262 The B R I T I S H HERBAL. 
edges : they are largeft near the bafc, and fliarp- 
pointed. 
The ftalk is round, firm, upright:, confider- 
ably- branched, and three feet high. 
The leaves on this are numerous, and they 
are placed irregularly : they have long, fiender 
footftalks, like therefrom the root; and they re- 
femble them in lhape, but they are fmaller. 
The flowers ftand in great numbers at the tops 
of the numerous branches into which the ftalk 
divides ; and they are fmall and white. 
The fecd-veflels are fmall and fwelled : the 
feeds are numerous, very little, and brown. 
It is common in our northern counties, and in 
fome other places, and flowers in July. 
C. Bauhine calls it Lepidium latifoUum. Others 
Amply, Lepidium. 
The whole plant has a violently acrid tafi:e, 
whence the common people call kpepperworL 
The leaves chewed, bring water into the 
mouth, and cure the toothach. Externally it is 
good againfl: the fciatica, and other ftubbom 
pains. The women give a flight decoiiJtion of ic 
to promote delivery ; but it is not greatly to be 
recommended fur that purpofe. A flight infu- 
flon of the frefti tops of the plant cut fmail, works 
powerfully by urine, and brings away gravel. 
In this form alfo it is no indifferent medicine 
againit fcorbutic complaints. 
DIVISION II. FOREIGN SPECIES. 
Narrow-leaved Dittander. 
Lepidium angujlifolium. 
The root is compofcd of numerous thick fibres. 
The firft leaves are -very long and narrow: 
they grow in a large tuft, and are of a bluilh 
green colour, and not at all indented at the edges. 
The ftalk is round, upright, firm, fcarce at all 
branched, and two feet and a half high. 
The leaves on this are numerous, and ftand ir- 
regularly ; they are long and narrow ; but they 
are joined to the ftalk by a broad bafe. 
The flowers ftand at the tops of the branches, 
and they are large and whice. 
The feed-vefl!cl is fmall and brown, and the 
feeds are numerous and minute. 
It is a native of Germany, and flowers in June, 
C. Bauhine calls it Lepidium glaft if olium. Others, 
Lepidium anguftifolium, and Lepidium ereSlum. 
GENUS VII. 
SCIATICA CRESS. 
1 B E R 1 S. 
rpHE flower is compofed of four extremely fmall petals, of an inverted oval figure, difpofed crofs- 
ways, and having very fmall bottoms. The cup is compofed of four little leaves, which are oval 
and hollow, and fall with the flower. The feed-veiTcl is fmall and flatted, and is lharp at the edge : 
the feeds are numerous and fmall. 
Linnseus places this among the tetraiynmnia fUiadofa ; but he has difpofed the plant itfclf in a very 
injudicious manner, and very idly played with its generical narne. 
The plant commonly known by the word iberis he has placed among the najlurtiums, which he 
has called by a new name, lepidium, taking that alfo from the plant to which it properly belongs : and 
in the fame clafs he has another genus of plants, among which many of the thlafpis are introdu- 
ced under the name of iberis, while the proper iberis itfeif is in another. 
This is a fort of confufion that, to the young ftudent, will appear inextricable ; and it is in itfeif 
extremely wrong. 
The plant iberis, which he has without reafon put out of the genus called after its name, he might, 
upon the foundation of his fyflicm, have removed altogether out of this clafs, for it has not fix threads, 
as the reft, four longer and two Ihortcr, whence the name of the clafs tetradynamla ; but only two ; it 
is therefore in abfolute violation of his eflablilhed fyftem, that the iberis comes among thefe plants. 
At the fame time it is very plain, that the iberis is one of the filiculofe herbs ; and therefore, that 
the difliindion of four longer and two (hotter threads is not an abfolute charafter of that clafs. This 
is one of thole numerous inflrances we have recited occafionally, as the fubjedfs occurred, to ihew 
that the fyfl:em of this author, though recommended by its novelty to weak minds, and by its diffi- 
culty to thole who are ambitious of underftanding abftrufe things, is not founded in nature, reafon, 
or truth. 
The diflindtions of diefe filiquofe and filiculofe plants are lefs accurate in nature than thofe of any 
others ; wherefore endlefs cavils may be raifed againfl: any generical difpofition of them that ever 
fhail be propofed. The molf ufeful method of treating them is therefore to keep as near the eflia- 
bliflied tract as a tolerably nice diflindion will admit. 
Authors have not feen the caufe of this difficulty ; but it is plainly this: the cruciform podded 
plants are indeed but a fingle clafs ; and this contains properly but two genera, the filiquofe making 
one genus, and the filiculofe another. We do a violence to Nature in eredting thefe genera into the 
rank of claf&s ; but it is neceffary, and in the higheft; degree ufeful ; and this having been once 
cone, fhould therefore have remained inviolable. 
There 
