OF CLASS XVII. DIADELPHIA. 



95 



CHAP. XX. 



OF THE SEVENTEENTH CLASS, DIADELPHIA*. 



THIS class consists of such plants as bear bisexual flowers, 

 furnished with two sets of united staminaf. The characters of 

 the fructification are as follow : 



Characters of the Class Diadelphia. 



Calyx — A perianthium monophyllous, campanulate, and with- 

 ering. The base gibbous, the lower part thereof fastened to the 

 peduncle, the upper obtuse and melliferous. The brim quinque- 

 dentate, acute, erect, oblique, unequal. The lowest odd denti- 

 cle longer thar^ the rest; the upper pair shorter and farther asun- 

 der. The bottom of the cavity moist with a melleous liquor, in- 

 cluding the receptacle. 



* The plants of the class Diadelphia, are the papilionaceous, butterfly-shaped 

 plants, of Toumeforl ; irregular tetrapctalous of Rivinus; and leguminous of Ray' 's 

 Hist. Plant. 883. Of all the classes, this is the most natural, and has its flowers of 

 the most singular structure. The calyx, though hitherto little attended to, is of great 

 moment for fixing the genera. The legumen was held of consequence by other sys- 

 tematists ; but by Linnceus it is made of less account. The leaves of these plants 

 are food for cattle, and the seeds also for quadrupeds of the same kind ; the latter 

 are accounted flatulent. 



f This circumstance, implied in the title, does not hold through the class, the 

 plants given under the first distinction of the third order having monadelphious sta- 

 ftMna-j the class is therefore not so properly to be fixed from its title, as by the pa- 

 pik&imeeous corolla, and other characters of the fructification. It may be observed 

 I ; i wise, that in the diadelphious flowers of this class, one of the two sta mina is not a 

 set of muted filaments, as in the other, but only a single stamen, detached from the 

 united set. See the characters of the fructification. 



