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THE CLASS MONCESIA. 



169 



regions they are beautiful parasites upon decaying trees. No more splendid con',eption 



of a flower can be obtained than that whieh is offered by some members of this class 



now collected in the Royal Gardens at 



Kew. The class is distinguished by 



having the stamens situate upon, or 



connected with, the style or other part 



of the pistil. There are three orders 



Monandria, Diandria, and Hexandria; 



but all the British genera belong to the 



first, except Cypripedium, which has 



two stamens, and Aristolochia, whieh 



has six stamens. 



The order Monandria has ten genera, 

 while the whole class consists of twelve 

 genera and thirty-seven species. The 



anther is fixed, terminal, and permanent in the Epipactis ; and moveable and deciduous 

 in the Malaxis and Corallorhiza. It is parallel to the stigma, and of two cells close 

 together in the Neottia, Goodyera, and Listera ; and either of two vertical cells ; 

 permanent, fixed to the summit of the style in Orchis, Aceras or Green Man Orchis, 

 Ophrys or Fly Orchis, and Herminium or Green Musk Orchis. 



Our native specimens of this class are not especially interesting, except the common 

 Orchis, with its variegated corolla and green leaves spotte<?with black, as it is growing 

 on a rich moist meadow. They are not used as food, except the so-called tubers of a 

 few members which have yielded an amorphous form of starch. The general charac- 

 teristic of the class is acridity ; but they are not employed in medicine. The whole class 

 is peculiar, inasmuch as from the conformation of their sexual organs they need the 

 intervention of an insect, as the Bee, to carry the pollen from the anther to the stigma> 

 and ensure fructification. 



CLASS XXI. MONCECIA. 



In each of the preceding twenty classes every flower has been bisexual, and conse- 

 quently every tree bearing flowers 

 must have them in this hermaphro- 

 dite condition. The three following 

 classes are exceptions to the general 

 rule, and have flowers of one sex or 

 of two sexes, and on the same or on 

 different trees. In the class Moncecia* 

 the flowers are unisexual, some 

 having stamens only and others only 

 pistils on the same plant. It is a 

 highly important class, since it contains a considerable number of our forest trees. 

 It is divided into seven orders viz., Monandria, Diandria, Triandria, Tetrandria, 

 Pentandria, Polyandria (more than five stamens), and Monodelphia (filaments united 

 into one brotherhood), and together contains twenty-five genera and one hundred and 

 eight species. 



The order Monandria (one stamen) possesses but two genera the Euphorbia or 



Fig. 362. Moncecia Monodelphia. 



