Syngenesia. 
( 19 ) 
L E P I A. 
I Have the good Fortune here to add a new Genius to the prefent Stores of 
Botany : and Men will wondeP that I have not follow’d the Cuftom of the 
modern Writers, and nam’d it from my Patrc>nj or from fome Friend who 
could return the, Complimenti But in this, I thinkj the Antients were more 
wife. A Name is ufeful when it conveys fome Idea of the Plant : I have there- 
fore call’d this Lepia. The Scales of the Cup are its moft bhvious Diftin6lion 
from all others ; and that Word expreffes it. I have comply ’d fo far with 
Cuftom, as to deduce it from the Greek 5 but in the commoii Practice of 
naming Plants from Men, the Folly is extream, and the Flattery fulfome. All 
laugh to hear a Tulip call’d the King of Prussia, or an Auricula Prince Fer- 
dinand. Why is the Ridicule lefs to name other Plants Mitchella, or Mille- 
ria j Catefbgea, or Collinfonia The Botanift that can’t preferve his Name by 
better Marks, does not deferve that it ftiould be remember’d. 
Singularity is the beft Claim this Plant has to our Regard ; for it cannot boaft 
much Beauty. A Specimen of it came with my other China Plants and Seeds, 
but the prefent Figure is" taken from a Plant produc’d from thofe Seeds in Eng- 
land. Mr. Lee, of Hammersmith, a very excellent Gardener, rais’d it: 
The Height is near three Feet ; the Afpe£t of the Plant, rough and inelegant. 
The Stalk is firm, and the Leaves are hard. The Flowers are very numerous 
and confiderably large, and they are very lafting. In this Plant the firft Flower 
attain’d a Perfeftion, none of the Reft reach’d ^ and remain’d on the Plant feveral 
Weeks. 
The radiated Syngeriefious Plants, to which this belongs, are different from 
all others. Each Flower confifts of many tubular Flofucles, or little Flowers 
in the difk, and many flat ones at the Verge making the Rays ; but the Cha- 
racter of the Clafs is taken from a lefler Mark. The Filaments in each little Flow- 
er are five, and their Buttons unite into one Body. In fome they ftand out far 
beyond the Flower j in this they are lefs confpicuous. 
In the midft of theft five Filaments is a Style^ divided into two Parts at the 
Top, and in the Bofom of each Ray is alfo a Style j but there are no Filaments. 
The Flower of the Lepia is conftruCfed thus t the Cup is long and hard, 
and is compos’d of broad hollow Scales j each fwelling forwards, and crown- 
ed with a rounded Rim of a dry and more delicate Subftance. The Rays are 
female Floftules : each rifts from the Head of a Seed ; it has in its Bofom a 
Style, and is divided by three Dents at the End. The tubular Floftules rife 
in a conic Head which is form’d of young Seeds, cover’d with light Films and 
crown’d each with two Thorns : in the Hollow, between theft refts the Rudiment 
of the Style. Theft Parts I have figur’d feparately ; together with a SeCfion of 
the principal Flower, to ftiew the conic Receptacle ; and of an imperfeCf Flower 
exhibiting the Difference of the Cup. The tubular Floftule entire is alfo fhewn 
fix’d at the Head of the Seed, divefted of its fhelly Coat. 
The Plant has been thought a Bidens, but the ftaly Cup and conic Recep- 
tacle, fhew their Miftake who held that Opinion. It is diftin6f from all others j 
but Errors in this Clafs are more pardonable than in any other, for it is the 
moft obfcure of all. 
A M- 
Linnsus could give this no Name, for it never flower’d in Europe till the prefent Summer. 
