EN(seq. 1)
Facsimile
Transcription
Botanical Memorandum
1790 June 1st Found a plant to appearance
of the second Monogynia Class — but could not find
it in the Dr Cutlers Botanical paper — mentioned
it to Capt Sargent who enclosed the plant and
sent it to him with his thoughts respecting it
& on receiving an answer Mr Sargent
communicated the contents to me — of which the following
is an Extract.
''The plant is a Geranium of ye [the]
Monadelphia Class, & decandria order. It is No 832
in ye late editions of Linn. Gen. Plant System
Vegetablinum. You will find it in my botanical
paper p 469 — Common Cranesbill. In an advanced
stage of the blossoms, the filaments appear
unconnected, & would naturally be supposed to belong
to ye decandria monogynia, but if you examine the
blossoms just as it is expanding, you will observe
ye filaments united at ye base, & seperate at the top
wch [which] is an essential character in the monodelphia
Class. This character is not so strong in this
species of ye Cranes-bill as in many others,
but there is a striking family likeness in the
fructification & habit of all the species of ye
Geranium, & ought to be placed under the same
Genus."
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The use of the term "ye" to mean "the" derives from Early Modern English, in which "the" was written þe, employing the Old English letter thorn, ⟨þ⟩. With the arrival of movable type printing, the substitution of ⟨y⟩ for ⟨Þ⟩ became ubiquitous, leading to the common "ye", as in "Ye Olde Curiositie Shoppe". A major reason for this was that ⟨y⟩ existed in the blackletter types that William Caxton and his contemporaries imported from Belgium and the Netherlands, while ⟨Þ⟩ did not. The connection became less obvious after the letter thorn was discontinued in favor of the digraph ⟨th⟩.