44S DIADELPHIA. 



bergia is perhaps as well placed in the next 

 Order. 



4. Decandria is by far the most numerous, 

 as well as natural, Order of this Class, 

 consequently the genera are difficult to 

 characterize. They compose the family of 

 proper Tapilionacea or Leguminoscc, the 

 Pea, Vetch, Broom, &c. Their stamens 

 are most usually 9 in one set, with a single 

 one separate. 



The jzenera are arranged in sections va- 

 p ° 



riously characterized. 



* Stamens' all united, that is, all in one 

 set. The plants of this section are really not 

 diadelphous but monadelphous. See Spartium, 

 Engl. Bot. t. 1339. Some of them, as Lu- 

 pinus, and Ulex, i. 742, 743, have indeed 

 the tenth stamen evidently distinguished from 

 the rest, though incorporated with them by 

 its lower part. Others have a longitudinal 

 slit in the upper side of the tube, or the lat- 

 ter easily separates there, as Ononis, t. 682, 

 without any indication of a separate stamen. 

 Here therefore the Linnaean System swerves 

 from its strict artificial laws, in compliance 



