CLASS GYNANDRIA. 
187 
compound character which distinguishes them from all other plants. 
One botanist observes, that they have a kind of “weed-like appear¬ 
ance, notwithstanding the beauty of their colouring; the stems and 
leaves are often rough, and they seem to have been less completely 
reclaimed from their savage state, than most other plants, with the 
exception of the Cryptogamous class. 55 * 
Few plants of this class are poisonous ; for though milky plants 
are generally so, those of this class are exceptions. The lettuce 
however contains a narcotic principle, and opium may be made 
from it. The dandelion, the thorough-wort, the chamomile, and 
wormwood, with many other plants of this class, are valued for me¬ 
dicinal properties. 
The Syngenesious plants are particularly abundant in our own 
country, and you will never find difficulty in procuring specimens. 
If you commence botanical studies with the flowers of spring, nature 
gradually presents you with those that are more difficult to investi¬ 
gate. This class, it has been before remarked, are chiefly in blos¬ 
som in the latter part of the season. Being previously prepared by 
a knowledge of the general principles of classification, and obser¬ 
vations of plants, you will no doubt derive pleasure from the study 
of the class Syngenesia; though were you to commence a course of 
botany with these plants, you would feel as if thrown amidst a chaos 
of facts, without any clew to their classification. 
LECTURE XXXV. 
Fig. 146. 
CLASS XVIII.—GYNANDRIA. 
We shall now examine a class in which an 
entirely new circumstance from any yet con¬ 
sidered, is regarded as forming its essential 
character. This circumstance is the situa¬ 
tion of the stamens upon the pistil; the sta¬ 
mens appearing to grow out of that organ. 
In some cases the stamens proceed from the 
germ, in others, from the style. There is 
sometimes difficulty in deciding as to the 
number of stamens, for they are not here, as 
in other classes, distinct organs, but in some 
cases mere collections of glutinous pollen, 
called pollinia. 
Order Monandria. 
The orders in this class, as in Monadelphia and Diadelphia, de¬ 
pend on the number of stamens, or of those peculiar collections of 
pollen which are called stamens. The first order of the 18th class 
contains such plants as have but one stamen, or two masses of glu¬ 
tinous pollen, equal to one stamen; this order is divided into sections, 
with reference to the manner in which the anther is attached to the 
style ; as, whether it is easily separated, whether the anther grows 
upon the top of the stigma, and also to the shape of the masses 
of pollen, which are called the anther. 
* Barton. 
Plants of this class valued for medicinal properties—Found in the latter part of the 
season—Class Gynandria—Orders. 
