EXPLANATION OF PLATE VL 



Fig. 1. Caeuaeina. (Family Conifera.)* A large tree of New Holland. Trans 

 iJiick, head branched ; branches flexible, pendent, verticillate, articulated. Moncecia 

 Monandria. 



Fig. 2. Agave americana.f (Family Nardssi.) A succulent plant which grows 

 in South America. Leaves radical, crowded, more than four feet long, tapering grad- 

 ually to a point, channelled, bordered with spinose teeth. Scape more than 20 feet 

 high, cylindric, rectilinear, vertical, with scattering, scale-like, appressed leaves. Pan- 

 icle simple, pyramidal. Flowers erect, numerous, grouped at the extremity of a long 

 peduncle. This magnificent plant belongs to Hexandria Monogynia. 



Fig. 3. Stizolobidm altissimum. (Family Leguminosce.) A climbing plant 

 which ascends the loftiest trees of the equatorial region. Stem flexible. Leaves al- 

 ternate, pinnate, trifoliate. Peduncle axillary, filiform, very long, pendent, terminated 

 by an umbel of large and beautiful flowers. Legume acinaciform, wrinkled. Diadel« 

 phia Decandria. 



Fig. 4. Passifloha quadrangularis.t Climbing plant of warm regions of Ameri- 

 ca. Stem quadrangular, slender, cirrose. Leaves alternate, petioled, oblong-oval. 

 Tendrils axillary. Flowers large, axillary. Berries large, ellipsoid. 



Fig. 5. Cypekus papyrus. Herbaceous plant, perennial, aquatic ; fifteen feet high; 

 a native of Egypt. Stem erect, three-sided, aphyllous, sheathing at the base ; umbela 

 large, terminal, compound, with an involucrum and an involucel. Triandria Mo- 

 nogynia. 



Fig. 6. Iris germamca.% (Family IridecB.) Herbaceous plant of Europe, three oi 

 four feet high, with a perennial root. Leaves radical, equitant, compressed, ensiform. 

 Stem leafy, branching at its summit. Flowers terminal. Perianth simple, six-lobed; 

 three lobes exterior, reflexed _; three lobes interior, erect. Triandria Monogynia. 



Fig. 7. 'H.ivBmvs vulgaris. Perennial plant growing in wet grounds. Stem cy 

 lindrical, very simple. Leaves linear, verticillate. Flowers very small, verticillate. 

 Monandria Monogynia. 



* Mirbel establishes a natural order, Casuarineee, in which he places this genus ; Lindley considers it as be- 

 longing to Myriceas, or the Gale tribe ; he says, " the nearest approach made by these plants is to the Elm 

 tribe, (Ulmacese,) and to the Birch tribe, (Betulinea),) from the former of which they are n^adily known by 

 their amentaceous flowers, and want of a perianth ; from the latter they are distinguished by their erect 

 ovules, aromatic leaves, and one-celled ovary. Casuarina has the habit of a gigantic Equisetam, (fern,) 

 end can scarcely be compared with any other dicotyledonous tree." Brown considers the genus Casuarina 

 as approximating to Coniferse, where it was placed by Jussieu, whose arrangement we have followed. 



t By Lindley, this is placed in his natural order Bromeliacese, called Bromeliae by Jussieu. The habit of 

 Agave is similar to that of Aloe in the order Asphodeleee. 



: Botanists are much divided with respect to that place in the natural method which the Passion-flower 

 tribe should occupy. Jussieu and De CandoUe, in view of the organization of the fruit, consider it as nearly 

 allied to Cucurbitaccte. A separate order, Passifloreae, is now established among botanists, for this interest- 

 ing tribe of plants. Jussieu considered that the parts taken for petals, are nothing but inner divisions of the 

 calyx, usually in a coloured state, and wanting in some species. Lindley considers the outer species of the 

 floral envelopes as the calyx, and the inner as the corolla, for two principal reasons ; first, they have the 

 ordinary position and appearance of calyx and corolla, the outer being green, the inner coloured ; second, 

 there is no essenlial difference between the calyx and corolla, except one being the outer, the other the in- 

 ner of the floral envelopes. " The nature of the filamentous appendages, or rays as they are called," says 

 Lindley, " which proceed from the orifice of the tube, and of the processes which lie between the petals and 

 stamens, is ambiguous. I am disposed to refer them to a peculiar form of petals rather than to stamens. 

 There can be no doubt, at least, of their being of an intermediate nature between petals and stamens." 



The zealous CathoUcs who discovered them in the woods of South America, attached to tlie Ibmi of their 

 corolla ideas connected with their religious faith. 



§ The IrideaB differ from the Narcissi and Amaryllideffi in being triandrous, with the anthers turned out- 

 wards ; from Orchidese, to which they are in some respects nearly allied, in not being gynandrous, and in all 

 their anthers being distinct. 



