" These plants are mostly inodorous and insipid, except a styptic property in the root of Lythruns ; none of them are used in the shops. It is remark able in this order particularly, that some flowers are sessile and axillary, but towards the summit .the leaves gradually diminish, and are finally obliterated, so that the inflorescence becomes a spike, as may be seen in Epilobium." Order 18. 131CORNES. " So called," by Linnaeus, " from the anthers, which in many of this tribe ter minate in two beaks. The plants are rigid, hard and evergreen, almost all more or less shrubby ; certainly perennial. Diospyros is arboreous. The leaves of this order are alternate, simple, undivided, scarcely crenate, permanent. Stipules and bracteas want ing ;" (certainly not always the latter). " Calyx of one leaf, more or less deeply four or five cleft. Co rolla usually monopetalous ; in Pyrola, Clethra, and their near allies, pentapetalous. Nectaries none, ex cept in Kaltnia." (Linnaeus can here mean only the pouches which for a while detain the elastic stamens, and those are by no means nectaries.) " Stamens from four to ten, answering to the divisions of the corolla, or twice their number. Pistil 1, except Royena, which is digynous. Germen in some supe rior ; in others, as Vaceiniens, inferior. Some have a capsule, others a berry ; the cells of each four or five; but Diospyros has a fruit of eight cells. The seeds are either one or many in each cell, mostly small, chaffy." Linnaeus remarks that " they can scarcely be raised in a garden, especially as the plants are many of them natives of boggy situations r but our English gardeners are masters of their treat ment, witness the abundance of Ericce from the Cape, now common in every greenhouse, and many other charming shrubs, cultivated in a peat soil. He conceived the whole order to be nearly confined to one meridian, from the North Cape of Lapland, to the Cape of Good Hope ; but he is incorrect in saying, there are very few in North America, and none in the East or West Indies.
Halesia, Styrnx, Spathelia, Citrus and Garcinia are subjoined as an appendix to the Bicornes, but there is allowed to be a considerable distance be tween them, and the last is erased in the Gen. Plant. as having opposite leaves. Giseke records, p. 345, that when Linnaeus said no Erica grew in America, he asked him whether Hudsonia were not an excep tion to this ? On which he took that genus from his herbarium, and after contemplating and replacing it, wrote something, Giseke knew not what, in his Ge nera Plantansm. We find what he wrote to be as follows: " Videnda Hudsonia, Empetrum, Rex, Ilea." It is interesting to be thus able to trace the thoughts of such a man. He was moreover correct as to the genus Erica itself, of which no species has been de. tected in America.
Order 19. HESPERIDEZ. Of this nothing is said in the lectures. The original genera are Eugenia, Psidium, ilfyrtus, and Caryophyllus ; to which Gi seke has added Calyptranthes and Let,rnotis of Swartz. Melakuca also strictly belongs to this tribe ; though, by a strange error, referred in the Mantissa to the 40th order, and yet said to be akin in Ginora, which belongs either to this or the 17th. Philadelphus is subjoined as forming a section by itself, and still with a mark of doubt. The discoveries in New Holland have thrown much light on this fine order of aroma tic and elegant shrubs, of which the Myrtle is a fa miliar type. Linnaeus intended to remove Garcinia
hither.
Order 20. ROTACi/E. The lectures are also defi cient as to this order. It consists of Trientalis, Centunculus, Anagallis, Lysitnachia, Phlox, Exacum, Cldora Gentiana, Swertia, Chironia and Sarothra ; to which Ascyrum, Hypericurn and Cistes stand as an appendix. The wheel-shaped corolla of many of the above plants, has evidently suggested the name.
Order 21. PRECUE. Primula and its elegant re latives form the basis of this order. " They are all destitute of stems. Leaves simple. Flowerstalk umbellate, except in Cyclamen. Flower regular. Calyx, as well as corolla, five-cleft. Stamens five. Style one. Fruit a simple superior capsule. The umbel is often accompanied by an involucrum. They are vernal-flowering plants, and have, except Cycla men, nothing malignant in their qualities." Limosella stands alone in a second section of this order, but rather perhaps belongs to the 40th. Menyanthes, Hottonia and Samolus form a third section, attended by a mark of doubt. Sibtfunpia was once inserted in manuscript, but afterwards erased.
Order 22. CARTOPHYLLEI. The Pink and Cam pion tribe. " Root fibrous. Stem herbaceous, scarcely shrubby, jointed ; its branches commonly alternate. Leaves simple, more or less of a lanceo late figure, undivided, hardly crenate in any degree, sessile, with no other appearance of a footstalk than their elongated narrow base, opposite, obvolute. Stipules none ; neither are there any distinct brac teas, nor spines, prickles nor tendrils. The plants are mostly smooth, few are hairy, none prickly or bristly. ' Flower rarely sessile. Stamens never numerous, but ' either the same in number as the petals, or twice as many. Pistils from one to five, not more. Fruit a capsule, either of one cell, or of as many as there are styles; the cells usually with many seeds, Dry pis only having a solitary seed. A few of these plants with separated flowers occur among the spe cies of Cucubalus, Sikne and Lychnis. The whole order is harmless, without any peculiar taste or smell, except in the flowers. It contains the Flores cargo phylWi of Tournefort, who defined these as having the calyx tubular, and the limb of the corolla flat; but he referred Statice and Linum hither, which dif fer widely from this order, while his character ex cludes the Alsine, or Chickweed, tribe." Linnaeus thought Velezia had been wrongly placed here by Gerard, and was doubtful respecting Cherleria ; but he was afterwards satisfied that both are Caryojthylki. He remarks that " the order consists, as it were, of two leading genera, or rather families, the Caryo phyllus, or Pink tribe, such as Dianthus, Saponaria, Gypsophila, Sikne, Lychnis, dre. ; and the Alsine, or Chickweed family, consisting of Spergula, Cerastium, Arenaria, Stellaria, and others. In the first division, the calyx is tubular, of one leaf; in the second of five." A third section of this order has Pharnaceton, Glinus, Mollu4o, Polycarpon, Minuartia, Queria, Ortegia, Loclisngia ; to which were afterwards added Gisekia and Rotala. • Holosteum also, having laciniated'stipulaceous membranes, was intended to have been removed to this third section. Scleran thus, by itself, makes a fourth, but is erased by Lin naeus, and removed to his order. Polyprernum, with a query, stands at the end.