HEDGE-CALAMINT. 



Calamintha clinopodium. Nat. Ord., Labiatce. 



ANY of our readers will no doubt 

 be aware that in the earlier days 

 of botanical science sundry artificial 

 systems of plant classification were 

 devised, but that these have all 

 now passed away, and what are 

 known as natural systems succeeded 

 them. We speak of both the 

 artificial and the natural in the 

 plural, as each great principle re- 

 ceived various modifications from 

 different hands. The best-known 

 example of an artificial system is 

 that of Linnaeus, a system based 

 on the number and position of the 

 stamens and pistil. By this method 

 all plants were divided into classes, 



according to the number of their stamens, and these 

 subdivided into orders based on the pistils. This was 

 so far an advance, that any one finding a plant with six 

 stamens, for example, referred it at once to the class 

 hexandria, and if it had two pistils it belonged to the order 

 digynia; by this means the ground to be hunted over 



