130 
ON THE MYRTLE TRIBE OF PLANTS. 
wish success, we come at once to the object we had in view when we commenced 
this article. 
The myrtle tribe is one of the orders of the system. Its title is Myrtacece, and 
it is found in the first Grand Division, in which all the plants are of a vascular 
structure {vasculares), in contradistinction from the subjects of the second grand 
division, whose stems at least are entirely cqWuX^v (^cellidares), and unfurnished with 
tubular vessels and woody fibre. The first division contains two g-reat classes, and 
our MyrtacecB is a member of the first of these, inasmuch as its seeds have two 
lobes, whence the term Dicotyledones. This great class is again subdivided ; and 
its first division comprises all those plants which have calyx and corolla {T>ichla- 
mydcBo). Again, this first subdivision has three ^w^classes, viz., 1st. Thalamic 
jlor(B, wherein (as in Ranunculus) the petals and stamens are attached to the re- 
ceptacle. 2nd. Calycijlorce, wherein the petals, and frequently the stamens, are 
seated on the sepals, or calyx-leaves, as in the greater number of fruit trees ; for 
instance in Pyrus, Prunus, Persica^ Amygdalus, cum muitis aliis. 3rd. Corolli- 
flora. Here we find the corolla monopetalous, inferior, or below the germen, and 
the stamens attached to it, and not as in the two preceding subclasses. 
Now, let any one acquainted with botanical structure take a flower of the myrtle, 
and he will, after a short investigation, be convinced that it must be referred to the 
second sub-class of the first sub-division ; because it has a great number of stamens 
not attached either to the petals or receptacles ; that the petals are seated on the 
calyx, and therefore that it has both calyx and corolla; in a word, that it belongs 
to the 12th Linnean class — Icosandria. 
But the order Myrtacece is not founded solely upon the number or position of 
the stamens, and therefore it contains many genera which are not found in the 12th 
class ; this circumstance will be noticed more particularly, but we must previously 
endeavour to find out the number as well as the position of the order ; and in so 
doing shall detect one of the imperfections of the system. 
When the Encyclopcedia of Plants appeared in 1829, Myrtacece formed the 
order Ixiii of the sub-class, and the order itself was again subdivided into three 
tribes : the 1st. termed Baccata, contained eleven genera, the fruit or seed-vessel 
of which is a berry. The 2nd, Capsulares, comprised nine families having capsular 
seed-vessels. The 3rd, called Lecythidece \ in this, the three genera differed from 
those of the two foregoing tribes, the fruit being either a drupe or vessel enclosed 
within a leathery rind. 
The plants (genera) of distinguished beauty and excellence were seen in the jj 
first tribe : viz., Myrtus, the tree myrtle, and type of the order, with ten varieties of I 
the common myrtle, hardy tenants of the greenhouse ; the lovely but captious woolly- 
leaved pink-flowered myrtle, native of China ; and that most fragrant stove-ever- 
green, the pimenta-leaved myrtle, M, pimentoides, formerly termed broad-leaved 
pimenta. 
2. Pme?zto «;t//^ctWA', or true allspice, pimenta, or Jamaica pepper. | 
These two plants are rarely met with in our stoves, and we regret their absence; 
the former is more fragrant, and as an evergreen is more desirable, inasmuch as it | 
