The BRITISH HERBAL. 
193 
GENUS V. 
FLAX. 
L I N U M. 
'TpHE flower is compofed of five petals, narrowcfl: at the bafe, and broadcft upwards ; and it opens 
regularly, and is hollow: the ited-veflel is of a rounded figure, but has five ridges, and a point 
at the top; it is formed of five valves, and has ten cells : the cup is fmall ; it is compofed of five 
oblong leaves, and remains when the flower is fallen. 
Linnasus places this among xht pentandria fentagyma ; the threads in the centra of the flower being 
five, and the fiiyles from the rudiment of the fruit alio five. 
I'hat author includes in this genus the little rupturewort , or all feed called radiola. This is confound- 
ing plants alogether difl;inift j lor this little herb is quite different in genus, and has its received 
and well known name. 
Linnaeus contradifts his own fyftem in joining this plant with the Union \ for he eilabliflies the 
dalTica! charai^er under which that genus is arranged to be the having five threads in the flower* 
and five ftyles-, whereas the rhrcads in this, and the flyles aifo, are only four. 
Of this Linnseus was not ignorant : he has mentioned that one fpecies wants a fifth part of the 
number in thefc parts of the flower: indeedj it wants, not only one of each of thefe parts, but one 
of the petals alfo; for it has only four of thefe, as of the others. 
It is, from this, evident that the plant neither is of the fame genus, which is determined by the 
petals, ,nof of the fame clafs, which is fixed by Linn^us from the threads, with flax wherewith he 
confounds iC. He fays, fome have been defirous, becaufe of ic difi'erence in the number of the 
petaUj threads, and ftyles, to conftitute a new genus of it, and feparate it from the flax ; but he 
adds, this nalure abhors. I mufl: utterly difl"er with him in this matter : it is what nature diftates 
and direfts, in the plaineft manner, and under the moft obvious charadlers. This determination of thac 
author is therefore rafh and contradidlory to reafon in itfelf, and it is very unhappy in its con- 
fequences for his fyftem j for if nature abhors the fep^rating plants that are in obvious charaifters 
allied to one another, on account of fome difference in the number of the threads, and other minute 
parts of the flower, then nature abhors his whole fyftem of botany. We have fliewn in every 
clafs how he removes and feparates plants perfeftly allied to one another, becaufe they happen to 
diff^er in the nuniber of threads in the flower. This is that making a feparation from the variation 
of number in like plants of which we have complained fo often ; which his method impofcsj and 
which, he fays here, is abhorrent to nature. 
This is not the only inftance wherein the prefenc genus of plants iliews us the uncertainty and 
error of Linnasus's method ; others, which he has in his laft work, his Species Plantarum, attributed 
to the prefent clafs, as perfeftly differ from its laws. 
He has there introduced the yellow bellflower among the fpecies of flax, though he has eftablifhed 
in the generical charafler, that the flax has five petals in the flower, and in that plant it confills only 
of one : he calls this doubtful ; but three could be no doubt, from this plain circumftance. 
The little yellow flax is atfo placed here among the reft, and properly enough in nature, but un- 
happily by this author, who has attributed five ftyles to the flax, whereas this has but three 
1 fliall enter no farther into this difquifition : 1 am to write a hiftory of plants, and not a criticifm 
upon the works of Linn^us ; though to much as this, though written with pain, cannot be avoided. 
DIVISION I. BRITISH SPECIES. 
I. Common Flax. 
Limm viilgare. 
The root is long, fiender, and hung with a 
few fibres. 
The ftalk is round, firm, upright, and of a 
pale green : it has fearce any branches, and is 
three feet high, and very upright. 
The leaves ftand irregularly, and are nume- 
rous : they are long, narrow, and of a frefh 
green : they ha«e no footftalks ; they are- not at 
all divided at the edges ; and they are pointed at 
the ends. 
The flowers are large, and of a beautiful fky- 
blue. 
They grow in confiderable numbers on the 
tops of the fl:alks, and on fliort branches rifing 
for their fupport juft below the top of it. 
N» XX. 
The fecd-veffel is large, and the feeds are alfo 
large, numerous, and of a gloffy brown. 
We fee it naturally in our paftures, and about 
roadTidcs in fome parti of the kingdom, and 
cultivated in fields in many others : whether the 
wild plants are properly native of this ifland or 
rife from fcattered ieeds it is not eafy to fay. 
Some have divided the cmmm fax into two 
fpecies on this account, calling the one the ma- 
mredflax, and the other the wild flax; but the 
plant is the fame, whether it grow naturally, or 
be raifcd by art ; that which is cultivated will be^ 
larger : there is no other difference. 
C. Bauhine and others call it Limim fativum. 
The life of the flalks of this plant in making 
linen is fufficiently known. The thready part is 
feparated from the reft, beat and combed till it 
D d d hangs 
