[102]

CAMPANULA SPECULUM. VENUS'S LOOKING-GLa.s.s.

_Cla.s.s and Order._

PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

_Generic Character._

_Corolla_ campanulata, fundo clauso valvis staminiferis. _Stigma_ trifidum. _Capsula_ infera, poris lateralibus dehiscens.

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

CAMPANULA Speculum caule ramosissimo, diffuso; foliis oblongis subcrenatis, floribus solitariis, capsulis prismaticis. _Linn.

Syst. Vegetab. p. 209._

On.o.bRYCHIS arvensis f. Campanula arvensis erecta. _Bauh. Pin. 215._

[Ill.u.s.tration: No 102]

Grows wild among the corn in the South of Europe, is an annual, and, like the _Sweet Alyssum_, generally cultivated in our gardens, and most deservedly so indeed, for when a large a.s.semblage of its blossoms are expanded by the rays of the sun, their brilliancy is such as almost to dazzle the eyes of the beholder.

Those annuals which bear our winter's frosts without injury, are advantageously sown in the autumn; for by that means they flower more early, and their seeds ripen with more certainty; the present plant is one of those: it usually sows itself, and is therefore raised without any trouble.

It begins to flower in May and June, and continues to enliven the garden till August or September.

[103]

PELARGONIUM ACETOSUM. SORREL CRANE'S-BILL.

_Cla.s.s and Order._

MONADELPHIA HEPTANDRIA.

_Generic Character._

_Calyx_ 5-part.i.tus: lacinia suprema definente in tubulum capillarem, nectariferum, secus pedunculum decurrentem. _Cor._ 5-petala, irregularis. _Filam._ 10. in aequalia: quorum 3 (raro 5) castrata.

_Fructus_, 5-coccus, rostratus: rostra spiralia, introrsum barbata.

_L'Herit. Geran._

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

PELARGONIUM _acetosum_ umbellis paucifloris, foliis obovatis crenatis glabris carnosis, petalis linearibus. _L'Herit. Monogr de Geran. n.

97._

GERANIUM _acetosum_ calycibus monophyllis, foliis glabris obovatis carnosis crenatis, caule fruticoso laxo. _Linn. Syst. Vegetab. ed.

14._ _Murr. p. 613. Sp. Pl. p. 947._

GERANIUM Africanum frutescens, folio cra.s.so et glauco acetosae sapore.

_Comm. prael. 51. t. 1._

[Ill.u.s.tration: No 103]

Mons. L'HERITIER, the celebrated French Botanist, who in the number, elegance, and accuracy of his engravings, appears ambitious of excelling all his contemporaries, in a work now executing on the family of _Geranium_, has thought it necessary to divide that numerous genus into three, viz. _Erodium_, _Pelargonium_, and _Geranium_.

The _Erodium_ includes those which LINNaeUS (who noticing the great difference in their appearance, had made three divisions of them) describes with five fertile stamina, and calls Myrrhina; the _Pelargonium_ those with seven fertile stamina, his _Africana_; the _Geranium_, those with ten fertile stamina, his _Batrachia_.

They are continued under the cla.s.s _Monadelphia_, in which they now form three different orders, according to the number of their stamina, viz.

_Pentandria_, _Heptandria_, and _Decandria_. If the principles of the Linnaean system had been strictly adhered to, they should perhaps have been separated into different cla.s.ses; for though the _Pelargonium_ is Monadelphous, the _Geranium_ is not so; in consequence of this alteration, the _Geranium peltatum_ and _radula_, figured in a former part of this work, must now be called _Pelargonium peltatum_, and _radula_, and the _Geranium Reichardi_ be an _Erodium_.

The leaves of this plant have somewhat the taste of sorrel, whence its name, it flowers during most of the summer, and is readily propagated by cuttings. MILLER mentions a variety of it with scarlet flowers.

It is a native of the Cape, and known to have been cultivated in Chelsea Garden, in the year 1724.

[104]

LYSIMACHIA BULBIFERA. BULB-BEARING LOOSESTRIFE.

_Cla.s.s and Order._

PENTANDRIA MONOGYNIA.

_Generic Character._

_Corolla_ rotata. _Capsula_ globosa, mucronata, 10-valvis.

_Specific Character and Synonyms._

LYSIMACHIA _stricta_ racemis terminalibus, petalis lanceolatis patulis, foliis lanceolatis sessilibus. _Hort. Kew. p. 199._

[Ill.u.s.tration: No 104]

In the spring of the year 1781, I received roots of this plant from Mr.

ROBERT SQUIBB, then at New-York, which produced flowers the ensuing summer, since that time, I have had frequent opportunities of observing a very peculiar circ.u.mstance in its oeconomy; after flowering, instead of producing seeds, it throws out _gemmae vivaces_, or _bulbs_ of an unusual form, from the alae of the leaves, which falling off in the month of October, when the plant decays, produce young plants the ensuing spring.

As it is distinguished from all the known species of _Lysimachia_ by this circ.u.mstance, we have named it _bulbifera_ instead of _stricta_, under which it appears in the _Hortus Kewensis_.

Some Botanists, whose abilities we revere, are of opinion that the trivial names of plants, which are or should be a kind of abridgment of the specific character, ought very rarely or never to be changed: we are not for altering them capriciously on every trivial occasion, but in such a case as the present, where the science is manifestly advanced by the alteration, it would surely have been criminal to have preferred a name, barely expressive, to one which immediately identifies the plant.