Linnean System of Plants, iS37 



of the germ ; beyond the germ they are all distinct. Where 

 there is one simple stamenj 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 //edysarum, 

 &c. 



Linnaeus 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 {Rohinia 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, Erythrlna, 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, Polyadelphia, 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 Decandria stands 

 the chocolate nut tree, Theobr^ma (from two Greek words 

 signifying God and food). Polydndria^ with many genera 

 eminently ornamental, has one invaluable genus, of which the 

 extraordinary beauty is its least merit; the Citrus, to which 



