20 BENGAL PLANTS. 
in the Flora of British India. We are therefore at liberty to 
make fuller use of the artificial system than our predecessors — 
could as an aid to identification. In this work, therefore, if, as — 
sometimes happens, a genus contains species with 4 or 5, or 8 or — 
10 stamens, it will be found to have been included under all the ; 
four classes—Tetrandria, Pentandria, Octandria, Decandria— : 
to which an examination of any individual flower may naturally 
invite a reference. 4 
The secondary subdivision into orders, in treatises like the Flora q 
Indica, is based on the number of free carpels, or at any rate free _ 
Styles, in the flower. We have, however, our own “natural” 4 
orders, as limited in the Flora Of British India. To deal with — 
another series of orders would only tend to confusion, and the — 
character on which these artificial ones are based is only casually _ 
made use of in the a conan for the genera under the various q 
these hermaphrodite flowers, it is found that they are referable. : 
The last of the Linnean classes, the twenty-fourth, is not — 
given completely, our attention being entirely confined to the — 
Pteridophyta or Vascular Cryptogams, comprising the Ferns and 4 
the Fern-Allies. The arrangement and nomenclature adopted for _ 
these plants is that used in Hooker and Baker’s Synopsis, and in — 
Baker’s Fern-Allies, while for the Ferns themselves references are 
given to the admirable — of the Ferns of British India — 
and Ceylon by Beddom 
The following are the aon — used :— 
F. I.—Roxburgh’s Flora Indie 
F. B. I.—Hooker’s Flora of British India. 
E. D.—Watt’s Dictionary of the Economic Products of India. 
F. I. C.—Beddome’s Ferns of British India and C 
As regards Roxburgh and Hooker, the references are to volume | 
and page. As regards Watt’s great work, the references are to — 
the letter, and to the register number of the particular plant or Z 
product. In the case of Beddome, whose work is in one volume, 
the references are to the pages. a 
