CLASS GYNANDRIA. 



l»7 



compound character which distinguishes them from all other plants. 

 One botanist observes, that they have a kind of " weed-like appear- 

 ance, notwithstanding the beauty of their colouring; the stems and 

 leaves are often rough, and they seem to have been less completely 

 reclaimed from their savage state, than most other plants, with the 

 exception of the Cryptogamous class."* 



Few plants of this class are poisonous ; for though milky plants 

 are generally so, those of this class are exceptions. The lettuce 

 however contains a narcotic principle, and opium may be made 

 from it. The dandelion, the thorough-wort, the chamomile, and 

 wormwood, with many other plants of this class, are valued for me- 

 dicinal propei'ties. 



The Syngenesious plants are particularly abundant in our own 

 country, and you v/ill never find difficulty in procuring specimens. 

 If you commence botanical studies with the flowers of spring, nature 

 gradually presents you with those that are more difficult to investi- 

 gate. This class, it has been before remarked, are chiefly in blos- 

 som in the latter part of the season. Being previously prepared by 

 a knowledge of the general principles of classification, and obser- 

 vations of plants, you will no doubt derive pleasure from the study 

 of the class Syngenesia ; though were you to commence a course of 

 botany with these plants, you would feel as if thrown amidst a chaos 

 of facts, without any clew to their classification. 



Fig. 146. 



LECTURE XXXV. 



CLASS XVIII. — GYNANDRIA. 



We shall now examine a class in which an 

 entirely new circumstance from any yet con- 

 sidered, is regarded as forming its essential 

 character. This circumstance is the situa- 

 tion of the stamens upon the pistil; the sta- 

 mens appearing to grow out of that organ. 

 In some cases the stamens proceed from the 

 germ, in others, from the style. There is 

 sometimes difficulty in deciding as to the 

 number of stamens, for they are not here, as 

 in other classes, distinct organs, but in some 

 cases mere collections of glutinous pollen, 

 called pollinia. 



Order Monandria. 



The orders in this class, as in Monadelphia and Diadelphia, de- 

 pend on the number of stamens, or of those pecuUar collections of 

 pollen which are called stamens. The first order of the 18th class 

 contains such plants as have but one stamen, or two masses of glu- 

 tinous pollen, equal to one stamen ; this order is divided into sections, 

 with reference to the manner in which the anther is attached to the 

 style ; as, whether it is easily separated, whether the anther grows 

 upon the top of the stigma, and also to the shape of the masses 

 of poUen, which are called the ?inther, 



* Barton. 



Plants of this class valued for medicinal properties— Found in the latter part of the 

 season— Class Gynandria— Orders. 



