The BRITISH HERBAL. 
DIVISION IL FOREIGN SPECIES. 
I. Greac hair/ Flax. 
Linum c^eruleum hirfutum. 
The root is final], oblong, divided, and fur- 
nifhed with a few fibres. 
The (talks are numerous and firm: they are 
three feet high, round, hard, brown, not much 
branched ; yet, not altogether fo fingle as in the 
common fiax. 
The leaves are oblong, confiderably broad, of 
a pale green colour, and hairy. 
They are placed irregularly on the ftalks, and 
eloath them pretty thick all the way up. 
The flowers grow all the way up the upper 
branches, and the tops of the ftalks : they are 
very large, and of a beautiful blue. 
The feed-vefiel is large and pointed j and the 
feeds are oval and of a pale brown. 
It is common in Germany, and flowers in 
June. 
C. Bauhine calls it Linum fihcjlre latifoUum 
hirfutum cu-rulcum. 
1. Small yellow Flax. 
Linum parvum flore litteo. 
The root is long, flender, and edged with 
fibres. 
The ftalks are numerous, flender, and fix or 
eight inches high : they frequently divide into 
two from the bafe i but they are rarely branched 
upwards. 
The leaves are fmall, oblong, narrow, and 
iharp pointed : they are placed irregularly on 
the ftalks, and are perfectly fmooth, and of a 
pale green. 
The flowers are fmall, and of a gold yellow : 
they grow at the tops of the ftalks, and on flen- 
der footftalks rifing from the bofoms of the upper 
leaves. 
Thefe generally iplit into two at the extremity. 
The feed-vefi'el is fmall and pointed. 
The feeds are oval and brown. 
This is the fpecies which has only three ftyles 
in the flower ; whereas Linnseus's ch.ira6i;er gives 
all the fiaxes five. 
It is a native of the fouth of France, and 
flowers in June. 
C. Bauhine calls it Linum fylveftre 7ninus fiore 
liileo. 
3. Broad-leaved yellow Flax. 
Linum lati folium luteum ad genicula fioridum. 
The root is fmall, oblong, divided into feve- 
ral parts, and furniflied with many long fibres. 
The ftalk is round, firm- and upright, but 
Jointed, and ufually bowed trom joint to joint. 
The leaves are ftiort and broad : they have no 
footftalks, but are fmall at the bafe, broadeft in 
the middle, and pointed at the ends ; and they 
are placed irregularly on the ftalks. 
The flowers are moderately large, and of a 
pale yellow : they grow clofe to the ftalks at its 
feveral joints, or at the infcrtions of the upper 
leaves. 
The feed-veflel is large, roundifti, and point- 
ed i and the feeds are brown. 
Tr i<: common in Italy, and flowers in Auguft. 
C. Bauhine calls it Linum luteum ad fingula 
genicula fioridutn. 
The virtues of thefe plants are not certainly 
known but the tafte of their feeds feems to 
ftiew they have all the fame qualities with the 
common flax. 
GENUS VI. 
CRANESBILL. 
GERANIUM. 
THE flower confifts of five petals. The feed-vefl'el is long and flender : it is very Angular it is 
properly a cruft which envelops the feveral feeds, and which has a top extended along the 
ftyle. As its form is Angular, fo is its manner of opening; for it fplits in feveral parts from the b;;fe 
to the extremity of the ftyle. The feeds are kidney-fliaped. The cup is compofed of five leaves, and 
remains when the flower is fallen. 
LinnfEus places this among the monadelphia decandrla, the threads in the flower growing together 
in one body, and being diftindlly ten in number. 
This is one of thofe clalTes of that author which we call, with reafon, perfectly artificial; for this 
coalition of the threads in a flower is not certain enough to become the mark of a claflical diftinfftion, 
nor appears to have been regarded by nature fo ftridiy as thofe parts and circumftances in all plants 
are, on which a natural method is to be founded. 
Linnsus is obliged to acknowledge this, even in the moft plain terms, in relation to the pre- 
fent genus. 
After having feparated it from al! thofe other genera to which it is naturally allied, by placing it 
among theie monadelphia, becaufe its ftamina grow into one body, he owns that in fome of the fpecies 
the flower is plainly of the diadelphia clafs -, that is, the ftamina unite into two bodies. 
This divides the genus again : the plants whofe threads unite into one body make the fixteenth clali 
in Linnjeus's method and thofe whofe threads unite into two bodies make the feventeenth : there- 
iore, after the craneflills being taken out of their natural place, the genus itfclf is to be divided, 
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