SIBTHO'RPIA. Linnean Class and Order. DIDYNA'MIA, ANGIOSPERMIA+. Natural Order. SCROPHULARI'NEE‡, Dr. R. Brown.-Lindl. Syn. p. 187.; Introd. to Nat. Syst. of Bot. p. 228.-SCROPHULA'RINE, Rich. by Macgilliv. p. 434.-Sm. Eng. Fl. v. iii. p. 115.— Loud. Hort. Brit. p. 528.-SCROPHULA'RIÆ, Sm. Gram. of Bot. p. 100. PEDICULARES, Juss. Gen. Pl. p. 99-SYRINGALES; subord. PRIMULOSÆ; sect. MENTHINE; type, SCROPHULARIA CEÆ; Burn. Outl. of Bot. pp. 900, 958, & 978. GEN. CHAR. Calyx (fig. 1.) inferior, of 1 sepal, turbinate (topshaped), in 5 deep, egg-shaped, spreading, nearly equal segments, permanent. Corolla (figs. 2 & 3.) of I petal, irregularly wheelshaped, equal to the calyx; tube very short; limb in 5, egg-shaped, rounded, spreading segments, alternate with those of the calyx, the two lowermost smallest. Filaments (see fig. 2.) 4, (didynamous,) from between the 4 superior segments of the corolla, shorter than the limb, almost equal, awl-shaped, spreading laterally, and converging in pairs. Anthers of 2 round lobes. Germen (fig. 4.) roundish, compressed. Style (see fig. 4.) cylindrical, as long as the filaments, but thicker. Stigma (see fig. 4.) blunt, peltate (targetshaped). Capsule (figs. 5 & 6.) inversely heart-shaped, compressed, of 2 cells and 2 valves, each with a narrow transverse partition. Seeds (figs. 10 & 11.) few, egg-shaped, attached to a globular central receptacle (placenta), (see fig. 8). The 2-celled, 2-valved capsule, with transverse partitions; the nearly wheel-shaped corolla; and the stamens converging in pairs; will distinguish this from other genera, with a 5-cleft calyx, in the same class and order. Only one species known. SIBTHO'RPIA EUROPE'A. European Sibthorpia. Creeping Sibthorpia. Cornish Money-wort. Cornish Penny-wort. SPEC. CHAR. Engl. Bot. t. 649.-Linn. Sp. Pl. p. 880.-Huds. Fl. Angl. (2nd ed.) p. 276.Sm. Fl. Bit. v. ii. p. 667. Engl. Fl. v. iii. p. 143.-With. (7th edit.) v. iii. p. 742.-Gray's Nat Arr. v. ii. p. 309.-Lindl. Syn. p. 192.-Hook. Brit. Fl. p. 290.-Prod. Fl. Græcæ, v. i. p. 439.-Fl. Devon. pp. 106 & 148.-Mack. Catal. of Pl. of Irel. p. 59.; Fl. Hibern, pt. 1. p. 205.-Irish Fl. p. 125.-Sibthorpia prostrata, Salisbury's Icones Stirpium Rariorum, p. 11. t. 6. fide Engl. FI.Alsine spuria pusilla, foliis Saxifraga aurea, Ray's Syn. p. 352.-Blackst. Spec. Botan. p. 3.-Plukenet's Almagestum Botanicum, p. 23; Phytographia, 1. 7. f. 6.-Cornwall Pennywort, Petiver's Herbarii Britannici, t. 6. f. 11. LOCALITIES.-In moist shady places, about springs and rivulets; very rare.Cornwall; Lostwithiel, Falmouth, Penzance, Camelford, &c.: DAWSON TURNER, Esq. Sides of the road about two miles from Fowey; between Fowey and St. Austle; near Ruan Lanyhorne; and Bodmin: Rev. P. JONES, in Bot. Tour. Moist banks near Penzance, common; Gulval; Maddern Well; Trereife Road Avenue; Helston; Scilly Islands: Rev. W. T. BREE, in Mag. Nat. - Fig. 1. Calyx.-Figs. 2 & 3. Corolla.-Fig. 4. Germen, Style, and Stigma-Fig. 5, 6, & 7. Capsule.-Fig. 8. A vertical section of ditto.- Fig. 9. A transverse section of the same.-) -Figs. 10 & 11. Seeds.-Figs. from 5 to 11, from GERTNER.-All, except fig. 5, more or less magnified. *See f. 31, n. t. + See f. 72, n. ‡. # See f 50, a. Hist. v. iv. p. 161. Near Sennen: H. C. WATSON, Esq. in N. B. G. At Tres gaminion, near Fowey: EDw. DUKE, Esq.-Cumberland; Glencoin? Gowbarrow Park, by Airey Force? Keswick? N. B. G.-Devon; Between Newbridge and Spitchwick Lodge; about the springs in the village of Tor, near Harford: Sir FRANCIS DRAKE and Mr. HUDSON. Marshes at Staverton, Rattery and Sherford; Cornwood: Fl. Devon.- Hants; In the Isle of Jersey, 1833: W. C. TREVELYAN, Esq -Lincolnsh. In some meadows near Honnington: Mr. HILL, in Blakst. Sp. Bot.-Somersetsh. Near Nettle ombe: W. C. TREVELYAN, Esq. in N. B. G.