420 Systems of Botany. 



name of a flower, with a long string of Latin words, as though it 

 was the form of an incantation. An agreeable lady writer of 

 the Linnaean school, has prettily said, " It was as though Chris- 

 tian names being unknown, we were to distinguish a family of 

 sisters by personal description ; and instead of designating one as 

 Miss Lucy Smith, and another as Miss Mary Smith, we should 

 say, ' Yesterday I met Miss Smith, with black eyes and chestnut 

 hair, who is rather tall, stoops a little in the shoulders, has a 

 pretty Uttle foot, and speaks with a lisp ; and I asked her how 

 the Miss Smith was, with blue eyes, auburn hair, pale cheeks, 

 a majestic air, and a mole on her chin.' " 



The value of a natural system was well known to that great 

 naturalist, Linnaeus, who has even left the sketch of one ; but 

 the difficulty of defining the groupes was too great for his day. 

 After unsuccessful attempts by others to found a popular ar- 

 rangement upon the conformation of the corolla, the fruit, &c. 

 &,c., he produced his famous sexual system, founded upon the 

 parts concerned in fructification. The calyx, or the outer part, 

 which encloses and protects the bud : the corolla, the coloured 

 leaves of the flower which protect the more delicate reproduc- 

 tive parts. The pistil, the female organ, which occupies the 

 centre of the flower, and is composed of three parts ; the germeri 

 at the base, the rudiment of the future fruit or seed : the style, 

 a small tube proceeding from it, and the stigma, at the top of 

 the style. In like manner the stame?i, or male organ, is com- 

 posed of three parts; the Jilament, or thread which rises from 

 the base of the flower ; the antJier at its top, and the pollen, or 

 fecundating matter lodged within the anther. The pericarp is 

 the germen in a mature state, enclosing the seed, as the term 

 denotes. The receptacle is the general connecting base of the 

 fructification. 



His classes are formed from one or more of these parts, the 

 order and genus from others. Having divided the vegetable 

 kingdom into twenty-four classes, he established the 'first ten 

 upon the number of stamens in a flower ; and following up his 

 sexual distinction, he called the stamens andria, a Greek term 

 for husband, and the pistil gynia, another Greek term for wife. 

 The orders of the classes are distinguished l)y the number of 

 pistils ; thus, the class mnnandria, containing flowers which have 

 but one stamen, is subdivided into two ovAcvi^, monogynia, which 



