Letters on the Elements of Botany Author:Jean-Jacques Rousseau Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: hooded willow herb : whereas moft of the plants with perfonate flowers are not odorous, as fnap-dragon, toad-flax, eye-bright, loufewort, yellow rattle, broom-ra... more »pe, ivy- leaved toad-flax, round-leaved toad-flax, fox-glove1, andc. I know of none that have a ftrong fmell in this branch but the fcro- phularia, or figwort, which fmells ftroug, xvithout being aromatic. Here I am not able to name any but fuch plants as may perhaps be unknown to you ; but you will gradually get acquainted with them, and, whenever you fee them, you will be able by yourlelf to determine what clafs they belong to. I wifh you would try to fettle the branch or feandion by its phyfiognomy, and that you would exercife yourlelf in judging at fight whether a flower be labiate or perfonate. The exterior form of the corolla may luffice to guide you in this choice, which you may verify afterwards by pulling out the corolla, and looking at the bottom of the calyx; for, if you have judged right, the flower which you have named labiate will (how you four naked feeds, and that which you have named perfonate will fliow you a pericarp : the contrary would prove that yon were miftaken; and by a fecond examination of the fame plant you would prevent a like miftake another ' Some of thefe have the mouth of the corolla gaping. Ses pi. 4. f. 3. timek. Here, dear coufin, is bufinefs cut out for feveral walks. I (hall not fail to provide fomething for thofe that will fucceed. k This advice will apply in all the other natural claffes. From this paflage it is clear that by labiate flowers Roufleau underftands all that arc included in the firft order; by perfonate flowers, all that are in the fccond order of Linnaeus's I4th clafs: but many of the Bowers in the fecond order have the lips open. PI. 4. f. 3. LETTER LETT...« less