36 PRINCIPLES OF CLASSIFICATION. 



donous, or monocotyledonous, and naturally range 

 with their allies in other parts of the System. 



93. Mr. Robert Brown, who has greatly illustrated 

 the System of Jussieu, and the Natural Orders of 

 Plants, has shown that in the Monocotykdoms the 

 number three, and its compounds, prevail in the 

 several parts of fructification, insomuch that in 

 Orders furnished with only one evident and perfect 

 Stamen, there are rudiments of 2 others. So in 

 the Orchis tribe, as I understand it at least, while 

 there are 3 Calyx-leaves, the 2 Petals (55) and the 

 solitary Nectary (57) make up the same number in 

 the Corolla, fig. 70, 77. 



94. In Dicotyledones the number five no less remark- 

 ably prevails, throughout the great bulk of the Ve- 

 getable kingdom, as is evident on the slightest in- 

 spection. 



95. Jussieu and his followers attribute a Calyx only, 

 no Corolla, to Monocotyledonous plants, however 

 conspicuous, coloured, elaborate, or compound the 

 integuments of the Flower (53, 54) may be. This 

 proves most flagrantly paradoxical in the natural 

 order of ScitaminefE, fig. 1 ; and it is evidently ab- 

 surd that we must wait to name the obvious parts 

 of a flower, till we have investigated the structure 

 or germination of its seed. We allow indeed that 

 the difficulty is lessened, though not infallibly re- 

 moved, by Mr. Brown's rule respecting numbers 

 (93, 94). 



