CLASS HEXANDRIA. 219 



are not only thus important to the comfort of man, by contribu- 

 ting to his clothing, and to his intellectual improvement, in fur- 

 nishing a method of disseminating knowledge, but the seeds are 

 highly valuable for their oil, called lin-seed oil. This is used 

 in, medicine ; and the delightful porformances of the artist are 

 executed by means of colours, prepared with oil from the seed 

 of the flax, laid upon the canvass made from the fibres of its 

 stems. 



Polygynia. 



The thirteenth order occurs next to the fifth ; there being no 

 plants in the class Pentandria with six, seven, and eight pistils, 

 &c. until we come tpjthe yellow root (Zanthoriza), which is a 

 native of the Southern States. It has 5 stamens, 13 pistils, no 

 calyx, 5 petals, 5 nectaries, cap'sules 5 seeded ; the flowers are 

 purple, growing in panicles. It is a low shrub, with a yellow 

 root, sometimes used by dyers. 



Our investigations into the class Pentandria have necessari- 

 ly been somewhat tedious, on account of the number and im- 

 portance of the plants which it contains. We do not, how- 

 ever, expect to make you practical botanists by introducing 

 to your notice a few interesting plants ; this can only be done 

 by gathering flowers, and examining them according to those 

 rules of analysis which we have endeavoured to explain in a 

 simple manner. If you study flowers, you will read remarks 

 upon them with pleasure and profit ; if not, definitions or in- 

 struction will be read with little interest and little improve- 

 ment. Sciences may be unfolded, every facility which books 

 and teaching can give, may be placed before the youthful 

 mind ; but that mind must itself be active, or the seeds of 

 knowledge will no more take root .and expand," than the seeds 

 of plants would vegetate if thrown upon the bare surface of 

 a rock. 



LECTURE XXVII. 

 CLASS VI. HEXANDRIA, AND CLASS VII. HEPTANDRIA. 



OF all the artificial classes, none presents us with so great 

 a number of splendid genera as Hexandria; most of them 

 are distinguished by bulbous roots, monocotyledonous seeds, and 

 endogenous stems ; the palms and some other plants of this 

 class have fibrous roots in connection with the last two char- 



Zanthoriza Importance of the class Hexandria Three important natural 

 characters which distinguish many plants of this class. 



