COMPARISON OF THE TWO SYSTEMS OF BOTANY. 
227 
and of appropriating the lengthy (and in many particulars) contradictory characters 
of above 291 Orders ? The thing is impossible ; and therefore in the commence- 
ment of his career, the student should take advantage of those more simple indi- 
cations which the Linneean classes afford, and then have recourse to the Natural 
Orders, by which he will be taught the physiological structure of the subject he 
investigates. 
In the instance just alluded to, the arrangement of the stamens pointed out the 
Linnsean Class Polyadelphia : this simple, irrefragable fact, tells us in language not 
to be mistaken, never to discard the artificial system till we obtain some other 
unerring guide to conduct us to the knowledge of Genera. 
This is all we claim. We welcome the improvements of the Natural System, 
and appreciate the labour and zeal of its teachers ; but we will apply in every case 
of need to that simple instructor which puts us in the right path. 
The reader will perceive that we have been endeavouring to prove the real 
utility of the Linn se an system, as a guide and index, not to depreciate the Natural 
System. The former has instructed us well, and has led us on to the present state 
of improvement. Like all human edifices, it will crumble under the hand of time, 
and be succeeded by others more refined and sublime ; but it must not be discarded 
till a substitute be completed which can instruct, without utterly bewildering the 
mind in its earliest researches. 
They who see all the numbers of the Magazine of Botany, will find the plant 
which induced these remarks figured in the Number of May, 1838, p. 77* We 
cannot say that the drawing does justice to the flowers ; the stamens are shown 
erect — not as they lie reposing along the groove of each hooded petal — revealing 
clearly their Polyadelphous structure. The nectary also exhibits none of that 
gorgeous crimson which is so strikingly conspicuous upon the three dots of that 
truly wonderful piece of elastic mechanism. 
"We enter our protest against that part of the Specific Character which gives 
10 petals to this species. " Petals 5" are one of the essential generic marks of 
Loasa as an individual genus, and though the nectary is constructed of two distinct 
portions, yet the lower is assuredly no petal ; but, de facto, a member of the 
nectariferous organization. As we are upon the subject of the Natural System, it 
will be proper to extract from the " Penny Cyclopaedia" the description of the 
Order, Loasacese : it is simply comprehensive. 
" Loasaceje, a small natural order of Polypetalous Exogens, consists of 
herbaceous, and frequently annual plants, covered over with stiff hairs or stings, 
which produce considerable pain by the wound they inflict. They have alternate 
lobed leaves without stipules, large yellow, red, or white flowers, numerous poly- 
adelphous stamens, within which are stationed singular lobed petaloid appendages, 
and an inferior ovary with parietal placentae. The fruit is a dry or fleshy capsule, 
with the valves sometimes spirally twisted. The order is nearly allied to 
Cucurbitacese." 
The passages marked in italics apply strictly to Loasa lateritia ; the Nectary, 
