1 10 CLASS ICOSANDRIA. 



and continue to be succeeded by a profusion of black- 

 ish berries, filled with an abundant purple juice. Like 

 most of the plants of the same natural order, the young 

 shoots of the Poke are boiled and eaten as greens, 

 though the older plant is said to be deleterious, and 

 the berries are considered medicinal. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



OF THE CLASS ICOSANDRIA. 



We now come to the consideration of a class in 

 which the number of stamens, often considerable, is so 

 inconstant, that their mere notation is of less conse- 

 quence than the part of the flower on which they are 

 inserted. Three of these classes were given by Lin- 

 naeus, namely, Dodecandria, Icosandria, and Poly- 

 andria. The name of Dodecandria might lead us 

 to a belief that it was intended exclusively to classify 

 such plants as had 12 stamens, but in place of any 

 such certainty, it is said to be intended to contain all 

 plants with 12 to 19 stamens inclusively, without any 

 regard to their point of insertion. It is obvious, how- 

 ever, to all who have ever attentively examined these 

 Dodecandrous plants, that these numbers are illusory, 

 and that all the plants so referred, ought to find place 

 either in Icosandria or Polyandria, otherwise spe- 

 cies of the same genus might be referred to 2 classes ; 

 as in Agrimony, where, according to the species, there 

 are flowers with 7, 10, and 12 to 20 stamens, or Do- 

 decandrous and Icosandrous species. But here, as is the 

 general case, in this and the following classes, the incon- 

 stancy of the number and the point of insertion are the 

 only valid characters of the class ; the stamens out of 

 allcertain symmetry with the partsofthe flower, varying. 



