86 BOTANY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. 



EIGHTH CONVERSATION. 



E. The name of the next Class Gynandria, 

 or union of stamens and pistils, is taken from 

 the fact of the stamens in its flowers really grow- 

 ing out from either the germ or style of the pis- 

 tils. When the stamens cannot be counted 

 from their indistinctness, we call the masses 

 of gluttinous pollen Pollinia. The orders in 

 this class, as in many of the ones we have been 

 over, are taken from the number of stamens. 



The first order, Monandria, contains the Or- 

 chis tribe of plants. The flowers in it are re- 

 markable for their grotesque appearance. The 

 Geraniums copy the scents of other plants, as 

 the Rose, Lemon, Orange, and Balm ; this tribe 

 does the same, strange to say, to the forms and 

 colors of animals, and, accordingly, presents us 

 with the figures of flies, spiders, birds, and even 

 men, colored to the life ! So closely does the 

 Bee Orchis Ophrys, resemble the insect, whose 

 name it bears, as to look, at a very short dis- 

 tance, quite like a bee hovering, with outstretch- 

 ed wing, over a flower. But very few bloom at a 

 time on the plant, that bears it so that the illusion 



