B O T 
-the term Monoecia, by denoting a fingle habitation, alludes 
to this circumftance : that the male and female flowers of 
this clafs, are both found in the fame plant or dwelling; 
whereas, in the next, they have diflinbl habitations. The 
orders in this clafs are founded upon the number of (lamina 
produced in the different flowers, which confifl of eleven 
divilions ; they are therefore diftinguiflied by eleven titles 
from the chafes, which denote their refpebtive number ot 
.(tamens. A rcprefentation of the clafs Monoccia, order Gy- 
vandria, is given at fig. 21. a, the male flower ; s, the (la¬ 
mina ; b, tire female flower ; p, the piftilla. It is the an- 
drachne, or baflard orpine. 
Dioecia j this word, by the variation of the numerical 
term, denotes two houfes or dwellings ; and is applied to 
this clafs of plants, whole flowers are male and female, to 
exprefs the circumtiance of the male flowers growing on 
one plant, and the female on another; fo that the prefence 
of both plants is neceflary to propagation. The orders, 
like thole in the clafs Monoecia, are founded on the num¬ 
ber of (lamina prefent in the blofloms, which admit of 
fourteen divilions ; they are confecjuently named from four¬ 
teen titles of the clalfes, which import their refpeclive 
number of (lamens. Fig. 22. illuflrates the clafs Dioecia , 
order Dccandria ; a, the blofibm produced by the male 
plant; s, the (lamina; b, the flower produced by th z fe¬ 
male plant; p, the piftilla: it is the Kiggelaria. 
Polygamia, formed of woAv?, multus, many, and yuy.oe, 
nuptice, nuptials, denotes a plurality of marriages. So the 
clafs tints denominated, produces either upon th e fame, or 
on different plants of the fame genus, hermaphrodite flow¬ 
ers, and alfo flowers of one fex only, be it male or female; 
or elfe flowers of each fex : and the latter receiving im- 
-pregnatign from, or giving it to, the hermaphrodites, as 
their fex (hall happen to be, the parts eflential to genera¬ 
tion in the hermaphrodite flowers do not confine themfelves 
to the correfponding parts within the fame flower, but be¬ 
come of promifeuous ufe ; which is the reafon of giving the 
above.title to the clafs. It contains three orders, the two 
fir ft of which are the fame with the titles of the twenty-firft 
and twenty-f'econd clafl'es, and are to be underftood in the 
fame manner, viz .Monoecia, when the polygamy is on the 
fame plant; and Dioecia, when it is on two dijlintt plants. 
The third order, Trioecia, has been eftablifhed in favour 
of a (ingle genus, the ficus, in which the polygamy is on 
three diftindt plants. Fig. 23. exhibits the clafs Polygamia , 
order Dioecia ; a, is a blolfom from the hermaphrodite 
plant; s, the (lamina; p, the piftillum ; b, is a blofl’om 
from the female plant; p, the piftillum: it is the fraxinus, 
or flowering afh. 
Cryptogamia, compounded of rgoirr 1 ^, occultus, con¬ 
cealed, and yag.©', nuptice, nuptials ; denotes a conceal¬ 
ment of marriage ; and the term is made ufe of in this 
place, becaufe all the plants of this clafs either bear their 
flowers concealed within the fruit, or have the parts of 
frudlification fo extremely minute, as to be imperceptible 
to the naked eye. The ficus, whofe flowers are borne 
within the fruit, was originally placed in this clafs, but 
Linnaeus removed it into the polygamia, on account of the 
fpreading umbilicus, or opening of the receptacle, and the 
polygamous conftrudlion of its florets. The orders in this 
clafs confift of four very different kinds of plants, viz. the 
Filiccs, or ferns ; the MvJ'ci, or modes; the Algce, or fea- 
weeds, and other aquatic plants; and the Fungi, ormufh- 
rooms. Fig. 24. is a very curious delineation of the clafs 
Cryptogamia, order MvJ'ci ; a, the male frudlification ; s, the 
(lamina; bb, the fucculent threads or veffels riling from 
the bafe of the (lamina; c, the female flower ; p, the pif¬ 
tilla. Fig. 25. exhibits the order Filices ; it is the under 
fide of three leaves of the polypodium, or fern, magnified 
to (hew the flowers or frudlification, which are difpofed in 
rows on each fide the mid-rib : here the feeds, exceed¬ 
ingly minute, are follered and matured, as in a pericar- 
pium. Fig. 26. the order Algce-, (hewing the frudlifica¬ 
tion of the fcarlet fnctts. The Fungi will be exhibited 
in the engravings appropriated to the genera —Alio, the 
A N Y. 259 
Palmte, or order of Palms ; whofe Angular ftructure oc- 
cafioned their being thus placed together under a diftindt 
head. A figure of one of thefe plants is given in the Bota¬ 
nical Plate IX. fig. 8. it is the chamaerops, or dwarf paint. 
