The BRITISH HERBAL. 
219 
Water PurQain. 
P 07- tula. 
The root Is compofed of a few fmall fibres. 
The ftalks are numerous, round, and weak : 
they are flefliy, and of a pale green, and fome- 
times purplifl-i: many of them He upon the 
ground, and take root at the joints ; but others 
ftand ered ; and they are in general about three 
inches in length, and rarely at all branched. 
The leaves are placed in pairs ; they are oblong, 
broad, of an inverted oval figure, and liave no 
footftalks : their fubftance is flefiiy, and their co- 
lour a pale green, though, like the ftalks, they 
are alfo fometimes redifh. 
The flowers are fmall and purple, and ftand 
in the bofoms of the leaves. 
The feed-veflels are alfo fmall, and the feeds 
very minute ; but the cups are large and very 
confpicuous. 
It is common in damp places, and flowers in 
May. 
Authors have been much perplexed where to 
place this little plant, or by what name to call ir. 
Ray calls ic Poriula, from its having fomething 
of the afped of furjlain, Micheli calls it Glau- 
coidcs palujlre fortulaca folio florilus purpureis. 
Lsfehus, Glaux aqiiatica folio fuhrotunda. C. 
Bauhine, Alfine minor fcrpyllifolia. 
The people in fome parts of England give the 
juice of it agiinft the gravel : it operates brilkly 
by urine. 
SERIES 
II. 
Foreign Genera. 
Thofe of which there is no fpecies native of this country. 
G E N U S L 
L I O N L E A F. 
LEOT^rOPETALON. 
THE flower is compofed of fix oval petals, alternately larger and fmaller : the feed-velTel is very 
large, androundi[h: it is inflated, and fomewhat fucculent, and contains a few large feeds: 
the cup is very fmall ; it is compofed of fix leaves ; and it falls with the flower. 
Linnaeus places this among the hexandria monogynia ; the threads in the flower being fix, and 
the ftyle from the rudiment of the fruit fingle. 
This author takes away its name leontopetakn^ and calls it, by an arbitrary variation, leontice. 
I. Broad-leaved Leontopetalon. 
Leontopetalon foUis latis. 
The root is thick, tuberous, roundilh, and of 
a dufiiy colour. 
The firft leaves are large, broad, and of the 
compofite kind : each is formed ot five princi- 
pal parts i two pairs of thefe are difpofed in the 
manner of pinnn-, and the odd one is at the end . 
on each of the lower pinns there are three dif- 
tinct, roundifh leaves ; and the upper pair, and 
alfo the odd leaf at the top, have a threefold 
divifion : they are of a tawny green, whence the 
plant has been named, as refembling the colour of 
the lions hair. 
The ftalk rifes in the midft of a clufter of 
thefe firft leaves, and is firm, upright, and ftri- 
ated: its colour is the fame tawney ycUowifh, 
but is ftriated with purple. 
The flowers are fmall and yellow : they ftand 
in great numbers on the tops of the ftalk, and 
of the branches. 
The feed-vefl"el is large, and the feeds are 
roundifh, and alfo large. 
It is a native of the Eaft, and of the warmer 
parts of Europe; and flowers in Auguft. 
C. Bauhine calls it Leontopetalon; and mofl 
follow him, adding no diftindion to the name. 
Tournefort calls it Leontapetalon foliis cojia alata 
adnafccntibus. Our people call it Liojisleaf Lion- 
kaved turnips and fome of them the Black turnip, 
and Lion turnip. 
2. Narrow-leaved Leontopetalon. 
Leontopetalon foUis ajiguftimbus. 
The root is very large, thick, tuberous, ir. 
regularly rounded, and of a dufky colour on 
the furface, and redifti within. 
The firft leaves are numerous, and of a very 
Angular form : they are pinnated, but each pair 
of pinnfc are double ; and they are fo difpofed 
that they feem to ftand crofiTwife, and do not give 
the ufual afpeft of a pinnated leaf: they are of a 
deep dufky green, and are finuated at the edges ; 
fo that they are fuppofed to have fome refemblance 
to the oak leaf ; but that is not very ftriking. 
The ftalks are numerous, round, ftriated, flen- 
der, and toward the cop divided into numerous 
branches : they are of a yellowifh colour, and 
ftreaked with red. 
The flowers are large and yellow : they ftanj 
