$54 



Introducto)^ View of the 



four in number, lying uncovered at the bottom of the calyx ; 

 and Angiospermia (from the Greek, seed-vessel), the seeds 

 being enclosed in a capsule. In addition to the characters by 

 vi^hich this class is principally distinguished, there are, in the 

 first order, so many points of general resemblance, that a very 

 little experience will enable the young botanist to detect them 

 91 at sight. One glance at the flowers 



of the ground-ivy, Glechoma Aede- 

 racea [Jig, 91.), and the white dead- 

 nettle, Xamium album (Vol. I. p. 429. 

 fig. 186.), will give a better idea of 

 this order than any explanation that 

 I have space to offer. Here are placed 

 many of our aromatic herbs, as mint, 

 thyme, marjoram, balm, lavender, 

 .^ hyssop, &c. The form of the corolla 

 is much more varied in the second 

 order than in the first : in some ge- 

 nera it is elongated into a spur at the 

 base, and the mouth closed ; in others, 

 the tube is simply cylindrical, and 

 the mouth open ; some have a bell-shaped corolla, as the fox- 

 glove ; while a few, more regularly formed, are less strikingly 

 characterised by their general air, as the Linnae^fl!, an elegant 

 little plant, bearing the name of the illustrious Swede, and, 

 like himself, sui generis. As there is one Linnaeus, so is there 

 one Linnse^tt, described by himself as " a little northern plant, 

 long overlooked, depressed, abject, flowering early." He 

 might have added, — standing alone in systematic botany, 

 whether natural or artificial ; and occupying an elevated sta- 

 tion, in which nature had placed, and time would preserve, it. 

 Among the more remarkable exotics of this order are the 

 trumpet-flower (Bignonm) ; the celebrated Acanthus of the 

 architect ; and the calabash tree, of the fruit of which, the 

 pulp being scooped out, the rind is used as a basin to contain 

 liquids. This order is also remarkable for the number of its 

 genera, named in honour of botanists, among whom (not to 

 mention their great sovereign Linnaeus) we find Gesner, 

 Thunberg, Gmelin, Haller, Gerard, Sibthorp, Celsius, &c. 



The fifteenth class, Tetradyndmia *, is distinguished by six 

 stamens, of which four are longer than the other two. It is 

 composed of the cross-shaped, botanically termed cruciform, 

 flowers. They have a calyx of four leaves, a corolla of four 



* The words Didynamia and Tetradynamia have been differently, but 

 not satisfactorily, derived. 



