Systems of Botany. 421 



has but one pistil, digyfiia, which has two. The second class 

 Diandria, has three orders, trigynia, having three pistils or styles; 

 for it is this latter part of the pistil which is often multiplied. 



The eleventh class, dodeca?idna, includes flowers with from 

 eleven to twenty stamens. The twelfth, icosandria, has twenty 

 or more stamens athxed to the calyx, and pohjandria, the thir- 

 teenth, has from that number to a thousand, affixed to the re- 

 ceptacle. The remaining classes are established upon the 

 unequal length of the stamens — the union of the filaments — 

 filaments in double sets — anthers united into a tube — stamens 

 proceeding from the germen — male and female organs on differ- 

 ent flowers of the same plant, as nioficccia, (one house,) the 

 twenty-first class : dicccia, (two houses,) with each organ on se- 

 parate plants. The twenty -third class, polygamia, embraces 

 plants bearing perfect flowers, and flowers with the separate 

 organs on the same, or on distinct plants. The twenty-fourth 

 class, or cryptogamia, comprehends all plants destitute of organs 

 of fructification, such as ferns, mosses, lichens, algas, and fungi. 



Such are the outlines of the celebrated artificial system of 

 Linnaeus, so attractive by its apparent simplicity, yet so unin- 

 structive, as far as the laws of nature are concerned ; for it is by 

 the aid of these alone, we are enabled to trace natural affinities 

 between plants, both in structure and properties. Mr. Lindley, 

 in his introduction, has well remarked, 



" From such principles no naturalists except botanists have deviated ; no 

 one has thought of first combining, under the name of animal kmgdom, quad- 

 rupeds and birds, insects and fishes, reptiles and mollusca, and then of sub- 

 dividing them by the aid of a few arbitrary signs, in such a way that a por- 

 tion of each should be found in every group — quadrupeds among birds and 

 fishes, reptiles among insects and mammalia; but each great natural group 

 has been confined within its own proper limits. Botany alone, of all the 

 branches of natural history, has been treated otherwise ; and this in modern 

 times." 



When we speak of the inefficiency of this artificial system for 

 the knowledge of nature, we desire to speak of Linnaeus with 

 all honour, as a great benefactor to mankind, who lived before 

 the true plan of studying nature could be comprehensively laid 

 down ; but when we have to draw a comparison between it, 

 and the natural system which now claims to supersede it, we 

 should not act honestly, did we not declare that it is possible to 

 acquire a great knowledge of- the Linnaean system of botany, 



