THE MYRTLE TRIBE OF PLANTS. 



407 



it vveli ; and, in adcUtion to its many excel- 

 lencies, the fruit will make a delicious 

 jelly, lu the flowers, it is obviousl}'' a true 

 member of Mijrtacece, 



The pomegranate, Pumica^ formed one of 

 the eleven genera (of Baccata ;) but it now 

 constitutes an order by itself, — Granatea. 



In the second tribe, Capsulares, we found 

 those ornaments of the conservatory, — Me- 

 trosideros-, Melaleuca, and Colo tJiaJiums, with. 

 their beautiful tuft}'' pencils of gorgeousl)?- 

 tinted stamens ; the first belonging to Ico- 

 sandria Monogyn a ; the other two to Pohj' 

 addphia PGhjand^ria, ; the pretty small leaved 

 Leptosp€r/}i2c/7is, are more nearly allied to 

 the true myrtles. 



So much for the guido.nce of the Ency- 

 clopcsdia. But i[ we now turn to the cata- 

 logue of the Hortus Brittanicus of 1S32, we 

 find that Mij?-tacece has become the S4th na- 

 tural order; consequentl}-, no fewer than 

 twenty-three intermediate orders have been 

 added to the list. A great change has also 

 been effected in the arrangement of the 

 order ; it no longer consists of three tribes, 

 distinguished by the structure of the seed 

 vessels, but of six tribes, founded upon 

 bases, thus: 1. Chamcclanchiex, denoting 

 the dwarfish, angular figure of the plants. 

 2. LeptospermicB, the similitude of the ge- 

 nera to their type, Leptospernmm. 3. Myr- 

 lece, the same, &c. &c. 



The list of the orders in the first grand 

 division vras increased to 210; and these 

 are divided and subdivided into tribes, sub- 

 tribes, and the like, to an extent absolutely 

 alarming to the memory. As new plants 

 come in, new orders must be originated to 

 contain them, till we are ready to exclaim, 



'■"What! will the line stretch out the cvuck of doom?" 



These eternal alterations, changes of po- 

 sitions, and new creations, form the great 

 blot of the system ; a huge stumbling block 

 in the way of the inquiring many, who 



cannot fail to see that the twenty-four sim- 

 ple classes of Linnreus, imperfect though 

 they are, furnish a locality for every new 

 introduction, to which it can appropriately 

 be referred, without violence to the cha- 

 racters of its inflorescence. 



To what conclusion, then, do we arrive, 

 but that the Linnaean system is a simple, 

 well regulated whole, — perfect in its struc- 

 ture, and easily available ? It therefore is, 

 and ever will remain, the vade viecnm of 

 the many. The natural system is, on the 

 contrary, unfinished, unformed, composed 

 of disjointed materials, grand in its object, 

 comprehensive in its design, but so ham- 

 pered with difficulties that it is likely to 

 remain " a sealed book, a hidden mystery," 

 the system of the learned few. 



We started at a certain point, and have 

 now got back to it again ; therefore, we 

 shall quote the characters which distinguish 

 and illustrate the order Myrtacece. 



^'■Dotted leaves, with marginal ribs, and 

 an inferior ovarium and single style, are 

 the great features of AlyrtacecB. They are 

 all fine evergreen shrubs or trees, generally 

 bearing white flowers, and in the first sec- 

 tion, (tribe,) producing fleshy fruit, &;c. The 

 volatile oil contained in the little reservoirs 

 of the bark, the leaves, and the floral en- 

 velopes, gives these plants a fragrance, 

 which has caused them to be celebrated by 

 the poets of old. There is also a considera- 

 ble proportion of the asirzjigent principle in 

 these plants, very obvious in the bark of 

 the pomegranate. The leaves of the Chi- 

 lian myrtles, and some other species, have 

 been used as a substitute for tea." (Ency. 

 Plants, p. 106S.) 



We said that Punica now constituted an 

 order by itself — Granatecs. "This order 

 has but one genus, the well known pome- 

 granate, — differing from MyrtacecB, in the 

 leaves being destitute of the pelhicid dots. 



