MONCECIA. J97 



abroad. The stem is slender, and eight or ten inches high ; 

 leaves cordate, oblong, acuminate ; peduncles radical ; lip 

 of the corolla lanceolate. The root has a bitter taste, and 

 an aromatic smell. The flower is inflated and purple. Grows 

 in woods. 



CLASS XXL MONCECIA. Orders 8. 



The name of this class is derived from 

 the Greek, monos, one, and oikos, house, 

 and signifies, in botany, that the sta- 

 mens and pistils inhabit the same plant. 

 The class is thus distinguished from 

 the next, Dicecia, in which the stamens 

 and pistils are on different trees. In 

 the present class, the stamens and 

 pistils, though on the same plant, are 

 in distinct flowers ; a represents the stamens, and b the pistils. 

 In all the classes heretofore described, these parts are in the 

 same flower, and as the influence of the pollen of the sta- 

 mens is necessary to perfect the seeds of the pistils, the pupil 

 will probably be at a loss 10 conceive how this influence is 

 exerted, when these parts are at a distance from each other. 

 There is no difficulty in this question. The wisdom of the 

 Creator has not left so important a matter without provision. 

 In many plants, as the trees, the pistillate and staminate flow- 

 ers are placed indiscriminately on all the branches, so that 

 the pollen falls upon, or is wafted by the wind to the stigmas. 

 In the Cucumber, and Gourd, the pollen is carried by insects, 

 as bees, in search of honey, from one part to the other, and 

 whoever has watched these insects, and observed them cov- 

 ered with the. yellow dust, which is the pollen, will have no 

 difficulty in conceiving that an ample quantity may be trans- 

 ported in this mariner. Moncecia contains nearly all the im- 

 portant timber trees of temperate countries, such as the Oak, 

 Birch, Pine, Beech, Wlanut, &c. It also contains the Bread- 

 fruit, an "article of great importance as food in some countries. 

 Sprengel, and some other botanists have referred many ot 

 the genera of Monoecia to other classes, considering those 

 plants only as belonging here, which have their staminate 

 and pistillate flowers differently constructed. In some in- 



What does the word Monoecia signify, and how is this word applied to 

 the situation of the stamens and pistils of this class ? In the flowers of 

 this class how is the pollen said to be transmitted from the anthers to the 

 stigma? # 



