BOTANY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 45 



L. SONG OF THE TETRANDIAN TRIBES. 



Thou to whom our vows belong, 

 Princess, listen to our song 1 



A golden couch we spread for thee, 

 With clustering heaps of Galium flowers, 



The Shepherds Staff shall be our spear 

 To guard thee in thy noontide bowers. 



Our Ladies' Mantle, while we sing, 

 To deck thy couch we humbly bring ; 



And woodland CorneFs flowery boughs, 



We bind around thy snowy brow, 

 Thou to whom our vows belong, 

 Princess ! listen to our song ? 



E. Our next is Pentandria, or five stamens, 

 which is the most important class by far of the 

 twenty-four, and contains alone one-fifth, at 

 least, of the flowers in the vegetable kingdom. 

 Xot only does the number five prevail in the 

 stamens, but most generally in every other part, 

 hi the plant that has five stamens you find five 

 petals, five sepals, and a five celled seed vessel. 

 In this class, much more than in the others, the 

 necessity of a natural system is strongly felt, 

 and it is here in fact, the learner becomes ac- 

 quainted with the leading features of that sys- 

 tem. 



L. I am afraid I shall become confused by 

 such a mixture of classifications, and would 





