Linnean System of Plants. 357 
of the germ; beyond the germ they are all distinct. Where 
there is one simple stamen, it serves as a door by which the 
germ can escape from confinement as it increases in size, and 
it fits in so exactly between the sides of the broader filament, 
as sometimes to appear as if a part of it. When all the fila- 
ments are combined, they either form a tube enclosing the 
germ, which, in its increase, forces itself a way out, by rending 
it in two; or the combined part folds round the germ, the 
sides closely meeting, but not uniting. ‘The seed-vessel is 
either a pod of two valves, both of which have seeds affixed 
to a receptacle running along their upper edge, as in the pea; 
or a succession of closed one-seeded joints, as in Hedysarum, 
XC. 
Linneeus said of this order, that it did not contain one 
noxious plant. This, as Sir J. E. Smith observes, is saying 
rather too much; but it has very few deserving of that epithet 
(none of British growth), while it produces much wholesome 
herbage for cattle, and a great variety of seeds eaten by man. 
We may instance clover, lucerne, saintfoin, tare, peas, beans, 
lentils, &c. The tonquin bean, so much admired for its fra- 
grance, is the seed of a plant of this order: another produces 
the red saunders wood, others yield indigo, liquorice, &c. Of 
the more ornamental plants, we are well acquainted with the 
laburnum, the acacia (Robinza Pseudacacia) so valuable 
for its hard durable wood, the sweet pea, everlasting pea, 
broom, the golden furze of our heaths, &c., to say nothing 
of the Glycine, Erythrina, and other exotics less generally 
known. But the most remarkable plant in this order is the 
Hedysarum gyrans, familiarly called the moving plant, which 
has an irregular and apparently voluntary motion, for which 
no external cause has yet been ascertained. Sometimes many 
leaves are moving in various directions, sometimes one leaf, or 
one leaflet only ; it is quiescent in a strong wind, or sun, and 
in general on very hot days,—shall we say, because too languid 
for exertion, or because it does not then require’ exercise to 
keep it warm? This appearance of voluntary power is calcu- 
lated to excite doubts whether plants may not be more capable 
of sensation than has been supposed: and whether they may 
quite approve of the manner in which we lord it over them. 
The eighteenth class, Polyadélphia, has the filaments so 
combined at the base as to form more than two sets. This 
is a small but important class. In the order Decdndria stands 
the chocolate nut tree, Theobréma (from two Greek words 
signifying God and food). Polydéndria, with many genera 
eminently ornamental, has one invaluable genus, of which the 
extraordinary beauty is its least merit; the Citrus, to which 
