OKDEE DECAGTNIA. 
159 
if fasbion, and not nature, were to regulate our emotions. A writer on the culture 
of flowers observes, that a florist may consider himself fortunate if, in the course 
of his life, he should be able to raise six superior carnations ; — but the hope that 
such success may crown his labors he thinks a suflicient stimulus to continued exer- 
tions. To degrade the beautiful and innocent employment of cultivating plants by 
rivalries to produce a flower that may claim to be distingue, sliows that the serpent 
Btill lingers in Eden. Let the flower-garden be a retreat from low and groveling 
competitions, the promoter of innocence, of benevolence to man, and devotion to God. 
221. Order Trigynia, three pistils. — We here find the genus Silene, one species 
of which is caJled the catch-fly ; another, the nocturna, or night-bloorning, is, 
*' That Silene who decUnes 
The garish noontide's blazing light ; 
But when the evening crescent shines, 
Gives all her sweetness to the night." 
Another genus, the sandwort, is the 
*' Arenaria, who creeps 
Among the loose and liquid sands." 
222. Order Pentagynia^ five pistils. — ^The corn-cockle (^^w*-- 
temmd) is very common in corn or wheat fields ; although 
troublesome, it is a handsome pink-like plant, with showy corol- 
las ; it resembles the genus Dianthus, but has five pistils in- 
stead of two, on which account it is placed in the fifth artificial 
order, but is found in the same natural order. The wood-sorrel, 
oxalis^ produces the oxalic acid^ which in a concentrated state 
is poisonous. This is the type of a natural order called Oxali- 
daoecB^ the characters of which are, Geranise (or geranium-like), 
exogens^ with symmetriGCbl flowers.^ distinct styles., carpels longer 
than the torus., and seeds with abundant albumen. 
223. Order Decagynia., ten pistils. — In this order is the 
Poke-weed {Phytolacca)., a very common plant, found on the 
borders of fields and road-sides ; the fruit consists of large 
dark berries, filled with a reddish-purple juice. The flower 
has ten stamens, ten styles, a calyx with five white petaloid 
sepals, berry superior, with ten cells, and ten seeds.- When 
there is a variation in the number of stamens, other parts of the 
flower usually exhibit a similar change as to number of parts. 
LECTUKE XXX. 
tCOSACjrDEIA, OVER TEN STAMENS, INSERTED ON THE CALTX ; POLl- 
ANDKIA, MANY STAMENS. 
224. Had we strictly followed the classification of Linnaeus, 
we should have met with the class Dodecandria, from dodeka* 
021. Plants In the order Trig ynia. — 222. Order Pentagynia. — 223. Poke-weed. — 224. What is said ol 
the class which is omitted in this part of the system 1 
