TITLES OF THE CLASSES. 



59 



refer it to one of these : and this caution we give once for all to 

 avoid repetitions, that when we use the term bisexual, we mean 

 that it is a condition not to be dispensed with. 



Class 11. Dodecandria.— -This term, in the Greek, imports 

 that the flowers have tivelve males, or stamina. However, the 

 class is not confined to this number, but includes all such bisex- 

 ual flowers as are furnished with any number of stamina, from 

 twelve to nineteen inclusive: no flowers have yet been found to 

 have eleven stamina, which is the reason no class has been al- 

 lotted to that number. 



Class 12. Icosandria. — This term imports, that the flowers I 

 have twenty males, or stamina ; but here again the title is to be 

 Understood with great latitude ; for though the plants that 

 belong to this class are rarely found with less than twenty stami- 

 na, yet they frequently have a greater number : and they are 

 therefore not to be known with certainty from those of the next 

 class, without having recourse to their classic character; which, 

 not being expressed in the title, we forbear the explanation of 

 here, as we shall give it in the chapter allotted for this class. 



Class 13. Polyanduia.- — This term imports, that the flowers 

 have many stamina. 



Class 14. Didynamia. — This term signifies the power, or su- 

 periority of twu, and is applied to this class, because its flowers 

 have four stamina, of which there are two longer than the rest. 

 This circumstance alone is sufficient to distinguish this class from 

 the fourth, where the four stamina are equal ; but the flowers of 

 this class have also their particular character, besides what the 

 title expresses, their corollas being mostly ringent, as will be 

 shown in its place*. 



Class 15. Tetradynamia. — This term expresses the power, or 

 superiority of four; and accordingly there are in the flowers of 



* See Chap. XVII. See also Part I. Chap. III. where the term ringent is ex- 

 plained. 



