THE 
BRITISH HERBAL. 
CLASS XX. 
Plants -which have a pcrfeB flffwer, of a plain and regular firiiElure ; and 
have one feed after every flower, flanding naked in the cup. 
THIS is a clafs plainly diftinguilhable by Nature from all others, but confounded, like too 
rrMny of the reft, by the modern fyftems of botany. The two efiential requifites to a gcne- 
rical charafter are, that it be certain, and that it be obvious : the firft prevents error, the 
other perplexity ; and there is no where in Nature a charaiter more happily eftablifhed to anfwer thefc 
purpofes than in the prefent inflance. 
Mr. Ray, who followed Nature clofely, perceived it ; and has founded one of his clafiical diftinc- 
tions upon it. He has therefore kept together thefe plants, fo truly allied, and fo pcrfeftly fcpa- 
rated from all others ; but rhufc who have limited thcmfelves for the claliick charafters folely to the 
threads in the flowers of plants, have thrown the genera, thus connefted together by Nature, into 
many different parts of their works, and joined them with plants to which they have no affinity. 
LinnKus led the way to this, compelled by the very foundation of his fyftem : but when that 
author faw the neceffity of thus feparating plants evidently joined by Nature in the courfc of his en- 
quiry, he Ibould have given up the method, not violated her laws. No plants have Ihewn the great 
conftraint his fyftem lays upon Nature equally with thefc, which are thus, by means of the fingle 
feed, clafled fo eafily and fo regularly. 
SERIES I. 
Natives of Britain. 
Thole of which one or more fpecies are naturally wild in this country, 
G E N U S I- 
VALERIAN. 
V A L E R I J N A. 
THE ilowtr is formed of a fingle petal, hollowed, and crookeLi at the bottom, and divided into 
five fegments at the edge. The cup is very fmall, and is divided in an extremely flight 
manner into five fegments : in fome fpecies the divifion is fcarce perceptible. The feed h naked, 
fingle, and of iin oblong form, and winged with down. The leaves ftand in pairs. 
In fome fpecies the outer flcin of the feed is loofe ; and in thefe lefs accurate obfervers have fpokc 
of a feed-vdrd, fuppofing this fkin a capfule but their difference from the reft is more than this. 
L.innsus places this genus among the triandria momgynla ; the threads in the flower being three, 
and the ftyle from the rudiment of the fruit fingle. But he is obliged to acknowledge vaft variations 
in fome of the fpecies in this refpeft fuch indeed as fpeak very plainly the impropriety of the fyftem 
he has eftabliihe^l. In fome fpecies there are but two threads in tlie flower, in others there is only one, 
in. 
