DIDYNAMIA. 329 



cerning whose genera olir periodical writers are 

 falling into great mistakes. To theses succeed a 

 family of plants, either herbaceous or climbing, of 

 great elegance, but of acrid and dangerous qualities, 

 as Anemone, in a single state the most lovely, in a 

 double one the most splendid, ornament of our par- 

 terres in the spring ; Atragene and Clematis, so 

 graceful for bowers ; Thalictrum, Adonis, Ranun- 

 culus, Trollius, Helleborus and Caltha, all con- 

 spicuous in our gardens or meadows, which, with a 

 few less familiar, close this class. 



Nothing can be more injudicious than uniting 

 these two last classes, as some inexperienced authors 

 have done. They are immutably distinct in nature 

 and characters, whether we call the part which im- 

 mediately bears the stamens in the Icosandna a 

 calyx, with most botanists, or a receptacle, with 

 Mr. Salisbury in the eighth volume of the Linnasan 

 Society's Transactions, where, among many things 

 which I wish had been omitted, are some good 

 remarks concerning the distinction between calyx 

 and corolla. This the writer in question considers 

 as decided in doubtful cases by the latter sometimes 

 bearing the stamens, which the former, in his 

 opinion, never really does. 



CLASS 14. Didynamia. Stamens 2 long and 2 short. 

 Orders 2, each on the whole very natural. 



I. Gymnospermia. Seeds naked, in the bottom of 



