OT Dr. Correa on two Genera of Plants 
fpring of the flower rather than a part of it; and their ftruéture at 
the period when they are the objects of obfervation and defeription, 
. has often received material alterations from their ftate when in the 
flower. Linné confidered them in this light, when he defcribed the 
germen, that is to fay, the fruit as it exifts in the flower, as a part of 
the piftill ; and again defcribed it in the articles of pericarp and feed, 
to fhow its ftructure as it exits, long after the decay of the flower, 
When ripe and perfect. 
- Former botanifts having given great attention to the calyx and 
coroll, and the fexual EN being founded on a minute confider- 
ation of the ftamina and piftill, thefe four parts are accurately and 
carefully exhibited i in the Linnzan defcriptions of genera, but this is 
not the cafe with refpe& to the fruits or the feeds. We are at prefent 
enabled, by the obfervations of Juffieu, Gertner, and a few other 
botani(ls, to defcribe thefe important objects with an accuracy un- 
known to former ages, and to collect from the detail of their parts a 
number of characters, (many of them of great weight,) which, mul- 
tiplying the points of comparifon, eftablifh more firmly the degrees of 
affinity or difference betwixt plants, and thereby lead us to a more 
intimate knowledge of their nature. Even in the defcription of the 
flower, the progrefs made by botany fince the death of Linné requires 
perhaps fome change: 1ft, Becaufe the infertion of the ftamina, a _ 
character of à fuperior order, was by him *arefully marked only i m 
the Icofandria, Polyandria, and Gynandria, in which claffes it is (if 
I may be allowed the term) the claffific character. 2dly, Becaufe 
in proportion as that multitude-of different organs which go by the 
general and in many inftances unmeaning name of zeZar/um, are 
phyfiologically difcriminated, and accurately defined, the neceffity - 
of marking them for what they are in nature, is morc and more fen- 
fibly felt, And sdly, becaufe the germer itfelf, as a part of the flower, 
À varies . 
Nati. 