-Sussex; In a bog, near the nursery ground on Waldron Down, and along the stream that issues from thence, passing Burnthouse Farm, to some distance West of it: N. B. G.- Westmoreland; By Buckbarrow-well in Longsledale: Mr. ROBSON.-WALES. Glamorganshire; Under a damp shady wall on the left about 200 yards before you come to Pont y Pridd from Cardiff: Sir J. CULLUM.—IRELAND. Under a wall on the North side of Conner-hill, near Dingle, 1835: Mr. J. T. MACKAY. Perennial.-Flowers from June to September. Root fibrous. Stems prostrate, creeping, thread-shaped, branched, entangled, frequently throwing out small fibres from near the insertion of the leaf-stalks. Leaves alternate, on short, ascending leaf-stalks, horizontal, roundish kidney-shaped, the margin in 6 or 7 blunt lobes or crenatures, those nearest the base the smallest, rather succulent, veiny, light green, paler beneath, sprinkled, like the rest of the herbage, with small, simple, scattered, projecting, transparent bristles. Peduncles (flower-stalks) thread-shaped, from the axils of the leaves, upright, solitary, single-flowered, short, pendulous after flowering. Corolla (f. 2.) minute, whitish, the 3 upper segments more or less tinged with pale red. Stamens nearly equal. This very distinct genus was named by LINNEUS in honour of HUMPHRY SIETHORP, D. M., who succeeded the celebrated DILLENIUS in the Botanical chair at Oxford, in 1747. Of this professor little notice is preserved; but his son, JOHN SIBTHORP, D. M., to whom he resigned the Botanical Professorship in 1784, richly earned his inheritance of the honour, by his indefatigable zeal in the pursuit of the same science; his love for which led him to undertake two journeys into Greece and the Archipelago, the first in 1784, the second in 1794. In the first of these journeys he engaged at Vienna, as draughtsman, the celebrated FERDINAND BAUER, with whom he visited Constantinople, Crete, Cyprus, and other islands of the Grecian Archipelago. He also travelled over a considerable part of the Morea, and did not return to England till December, 1787. In March, 1794, he set out a second time for the same country, attended by FRANCIS BORONE, as Botanical Assistant, and accompanied by his friend Mr. HAWKINS. With them he visited Bithynia, Mount Olympus, the Troad, the Isles of Lemnos and Imbros, the Peninsula of Athos, and passing some time in Attica, and two months in the Morea, he parted from his companion Mr. HAWKINS, and returned to his native country in the Autumn of 1795, when, his health being impaired, a long and uncomfortable passage of 24 days from Zante to Otranto, laid the foundation of a complaint in the lungs, which a few months after his return to England proved fatal. He died at Bath, on February the 8th, 1796, in the 38th year of his age. By his will, dated January 12, 1796, he makes over to the Oxford Botanic Garden all his drawings, books of Natural History, and Collections, and gives a freehold estate in Oxfordshire to the University of Oxford, for the purpose, first, of publishing his Flora Græca, in 10 folio volumes, with 100 coloured plates in each; and afterwards of endowing a Professorship of Rural Economy in his own University. The publication and editorship of this splendid work was confided to the late Sir J. E. SMITH, who lived to complete six of these volumes, and half the seventh. Since the death of this learned Botanist, which happened on the 17th of March, 1828, it has been conducted by the eminent and highly distinguished Botanist, Dr. JOHN LINDLEY, F. R. S., &c. Professor of Botany in the University of London. Owing to the very expensive manner in which it is got up, few copies of it are sold, but it will remain a magnificent monument of the zeal and science of its author; as the excellent Flora Oxoniensis, published in 1794, will bear ample testimony to the knowledge he possessed of the plants of his own country. See Memorials of Oxford, and Life of SIR J. E. SMITH. |