Volume 1

An arrangement of British plants; according to the latest improvements of the Linnaean system. To which is prefixed, An easy introduction to the study of botany. Illustrated by copper plates / by William Withering, M.D. F.R.S. member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Lisbon; Fellow of the Linnæan Society; honorary member of the Royal Medical Society at Edinburgh, &c.

  • William Withering
Date:
1796
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An arrangement of British plants; according to the latest improvements of the Linnaean system. To which is prefixed, An easy introduction to the study of botany. Illustrated by copper plates / by William Withering, M.D. F.R.S. member of the Royal Academy of Sciences at Lisbon; Fellow of the Linnæan Society; honorary member of the Royal Medical Society at Edinburgh, &c. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    this (Colour ouGil be described, where it is liable to such a change, not only in the perfect and vigorous state of the plant, but also in its mature and nearly decaying state, tak- ing its character from the former, A lms in several of the deliquescent Agarics, especially such as difsolve in decay to an inky liquor, the plants, when very young, have white Gills; tliese become ^’rey when the Seeds are formed, and black when quite ripe, and the ])lant difsolves in decay. These circumstances may be properly noticed in the his- tory of the plant, but no one would think of taking its character from its yet but half unfolded state, any more than from its state of decay; such a plant, therefore, must be placed amongst others whose Gills are The Stem is a lefs variable part than the Pileus; its shape, the proportions of its length to its breadth, and of ])oth to the Pilous, afford tolerable distinctive marks, and its colours, though more changeable than those of the Gills, are perhaps rather more fixed than those of the Pileus. The Pileus, or Cap, is the part of an Agaric the last to be attended to, and the least to be depended on. Its shape is either conical, convex, Hat, or hollowed at the top like a funnel;* it is constantly varying in the same plant, but is pretty uniformly the same in the same species when the plant is in perfection, that is, when fully or nearly fully expanded, but before it exhibits symptoms of decay. The colour of the Pileus is often extremely uncertain, and in that case can no further be admitted into a charac- ter, than as it may serve to mark the varieties. The Viscidity, or clamminefs on the surface of the Pileus and Stem, frequently observed in some Agarics, has been made a part of their character; but it is not much to be depended on ; for in dry weather some of the viscid species shew no symptom of a moist or even adhesive sub- stance, and in a moist atmosphere, many, at other times dry to the feel, become more or lefs viscid. * (E.) represents a conical, (D.) a convex Pileus.