PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
103 
known and unknown, are comprehended in twenty-four ; which classes are known 
by the number and situation of these parts, called stamens. Counting them, and 
finding two, indicates that we are to look for their plant somewhere amongst 
those with two stamens only; being the second class in the Linnsean system, 
called Diandria. Do not take fright at the name because it happens to be Greek. 
It will soon become familiar as we proceed ; for by always associating the term 
Diandria with second class, it will just as readily excite the idea of two stamens 
as the term second did to the child when he was helped a second time to fruit 
and confectionary. 
Having made this prodigious 'stride in our botanical knowledge—for be assured 
it is one—let us pause and consider its value and importance. 
Suppose 100,000 different sorts of plants to exist, not individuals but species ; 
by species are meant, for instance, Doses, or Buttercups of different sorts, not 
each individual Rose or Ranunculus throughout the world. Suppose, for the sake 
of illustration, each of these twenty-four classes contains an equal number of such 
species; then, by rejecting every plant in your botanical lists having stamens 
less or more than two, in place of 100,000 you have little more than 4,000 to 
hunt through, quite plenty, but still an immense advantage is gained; almost at 
the outset of your studies being enabled to determine with the utmost certainty 
that 90,000 of them are not the plants of which this drawing is a specimen. Let 
us try, however, if we cannot still further circumscribe our field of observation. 
Rising from the seed-vessel is another, but only one small process; this, called the 
pistil, is the duct or channel by which the seed itself is fertilized, which will be 
shown and explained when the physiology, the structure, and functions of plants 
come under our observation. 
From the number of pistils Linnaeus again divides the first ten Hasses into 
orders ; consequently the flower at present under examination is placed in the 
first order of the second class, called Monogynia. Thus we have before us 
Diandria Monogynia , or two stamens and one pistil. Now suppose again that 
our 4,000 species, all with two stamens only, are divided into plants having from 
one to ten pistils, and each division composed of an equal number, as before, 
divided by ten, our examination of plants throughout the whole range of creation 
is now limited to 400 only. But the flower under notice is a- British plant, 
indigenous, or growing wild in this country, so that here is another means of 
shortening our labour. In looking over a list of British genera, other and lower 
groups—which will be examined more particularly in our subsequent lectures— 
we find only ten of these having two stamens and one pistil. Each has perma- 
nently-distinctive characters, easily ascertained from books on the subject, and 
our object is now to find out in "what particulars the plant before us differs from 
the rest. 
