ON THE 



PEOTEACEiE OE JUSSIEU. 



The Linnean system of botany, though confessedly in 

 artificial, has not only contributed more than all others to 

 facilitate the knowledge of species, but, by constantly 

 directing the attention to those essential parts of the flower 

 on which it is founded, has made us acquainted with more 

 of their important modifications than we probably should 

 have known, had it not been generally adopted, and has 

 thus laid a more solid foundation for the establishment of a 

 natural arrangement, the superior importance of which 

 no one has been more fully impressed with than Linnaeus 

 himself. 



There are still, however, certain circumstances respecting 

 the stamina and pistilla, which appear to me to have been 

 much less attended to than they deserve, both by Linnseus 

 and succeeding botanists. What I chiefly allude to is the 

 state of these organs before the expansion of the flower. 

 The utihty of ascertaining the internal condition of the 

 ovarium before foecundation will hardly be called in ques- 

 tion, now that the immortal works of Gsertner and Jussieu 

 have demonstrated the necessity of minutely studying the 

 fruits of plants in attempting to arrange them according to 

 the sum of their affinities, as in many cases the true nature 

 of the ripe fruit, especially with respect to the placentation 

 of the seeds, can only be determined by this means. Its 

 importance is indeed expressly inculcated by many botanists, 

 who, however, have frequently neglected it in practice : [is 

 nor do I find any one who has steadily kept it in view, 

 except Aub*ert Du Petit-Thouars in his excellent work on 



