THE 
ENCYCLOPiEDIA OF PLANTS 
PART I. 
LINNEAN ARRANGEMENT. 
JL HE main object of the artificial system of botanical arrangement is to facilitate the discovery of the names 
of plants. For this purpose some one organ, common to plants in general, is fixed on ; and, according to 
certain conditions in which this organ is found, individual species are referred to their places in the system, 
as words, by their initial letters, are referred to their places in an alphabetical dictionary. 
In the progress of artificial systems different organs have been fixed on by diflerent botanists ; but those 
which have been most extensively employed are the corollas by Tournefort, and the stamens and pistils, by 
Linna;us. The system of Tournefort has been a good deal employed in France, and may be considered as the 
artificial system of that country ; that of LinnJEUs has been employed in most other countries, and is justly 
esteemed by far the most perfect artificial system which has hitherto been produced. It is, therefore, adopted 
in this work. 
The application of the Linnean system in practice. Sir J. E. Smith observes, is, above all other systems, easy 
and intelligible. Even in pursuing the study of the natural affinities of plants, this botanist aftirms " that 
it would be as idle to lay aside the continual use of the Linnean system, as it would be for philologists and 
logicians to slight the convenience, and indeed necessity, of the alphabet, and to substitute the Chinese 
character in its stead." {Introduct. to Bot.) " The student of the Linnean artificial system," he elsewhere 
observes, " will soon perceive that it is to be understood merely as a dictionary, to make out any plant that 
may fall in his way." {Gram, of Bot.) " If we examine," says Decandolle, " the artificial systems which have 
been hitherto devised, we shall find the most celebrated of tliem, that which was proposed by Linnaus, to 
possess a decided superiority over all others, not only because it is consistently derived from one simple prin. 
ciple, but also because the author of it, by means of a new nomenclature, has given to his terms the greatest 
distinctness of meaning." {Elements of the Philos. of Plants, by Decandolle and Sprengel.) "Whether or 
not subsequent advances in science may enable botanists to dispense with the Linnean system altogether, it 
is not for us to affirm ; but in the meantime nothing can be more certain than that the Linnean system is the 
best leading arrangement for such a work as the present, in the existing state of botanical knowledge in 
Britain. * 
According to the Linnean system all plants are furnished with flowers, either conspicuous or inconspicuous. 
The plants with conspicuous flowers are arranged according to the number and position of their stamens and 
pistils ; those with inconspicuous flowers are arranged according to the situation of the flowers on the plant, 
or according to other circumstances in the plant itself. 
To discover the name of a plant by the Linnean system, therefore, all that is 
necessary for a beginner is to possess a specimen of it in flower, and to be able 
to know its different parts by the names given them by botanists. To discover the 
class, order, and genus of a plant, it is only necessary to be able to distinguish and 
name the different parts of the flower. These parts are: the calyx or cup {fig 1. a), ■ 
which is that leaf, or those leaves, by which the flower is usually enclosed when in d 
bud, and which, when the flower is expanded, appear under it. The corolla 
{corona, a crown) is the coloured leaf, or leaves, of a flower {fig. 1. b). The stamen 
(or first principle of any thing) is the thread-like process, or processes, imme- 
diately within the leaves of the corolla {fig. 2.) : it consists of two parts, the filament 
or thread {«), and the anther (i) ; this anther contains what is called the pollen, or fructi- 
fying meal (c). In the centre of the flower is the pistil {fig. 3.) : it consists of 
three parts, the germen, or rudim.ents of the fruit or seed (a), the style {b), 
and the stigma or summit(c), which crowns the style, and is destined to receive 
the fructifying pollen. 
The pistil and stamen are the essential parts of a flower. The corolla or the calyx may be 
wanting, and yet the flower will be termed perfect, because the absence of those parts is no 
obstacle to reproduction. Even the style and the filament may be absent without preventing the 
formation or ripening of the fruit ; and there are many flowers which have the anther sitting close 
to the corolla, &c., without a filament, and the stigma to the germen without a style; but the 
anther, the germen, and the stigma are essential. 
The seed is contained in the pericarp, or seed-vessel, which is the germen when grown to maturity. The 
name of seed-vessel varies according to its form, substance, &c. ; but the word pericarp {peri, about, karpon, 
a fruit) is applicable to all its varieties. The receptacle is the base or medium which connects the other parts 
of the fructification. {Magazine of Natural History, vol. i. p. 233.) 
The degree of knowledge conveyed by the following Table, and the preceding observations, will enable a 
beginner to discover the class, order, and genus of any plant which he may find in flower. 
* The best work in the English language for acquiring a knowledge of the Linnean system of botany is 
Smith's Introduction to Botany ; there are also various other works nearly as good, and detailed and 
familiar Introductions to both the Linnean and Jussieuean Systems will be found in the first and second 
volumes of The Magazine of Natural History. 
