THE 
BRITISH HERBAL. 
CLASS xvir. 
Plants 'which have the fiower compofed of four petals, placed one up- 
•ward, two fdeways, and one downward ; and the feed-veffel long, and 
formed of two fides, united by a ftrait future above, and another be- 
low, containing feveral round seeds. 
TH E S E are the plants which botanic authors call fapliamceous and legumimus. The firft 
term refers to the fiower, the other to the feed-veflcl. 
The fiower is called faplionacEous^ bccaiife it is fuppofed to reprefeiit a butterfly (papiUo)^ 
or other fuch winged infeft, in the ftatc of flying. 
The fruit is called lepiminous, from the Latin word lepimcn, fignifying a feed-veflcl of this kind, 
and no other. 
We are unhappy in the Englifli language, that we luvc uo particular name or term for this 
feed-veflil, which, according to the defcription we have given of it, is as diftindi: from all others 
as that of the former clafs. We have lamented the want of a term to diftinguifli between the Jli^ua 
and Jilicula in the two preceding clafles ; and we are as much at a lofs here, the fame Englifli word pud 
banc the only name we have for all of them. 
As there is a commonly known Latin name, it will be ufeful to introduce it, and call this feed- 
veflil a legume. 
This is a clafs plainly of Nature's forming, and the plants belonging to it are by the ftrufture of the 
flower and fted veflU perfeSly difliinguilhed from all others : fo that nothing but blindncfs to the mofl: 
obvious charaflers of Nature, or an obfl:inacy fuperior to all reafon, could induce authors to place any 
other plants among thefe, or to feparate any of thefe into other clafles. Yet inftances of fuch blind- 
nefs and fuch obftinacy are not wanting among ;hefe men of fcience, as will be feen in the defcriptions 
of the feveral genera. Indeed there feems no error too abfurd for fome, and I am forry to fay fome 
of name in this fl:udy, to have committed. 
LinnEUS keeps thefe plants together : for Nature, in whatever manner flie is followed, will direft 
that ; and he has followed her, though oddly : but chufing to eflablilh the charafler of the clafs, 
not upon this plain and obvious flirufture of the flower and feed-veffel, but on the peculiar arrange- 
ment of the threads in the flower, he has introduced among thefe fome which do not belong to them. 
This is the confequence of his attachment to the leflfer parts of flowers infl:ead of the greater ; and 
this has led him here, as elfewherc, to contradift in many particular articles the abfolute efl:abliflied 
characters in his diftribution. Species thus frequently contradict: the characters of their genus, and genera 
thofc of their clafs. In Nature there is nothing of this : there all is confl:ant, uniform, and regular. 
It is therefore unhappy for thofe who have a deflre to underfl:and the fcience, that the fyftem falhion 
now recommends to their ufe, direfts them, inftead of regarding the large and confpicuous parts of 
flowers, to examine for diflinSions of genera, and even of clafles, the lelTcr and more obfcure ; and 
by that perplexed courfe carry themfclvcs out of the plain road of Nature, into uncertainty and innu- 
merable contradictions. 
In the prefent inftance, the great inventor of this modern fyftem allows, that the firfl: charaCler of 
•the clafs is, to have four petals in the flower, enumerating the diftindl names by which they are 
called 1 yet the very firll genus he introduces is Fiimaria, which has but one. 
' In the fame manner the plygala, which by no means belongs to the legumimus clafs, is brought 
into it by this author. His lieijkria alfo has a flower formed of a Angle petal, and yet it is introduced 
amon» thefe ; the Erft charsfter of which is to have four ; and. the fame oljcaion lies againft his 
° 2 amorpha. 
