552 



altogether barren, that is, its florets are never entirely 

 male. On the contrary, these florets are to be considered 

 as the parts of a compound flower; and there being male 

 and hermaphrodite ones intermixed, is exactly a parallel 

 case with the polygamy of the Syngenesious class." 



" This order is eminently natural, though all plants 

 which bear umbels do not belong to it, but only those with 

 five stamens, two styles, and two seeds." 



" The germen is inferior, simple, solitary, separating, 

 when arrived at maturity, into two equal naked seeds ; 

 each of which is furnished with a thread, inserted into its 

 summit. These two threads combine to form a very slen- 

 der receptacle, at the top of the stalk of the floret. Each 

 floret has a superior perianth, with five teeth, which is 

 often so small as scarcely to be discerned, even with the 

 help of a magnifier. Petals five, caducous, often unequal ; 

 hence Rivinus referred these plants to his class of penta- 

 petalous irregular flowers. Stamens five, inserted into 

 an elevated annular or circular receptacle, that surrounds 

 the pistils, deciduous. Styles two, often very short, and 

 hardly visible. Seeds naked, without any seed-vessel." 



" The stem is mostly hollow, sometimes filled with 

 spongy pith ; rarely shrubby, very rarely arboreous, of 

 which last character Phyllis is the only example, — see 

 order 47. Leaves generally alternate, and repeatedly 

 compound. Root mostly quite simple ; in Oeiianthe tu- 

 berous, in Batiium Bulbocastamim globose." 



" Nothing is more arduous than to distinguish the ge- 

 'nera of umbelliferous plants by appropriate characters. 

 Tournefort himself, who excelled in the knowledge of this 

 tribe," (perhaps Linnaeus meant rather to say, in the dis- 

 crimination of genera, but his auditors did not take his 

 words accurately,) " has distributed them according to the 

 shape and size of their seeds. But this is a very falla- 

 cious mode, as the seeds often differ much in proportion, 

 though not in any other respect. Morison wrote an entire 

 book on umbellate plants ; but with little success, their 



