472 MONpECIA. 



peared. But even if this were not the 

 case, there is a most important reason for 

 keeping them as they are, which regards 

 the artificial system more particularly, and 

 of which its author was well aware ; they 

 are of all plants most uncertain in the 

 number of their stamens. Now this un^ 

 certainty is of little moment, when we 

 have them primarily distinguished and set 

 apart from other plants by their Monoe- 

 cious or Dioecious character ; because the 

 genera being few, and the Orders con- 

 structed widely as to number of Stamens, 

 we find little difficulty in determining any 

 genus, v\hich would be by no means the 

 case if we had them confounded with the 

 mass of the system. Even the species of 

 the same genus, as well as individuals of 

 each species, differ among themselves, 

 How unwise and unscientific then is it, to 

 take as a primary mark of discrimination, 

 what nature has evidently made of less con- 

 sequence here than in any other case ! It is 

 somewhat like attempting a natural system, 

 and founding its primary divisions on the 

 artificial circumstance of number of stamens. 



