THB HYACINTH. 231 



thickets, growing very plentiful in Welton-wood and dales, and also 

 in the neighbourhood of Cottingham. The stalk is generally about 

 a foot in height. 



I have said that this plant has six stamens and one pistil ; and as 

 I promised to describe these parts or organs, I shall now do so as 

 briefly as possible. Tl# stamens may be called the fertilizing system, 

 and have been looked upon, from the time of Linnaeus, as the male 

 organs of the plant. On the same ground the pistil is called the fruc- 

 tifying system, and has also been looked upon as the female organ of 

 the plant. 



The stamens are those parts placed immediately within the floral 

 envelope ; take a hyacinth for the purpose of illustration, or a lily, 

 where we find there are sLx ; but they diflTer exceedingly in number 

 in the various orders of plants. It is worthy of remark, that as a 

 general rule, they are the same in number in the same tribe or class 

 of plants, and it was upon this that Linnseus formed his classification 

 of plants, called the Linnaean or artificial classification. In the 

 ginger and glass-wort tribes, for instance, there is always one 

 stamen ; in the speedwell, ash, snd sage tribes there always two 

 stamens ; in the valerian, saflJron, lily, grass, and com tribes there 

 are elways three stamens ; in the parsley, carrot, nightshade, and flax 

 tribes there are always five stamens ; ond so we might go on to an 

 unlimited number. But Linnaeus was only guided by the number 

 of stamens in his first thirteen classes ; in the eleventh class they 

 number from twelve to nineteen ; in the twelfth class they consist of 

 any number above twenty, if they arise from the rim of the calyx, 

 and in the thirteenth class the stamens are numerous, but arise from 

 the receptacle, as in the poppy. The next ten classes are regulated 

 by the relative position of the stamens on the flower, such as having 

 two long and two short, or four long and two short, or in being com- 

 bined in two sets or bundles, or so united as to form a tube, as is 

 seen in what are called the compound flowers as in the dandelion, 

 thistle, &c., or in being situated on separate flowers from the pistil, 

 yet on the same plant, as in the oak, beach, &c., or in the pistils 

 being situate on the flowers of one plant and the stamens on the 

 flowers of another, as is the case in the willow, poplar, hop, juniper, 

 &c. ; the last, or twenty-fourth class, consbts of the cryptogamic 



