336 DIADELPHIA. 



divided it. See E?igL BoL t. 588— -590, ^^43, 

 1471. 



3, Octcmdria. Folygala, t. 76, is the principal genus 

 here. America and the Cape of Good Hope abound 

 in beautiful species of it, and New Holland affords 

 some new o;enera, Ions; confounded with this. Dal- 

 bergia is perhaps as well placed in the next Order. 



4. Decandria is by far the most numerous, as well as 

 naturaljOrder of this Class, consequently the genera 

 are difficult to characterize. They compose the 

 family of proper PapiUonacecE or Legum'mosce, the 

 Pea, Vetch, Broom, &c. Their stamens are most 

 usually nine in one set, with a single one separate. 



The genera are arranged in sections variously cha- 

 racterized. 



*' Stamens all unitedy that is, all in one set. The 

 plants of this section are really not diadelphous but 

 monadelphous. See Spartium, Engl. Bot. t. 1339. 

 Some of them, as Lupinus, and Ulei\ t, 742, 743, 

 have indeed the tenth stamen evidently distinguished 

 from the rest, though incorporated with them by its 

 lower part. Others have a longitudinal slit in the 

 upper side of the tube, or the latter easily separates 

 there, as Ononis, t. 682, without any indication of a 

 separate stamen. Here therefore the Linn^ean System 

 swerves from its strict artificial laws, in compliance 

 with the decisive natural character which marks the 

 plants in question. We easily perceive that character, 