Such are the Clafl'es and Orders which conftitute the 
celebrated Sexual Syftent of Linnaeus ;—a fyftem, which 
perhaps has contributed more to the elucidation and im¬ 
provement of the fcience of Botany, than all the joint dif- 
coveries and communications of former writers. Some later 
botanifts, however, of confiderable eminence, have mutu¬ 
ally agreed toabolifti the clalfes Gynandria, Monoecia, Dioecia, 
and Polygamia, under an itnpreflion that it will tend to fim- 
plify the ftudy, and difburthen the memory from a great 
number of unnecefliiry applications of the terms. Under 
this new arrangement, the orders contained in the clalfes 
thus aboliflied, are incorporated and difperfed among the 
other nineteen clafl’es, according to the number of their (la¬ 
mina, as projected by Linnaeus himfelf. The palms, in the 
appendix to the Cryptogamia clafs, are alio diltributed in a 
funilar manner ; fo that the fyftem now in vogue, and which 
feems almoft univerfttlly to obtain, confifts only of the fix (t 
nineteen clafl'es, and the Cryptogamia clafs, making twenty 
in the whole. Dr. Withering, in his Arrangement of Britijh 
Plants, publifhed in 1796, has adopted this abridged fyftem, 
after the powerful example of the learned Dr. Gmelin of 
Gottingen, and with the approbation of Sir CharlesThun- 
berg, fucceflbr to the great Linnseus in the botanical pro- 
feftbrfhip in the univerfity of Upfal. But concerning the 
utility of this departure from Linmeus’s plan, the Plditors of 
the Monthly Review, in their critique upon Dr.Withering’s 
ufeful and valuable work, have remarked as follows : 
“ Much may be faid every way with refpefl to the abo¬ 
lition of the clafl'es Gynandria, Monoecia, Dioecia, anfi 
Polygamia, as to the nccrjjity and the ufe of fo doing. Some, 
naturalifts, of late, have imagined that they have expe¬ 
rienced obftruftions in the attainment of botanical know- 
ledge, from the perplexity of thofe clalfes, and have ac¬ 
cordingly removed them: but the queftion remains to be 
decided whether they have facilitated the ftudy of them. 
They who remove thefe clafl'es, and incorporate tlie five-. 
ral genera under them into the other clalfes, according to 
their (lamina, are Hill obferved to retain the diflinftion of 
the old clafs under u'hich Linnaeus had arranged them. 
Of what import is it, then, on the firft view of this mat¬ 
ter, whether any plant (land in this or that clafs; if, after 
all, the Gynandrous, Monoecious, Dioecious, or Polyga¬ 
mous, flower is to be the mark of di 111 notion ? It appears 
to 11s that the difficulty is increafed by the anomaly being 
difperfed throughout fo many claftes. Heretofore, the 
fight of a monoecious flower at once referred 11s to a cer¬ 
tain clafs, which comprifed all plants of that appearance. 
Now we are to be aware that every clafs may have thefe 
irregularities. We cannot but therefore deem this an in- 
creafe of confufion. 
“ Let us only obferve the fymmetry of the Linnzean 
fyftem. The firft nineteen claftes bear flowers, of which 
the (lamina, how different foever in number, (filiation, 
proportion, &c. all furround the piftillum, and are diftinct 
from it. In the twentieth, they are lituated on it. As, 
then, (filiation is lo important a feature in the fexual 
frame, how could Linnaeus (fifbi covfiet) have done other- 
wife than have thrown thole plants, the fructification of 
which is fo fingularly conftifuted, into a feparate clafs ? 
Again, the clafs Monoecia exhibits flowers totally diftinft 
from all which have gone before. On the fame plant ap¬ 
pear fome flowers purely male, and others altogether fe¬ 
male. The fexual fyftem is fo very materially afiefted here, 
that the diftinflion cannot be difguifed. This clafs is found¬ 
ed 011 natural character. Linnauis appears to us to have 
been compelled to follow it. A (till llronger difference is 
to be found in the clafs Dioecia. The fmbtificatipn is 
completed by the efforts of two diftinft plants. Tims, in 
all the willows, the female flowers are produced by one 
tree, the male by another. Here is fuch a departure from 
