Natural Classification

Order

45. UstreLLATs.. " The name of this order is derived from the form of its inflorescence whose stalks all spread from a centre, like the rib; of an umbrella." " These plants are either p afectly umbellate or not. The former are required to have a tImpound umbel, each stalk, or ray, of which ends in a recep tacle, producing other stalks bearing flowers, or florets ; the latter have a simple umbel, whose stalks are-not subdivided. The latter constitute a separate section in Tournefort's system. They are compre hended by Linnaeus in one natural order with the former." " An umbel is properly a receptacle of a com pound flower, elongated into stalks ; which manifest ly appears in Eryngtum, whose florets are united in to a bead, just like the proper compound flowers, see the 49th order ; nor are they supported by elon gated stalks. Hence en umbel may accurately be considered as a compound flower. Those who con• trovert the opinion of Linnaeus in this point contend, that many umbellate plants, having male and herma phrodite flowers in the same species, ought to be placed in his class Polygamia. But this is a mis take ; for no other plants ought to find a place in that class, than such as have distinct male, or fe male, as well as hermaphrodite, flowers, in the same species. This is not the case with the Umbellate, in which all the florets of one universal umbel, that is, the whole umbel itself, constitutes but one flower, and this flower is never altogether barren, that is, its florets are never entirely male. On the contrary, these florets are to be considered as the parts of a compound flower; and there being male and herma phrodite ones intermixed, is exactly a parallel case with the polygamy of the Syngenesious class." " This order is eminently natural, though all plants which bear umbels do not belong to it, but only those with five stamens, two styles, and two seeds." " The germen is inferior, simple, solitary, sepa rating, when arrived at maturity, into two equal naked seeds ; each of which is furnished with a thread, inserted into its summit. These two threads combine to fbrm a very slender receptacle; at the top of the stalk of the floret. Each floret has a su perior perianth, with five teeth, which is often so small as scarcely to be discerned, even with the help of a magnifier. Petals five, caduceus, often unequal; hence Rivinus referred these plants to his class of pentapetalous irregular flowers. Stamens five, in serted into an elevated annular or circular recepta cle, that surrounds the pistils, deciduous. Styles two, often very short, and hardly visible. Seeds naked, without any seed-vessel." " The stem is mostly hollow, sometimes filled with spongy pith ; rarely shrubby, very rarely arboreous, of which last character Phyllis is the only example, see order 47. Leaves generally alternate, and re peatedly compound. Root mostly quite simple; in Oenanihe tuberous ; in Bynum Bulbocastanum glo bose." " Nothing is more arduous than to distinguish the genera of umbelliferous plants by appropriate characters. Tournefort himself, who excelled in the knowledge of this tribe," (perhaps Linnaeus meant rather to say, in the discrimination of genera, but his auditors did not take his words accurately,) " has distributed them according to the shape and size of their seeds. But this is a very fallacious mode, se the seeds often differ much in proportion, though not in any other respect. Morison wrote an ' entire book on umbellate plants ; but with little suc cess, their genera not tieing, as yet, established. Artedi first paid attention to the involucrum, which is either universal as well as partial, or only par tial, or entirely wanting. This principle has like wise been adopted, as fundamental, by Limmus, and his three primary divisions are regulated according The inequality of the petals affords him a prin ciple for his leading subdivisions, some of the urn belliferous family having the outermost petals of their external florets larger than the rest ; while in others all the petals are equal. The former are termed radiant flowers. Another subdivision is taken from the sex of the florets. Some of these, having no germen, are furnished with stamens only ; and such florets are termed abortive ; others, having both germen and stamens, bring their fruit to per fection, and are therefore denominated fertile." On these principles Linnaeus has arranged the um bellate plants, as may be seen in his works. Nothing occurs in his manuscript, except the insertion of Her mits next to Eryngium.

Order

46th. HEDERACE/E. The lectures give no new information concerning this order. The six genera stand as in the Genera Plantarum ; Pamir, Aralia, Zanthozylum, Hedera, Vitis, and Citrus.

