THE 



WILTSHIRE MAGAZINE, 



" MULTOEUM MANIBUS GEANDE LEVATUE ONUS," — Ovtd. 



% flora 4 WBMfttt, 



COMPEISING THE 



filtering fl&ttte an* ftm inU^mm in % tents; 



By Thomas Betjges Flo wee, M.R.C.S., F.L.S., &c, &c. 

 No. VII. 



ORDER. LEGUMINOSiE. (JTJSS.) 



This order is so called because composed of plants, whose fruit 

 is a legumen or pod like a pea. 



The 17th class of Linnaeus' artificial system (Diadelphia, from 

 dis, twice, and adelphas brother, two brotherhoods, or twice related) 

 is founded on the stamens being united by their filaments into two 

 sets, as in Vetch, Trefoil, &c. Plants having ten stamens united 

 in this manner into two sets, have flowers somewhat resembling a 

 butterfly, whence they are called Papilionaceous from Papilio a 

 butterfly. 



As the Furze ( Ulex) and some other plants, possess flowers of 

 this kind, they are by Linnaean Botanists included in the same 

 class ( Diadelphia) although their stamens are united into only one 

 set, which consequently renders them not truly Diadelphous. This 

 is one of the many instances of the defects of this celebrated 

 system, which, being professedly artificial, is in its details often 

 inconsistent with its own fundamental principles. The advocates 

 of this system have urged the propriety of Linnaeus' arrangement 

 in this particular, on the ground that it combines the genera 

 according to their natural affinities, whilst, on the other hand, they 

 tolerate the placing Sophora, and other Papilionaceous genera, 

 having ten stamens, in the 10th class (Decandria) merely because 

 vol. vm. — no. XXIII. i 



