CLASS SYNGENE9IA. 175 



important uses ; the root, bark (sometimes the outer bark, 

 sometimes the liber), the leaves, flowers, pods and seeds. The 

 arts and medicine depend greatly on this tribe, which also fur- 

 nishes valuable fruits and food. Some ^^lants of this class are 

 poisonous. A traveler states, that the banks of the Nile are 

 often visited in the night by the hippopotamus or river-horse, 

 which does great damage to the gardens and fields ; and that 

 the inhabitants destroy the animal by placing a quantity of the 

 Licpine seeds near where he is expected ; these which he 

 devours greedily, soon swell in his stomach and cause death. 



255. The Furze (Ulex EiiropcBus) is a common plant in Eu- 

 rope, though not found so far north as Sweden. It is a fiower 

 of so beautiful an appearance, that Linngeus, as is said, when 

 he first beheld it, fell upon his knees in a transport of grati- 

 tude, and thanked the Author of nature for thus beautifying 

 the earth. 



256. A class called Polyadelphia, or many brotherhoods, 

 having stamens imited in more than two sets^ was established 

 by Linnaeus, but the genera which it contained have been trans- 

 ferred to the class Polyandria ; the St. John's-wort (Hyperi- 

 cum) is among the plants which were in the rejected class 

 Polyadelphia ; this in some species has its numerous stamens 

 in three clusters^ united by their filaments ; but as all the spe- 

 cies of the Hypericum are not thus divided into separate par- 

 cels of stamens, this distinction, as the character of a class, is 

 laid aside ; and the plants which were in the former class, 

 Polyadelphia {many brotherhoods)^ are now placed in the class 

 Polyandria {jnamy stamens). 



LECTURE XXXIY. 



SYNGENES^A, UNITED ANTHEKS. 



257. We have now arrived at a class which contains a large 

 portion of the vegetable tribes found in blossom in the last 

 summer months, and in autumn. The term Syngenesia signi- 

 fies a union of anthers^ which circumstance forms a difference 

 between this class and those distinguished by a imion of fila- 

 ments : the number of.stamens in plants of this class is mostly 

 five, distinguished from the fifth class not only by the manner 

 of inflorescence, but by a union of anthers forming a tube. 



255. Furze.— 256. Class Polyadelphia, why rejected ?— 257. Clas? Syngenesia— What does Svn 

 genesia signify ?— What are the characteristics'of this class ? 



