OF THE LINNJEAN SYSTEM. 06 



tier, but little resembling ordinary stamens, is concret- 

 ed into masses, commonly two, which lie concealed, 

 as in the Orchis, within two lateral hoods of the style, 

 or within a moveable or hinged lid at its summit, as in 

 the Calopogon and Jlrethusa of our swamps. Very 

 few plants now find place in this ambiguous class, and 

 those which do, particularly the Orchides, are among 

 the rarest and most curious productions of the vegeta- 

 ble kingdom. 



The flowers of the plants of the preceding classes, 

 each possessed of both stamens and pistils, have been 

 termed perfect, to distinguish them from those of the 

 two following classes, in which the flowers are dissim- 

 ilar, some producing stamens, but no pistils, and are 

 consequently unproductive of the seed ; while others 

 afford pistils and fruit, but are without perfect stamens. 

 These two kinds of flowers are differently circum- 

 stanced. In the Cucumber, or Gourd, for example, 

 you will find both sorts of flowers upon the same plant, 

 occupying different situations on the stem ; for such 

 plants Linnaeus has provided the class which he calls 

 MoNfficiA (or of one house), two kinds of flowers being 

 found on the same plant. 



But in the next class Dicecia (or of two houses), 

 as in the Hemp and Spinage, only one sort of flowers 

 are found on a plant, some ol them being altogether 

 pistiliferous or staminiferous. Two different plants 

 are here, therefore, necessary to the perfection of the 

 species ; and that such an association of these dissimi- 

 larly flowered individuals is requisite in the plan ot na- 

 ture has been proven by the Date palm, as a pistilife- 

 rous plant bears no fruit in the absence of the stamin- 

 iferous individual, and even the pollen itself, when 

 conveyed to a distance, still possesses this fertilizing 

 power, and has been found to act exclusively upon the 

 branch to which it was applied. 