Order 47th• STELLATAL " This order was found ed by Ray, and received its name from the leaves of most of the plants which compose it being placed, four, six, or eight together, in the form of a star, round the stem. It is unusual to see more than two leaves opposite to each other, nor is it the case here. For two of these only are properly leaves, the rest being no other than stipules, grown to the size of leaves. This appears evident in several Indian plants of the present order, as Knoxia, Diodia, &c. which have only two opposite leaves, though be tween these some small acute stipules are found, being the same that in the rest of the order attain the magnitude of leaves. Ray believed all the plants of this order to have whorled leaves, which is gene rally the case, as far as regards those of European growth, but rarely with the Indian ones, of which few were known in his time." " In this order there is no tree, unless perhaps Lirpia ; there are very few shrubs, most of the tribe being small herbs, growing in barren earth, or coarse sand." " The roots are in many instances perennial. Leaves opposite, horizontal, mostly rough. Stipules of the form and aspect of leaves, so that it is impos sible to say whether they be truly such or not, hence the leaves appear whorled ; but this does not hold good universally. In those however which have no leafy stipules, there is found, at each side, a sort of toothed membrane, connecting the leaves together, and occupying the place of stipules." " The stem is jointed, with mostly tumid knots. Corolla of one petal, either flat, wheel-shaped, or funnel-shaped; in one genus bell-shaped ; mostly four-cleft, sometimes almost down to the base; rarely five-cleft. Stamens four, never eight, though some times five or six, in which case the corolla has a parallel number of segments. Pistil solitary, dixid.

ed ; in

Richardia three-cleft, because that genus has a six-cleft corolla, six stamens, and a three-grained fruit, its parts of fructification being all augmented in a simi lar proportion. Those parts are not augmented with the same regularity in genera furnished with a three cleft corolla, and five stamens, for their pistil is still bifid, and their fruit two-grained, as is the case with such as have a four-cleft corolla and four stamens.

" The fruit is, for the most part, inferior; though superior in Houstonia ; and in Crucianella superior with respect to the calyx, though inferior to the corolla." This is incorrect, for Crucianella has ^a= real superior perianth, like the rest of the order, though so small as to be hardly discernible; what_ Linnaeus here terms calyx, being an involucrum, or perhaps bractees. " The sexes are rarely separat ed in this order, though Valantia, which is polyp.. mous, can by no means be excluded from it. Many of the genera have a two-grained fruit, of two cells, with a solitary seed in each. But in Hedyotis and. Oldenlandia the cells contain many seeds; while in Comas both cells are united into one seed, which, nevertheless, has two cells. The fruit has a green,

