Plate Number: II 49

Anguis Minor Fuscus Maculatus: The Little Brown Bead Snake

These are always small, seldom appear above Ground, but are dug up and found twisting about the Roots of Shrubs and other Plants. All the Back and upper Part of the Body, have transverse Spots of brown and white, so disposed, as to make some Resemblance of a String of Beads, which seems to have given its English Name. It is an harmless Snake.

Corallodendron humile, spica florum longissima coccinea, radice crassissimo

This Shrub rises from the Ground with many straight, taper, pithy Stalks, to the Height of five or six Feet; the upper Part of which, for about twenty Inches, are thick set with papilionaceous Scarlet Flowers, with yellow Stamina: In May the Flowers begin to blow at the Bottom, producing successively its beautiful Blossoms to the End of the Stalk; the Flowers are set two and three together, on short Foot-stalks: In August the Fruit is ripe, consisting of Pods, in Shape and Size resembling Kidney-Beans, containing also such like Seeds, but of a bright Scarlet Colour. In Winter the whole Plant dies to the Ground, leaving as a Monument of fading Glory its withered Stalks, which remain standing the whole Winter, and are towards their Bottoms as big as the largest walking Cane. The Leaves consist of three triangular Lobes, growing mostly near the Ground and lower Parts of the Plant. The Root of this Plant resembles that of Briony, being large at Top, running down into the Earth four or five Feet, white within, and covered with a brown Rind; some of them so large, that they weigh upwards of twenty Pounds.