86 AN INTRODUCTION 



one rises near the top. The legumen opens at the 

 upper suture. 



SEEDS A few, roundish, smooth, fleshy, pendu- 

 lous, marked with an embno that is a little promi- 

 nent towards the point of insertion. When the ova*> 

 are hatched, the cotyledons f preserve the form of 

 the halved seed. 



RECEPTACLE The proper receptacles of the seeds 

 are very small, very short, thinner towards the base, 

 obtuse at the disk that fastens them, oblong, insert- 

 ed longitudinally in the upper suture of the legumen 

 only, but placed alternate ; so that when the valvulae 

 have been parted, the seeds adhere alternately to 

 each of the valves. 



The ordinary situation of the flowers is obliquely 

 pendulous, that is, at an acute N angle from the per- 

 pendicular. The orders are four, viz. 



ORDER I. PENT AND HI A, comprehending such 

 plants as have Jive stamina ; of which there is one 

 genus, viz. Monnieria. 



ORDER II. HEXANDRIA, comprehending such 

 plants as have six stamina ; of which order there are 

 two genera, viz. Fumaria and Saraca. 



ORDER III. OCTANDRIA, comprehending such 

 plants as have eight stamina. This order contains 

 three genera, viz. Polygala, Securidaca, and Dal- 

 bergia. 



ORDER IV. DECANDRTA, comprehending such 

 plants as have ten stamina. This order contains fifty- 

 two genera, distinguished into, 1. Those with all 

 the stamina united ; of which there are seventeen, 



* Eggs, meaning the seeds themselves, which answer to the 

 eggs of animals, and are as it were hatched when the corculum 

 or first principle of the new plant begins to strike root and 

 vegetate. See Part I. Chap. 7. 



+ Side lobes of the seed. See Part I. Chap. 7. The two 

 seed leaves, which first appear above ground, are these very 

 cotyledons, which are brought np with the plant after the 

 corculum has struck ; and it is these seed leaves that are her? 

 spoken of. 



