238 TJie Jussieuean, or Natural, System of Plants. 



Having furnished so many handsome plants in the first 

 order, and useful ones in the second, the class Tri^ndria seeks 

 repose. The third order is small, and contains nothing par- 

 ticularly handsome, useful, or interesting. Here, then, reader, 

 let us also repose ; for we have not room to go through another 

 class. So, gentle reader, 



Au-revoir, — Adieu ! 



Art. VIII. The Jussieuean, or Natural, System of Plants. 

 . {Continued from p. 144.) 



[We have already noticed the importance of Cruciferae to 

 mankind, and the singularity of its botanical characters. In 

 the general vievsr vv^hich we are now giving of the groups into 

 which plants are thrown by the natural system, we do not 

 stop to render familiar to the learner the singular characters 

 alluded to ; because we know that we cannot do this with 

 proper effect, till he has made himself master of the details 

 which will be given by Miss Kent, in illustration of the Lin- 

 nean system. By the time that we have got through our 

 general view of the groups of plants, Miss Kent will be con- 

 siderably advanced in her illustrations, and the student will 

 then know enough of vegetable anatomy to follow us through 

 scientific definitions of the , different orders and tribes, and 

 which definitions we intend to accompany by figures of the 

 types of all the genera.] 



The whole order of Cruciferae is preeminently Euro- 

 pean; 166 species are found in the north and middle of 

 Europe, and 178 on the sea-shores of the Mediterranean; 

 45 are found between Mogadore and Alexandria; 184? in 

 the countries of the East, that is to say, Syria, Asia Minor, 

 Tauria, and Persia; 99 in Siberia; 35 in China, Japan, 

 and India; 16 in New Holland and the South Sea islands; 

 6 in the Mauritius and adjacent countries ; 70 at the Cape ; 

 9 in the Canaries; 2 in Saint Helena; 2 in the West 

 Indies; 41 in South America ; 48 in North America; 5 iii 

 Kamtchatka and the bordering islands; and finally, 35 are 

 common to several parts of the globe. From this it appears 

 that there are about 100 species in the southern hemisphere, 

 and about 800 in the northern : or, if they are considered with 

 reference to the zones of temperature, 205 are natives of the 

 frigid zone of the northern hemisphere ; 30 of the whole of 

 the tropics ; 548 of the temperate zone of the northern hemi- 

 sphere ; and 86 of the southern. The forty-first degree of 



