24 
PRELIMINARY TREATISE. 
ference between a fibrous or woody, and a succulent, spadix. 
The division opposed to Spadiceous, consists of those with 
petaloid flowers which are not closely set round a stalk with 
an involucre at the base ; they have not the spadix, and may 
therefore be called Exspadiceous. In all divisions of vegeta- 
bles, individuals will be found that depart a little from the 
limits assigned, because the jCreator has not strictly drawn 
those limits of classification, but has softened down, as it 
were, the edge of difference by an easy transition. The 
groups, however, are not the less real on that account, though 
some individuals will exceed the boundaries; so we find 
Orontium, Tupistra, Aspidistra, and Tacca, forming a sort of 
limbo between the spadiceous and scapaceous plants, and, 
on the other hand, Pontederia and some others, together 
with the Scitamineous plants, advancing from the corolliform 
towards the habit of the spadiceous plants. They may 
therefore be well placed in an intermediate division as Subspa- 
diceous, that is, having a tendency to the form of a true spadix. 
The spadiceous plants, I believe, may be divided into, 
1. Involucrate or true, including Palms and Aroid plants. 
2. Nudae, Naked, including Piperaceae and Typhaceae. The 
involucrate into Ligneous, covering the palms, and Succulent, 
designating the Arums, &c., but I am not certain of the truth 
of the distinction of fibrous and succulent here, and do not 
pretend to make a perfect subordinate arrangement. If suc- 
culency does not universally distinguish the Aroidae, the 
petaloid involucre will furnish one feature of separation, the 
mode of fructification another, and probably the veins of the 
leaves another. The subspadiceous will divide, I believe, 
into 1. Subcorolliform, and 2. Corolliform. The first covers 
Orontium and those which have no involucre amongst Oron- 
tiaceae, the Acoroid and fluvial plants ; the second will be di- 
visible into monoperianthine and biperianthine, the former 
covering the aquatic, the latter the scitamineous plants. 
The corolliform are divisible into gynandrous, of which 
the stamens are consolidated with the style, covering the 
Orchidaceous plants and their kindred, and agynandrous, in 
which they are not so consolidated. The agynandrous may 
be subdivided into tripetaloid having the semblance of three 
petals and hexapetaloid of six. The tripetaloid into mono- 
gynous having one style, which are Bromeliaceae and Comme- 
linaceae, and pleiogynous having more styles, which are Buto- 
maceae and Alismaceae. The hexapetaloid into triandrous with 
