772 - L U N A R I A. 
Being under the dominion of the moon.—.They have de¬ 
nominated fome herbs folnr, and fome lunar ; and fuch- 
like toys put into great words. Bacon's Nat. Hift, —The 
figure of its feed much refembles a horfe-fhoe, which 
Baptifta Porta hath thought too low a fignification. and 
raifed the fame into a lunary reprefentation. Brown's Vul¬ 
gar Errours. 
LUNA'RIA, f. [fo named from the form of the fruit, 
like a full moon. 3 Honesty ; in botany, a genus of the 
clafs tetradynamia, order filiculofa, natural order of fili- 
quofe or cruciformes, (cruciferae, JuJf ) The generic cha¬ 
racters are—Calyx : perianthium four-leaved,, oblong ; 
leaflets ovate-oblong, blunt, converging, deciduous, of 
which the two alternate ones are gibbous and bagged at 
the bafe. Corolla : four-petalled, cruciform ; petals en¬ 
tire, blunt, large, the length of the calyx, ending in 
claws of the fame length. Stamina: filaments fix, awl- 
fhaped, four the length of the calyx, two a little fhorter; 
antheras from upright fpreading. Piltillum : germ pedi- 
celled, ovate-oblong ; ilyle fliort; Itigma blunt, entire. 
Pericarpium : filicle, elliptic, flat, entire, upright, very 
large, pedicelled, terminated by the ftyie, two-celled, two- 
valved ; partition parallel and equal to the valves, flat. 
Seeds: fome, kidney-fhnped, comprefled, marginal, in the 
middle of the filicle ; receptacles filiform, long, inferted 
into the lateral futures.— EJfential CharaBers. Silicle en¬ 
tire, elliptic, comprefled-flat, pedicelled ; valves equal and 
parallel to the partition, flat; calyx with bagged leaflets. 
Species. i. Lunaria rediviv.a, or perennial honefty : 
‘filicles lanceolate ; root perennial. This is a very large 
plant. Root perennial, white. Stem from three to four 
feet high, upright, Ample, channelled, green tinged with 
purple, hirfute. Lower leaves oppofite, upper alternate, 
on long petioles, finooth or rough-haired, cordate, un¬ 
equally ferrate, nerved, acuminate, near a fpan long, and 
three or four inches wide. Flowers terminating, on long 
flender peduncles, often bifid and trifid; calyxes of a white 
purole colotir, and fmooth ; petals purple, odorous. Sili- 
cles acuminate, an inch and half wide, three inches long, 
with the permanent ftyie half an inch in length : they 
contain three, four, or five, roundifh feeds fattened to the 
margin of the future by a thread. Native of the South 
of France, Italy, Swiflerland, Silefia, Auttria, Hungary. 
Cultivated by Gerarde in 1597. 
2. Lunaria annua, common honefty, or moonwort : 
filicles roundifh ; root biennial. Root biennial, knobbed. 
Stem fmaller than the preceding, upright, branched, hir¬ 
fute, round, half a yard high. Leaves rough-haired, the 
floral ones almott always oppofite, feflile ; ftem-leaves pe- 
tioled, much fmaller than thofe of the preceding, cordate, 
dull green, ferrate. Calyx purplifti afh-colour, hirfute; 
petals violet or blue-purple, inodorous. Style two lines 
long, permanent: filicles broader, blunter, fhorter ; feeds 
five" or fix. The feed-veflels, when full ripe, become 
tranfparent, and of a clear fhining white like fatin, whence 
this plant has acquired the name of white fatin. The 
branches ufed to be dried and preferved to place in chim¬ 
neys. Native of Germany. Gerard fays it is called in 
Englifh pennie-flower, or money-flower, filver-plate, 
prick-fongwort; in Norfolk, fatin and white fatin, and 
among our women honejlic. This laft name now rooft com¬ 
monly obtains, and may be derived from the tranfparency 
of the feed-veflels, in which the whole may be viewed, 
without deceit. In German, it is named mondviole, mond- 
kraut, fiber blume, flberblatt, jlittern , Atlas-blume, waldriegel ; 
in Dutch, maankruid, penning/truid, zilvcrbloem ; in Danifh, 
maaneviol ; in Swedifh, rnantfoler : in French, la lunaire, 
jatinee, Jatin blanc, paffe-fatin, mcdaille, herbe aux lunettes, 
and bulbonac , from its ltrumous or glandular root. 
Gaertner regards thefe two fpecies as one, and aflerts that 
there is no true diftindion between them befides dura¬ 
tion ; that the colour of the calyx and corolla, or the 
odour of the flowers, is nothing ; and that Linnaeus’s fpe- 
rific difference from the fituation of the leaves is fictitious. 
