23G 
CLASS GYNANDRIA. 
“ You will now have ascertained that the inflorescence is an 
umbel, that the calyx consists of five leaves, and the corclla of 
five refiexed petals. 
“ As the five upright substances, with a little horn in the cen- 
tre of each, have not the appearance of stamens, although they 
are next in course to the petals, you may at first be at a loss 
what to call them j but I will here give you Linna?us’ name, 
for every thing, whether inside or outside of the corolla, if it be 
neither calyx, stamen nor pistil, of whatever form and size it 
may be ; he having found that such parts generally secrete a 
sweet liquid, calls them all by the general name nectaries ; such 
as the shoe part of the ladies’ slipper, the spur of the nastur- 
tion, &c. Now pull off all the nectaries, and examine the part 
which they encircled. You will observe five shelly projections 
between where the nectaries stood, between these are seeds ly- 
ing very close, which you must peel off carefully with a sharp 
pointed knife, so as not to disturb what is under them. You 
will probably find some difficulty in effecting this at the first 
trial, but you cannot proceed in your examination until it be 
accomplished. 
“ Next, examine what is left with yrnur magnifying glass, 
though you may see the parts without a glass ; you will discov- 
er a lobe hanging down from each side of the five shelly pro- 
jections, resembling bees’ wax in appearance; these are the an- 
thers with glutinous pollen ; as the two lobes hang to the branch- 
es of a single stamen, though very unlike stamens in other 
cases, they are properly the double anther of a single stamen. 
The thick substance from which the stamens proceed, is the stig- 
ma, consequently, the milk-weed is placed in this class, Gynan 
dria ; the orders in this class are distinguished like the prece- 
ding classes, consequently, the five stamens place it in the order 
Pentandria. The large, thick stigma has the appearance of a 
germ or pericarp ; but if you pull off the stigma, you M ill dis- 
cover two pericarps under it, of a different structure from that 
of the stigma ; perhaps you will never meet with a stigma in any 
other flow'er, so large in proportion to its other parts as in the 
milk-weed. The anthers are pressed close to the side of the 
stigma by the valves or scales, and- the glutinous pollen proba- 
bly is absorbed by it ; by r which means the seed is fertilized, as 
in cases where the pollen is a dry poM'der. The manner in 
which either kind of pollen operates upon the stigma, is totally 
inexplicable ; we know nothing more of the subject, than that 
no seed is evet perfected without it, in any species of vegetables.” 
No farther remarks on the character of this plant could be 
Eaton’s description of the Milk-weed. 
