ON SYSTEMS AND CLASSIFICATIONS. I7 



of the filaments and anthers; namely, Monadelphia and Sgnge- 

 nesia. The last Order of both classes is called Gynandria ; not 

 because in the plants which belong to it, the stamina stand upon 

 the style ; but because in the male flowers there is a production re- 

 sembling a style to which the stamina are attached. This produc- 

 tion Linnaeus considers as an imperfect pistulum. 



In the 23d class the Orders are called Monascia, Dieccia. The 

 last class has the following Orders, Filices, Musci, Alg<e t and 

 Fungi* 



From the aforegoing analysis it will be seen that the Linnrean 

 system consists of an artificial and sexual arrangement, and that it 

 does not answer the idea, we have giveu above, of a perfect sys- 

 tem. But till such a one is found out, a system pardy natural, 

 partly artificial is the best; we must, however, as we cannot deny 

 the usefulness of Linnasus's system, point out its defects. 



Linnasus endeavoured, from the number of the stamina, their va- 

 rious lengths, and different modes of connection, to unite a natural 

 classification with an artificial one. Hence arose some faults, which 

 would not liave happened had he, at the same time, made use of 

 the corola as a character. For instance, in the fourteenth class 

 are contained tlie labiated and ringent flowers; but because Lin- 

 naeus characterised it from the four stamens, two of which are short- 

 er ; there are some of these plants which must stand in the second 

 class, and others in the fourth, though they properly belong to this 

 class. In the same manner, all the papilionaceous flowers are re- 

 ferred to the seventeenth class ; but the assumed character, viz. 

 that the filaments are united into two sets, is not to be found in all 

 these plants. Many have the filaments united in one cylinder; and 

 'n the tenth class stand many plants with papilionaceous flowers. 

 These two faults are not the greatest which may be attributed to 

 this system: it is a more important objection that Linnaeus has 

 numbered the stamens in the first classes without attending to their 

 insertion, while in the twelfth he remarks that they are inserted in 

 the calyx, and in the twentieth, that they stand on the pistillum. 

 Iu the nineteenth class are comprehended all the compound flowers, 

 and yet he drags into the last order of this class other plants whose 

 anthers are only sometimes united. It is also to be regretted, that 

 in the 21st, 22d and 23d classes, Linnaeus has taken notice of dif- 

 ferent sexes iu the same plant, which he had not done before; there 

 being many plants in the former classes that properly belong to these, 



VOL. V. C 



