148 ORDER MONOGTNIA. 



trees " Princes of India," and the grasses Plebeians. 

 In our republican country, where aristocratic distinc- 

 tions among men are discarded, orders of nobility 

 among plants sl)ould not exist ; the humblest in a2> 

 pearance are often found most valuable. 



The lily has six stamens;' six petals, 

 three exterior, three interior; capsule 

 three-sided, with three cells and three 

 valves; the seeds are arranged in six 

 rows. 



a. This proportion as to numbers seems to forbid the idea that tliis plant was 

 produced without the agency of a designing mind. We are not always, however, 

 to expect the same symmetry in plants as has been here remarked. It is in the 

 natural, as in the moral world, that, although we see around us such proofs of order 

 and system, as manifest the superintending care of one Almighty Being, yet we meet 

 with irregularities which we cannot comprehend ; but, although we may admire 

 the order, we are not to say that even what seems disorder is formed without a 

 plan. 



" Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce 

 His vvorlis unwise, ot which the smallest part 

 Exceeds the narrow visions of his mind 1" 



b. The Tulip has no style, but its three-parted stigma is attached to a three 

 cornered ovary. The corolla of the tulip is more expanded at the base than that 

 of the lily. The scape of the tulip is never more than one-flowered, while the stem 

 of the lily usually has a number of flowers. In no plant is the variation made by 

 culture greater than in the tulip ; it is said, that of one single species (Tulipa ges- 

 neriana), eleven hundred varieties are cultivated in Holland. About the middle 

 of the seventeenth century the rage for tulips {tulip 7nania) was so great that some 

 were sold for four thousand dollars, and one variety, called the Viccroi, for ten 

 thousand dollars ; but this extraordinary traflic was checked by a law, tliat no tulip 

 or other flower should be sold for a sura exceedhig one hundred and seventy-five 

 dollars. 



c. The Croion-imjoerial^ is a majestic flower, and presents 

 in the regularity of its parts and curious appearance of its 

 nectariferous glands facts of great interest both in the depart- 

 ments of botanical classification and physiolog}^ But we find 

 ■ in the fetid odor of this splendid flower, a circumstance which 



leads ns to prefer as an ornament for our paiiors or as a gift 

 to a friend, the humble mignonette or the lowly violet. 



d. This simple fact might suggest to the young, that in order to be desirable to 

 others, they must be agreeable ; the mere circumstance of a fine person cannot 

 long render tolerable the society of one who possesses neither useful nor amiable 

 qualities. 



197. The lily family is divided into several tribes, as the 

 T'ulijpacece,, w^liich are hiiXbous jylants^ the perianth scarcely ad- 

 Jiering to form a tiihe^ the integuments of the seed soft^ as in the 

 tulip, lily, and crow^n-imperial ; the IlemerocallicJce^ in which the 

 petals are united in a tube, as the day-lily and tube-rose ; be- 



* This plant is represented at Plate vii.. Fig. 4, of the Appendix ; the Yucca aloifolia, which be- 

 longs to the same natural family, is represented at Plate ii.. Fig. 1. The Narcissus is represented at 

 Plate vii., Fig. 7. The Agave, of the Narcissi family, is represented at Plate vii.. Fig. 2. The 

 Pineapple, belonging to this class and order, is represented at Plate v.. Fig. 3. 



Tulip— c. Crown-imperial — d. Reflection.— 197. Tribes of the lily family. 



