CLASS HEXANDRIA. 
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purple, growing in panicles. It is a low shrub, with a yellow 
root, sometimes used by dyers. 
Our investigations into the class Pentandria have necessarily 
been somewhat tedious, on account of the number and impor- 
tance of the plants which it contains. 
We do not, however, expect to make you practical botanists 
by introducing to your notice a few interesting plants ; this can 
only be done by gathering flowers, and examining them accord- 
ing to those rules of analysis which we have endeavored to ex- 
plain in a simple manner. If you study flowers, you will read 
remarks upon them with pleasure and profit ; if not, definitions 
or instruction will be read with little interest and little improve- 
ment. Sciences may be unfolded, every facility which books 
and teaching can give, may be placed before the youthful mind ; 
but that mind must itself be active, or the seeds of knowledge 
will no more take root and expand, than the seeds of plants 
would vegetate if thrown upon the bare surface of a rock. 
LECTURE XXVII. 
CLASS VI HEXANDRIA, AND CLASS VII IIEPTANDRIA. 
You have already been made acquainted with the lily, as it 
was one of the first flowers you were taught to analyze ; and, 
in a brief view of the liliaceous flowers, you have been presents 
ed with the most striking characters belonging to this family, 
which we might, following the example of great names, call an 
“ illustrious ” race. Pliny says, the “ lily is next in nobility to 
the rose.”* Linnaeus called the liliaceous flowers “ Nobles of 
the vegetable kingdom ;” he also called the palm trees “ Princes 
of India:” but in our republican country, where aristocratic 
distinctions are little regarded, we will not attempt to introduce 
these titles of nobility among the flowers. 
In the class llexandria, the symmetrical ratio between the 
number of stamens and the division of the other parts of the 
flower, is generally to be found. In the spiderswort, (Trade- 
scantia,) which has 0 stamens, we find the corolla 3 petalled, 
calyx 3 leaved, and capsules 3 celled. In the third class, which 
has 3 stamens, the divisions are often 6. 
In the lily, which has (i stamens, there are 6 petals ; 3 of 
* “ Lilium nobilitate proximum, est.” 
Introduction not all that is necessary for improvement. 
Class Hexandria — Ancient titles of distinction among flowers — Symmetry 
of parts in the flowers of this class — Lily — 
