200 
CLASS HEXANDRIA. 
these are exterior, 3 interior ; the capsule is 3 sided, with 3 
cells, and 3 valves ; the seeds are arranged in 6 rows. This 
proportion of numbers seems to forbid the idea that this plant 
grew up merely by chance, without the agency of any designing 
mind. We are not to expect always to see the same symmetry 
in plants as has been here remarked. It is in the natural as in 
the moral world, that although every where around us we see 
such proofs of order and system as would manifest the superin- 
tending care of one Almighty Being ; yet there are irregulari- 
ties which we cannot comprehend : but although we may ad- 
mire the order , we are not to say that even what seems disorder 
is formed without a plan. 
“ Shall little haughty ignorance pronounce 
His works unwise, of which the smallest part 
Exceeds the narrow visions of his mind 1 ” 
The tulip has not, like the lily, any style, but its three parted 
stigma is attached to a three cornered germ. The corolla of 
the tulip is more expanded at the base than that of the lily. 
The stem of the tulip is never more than one flowered, while 
that of the lily usually has a number of flowers. Some native 
species of the tulip are found in North America, but those which 
you see in gardens are exotics. In no plant is the variation 
made by culture greater than in this ; it is said, that of one sin- 
gle species, Tulipa gesneriana , one thousand and one hundred 
varieties are cultivated in Holland. About the middle of the 
seventeenth century, the rage for tulips was so great, that some 
were sold for four thousand dollars, and one called the Vice-roi, 
for ten thousand dollars ; but this extraordinary traffic was 
checked by the law that no tulip or other flower should be sold 
for a sum exceeding one hundred and seventy five dollars. 
Besides the liliaceous plants with bulbous roots, which in- 
clude much of the beauty of our gardens, in the first order of 
the 6th class, are several genera which belong to the natural 
family Ensatae, having sword-form leaves ; as the spiderswort, 
a beautiful flower whose symmetry we have already remarked. 
Many tenderly cherished exotics have less elegance than this 
neglected American plant. 
The snow-drop, which is one of the earliest flowers of spring, 
is of the same family. It may excite your astonishment to 
know, that in the class and order with so many splendid and 
beautiful flowers are the onion (Allium) and the bulrush (Juncus). 
But you must recollect that in this artificial system, if a flower 
has six separate stamens and one pistil, it is entitled to a place 
Tulip — Snow-drop — Onion and Bulrush — 
