332 HISTORY OF BOTANY. 



following that great naturalist 43 . I confine myself 

 to the ordinary plants, and omit the more obscure 

 vegetables, as mushrooms, mosses, ferns, and the 

 like. 



Such plants are composite or simple. The com- 

 posite flowers are those which contain many florets 

 in the same calyx* 4 . These are subdivided according 

 as they are composed altogether of complete florets, 

 or of half florets, or of a center of complete florets, 

 surrounded by a circumference or ray of demi- 

 florets. Such are the divisions of the corymbiferw, 

 or composites. 



In the simple flowers, the seeds are naked, or 

 in a pericarp. Those with naked seeds are ar- 

 ranged according to the number of the seeds, which 

 may be one, two, three, four, or more. If there is 

 only one, no subdivision is requisite : if there are 

 two, Ray makes a subdivision, according as the 

 flower has five petals, or a continuous corolla. Here 

 we come to several natural families. Thus, the 

 flowers with two seeds and five petals are the Um- 

 belliferous plants ; the monopetalous flowers with 

 two seeds are the Stellatce. He founds the division 

 of four-seeded flowers on the circumstance of the 

 leaves being opposite, or alternate ; and thus again, 

 we have the natural families of Asperifolice, as 

 Echium, &c., which have the leaves alternate, and 

 the Verticillatce, as Salvia, in which the leaves are 



43 Cuv. Legons Hist. Sc. Nat. 488. 



44 Involucrum, in modern terminology. 



