-ZO EXPLANATION OF THE CLASSES 



same or an indeterminate length, and less in numbei 

 than fifteen, then the number alone will Suffice to 

 determine the class ; so those which have one stamen 

 will belong to the first class, entitled Monandria; 

 those with two stamens to the second, Diandric; 

 those with three to the third, Triandria; and so on 

 to the tenth, entitled Decandria. These names are 

 derived from the Greek language, as most expressive 

 in composition, and ought to be committed to memory, 

 as they are of constant use and occurrence in this 

 ingenious system. 



Flowers in their natural or wild state ought to be 

 preferred by the beginner, to those which are culti- 

 vated in gardens, as the exuberance arising from the 

 richness of soil, and an artificial treatment, are often 

 influential in altering the natural number of the parts 

 of flowers ; and, in the examples of those which are 

 double, entirely transforming or annihilating the sta- 

 mens and pistils. A certain symmetry, however, 

 which prevails in the general structure of flowers, will, 

 when understood, serve in a measure to guard the 

 student from error in his decisions on the class and 

 order of a plant ; as, for example, if you meet with a 

 flower whose calyx presents five or ten divisions, and 

 includes five or ten petals, you may constantly expect 

 to find in such flower, if possessed of a definite num- 

 ber of stamens, five or ten of these essential organs, 

 and if the divisions of the flower be four or six. there 

 will be, as a concomitant circumstance, four, eight, or 

 six stamens. As to the rare class Heptandria, or of 

 seven stamens, for which the Horse-cbesnut is given 

 as an example, it is so irregular, and foreign to the 

 symmetry of the parts of the flower with which it is 

 conjoined, that as a class it might probably be laid 

 aside without inconvenience. 