They both flower in May and June. If the fpecies be 
diftind, they are certainly very nearly allied, and have 
been confounded. According to Linnaeus, the root of 
the fir ft is perennial ; the flowers odorous ; the leaves al¬ 
ternate except the loweft, and more rough-haired. In 
the fecond, the root is biennial; the flowers inodorous • 
the ftem hirfute ; the leaves oppofite, at leaft in the cul¬ 
tivated plant; but he queftions whether it be fo always. 
Fie makes the latter a native of Scania ; but it appears 
that it is the former which was found there. Gerard fays 
that they are found wild about Pinner, Harrow, Watford, 
and Hornchurch. Johnfo.n does not corred him ; but 
Parkinfon fays, he could never certainly be allured of it ; 
and no one, that I have heard, has found them fince. 
Monf. Villars is of opinion that the lengthened pointed 
form of the fruit, is fufKcient, independent of the dura¬ 
tion, villofe calyx, See. to diftinguifh the firft fpecies from 
the fecond, which is that mott commonly cultivated i:i 
old flower-gardens. 
This being a difputed cafe, we think it right to give 
Mr. Profettor Martyn’s accurate account of the plant, as 
we find it in his edition of Miller’s Gardener’s Dictionary. 
“ I have a feedling plant of this now (Aug. 21, 1797) 
before me, which has feven full-grown leaves on it, and 
two young ones fpringing from the centre. The former 
are of an oblong cordate form, from fix to feven inches 
long, and five inches wide near the bafe, light green, vil¬ 
lofe on the upper furface, and rough-haired along the 
veins of the lower furface, which are very prominent; the 
edge is rather crenate than ferrate ; the petioles are feven 
or eight inches long, very rough-haired, and channelled. 
A plant of the fecond year, now in full feed, is five feet 
high; the ftem round, fomewhat flexuofe, quite Ample, 
having no branches but thofe which produce the flowers; 
white pellucid hairs are fcattered over it, and it is fpotted 
with brownifh purple towards the bottom. The root- 
leaves are gone, having left only the withered petioles. 
The ftem-leaves are folitary, alternate, cordate-oblong, 
almoft fagittate, drawn to a point, pale green, villofe, the- 
midrib and principal veins rough-haired, the edge un¬ 
equally ferrate, with larger and fmaller ferratures alter¬ 
nately : the loweft leaves are nine inches in length, and 
fix in breadth where the petiole is inferted, which is three 
inches long ; but this gradually fhorlens to about the mid¬ 
dle of the ftem, and then the other leaves to the top are 
fefiile ; the uppermoft leaf (or two) is even jagged. From 
each axil to within a foot of the bottom comes out a An¬ 
gle flowering ftalk; the lower ones near a foot long, with 
a few leaves on them, like the ftem-leaves, but fmaller, 
fometimes oppofite, but more frequently alternate ; thefe 
have but few flowers on them ; the upper flow'ering-ftalks 
are (horter, have no leaves, but more flowers; and a bunch 
or fpike of flowers terminates the whole. Silicles alter¬ 
nate, broad-elliptic, an inch and a half long, an inch and 
a quarter broad, on pedicels above an inch and a half in 
length ; the permanent ftyie three-eighths of an inch lon°\ 
The number of feeds is uncertain, from two or three to 
fix or feven, but fome of thefe are generally abortive. I 
do not difeern any traces of that attenuation of the filicle 
which Gaertner fpeaks of. Mr. Miller has given thefpecifie 
differences right, from the filicles; but in his deferiptions 
he has reverfed them ; aferibing large roundifh pods to 
I,, rediviva, and longer narrower pods to L. annua, Vvhich 
he fays alfo has larger flowers, and of a lighter purple co¬ 
lour.” The bloflom of this fpecies is fliown open on the 
Botany Plate X. fig. 15. vol. Hi. p. 258. 
3. Lunaria ASgyptiaca, or Egyptian honefty: filicles 
oblong, pendulous; leaves iuperdecompound, with trifid 
leaflets. This is an annual plant, with a fmooth branching 
ftalk little more than a foot high. Leaves unequally pint 
nate; leaflets differing in fize and form ; fome almoft en¬ 
tire, others cut at their extremities into three parts; they 
are fmooth, and of a lucid green. The flowers ftand each 
upon pretty long flender peduncles, which come out from 
the fide, and alio at the end of the branches, in !oo£ 
Tamil clufters; they are of a purple colour, and are fuc*- 
3 ceeded 
