66 NATURAL niSTOBY OF PLANTS. 



especially remarkable for its imbricated aestivation — a character met 

 with in the rest of the order; but in the third tribe (Jifuff/ncuhceee) 

 the seed is erect, not pendulous, and the petals are bilabiate, or 

 provided with a small basilar scale ; the llcllchorcrB, which constitute 

 the fourth tribe, have polyspermous carpels ; and the fifth {Paoniea) 

 especially characterized by the introrse anthers, is considered as, 

 perhaps more properly, a distinct order, Endlichkr,' and Bkntham 

 & Hooker- accept De Candolle's tribes without alteration. 

 LiNDLEY^ slightly modified them by uniting the Pa?onies to the 

 Helleborc<B and putting Xnnthorhiza into a special section with the 

 AcfecB. These diff'erent classifications are of more or less service 

 practically; but we have not retained them, as they rest on the 

 absolute value of characters which are not constant. The opposition 

 of the leaves in Clematis is a character easily observed, but of no 

 great absolute worth, as many other genera exist of which some 

 species may have alternate and others opposite leaves. 



The a3stivation would appear a completely satisfactory character 

 if it were not that at a certain stage in the life of Clematis the 

 perianth may become imbricated like that of a Bajuinailus.* The 

 absolute number of the ovules would have some value if we were not 

 now aware that Clematis, Anemone, Adonis, have all really five ovules 

 instead of one ;* while in Isopyrum we may have some carpels with 

 several, and others with only one.® The direction of the ovule, 

 whether ascending or descending, is not more absolute as a distinc- 

 tion, for in Adonis alone we may observe instances of both.^ As to 

 the introrse or extrorse aspect of the anther, it has long lost much 

 of its value ; and if the Actete, which we put near the Pieonies, like 

 them have their anthers generally introrse, in some they are ex- 

 trorse -^ and so they are undoubtedly in many Ranmiciilaccce with 

 multiovulate carpels, as the Larkspurs, Aconites, Nigella, tV'C. Hence 

 in our essay to group the JlanunculacccB, we have been unable to 

 recognise the ahmlutc worth or the subordination of characters. We 

 have been comj)elled to admit and to combine the greatest possible 



> Qfmmi PUtntarum, aer. ord. nuf. dhpox. » Sco p. 41, fig. 76. p. MJ i^ p. &1. 



(1886-40), 848, Ordo clxxviii. « Sec p. la, nolo 3. 



' Genera Phinlarum, nd Ksfinpl. imjir. in ' Soc Adaiuunia, ii. 209. 



Herb. Keveng. />/.. i. (1K(;2J, l-lo. h i„ g^^^g flowers of Citnicifuga frigida 



» Vegetahle Kingdom (18 Wi), 425, Ord. cliv. Wall., the mitliors are dearly iiitronje. 



* 8«e p. 50, note 4, and AdaMonin, iv. Tif). 



