CLASS HEXANDR1A. 9 1 



The Rice, Orijza sativa, belongs, in reality, to the 

 grasses, of which it has all the structure, differing 

 chiefly from other genera, and particularly Leersia, 

 in having a double number of stamens ; and is remark- 

 able in this class, as belonging to the second order. 

 This useful annual is still found, apparently, wild in 

 some parts of India, probably its native country ; it 

 prefers wet situations, bears a terminal heavy yellow 

 panicle, or cluster of grain, each of which is inclosed 

 in a persistent, rigid, ribbed husk, either naked or ter- 

 minated by a long awn. The calyx glume is very 

 small. No plant in the world affords such general 

 sustenance as Rice. It is the prevailing grain of Asia, 

 Africa, and the warmer parts of America, and export- 

 ed into every part of Europe. It has a remarkable 

 native substitute in the Zizania, or Wild Rice of the 

 United States, which also belongs to Moncecia Hex- 

 andria, and will be noticed hereafter. 



In Trigynia we find Rumex, the genus of the 

 Dock and Sorrel, of the natural order Polygone;e. 

 The perianth or calyx consists of 6 green leaves with- 

 out any corolla. The fruit is a triquetrous nut like 

 the seed of buck-wheat, covered by the 2 interior 

 valve-like leaves of the persisting calyx. The stigma 

 is many-cleft. The species are numerous and un- 

 sightly, one of the most common, indeed troublesome 

 species throughout the United States, is the Rumex 

 acetosella or common Sheep Sorrel, which has leaves 

 formed like the head of a halbert, or hastate. 



One of our more curious vernal flowers is the 

 Trillium, so called from the prevalence of the number 

 3 in all the parts of the fructification. It is, in fact, 

 the European Herb Paris, lacking a fourth part 

 throughout its structure, for in that, the number 4 pre- 

 vails with the same regularity as the ternate quantity 

 in our plant. Clusters of these remarkable plants are 



