Liyy.T.AX SYSTEir. 399 



characterised according to the form of the corolla. Many other 

 systems were devised which were simply alterations of the fore- 

 going, as that of Pontedera. Magnoliiis, however, framed a 

 system entirely on the calyx, while Gleditsch attempted one in 

 which the classes were founded on the situation of the stamens. 

 All the above systems were, without doubt, useful in their day, 

 and paved the way for those of a more comprehensive nature, 

 such as that of Linnaeus, which, being still in use to some extent, 

 requires to be particularly examined. 



LixxJEAx System. — This celebrated system was first promul- 

 gated by Linnaeus in his " Systema Xaturse," published in the year 

 1735. It has been somewhat altered by subsequent botanists ; 

 but, in its essential characters, the Linnaean system, as now 

 adopted, is the same as debased by the great Linnaeus himself. 

 In describing this system we shall adopt the arrangement of the 

 present day. 



The classes and orders in the Linnaean system are taken exclu- 

 sively from the essential organs of reproduction, the sexual nature 

 of which Linnaeus had just before clearly established ; hence this 

 artificial scheme is commonly termed the Sexual System. 



Classes. — In this system plants are at firtt divided into 

 Flowering and Flowerless, the latter of which constitute a class 

 by themselves, under the name of Crypt ogamia ; while the former, 

 called the Phanerogamia, are divided into twenty-three classes — 

 the characters of twenty of these depend upon the number, posi- 

 tion, relative length, and connection of the stamens ; while those 

 of the other three are derived from the unisexual nature of 

 their flowers. The names by which the classes are characterised 

 are all derived from the Greek, and express their distinctive 

 peculiarities. 



The first eleven classes comprise all hermaphrodite flowers 

 the stamens of which are all distinct from each other, and about 

 the same length, or, at all events, neither didynamous nor 

 tetradynamous. The individual classes are distinguished by the 

 absolute number of such stamens, and their names are formed 

 by the combination of the Greek numeral expressing the num- 

 ber, with the termination anclria (from avTjp, a man or male), in 

 reference to their office in the process of fertilization. Thus : — 



Class 1 . Monandria, includes all such plants which have but 



one stamen to the flower, as Hipptcris, and CentrantJius 



{fig. 479). 

 Class 2. Biandria, those plants which have two stamens in the 



flower, as the Ash {fig. 424), Lilac, and Privet. 

 Class 3. Triandria, those with three stamens, as most Grasses, 



Valerian {fig. 478), and Iris. 

 Class "4. Tetrandria, those with four stamens, as the Holly, 



Plantain, and E^nmedhcm. {Fig. 849.) 



