfervable; the feed-vefle! is round and large; and the cup is divided into five flight 
fegments. The leaves of the plant are hollow and divided within. 
Linnaeus places this among his fyngcnafia folygamia monogamia; but he does not allow it to be a 
difl:ind genus : he places it among the rapuncuU-, which he arranges there under the name of lobelia. 
The fhape of the feed-veflel diftinguifhes it from his lobelia^ and the ftruiflure of its leaves from 
all other plants. None is more properly of a genus feparate from ajl others. 
There is but one known fpecies of this plant, and that is a native of Britain and other parts of 
the north of Europe. 
Water Gladiole. 
T) or t manna. 
The root is a clufter of long, thick fibres, 
which penetrate deep into the mud at the bottom 
of thofe waters where it delights to grow. 
The leaves rife in a tuft twelve or fourteen to- 
gether : they are long, narrow, and of a pale 
green, hollow within, and divided, in the man- 
ner of a pod of fome of the wallflower kinds, 
into two feparate empty fpaces, by a membrane 
that runs lengthwife from the bafe to the point. 
The flalk rifes in the midfl:, and is yellowifli 
and round : it rifes to a great height when the 
water is deep ; but with us as it generally grows 
in fliallow places, its length is about a foot : 
fometimes it is naked, fometimes there grow on 
it a leaf or two like thofe from the root. 
The flowers ftand at the top, in a kind of loofe 
fpike i but they hang on their footftalks, and ge- 
nerally fall all on one fide : five or fix is the ufual 
number : but they rarely open together: they are 
of a pale purple. 
The feed-vefl!el is large and round ; and the 
feeds are numerous and fmall. 
It is common in waters on the hills in the 
north of England ; and flowers in July. 
Ray led LinntEus into the calling this a fpecies 
of raptintium ; for he fays its flower makes it 
fuch, though the feed-vefl!I:l fliews a difference : 
but if the feed-veflel had been as like that of 
rapunnum as the flower, fl:iH the whole plant is 
fo perfectly unlike, and its leaves are foextreamly 
Angular, that there is reafon enough to keep it 
as a diflindt genus. 
Clufius calls it Gladiolus lacujlris Dortmanni, 
from the name of Dortman a German apothecary, 
from whom he firfl: received it : but, as gladiolus 
is the name of a diftinft genus, it is better to call 
it, as Rudbeck does, dortmanna. C. Bauhine calls 
it Leucoiiim fnlujlre flwe fubcaruleo. Others, 
Gladiolus palujlris. 
There is nothing known of the virtues of this 
or of the preceding plant : they are food for 
ducks ajid other water-fowl. 
GENUS XV, 
BROOINIRAPE. 
OROBANCHE. 
'T'HE flower is made of a Angle petal, and approaches to the labiated form : it confifts of a tube 
and two lip? : the tube is crooked, thick, and fliort : the upper lip is broad, hollow, and 
indented; and the lower lip is divided into three unequal fegments, and turns back: the cup is 
divided lightly into four fegments; and the feed-veflfel is of an oval figure, but fomewhat oblong, 
and pointed at the end. 
LinnEUS places this among the dldynamia angiofpermia , there being four threads in the flower, of 
which two are longer and two fliorter, and the fseds being contained in a capfiile. 
t)I VI- 
