THE 
BRITISH HERBAL. 
CLASS xir. 
Plants whofe flower is cotnpfed of six petals, their feeds contained i?s 
a SINGLE CAPSULE. 
THE plants which compofe this clafs are very few ; yet they are fo perfeflly charafterifed by 
the number of petals, that they are fcparated by Nature from all others ; and the (ludent will 
find oreat familiarity and eafe in the diflmftion. They are obvioufly known by this number 
of their petals" and he is notfent to look for them among a multiplicity of others, with which fome 
have confounded them ; but will find them here alone, and in their place, allotted plainly by Nature, 
after thofe which have the fame kind of feed-vefl'el, and one petal lefs in the flower. 
Plainly as thefe genera are charaSerifed by Nature, and evidently as Ihe diftates where they fiiould 
ftand, Linnajus has difperfed them in his works, and placed them among thofe to which they are 
not in the leafl; allied. juriur jr 
We have but two genera of this clafs natives of Bntam, and thefe he has feparated from one ano- 
ther by five intermediate claffes, placing the falicaria among his dodecmdria, and the pmla among 
his bexandria. 
SERIES I. 
Natives of B R I T A I N. 
Thofe of which one or more fpecies are found naturally wild in this country. 
G E N U S I. 
SPIKED WILLOWHERB. 
S A L I C A R I A. 
THE flower confifts of fix petals regularly difpofed : the feed-veflel is fingle, oblong, and pointed, 
and the feeds are numerous and fmall : the cup is formed of a fingle piece : it is hollow and 
ftriated, and is divided into ten fegments at the edge, which are alternately longer and Ihorter. 
Linnaius places this among the dodtcandria momgynia ; the threads in the centre of the Bower being 
twelve, and the fl:yle from the rudiment of the fruit fingle. He takes away its received mmt falica- 
ria, and calls it lythrm. 
N" 22. 
Kkk 
D I V I- 
