Institutes of botany; : containing accurate, compleat and easy descriptions of all the known genera of plants: translated from the Latin of the celebrated Charles von Linné, Professor of Medicine and Botany in the University of Upsal; First physician to the King of Sweden, Knight of the Polar Star, and member of the most learned societies in Europe. To which are prefixed, I. A view of the ancient and present state of botany. II. A Synopsis, exhibiting the essential or striking characters which serve to discriminate genera of the same class and order; as likewise the secondary characters of each genus, or those derived from the port, habit or general appearance of the plants which compose it. / By Colin Milne, Reader on Botany in London, author of the Botanical Dictionary.

  • Milne, Colin, 1743 or 1744-1815.
Date:
M,DCC,LXXI. [i.e. 1771]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Institutes of botany; : containing accurate, compleat and easy descriptions of all the known genera of plants: translated from the Latin of the celebrated Charles von Linné, Professor of Medicine and Botany in the University of Upsal; First physician to the King of Sweden, Knight of the Polar Star, and member of the most learned societies in Europe. To which are prefixed, I. A view of the ancient and present state of botany. II. A Synopsis, exhibiting the essential or striking characters which serve to discriminate genera of the same class and order; as likewise the secondary characters of each genus, or those derived from the port, habit or general appearance of the plants which compose it. / By Colin Milne, Reader on Botany in London, author of the Botanical Dictionary. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    botanirts, to conclude that the petals, beeaufe the more excellent organ, are never wanting; hnce, in flowers which have both calix and petals, the latter is occafionally dropped, the former never. Bell-flower and water-purflane furnifh examples of the fad; al¬ luded to. M. Tournefort has adopted for his primary and foie diftindion of petal-wanting flowers, the durability of the calix combined with its ufe in ferving as a velTel for inclofing and covering the feeds. The former charader being proved to be infufficierit, the latter, which has no exiflence without it, can fcarce be deemed highly certain. In fine, I cannot help thinking both Ray and Tournefort’s diflindion of petal-bearing and petal- wanting flowers to be exceedingly improper, becaufe, in no fort, calculated to facilitate the knowledge of plants. At the fame time, I can conceive a very eafy method of removing the ambiguity, by arranging under one divifion all plants which are compleat in the, parts of frudification, and under its oppofite divifion, fuch plants as are deficient in either of the two covers of the flower generally known by the names of calix and petals. By fuch a mode of diftribution, a plant is no fooner viewed than its place is finally and certainly determined : if both the organs in que- ftion are prefent, it is referred, without hefitation, to the firfl; di¬ vifion ; if only one, we lofe no time in enquiring, whether it is the calix or petal, but refer it, with equal facility, to the fecond. The petal-wanting flowers conflitute the fifth clafs in Ray’s method. Of thefe fome want both calix and petals, as glafs- wort, triple-headed pond-weed, and hipptiris; the reft, which want only one of the covers, are fubdivided into fuch as have the flower placed at a diftance from the fruit, and fuch as have it contiguous. In hop, hemp, nettle, fpinach, and mercury, the flower and fruit are produced upon different plants raifed from the fame feed. In Ambrofia, lefTer burdock, palma chrifti, and L 2 baftard 0