264. The B R I T I SH HERBAL. 
C. Bauhine calls it M^agniin [ativum. Others, 
Myagrum imlgan, and Myagrum fylvejirc. 
In fome of thofe parts of England where they 
raifc flax, the plant is very common : the feeds 
of it pafs unnoticed among thofe of that herb, 
and confequently it rifes with the crop from one 
year to another. 
The feeds of this plant afford a fweet and ufe- 
ful oil in very confiderable quantity : it is greatly 
inferior to the common olive-oil, but there are 
many purpofes it will anfwer very well in its 
place. 
DIVISION II. FOREIGN SPECIES. 
I. Broad-leaved Myagrum. 
Aiyagrum latifolhm majus. 
The root is long, flender, and furnilhed with 
many fibres. 
The firft leaves rife in a numerous clufter ; 
and they are oblong, confiderably broad, and of 
a deep green : they have no footftalks : they are 
very little and very irregularly finuated at the 
edges, and obtufe at the end. 
The flalk is round, firm, upright, and two 
feet high : it is divided into many branches. 
The leaves' on this are placed irregularly, and 
are broad, and fomewhat heart-fafhioned : they 
fiirround the ftalk at the bafe, and thence termi- 
nate in an obtufe end. 
The flowers Hand at the tops of the branches, 
and are fmall and yellow. 
The feed veffels are Ihort, hard, and terminated 
by a point ; and in each there is only a fingle feed. 
The veflel has three cells, but two of them 
are empty. 
It is a native of France and Italy, where it is 
common in their corn-fields, as ours is here. It 
flowers in June. 
C. Bauhine calls it Myagrum monofpernum lali- 
folium. Others have followed the fame name, 
and fome have called it fimply Myagmn majus. 
2. Myagrum with flat, dotted pods. 
Myagrum filiculis amfrefis funSatis. 
The root is long, flender, and fiirniflicd with 
a few fibres. 
The firfl: leaves rife in a great clufler; and 
they are large, oblong, and confiderably broad ; 
they are placed irregularly, fome ftanding up, 
others lying on the ground ; and they are not at 
all indented at the edges. 
The fl:alk rifes in the midft ■, and is round, up- 
right, of a whitifli colour, firm, and a foot and 
a half high: it is divided into many branches, 
and fet thick with leaves toward the top, though 
there be fewer near the bottom. 
Thefe are oblong, broad, and of a pale green : 
they furround the ftalk at the bafe, and are there 
broad, and fomewhat heart-fafliioned ; and they 
grow gradually fmall from thence till they ter- 
minate in a point. 
The flowers grow in little tufts at the tops of 
the ftalks, and they are fmall and white. 
The feed- veflel is of a roundifh form, and of a 
firm fubftance, dotted, and rough on the fur- 
face, and terminated by a fl:iff point. 
The feed is large, yellow,, and oily. 
It is common about the borders of vineyards 
in France and Italy, and flowers in July. 
C. Bauhine calls it Myagro fmilis filifua rotunda. 
Others, Myagrum hirfulum. 
The feeds of this kind are excellent againfl: the 
gravel : they have an oily foftnefs, and a power- 
ful diuretic quality. The peafants in Italy elleem 
it ; but there, like many good medicines here, 
it is negleifled in regular pradice. 
GENUS IX. 
WATER RADISH. 
R AD I CU L A. 
(-THE flower is compofed of four petals, regularly opening in a crofs direfiion they are oblong, 
obtufe and have very fmall bottoms : the cup is formed of four narrow, ftiarp-pomted leaves, 
that gape afunder and it is coloured, and falls with the flower : the feed-veffel is Ihort, and of a 
figure approaching to oval, with a fmali, weak point : the feeds are numerous and fmall. 
Linnaeus places this among the Mradynamia filiquofa ; but he has not arranged .t well. It is a fili- 
culofe not a filiquofe plant, as appears by the form and ftrufture of the feed-vcflel ; therefore it be- 
lont^s to the other divifion, the telradynainia fdiculofa. But this is not all that will miflead the ftudent 
in his arrangement of it. He has taken away its generical and received name, and makes it a fpecies 
of fifymbrium, joining it in with the ladyfmock and watercrefs. He calls it ihtfifymbrium with fods cfan 
cvah 'U<"'g fig'"''- , . , . r u 
This author's generical charafter of the fifymirium fays, that the pod is long ; therefore the very 
terms are difcordant. It is a ftrange force upon method, to introduce thefe plants, which he is 
obliged to diftinguilh by the fljortnds of their pods, into a genus, the charafter of which is to have 
long ones. , , 1 j 
The fpecies of fifymbrium are very numerous, and confequently the road to knowledge very mucli 
perplexed according to that difpofiiion. We fliall clear it farther, by reducing more of the plants 
to their diftinft and proper genera, and reftoring them to their ufual and received names. 
D I V I- 
