OF CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS. 259 



Mrs. B. Is the flower regular or irregular ? 



Caroline. Regular. 



Mrs. B. Are there more or less than twenty stamens? 



Caroline. There are, certainly, more than ten ; and I 

 should think about twenty. 



Mrs. B. Is the calyx divided into more than two lobes ? 



Caroline, Yes ; into five. 



Mrs. B. Are the leaves opposite or alternate ? 



Caroline. They are opposite, and placed very regular- 

 ly on the stem. 



Mrs. B. Is your plant herbaceous, or is it a shrub ? 



Caroline. A shrub. 



Mrs. B. Is the fruit dry or fleshy ? 



Caroline. Let me see if I can find any : there is very 

 little fruit ; but it appears to me fleshy. 



Mrs. B. Is that part of the calyx which crowns the 

 fruit membranaceous or coriaceous ? 



Caroline. It is membranaceous. 



Mrs. B. Well, then, your plant must be a myrtle. 

 Were there several species of myrtle growing in France, 

 by continuing a similar series of questions, I should soon 

 discover the species ; but as there is only one (which is 

 the common mrytle,) I am already fully answered. 



Caroline. What a simple and ingenious method ! You 

 would easily have won the game of Four-and-twenty 

 Questions ; for you have asked only thirteen. This mode 

 of analysis must, I suppose, be in very general use ? 



Mrs. B. It has been much used in France, but very 

 little in England ; nor do I know any English work on 

 botany arranged according to this method. 



Caroline. I am surprised at that. Is there any thing 

 to be objected to it ? " 



Mrs. B. It has been thought long and tedious ; and, 

 to one no longer a novice in botany, it is tiresome to have 

 always to recommence and follow up the same routine of 

 questions ; besides, the slightest inattention, or the least 

 mistake in the printed numbers, is sufficient to put you 

 quite out. Then, after all, when you have succeeded in 



1404. If there had been several species of myrtle growing in France, 

 what might have been learnt in the same wayl 1405. What is said 

 of the use of this system in France and England! 1406. What is the 

 first objection made to this system? 



