323 



points of resemblance, and these are supplied by the organs of repro- 

 duction, which, as the only really essential parts of a flower, are 

 always present at certain periods of the life of a flowering plant ; to 

 these therefore we must look for the certain characters in structure 

 which unite the strawberry with the rose. 



It is scarcely necessary to say that as in the artificial system of 

 Linnaeus, so in the structural* system of Dr. Lindley, the stamens and 

 pistils are employed in characterizing certain groups above genera ; in 

 the latter system, however, it is the insertion of the stamens that is 

 found to furnish certain characters, not their number, which is uncer- 

 tain and variable, even in the same genus. In both the rose and the 

 strawberry, the stamens are inserted into the mouth of the cal3'x, a 

 certain character indicating that both plants belong to the perigynous 

 sub-class of exogens : and this mode of insertion of the stamens is 

 essentially the distinguishing character of the twelfth Linnaean class, 

 Icosandria, one of the most natural of all his classes ; so that in both 

 systems the rose and the strawberry are associated in the same group, 

 by certain characters in their structure, " independent of their out- 

 ward appearance." But we need not pause here in our inquiry, for 

 the rose and the strawberry are still further structurally related by the 

 character of their carpels being entirely separate and uncombined, 

 thus forming what is technically denominated an apocarpous fruit. 



In the certain characters of perigynous stamens and separated car- 

 pels the meadow-sweet agrees with the rose and strawberry, as well as 

 in the outward appearance arising from the possession of a polypeta- 

 lous corolla, and leaves furnished with a pair of stipules at the base 

 of the petiole. The individual, therefore, must be unfortunate who 

 should be unable to perceive any closer resemblance between the 

 meadow-sweet and a rose, or any other member of the same order, 

 than between the former plant and a beech-tree, for either his mental 

 or bodily vision must be strangely distorted. 



In the next place, we have the assertion that " heath is not very 

 like a rhododendron," followed by the comment, " yet by the magic 

 power of the natural system, the heaths, rhododendrons, azaleas, and 

 arbutuses are all domesticated together in one family or order, along 

 with others as unlike each other as possible." Allow us to ask, where 

 should plants be located, except with those which possess the same 

 certain characters independent of their outward appearance } In 

 the Ericaceae, these characters are to be found in the monopetalous 



* We use here the tenri structural, out of deference to those who ohject to the epi- 

 thet natural. 



