168 CLASS POLYANDRIA. 



this division proper. In tliis tribe, the most important genus is Py- 

 rus, which contains the apple and pear. The varieties of these fruits 

 are the effects of cultivation, not the produce of different species. 

 By means of grafting, or inoculation, good fruit may be produced 

 upon a tree which before produced a poorer kind. 



Jussieu divided his natural order Rosacese into the following sec- 

 tions ; the PomacecB, with fruit fleshy, like the apple and pear; the 

 Bosce, having urn-form calyxes ; Amygdalce, having drupe-like fruits. 



Order Polygynia. 



The rose tribe {Rosacece) resemble the apple tribe, in the appear- 

 ance of the blossom, but the fruit, instead of being a Pome, consists, 

 either of nuts containing one-seeded acines, as the rose, or of ber- 

 ries, as the strawberry. The leaves have two stipules at their base. 

 The rose unchanged by cultivation has but five petals. We have 

 few indigenous species of this genus ; among these, are the small 

 wild rose, the sweet brier, and swamp rose. Red and wliite roses 

 are remarkable in English history as emblems of the houses of 

 York and Lancaster ; when those families contended for the crown, 

 in the reign of Henry the Sixth, the white rose distinguished the par- 

 tisans of the house of York, and the red those of Lancaster. 

 Among the nations of the East, particularly in Persia, the rose flour"- 

 ishes in great beauty and is highly valued. The Persians poetically 

 imagine a pecuhar sympathy between the rose and the nightingale. 



The Blackberry (Rubus) has a flower resembUng the rose in 

 general aspect ; there are several species of the Rubus, one which 

 produces the common blackberry, another the red raspberry, another 

 the black raspberry, and another the dewberry. One species, the 

 odoratns, produces large and beautiful red flowers, the fruit of which 

 is dry and not eatable. 



The Strawberry belongs to the same natural and artificial order as 

 the Rose. The gathering of strawberries in the fields, is among the 

 rural enjoyments of children, which in after hfe are recollected with 

 pleasure, not unfrequently mingled with melancholy reflections, upon 

 the contrast of that happy season, with the sorrows with which 

 maturer years are often shaded. The fruit of the strawberry, as was 

 remarked in the classification of fruits, is not properly a berry, but 

 a collection of seeds, imbedded in a fleshy receptacle. 



Icosandria furnishes us with a great variety of fine fruits, more 

 perhaps than any other of the artificial classes. A great proportion 

 of the genera to be found in this class, are natives of the United 

 States. 



LECTURE XXXL 



CLASS XII. — POLYANDRIA. 



In this class we find the stamens separate from the calyx, and at- 

 tached to the receptacle or top of the flower-stem. The number of 

 stamens varies from twenty to some hundreds. This class does not, 

 like the one we have last examined, contain many delicious fruits, 

 but abounds in poisonous and active vegetables. The mode of in- 

 sertion of the stamens is to be regarded in considering the wholesome 



Order PomaceaB— Pyrus, varieties by grafting— Order Rosaceae divided into sections 

 —Rose tribe— Blackberry— Strawberry— Class Polyandria. 



