INTRODUCTION. 3 
carp or SEED-VESSEL, and is that part of the fructifica- 
tion which contains the seeds : whether it be a capsule 
as in the poppy, a nut as the filbert, a drupe as the plum, 
a berry as the gooseberry, a pome as the apple, a poo? as 
in the pea, or a cone as of the fir-tree. 
9. That part of every vegetable, which, at a certain 
state of maturity, is separated from it, and contains the 
rudiments of a new plant, is called the SEED. 
10. The RECEPTACLE is the base which connects all 
the parts of fructification together, and on which they 
are seated. In some plants this is very conspicuous ; 
and in none more so than the artichoke, of which it 
forms the eatable part, called the bottom. 
11. The Linnasan system of classification of plants is 
founded upon a supposition that the stamens represent 
the male, and the pistils the female parts of fructifica- 
tion. The whole vegetable creation has been distri- 
buted, by Linnaeus, into twenty-four classes. These are 
divided into orders, which are subdivided into genera or 
o 
tribes ; and these genera are further divided into species 
or individuals. 
12. Of the CLASSES the discriminating characters are 
taken from the number, connexion, length, or situation 
of the stamens. In each of the first twenty classes there 
are stamens and pistils in the same flower ; in the 
twenty-first class, the stamens and pistils are in distinct 
flowers on the same plant ; in the twenty-second, in 
distinct flowers on different plants ; in the twenty-third, 
in the same flower and also in distinct flowers ; and in 
the twenty-fourth class they are not at all discernible. 
Thus: 
B 2 
