i>fc AN INTRODUCTION 



these : And this caution we give once for all to avoid 

 repetitions, that when we use the term hermaphrodite, 

 we mean, that it is a term not to he dispensed with. 



CLASS XI. DODECANDRIA. This term in the 

 Greek imports that the flowers have twelve husbands 

 or stamina. However, the class is not confined to 

 this number, but includes all such Hermaphrodite 

 flowers, as are furnished with any number of stamina 

 from twelve to nineteen inclusive. No flowers have 

 been yet found to have eleven stamina, which is the 

 reason no class has been allotted to that number. 



CLASS Xll. ICOSANDRIA. This term imports, 

 that the flowers have twenty husbands or stamina : 

 But here again the title is to be understood with great 

 latitude ; for though the plants that belong to this 

 class are rarely found with less than twenty stamina, 

 yet they frequently have a greater number ; and 

 they are therefore not to be known with certainty 

 from those of the next class, without having recourse 

 to their classic character : which, not being exprest 

 in the title, we forbear the explanation of here, as 

 we shall* give it in the Chapter allotted for this class. 



CLASS XIII. POLY AN DRI A. This term imports, 

 that the flowers have many stamina. 



CLASS X IV. D i D Y x A M i A This term signifies the 

 power or superiority of two, and is applied to this 

 class, because its flowers'have four stamina, of which 

 there are two longer than the rest: This circumstance 

 alone is sufficient to distinguish this class from the 

 fourth, where the four stamina are equal ; but the 

 flowers of this class have also their particular charac- 

 ter, besides what the title expresses, their corollae be- 

 ing mostly ringcnt, as will be shewn in its place*. 



CLASS XV. TETRADYNAM IA. This term expres- 

 ses the power or superiority of 'four ; and according- 

 ly there are in the flowers of this class six stamina, 

 four of which are longer than the rest; which circum- 



* See Chap. 17. See also Part I. Chap. 3, where the term 

 Rittgent is explained. 



