CLASS X. DECANDRIA. 
(ten stamina or males.) 
Containing jive orders. 
ORDER I. MONOGYNIA. 
(one female.) 
N° of Species in 
ff° Genefa. Growth, species. Native of Britain. 
1st. Flowers many-pet aled, irregular* 
1 Anagyris s 1 Italy 
£ Baiihmia s 8 E. & W. Indies 
3 Caesalpinia t 3 E. & W. Indies 
4 Cassia s St h 38 E. & W* Indies 
5 Cercis # s 2 Italy, Canada 
6 Dictammisf h 2 Cape, Germany 
* Cercis siliquastrum (Judas tree) is supposed to be the tree on which Judas 
hanged himself, from whence the name. * 
f If a candle is applied to the stalks of the fraxinellci (dictamnus albus) Which 
are covered with a kind of resinous matter, it will burn like spirits of wide, until all 
the essential oil is consumed, without burning the stalks; and it is said, the atmo¬ 
sphere which floats around th tfraocinella is inflammable, supposed to arise from anr 
exhalation of its essential oil. (See preface)* For all essential oils are inflammable, 
&.nd perhaps may be Only different modifications of that universal inflammable oil 
Called petroleum (oil of petre, or rock oil) which is extremely subtle and volatile, 
and as it is plentifully diffused in the atmosphere, and found more or less in many 
different bodies, is supposed to invade and be a constituent part in almost all bodies, 
in some form or other. (See William 9 s Natural History of the Mineral Kingdom , 
V. i. printed in 1789). Petroleum is perhaps a principal ingredient in ail bituminous 
.matter, as coal, amber, Sic .; and being brought down from the rocks and moun¬ 
tains in Persia, Tartary, &c. is found floating on the surface of certain springs and 
lakes under the name of naphtha^ which is so very inflammable, that if a lighted 
Candle be held near to the surface of the water, it immediately takes fire to a con¬ 
siderable extent. There is also a well at Ancliff near Wigan, in Lancashire, called 
the burning well , the surface of which will flame on application of a candle (though 
the Water is Very cold) which is said to be petroleum issuing from the neighbouring 
coal mines.—There also a similar phenomenon in the western parts of Virginia, 
Called the burning spring . This oil is also found in several other parts of America, 
either floating on water, or issuing out of the ground, particularly in Barbadoes, 
where it is called Barbadoes tar . " 
