404 
The BRITISH HERBAL. 
DIVISION I. BRITISH SPECIES. 
I. Wild Myrrhis. 
ChicrophyUum fylveftre. 
The root is long, white, and hard, and has a 
fweeti(h tafte, but with a fliarpnefs, and an aro- 
matick flavour. 
The firft leaves are divided into a great num- 
ber of fegments, which are of a pale green, a 
little hairy, and ftand on hairy ribs. 
The ftalk is hollow, ftriated, and branched, 
and is a yard high. 
The leaves are placed alternately on it, antVre- 
femble thofe from the root. 
The flowers are fmall and white i and the 
feeds, when they are ripe, are brown. 
It is common under hedges, and flowers in July. 
C. Bauhine calls ic Chierophyllum Jyhefire. 
Others, Myrrhis fyhejtrisj Cerefolmm fylveftre^ 
and Anthrifcus PltHii. 
When the plant is in flower, the flralh fwells 
juft under the joints. 
2. Wild Chervill. 
Cha^rophyllum caide equalL 
The root is long, thick, white, and furniflied 
with a few fibres. 
The firfl leaves are very large, and they are 
formed of numerous indented frgments: they are 
naturally of a dufky green, and fometimes they 
are redifh. 
The ftalk is upright, flriated, and a yard and 
half high : it is divided into many branches ; and 
it is of a regular thicknefs, not fwelling at the 
joints as the other. 
The flowers are fmall and white -, and the feeds 
are oblong and brown. 
It is common by hedges, and flowers in M;iy. 
C. Bauhine calls it Myrrhis fylvejiris feminibus 
Uvibus. Others, Cicutaria. Our people. Cow- 
weed. 
DIVISION 11. FOREIGN SPECIES. 
Garden-Chervill. 
Chccrofhyllum fativtim. 
The root is long, thick, white, and of an aro- 
matick, and not difagrceable tafl:e. 
The leaves that rife firll are large, and divided 
into numerous, broad, ihort, indtnted fegmi;nts; 
of a pale green colour, and of an agreeable fla- 
vour. 
The fl:alks are fl:riated, hollow, upright, 
branched, and fwellcd in a kind of round knots 
under the joints. 
The leaves on them refcmble thofe from the 
root i but the fegments are narrower, and they 
are of a paler green. 
The flowers are fmall and white ; and the feeds, 
when ripe, are black. 
It is a native of the Greek iflands, and flowers 
in June. 
C. Bauhine* calls it Chcerophylium fativum. Our 
gardeners call it Sweet fern. 
It is an agreeable plant in fallads and, when 
taken as amedicine, operates by urinej and is good 
a gain ft obflrutflions of the vifcera. 
GENUS VII. 
S P I G N E L L. 
M E U M. ■ 
npHE flowers are difpofcd in fpreading umbells on divided and fubdivided ftalks ; and at the bafe 
of thefe on the fl:a!k grow a number of long, narrow leaves. Each flower is compofed of five 
nearly equal petals ; which are of a heart-fafliioned fliape, and fomewhat bent. The cup is very mi- 
nute. The feeds are oblong, and fmaller at one end, and rounded and flriated on one fide, and fiat 
and plain on the other. 
LinniEUs places this among the pentandria digynia ; the threads being five, and the fl;yles two. 
DIVISION I. BRITISH SPECIES. 
Common Spignell. 
Mmni I'ulgare. 
The root is long, thick, and furniflied with a 
few fibres : it is brown on the outflde, and white 
within, and has a firm hear: : the outer fubfliance 
is tender, and of an aroniatick, and not difagrce- 
able tafte. There frequently are fide-flioots from 
the old roots ; and at their tops there ufualiy is a 
large thready tuft, of a brown colour, which is 
formed of the fibres of decayed footftalks. 
The leaves which rife from the root are large,- 
and of a blackifli green colour ; and they are di- 
vided in an elegant manner into regular and ex- 
tremely flender fegments. 
The ftalk is upright, fl:riated, branched, and 
two feet high. 
The leaves on it refemble thofe from the root ; 
but they are fmaller, and fomewhat paler co- 
loured. 
The flowers are fmall and white. 
The feeds, when ripe, are black. 
It is found in our weftern counties in rich, 
damp foils, but not common.' Ic flowers ia 
June. 
3 C, Bauhine 
