THE CLASS DIANDRIC. 4T 



well, by Botanists, Veronica. In these, the corolla, 

 which is extremely fugaceous in warm weather, is 

 flat or wheel-shaped, and monopetalous, commonly 

 white, or bluish, and delicately veined with blue, di- 

 vided into four segments, and the lowest always nar- 

 rower than the rest ; to this succeeds a two-celled, 

 inversely heart-shaped, or obcordate, flat capsule, 

 containing several seeds. In this genus, as in most 

 others, it is impossible almost to omit observing a 

 symmetry of parts by two and four. 



In the Circaa, called in Europe, Enchanters' 

 Nightshade (which you will now and then find in 

 our shady woods, which are not too much pastured 

 and exposed), the number two prevails throughout. 

 The calyx is superior and two-leaved ; the corolla of 

 two petals ; and the pericarp consists of two little 

 burs or capsules which do not spontaneously open, 

 and each of them contains two seeds. 



In this, as an artificial system of classification, the 

 mere number and disposition of the stamens are often 

 in danger of severing apart groups of plants, which 

 are otherwise natural. As such, Salvia, or the genus 

 of Sage, though really belonging to the Laeiatje, 

 lipped, or ringent flowers, already examined, and 

 which mostly constitute the first order of the class 

 Didynamia, is placed here for no other reason, than 

 its possessing two, in place of four unequal sta- 

 mens ; yet in this genus, characterized entirely by 

 the peculiarity of its stamens, they make no very 

 distant approach to the Didynamous character. 

 The filaments of the stamina are, in fact, double, 

 or jointed, for one is articulated across the summit of 

 the other, like a hammer upon its handle, and only 

 one extremity of the transverse filament produces a 

 perfect anther, though there is often an abortive or 

 imperfect rudiment of another at the other extremity. 



