POLYANDRIA. 
( 19 ) 
COMPLEAT ANEMONE. 
A nemones are too familiar for Defcription : and after what has . 
been laid relating to the Icosandrous Clals, there need lew Words | 
to explain the Charaaer of the Polyandria, to which this belongs. | 
The Filaments are numerous, as in the Plants of that Divifion, but they rife ^ 
from the Receptacle, or Head of the Stalk 5 not from the Edges of the Cup, | 
or Body of the Flower. | 
Science or Hiftory demand no more on this Head : therefore we have Oppor- j 
tunity under a favourable Inftance, to trace that great Article, the Progrefr { 
fion of Nature, in forming the Doublenefs of Flowers, in a new Courfo. We j 
have feen foveral Ways in which that Change is brought about in various ^ 
Kinds 5 and this will add one more : for tho’ the Method be the fame in its ) 
Original, it differs greatly, as the Effe£t is wrought from various Parts of , 
Flowers. 
In the Tulip, we fee the Filaments fpread into Petals, and form the Dou- 
blenefs of the Flower, and from the vaft Number of Filaments in the Ane- 
mone, when fingle, and the Multitude of new Petals in the double One, it j 
would be natural to fuppofe they had alfo the fame Origin in this : But it is ; 
much otherwife. We open here into a new Courfe of Nature ; and the Don- | 
blenefs of this Flower, and of fome others of like Kind, is form’d from Parts | 
we have not yet feen ferve that Purpofe. That this new Courfe of Nature | 
may be the more clearly underftood, I have given the Flower of the natural I 
wild Anemone, Native of j^gypt, and other Parts of the Eaft, with thofe | 
focceffive Forms it wears from a different Culture. | 
The Structure of the common natural, or fingle Anemone is this. ; | 
At the Summit of the Stalk, there is a flight flefhy fwelling of a paler Co- I 
lour : this is called the Receptacle of the Flower; and its feveral Parts rife from I 
that Receptacle in the following Order. F irft, the Body of the F lower, compofed 1 
of fix Petals in two Series, three outer and three inner, as in the Tulip : the | 
three outer ferve as a Cup, the three inner being more delicate. Next within i 
thefe, rife from the fame Receptacle, a Multitude of Filaments crowned with | 
large yellow Buttons. The Infertion of thefe on the Receptacle, fhews the | 
Plant to be, of the Polyandrous Clafs ; not of the Icofandrous. Above thefe | 
Filaments, the Receptacle runs up into a conic Form; and is cover’d all the 
Way with naked Rudiments of Seeds. 
When the Flower becomes, by Culture, femi-double, the three inner Petals f 
form that Doublenefs, each fpliting flatwife (as the new Petals of a Tulip) in- i 
to two, or into three; and thus the Flower, inftead of fix, has nine or twelve Pe- 
tals. But in the compleat double Anemone, the Change is much more wonder- , 
ful. The outer Petals remain as in the femi-double Flower; the Filaments are ^ 
converted into peculiar oblong Subftances, acquiring a fine Colour; and every ‘ 
Rudiment of a Seed upon the Surface of the Receptacle, forms an additional 
Petal. Thefe make the inner Clufter, and perfe6I the Doublenefs of the Flower. 
In other Kinds, we may promote Doublenefs by the Ufe of fuch Manures 
as peculiarly fwell the flefliy Subftance of the Stalk whence the Filaments rife. 
In this we are to enlarge the Pith or central Subftance : for from that rife the 
Rudiments of Seeds. Such a Manure, and a Length of Time before the Plant 
is fuffer’d to flower, will produce this elegant Change. 
Anemone foliis radicalibas ternato decompofitis involucro foliofo, Linnseus. 
