FLOWERS POLYPETALG1JS 263 



Linncea, Triosteum and Diervilla are American 

 examples. 



Class 8. Flowers polypetalous. Stamens epigynous. 

 Calyx monophyllous, superior. Stamens alterna- 

 ting with the petals. Germen inferior, simple. 

 Styles two or more. Germen minute, oblong, in 

 the summit of a hard or ligneous albumen. 



1. Aralioe. — Seeds in a capsule or berry. Aralia and 

 Panax are American genera. 



2. Umbelliferce. — Stamens and petals 5. Styles and 

 Stigmas two. Fruit parted by a perpendicular sec- 

 tion into two naked seeds. Leaves alternate, and 

 usually compound, with sheathing petioles. This 

 order includes the umbelliferous plants. Exempli- 

 fied in Parsley and Hemlock. 



Class 9. Flowers polypetalous. Stame?is hypogynous , 



The arrangement of this extensive class into orders 

 not merely natural in themselves, but exhibiting a grad- 

 ual transition from one to the other, must have been a 

 work of no ordinary difficulty. Stamens within a poly- 

 petalous corolla, inserted beneath the germen, consti- 

 tute the primary character of the class ; which em- 

 braces more than twenty orders. Those marks which 

 served as a guide in the distribution of many of the 

 former classes, are here of comparatively small impor- 

 tance. The stamens are variable in their number, 

 union and proportion. The fruit which furnished a 

 character for the monopetalous flowers, is here of less 

 importance, nor will the number of the styles and 

 cells, or the situation of the seeds, furnish invariable 

 marks of distinction. The situation of the embryo in 

 the seed, the presence, or absence, and nature of the 



