EXPLANATION OF PLATE VI. 



Fig. 1. Casuarina. {Fam\]y Conifer cb.)* A large tree of New Holland. Trims 

 ihick, head branched; branches flexible, pendent, verticillate, articulated. MonGeci« 

 Monandria. 



Fig. 2. Agave americanaA (Family Narcissi.) A succulent plant which {jrowa 

 in South America. Leaves radical, crowded, more than four feet long, tapering grad- 

 ually to a point, channelled, borelered with spinose teeth. Scape more than 5.0 feet 

 high, cylinclric, rectilinear, vertical, with scattering, scale-like, appressed leaves. Pan- 

 icle simple, pyramidal. Flowers erect, numerous, grouped at tne extremity of a long 

 peduncle. This magnificent plant belongs to Hexandria Monogynia. 



Fig. 3. Stizolobium altissivium. (Family LeguminoscB.) A climbing planr 

 which ascends the loftiest trees of the equatorial region. Stem flexible. Leaves al- 

 ternate., pinnate, trifoliate. Peduncle axillary, filiform, very long, pendent, terminated 

 by an umbel of large and beautiful flowers. Legume acinaciform, wrinkled. Diadel- 

 pnia Decandria. 



Fig. 4. Passiflora quadrangularis.t Climbing plant of warm regions of Aniiri- 

 ca. "^Siem quadrangular, slender, cirrose. Leaves alternate, petioled, oblong-oval 

 Tendrils axillary. Flowers large, axillary. Berries large, ellipsoid. 



Fig. 5. Cyperus pajnjrus. Herbaceous plant, perennial, aquatic; fifteen feet high; 

 a native of Egypt. Stem erect, three-sided, aphyllous, sheathing at the base ; umbela 

 large, terminal, compound, with an involucnim and an involucel. Triandria Mo- 

 nogynia. 



Fig. G. Iris germanica.% (Family Iridecc.) Herbaceous plant of Europe, three oi ; 

 four feet high, with a perennial root. Leaves radical, equitant, compressed, ensiform. 

 Stem leafy, branching at its summit. Flqvvej-s terminal. Perianth simple, six-lobed ; 

 three lobes exterior, reflexed ; three lobes interior, erect. Triandria Monogynia. 



F'ig. 7. Yiippvvivs vulgaris. Perennial plant growing in wet grounds. Stem cy 

 lindncal, very simple. Leaves linear, verticillate. Flowers very small, verticillate. 

 Monandria Monogynia. 



* Mirbel establislies a naairal order, Casuarineae, in which he places this germs ; Lindley considers it as be- 

 lorrgine to Myriceffi or the Gale tribe ; he says, " the nearest approach made by these plants is to the Elm 

 tribe, fUlmaceae,) and to the Birch trilje, (Betulineee,) from the former of which tliev are readily known by 

 iheir amentaceous flowers, and want of a perranth ; from the latter they are distinguished by their erect 

 ovules, aromatic leaves, and one celled ovary. Casuarina has the habit of a gigantic Equisetam, (fern,) 

 nnd can scarcely be compared with any other dicotyledonous tree." Brown considers the genus Casuarina 

 ar. approxiniaiing to Conifers, where it was placed by Jussieu, whose arrangement we have followed. 

 * t By Lindley, this is placed in his natural order Bromeliaccce, called Bromeiiie by Jussieu. The habit of 

 Agave is -iimilar to that of Aloe in the order Asphodeleae. 



: Botanists are much divided with respect to that place in the natural method which the Passion-flower 

 tribe should occupy. Jussieu and De Candolle, in view of the organization of the fruit, consider it as nearlj 

 allied to Cucurbitaceae. A separate order, Passifioreae, is now established among botanists, for this interest- 

 in? tribe of plants. Jussieu considered that the parts taken for petals, are nothing but inner divisions of the 

 calyx, usually in a coloured state, and wanting in some species. Lindley considers the outer species of the 

 floral envelopes as the calyx, and the inner as the corolla, for two principal reasons ; first, they have the 

 ordinary position and appearance of calyx and corolla, the outer being green, the inner coloured ; second, 

 there is no essen'ial difference between the calyx and corolla, except one being the outer, the other the in- 

 ner of the floral envelopes. " The nature of the filamentous appendages, or rays as they are called," says 

 Lir.illey, " which t)roc,r!ed from the orifice of the tube, and of the processes which lie between the petals and 

 Btamens, is ambicuous. I am disposed to refer them to a peculiar form of petals rather than to stamens. 

 There can be no do^ibt, at least, of their being of an intermediate nature between petals and stamens." 



The zealous Catlmlics who discovered them in the woods of South America, attached to the form of tbeii 

 corolla idea* cnnnectcd with their religious faith. 



§ The IrideiE diflcr from the Narcissi and Amaryllides in being triandrous, with the anthers tumed out- 

 wards ; from Ofchideje, to which they are iii some respects nearly allied, in not being gynandrous, and in eH 

 their antiiers bting distinct. 