fleshy, but not juicy, coat, nor does it usually be come coloured in ripening; though in Eska the fruit is a perfect berry." (Of the remarks on particular genera, we find no.. thing to extract except the " Asperula linetoria is used in Gothiand instead of Madder, and is preferable." " S?erardia has an oblong fruit, which the per manent calyx renders toothed, or crowned with three points. It was the fate of William Sherard, a man worthy, in the highest degree of botanical honour, to have two different genera distinguished by his name. both which were afterwards referred to Pontedera, Vaillant, and Dillenius each published, at the same time, a Sherardia. Pontedera described his plant so very obscurely, that it was ten years be fore Limiseus made it out to be his own Galknia. Valliant called the two-seeded Verbena by the name of Sherardia, but he was to blame in separating them from their proper genus. Dillenius named a Sher- ardia, from among the Stellate, which Linnaeus has retained, though not very certainly distinct. Being unwilling that so meritorious a botanist should re main without a memorial, Linnaeus declined refer ring the plant in question to Asperula ; especially as the three teeth, at the top of each seed, may serve, if not very satisfactorily, to keep it separate.' " ;?anda was so named by Tournefort ; but Vaillant, perceiving it to be the same with Tourne fort's Cruciata, thought it a bad genus, which could, not support itself. He therefore wished to abolish all generic names, given in honour of botanists, be cause he supposed his own was untenable. But Tournefort confounded several genera under the ap pellation of Cruciata, so that Linnaeus has been en abled to establish a Valantia from among them, referring the rest to their proper places." Order 48. AOGREGATAL " These constitute a natural order, first established by Vaillant in the Me moirs of the French Academy of Sciences. They agree so far with the Composite, that they have ge nerally a common calyx, as well as receptacle, con taining many sessile dowers, each of which has al ' ways an inferior germen. But there is a total differ ence with respect to the remaining parts of fructifica tion, nor can these two orders be, by any means, united." " calyx, as we have just said, is common to many flowers. Common receptacle either naked, vinous, hairy, or scaly. In the place of a partial calyx is the corolla, .generally of one petal, re or irregular, in tour or five divisions, rarely lt. talons. Stamens four, with separate anthers. Ger men inferior. Fruit single-seeded. The flower is therefore complete in this tribe, except only Vale rian°, whose calyx is scarcely apparent. The leaves are often opposite, and the stem shrubby." Order 49: COMPOSIT/E. " A compound flower generally consists of a common calyx, containing several florets. But this definition is not sufficiently discriminative, for there are certain flowers termed Aggregate, which though they have numerous florets in one common calyx, are connected by no affinity whatever with these; witness Cephalantkus, Dipsacus, Scabiosa, Knautia, Allionia. Hence botanists have tried to discover an appropriate and distinguishing character for a compound flower, but they have scarcely succeeded. There are indeed flowers of this order, furnished with solitary florets in each calyx, as Seriphiunt, Corymbium, Strumpfsa. All of them have a monopetalous corolla, but so has Scabious and 'others. Most have five stamens, but some have only four. The greater number bear their anthem united into a cylinder, but Kuhnia, which belongs to them, has separate ;others ; while dasione, Viola and Impatiens, which do not, have combined ones. The united anthers burst internally, by which means their pollen is communicated to the stigma; but the anthers of Kuhnia open at the extre-, mity, and resemble the corolla of an Aristolochia. All the florets are superior, but this holds good likewise in Scabiosa. Hence it appears that no essential character of compound flowers is to be detected, though no order can be more natural than that be fore us." " Tournefort first divided the compound flowers into three sections, according to the shape of their partial corollas. These are either ligulate or tu . bular. Such as consist of ligulate florets only, are called by this writer sem if losculosi ; such as are form . ed only of tubular ones, flosadosi ; while those which have ligulate florets in the radius, and tubular ones in the disk, are denominated radian. This division seems natural enough, and yet is not so. For it re . fers both the discoid and capitate compound flowers of Linnaeus to the flow:don, which nevertheless are too dissimilar to be possibly admitted into the same section. The discoidei of Linnaeus, Ray's aggregati, having aggregate florets, seated on a hemispherical receptacle, are, in fact, more allied to the radian ; while the capitati, such as Thistles, are widely dif ferent, so as necessarily to constitute a division by themselves:" • " Vaiilant attempted a now botanical system ; but it is to he lamented that we are possessed of no more of his labours, than what -concerns- the compound flowers. In this performance, published in the Memoirs of the Parieian Academy for the years 1718, 1719 and 1720 ; he has displayed an extends* knowledge of and has treated the subject admirably. As the Memoirs of the Academy are not within the reach of everry y's purse, a Getman named Von Steinwehr has collected the anatomical, chemical and botanical papers, into an octavo volume, published in 1754 at Breslow. In this Vailleas treatises are preserved entire," (but in the German language.) " The florets of compound flowers are threefold with respect to sex, being either hermaphroditi, perfect, having the organs of both sexes ; female, destitute of anthem; or neuter, deprived of both organs, and barren." " Tournefort, Valliant, Ray, and almost every botanist who has treated of this tribe, divide it into three or four orders, some of them adding the og gregate flowers to the compound ones, whence arises the fourth order. But they have not fixed limits to their orders such being scarcely discoverable. The setniflosculosi and capitati, for instance, though ap parently widely different, are proved nearly akin by Scolymus and Elephantopus. The former of these has all the habit of a Carduus, and yet all its florets are ligulate; the latter is intermediate between the semillesotslosi and capitati, nor are we certain to which of these divisions it belongs. Perdicists, a new genus, connects Insist, which is radiated, with the smith:wok/us genus•Hi/reams, so that accurate limits are hardly to be drawn between them. Most of the sentOosettlosi are milky, but aml Qickorium want this " Section 1. .Sentylosadosi ; all the &wets ligu late." " These genera are distributed,- first by their receptacle, which is either chaffy, villous, or naked. In the next place, they are subdivided-by the down of their seeds, pappas, which is either absent, or bristle-shaped, or hairy, or feathery. Thirdly, a pe culiar distinguishing character is borrovied from the form or nature of their calyx." " The quality of the •ompositee• in general is in -nocent ; but some of the present section are milky, which secretion proves, by experience, somewhat of a poisonous nature. So Lactuca virosa, in a wild state, isns poisonous as opium ; yet by culture it be• comes esculent and culinary, though still causing sleep by its debilitating power." Linnaeus surely could not mean that this and the garden lettuce are one species. It is possible his hearers mistook him.