THE 
BRITISH HERBAL. 
CLASS viir. 
plants ivhofe flower is compofed of four petals, and is fucceeded by a single 
REGULAR CAPSULE. 
THESE are plants as evidently allied to one another, and as evidently diftinguifhed from the 
reft as thofe of the preceding ciaf?, fince nothing can be a plainer clailical charader than 
four petals in a flower, and a fingle capfule fucceeding ; yet they arc dilperfed over feveral 
parts of the works of Linnxns, and all the modern writers. 
The ftudent, in this method of ours, needs only examine the number of petals and the feed- 
veflel, to know to what clafs to refer, or where to look for a plant of this defignation : in 
thofe he will receive no information cn either head from fuch an obfervation i but mult count the 
threads in the plaintain, and thofe in willow-herb, to find where to feek them in his author, and to 
difcover, that one having four belongs to the clafs of tetrandia^ and the other having five to tiut of 
pentandria i while the poppy, becaufe it has them more numerous, and fixed to the receptacle, is to 
be fought for among the folymdria, in a very diftant part of the book. 
The ftudent will here find all the plants which have four petals, and a fingle regular capfule, 
together: but let him obferve here the diftindtion between the capfule and the pod. As t^^fe names 
are diftinft in Englifii, fo they are in other languages. The Latin writers confliantly exprefs one by 
capfula, the other by ftUqua ; and chough both are fccd-veffels, they are perfedlly diftinguiJlied. 
This is the more needful to be obferved here, becaufe there is another great family to be diftin. 
(Tuifhed by having four petals in the flower, and a pod or fiUqua following. 
The dillindion will be fiiewn when we come to treat of that clafs. What is confined i;i the pre- 
fent aflbrtment is that family of plants in which the petals are four, and the feed-veflel is a capfule, 
fiich as thofe of the feveral preceding clalTes, and not a pod. 
SERIES I. 
Natives o/'Britain. 
Thofe of which one or more fpecies are wild in this country. 
GENUS I. 
POPPY. 
P A P A V E R. 
ri-^HE flower is compofed of four large, broad, petals : the cup is a hulk, compofed of two ovaj 
J- leaves : the feed-vefiel ic crowned with a top, under which there are feveral fmall openings ; 
and the feeds are numerous. 
Linnaeus places this among the polyandria monogynia, the filaments in the flower being numerous, 
and rixed to the receptacle, and the rudiment of the fruit fingle, and with a fingle top, without any 
fl:yle. 
N° 14, O o D I V 
