POLYGAMIA. 367 



mate examples of this order. Spurious ones are 

 NepeJithes, Myristica the Nutmeg, and Schreber's 

 Xanthe, all placed by him in the now abolished 

 Order Sj/ngenesia, and which can only take shelter 

 here Avhile the Class remains as it is, for they have 

 no difference of structure in the accessory parts of 

 their flowers. 



Class 23. Polygamia. Stamens and Pistils separate 

 in some flowers, united in others, either on the same 

 plant or on two or three distinct ones ; such diflfe- 

 rence in the essential organs beino; moreover accom- 

 panied with a diversity in the accessory parts of the 

 flowers. Orders 3. 



1. Monoecia. United flowers accompanied with barren 

 or fertile, or both, all on one plant. Atriplex, 

 Engl. Bot. t. 1261, 232, &c., is an instance of this, 

 having the barren flowers of five regular spreading 

 segments, the united ones of two compressed valves, 

 which, becoming greatly enlarged, protect the seed. 

 In several species however the flowers are none of 

 them united, each having only stamens or only- 

 pistils. Throughout the rest of the Order, as it 

 stands in Linnaeus and Schreber, I can find no 

 genus that has the requisite character. Some of the 

 cjrasses indeed have awns to one kind of flower onlv, 

 but that part is too uncertain to establish a character 

 upon; and this family is so natural in itself, and so 

 liable to variations in the perfecting of its flowers or 



