[SEE Part I. page 144. where I have mentioned this method. The

terms Spathe, Glume, Spathaceous, &c. which occur in this table, have been particularly explained, in their proper places.]

16. LINNEUS'S SEXUAL METHOD.

FLOWERS

Visible, all the parts distinct;

[Stamens and pistils in the same flower,

Stamens not cohering with each other, or with the pistil.

(equal, or without any certain proportion,

Number

Stamen single
Stamens two

more (often 20), inserted in
the calyx

more, inserted in the recep-
tacle

Lunequal, two constantly shorter,

Stamens four, two longer.

Stamens six, four longer.

Stamens cohering with each other or the pistil.

(Filaments united into one body

Didynamia
Tetradynamia 15

Filaments united into two bodies
Filaments united into three or more
bodies

[ALTHOUGH the sexual method is very particularly explained and illustrated, in the last part of these Elements, it was thought proper to furnish the student with this tabular view of the system. I would advise him to make himself, in some measure, acquainted with this table, before studying the more dilated explanation.]

[THIS method has been pursued by the Professor in his Flora Japonica, and in his Prodromus Flore Capensis. I cannot consider it as an improvement upon the method of Linnæus. I am not certain, that the suppression of the four classes has rendered the method more easy; and it is evident, that by this change, the system is rendered more artificial than when it came from the hands of Linnæus.]

EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES

ANNEXED TO THE SECOND VOLUME.

WITH

MISCELLANEOUS FACTS AND OBSERVATIONS.

PLATE VI.

THIS plate is intended to show the wonderful effects of light upon vegetables. In the superior figure, the leaf of a Vine is put through the hole of a stick, in a glass-vessel filled with water. The leaf is placed horizontally in the water, with its upper page, or surface, looking towards the bottom, and its under surface, towards the top of the glass. A taper is placed at a small distance from the vessel. After some time, owing to the action of the light upon the plant, it turns itself in the vessel, and presents its upper surface to the light.

In the two lower figures, the effect of light is demonstrated in another way. A leaf of Mallow (Malva) is suspended in a glass vessel, filled with water, in a perpendicular direction, in such a manner, that the upper page of the leaf, as in the former instance, regards the bottom of the glass. After some time the plant, in order to receive the influence of light, twists itself, and presents its upper surface to the light. This change is supposed to take place in one and the same vase, but it was thought proper to notice the phenomenon in two distinct drawings.

PLATE VII.

THE Dionea Muscipula, or Venus's Fly-trap, is figured upon this plate. The leaves are all radical (folia radicalia). The stem is a scape (Scapus). Each leaf is terminated by a very remarkable apparatus, which is endued with such an highly irrita

ble power, that if an insect light upon it, or if it be touched with a pin, the part immediately closes, and retains the irritating object. In strict propriety, the leaf-like part of Dionæa may be called the petiolus, and the irritable apparatus the folium, or leaf. -See the Plate, prefixed to the title-page of this volume.—A property somewhat similar to this, is enjoyed by many other plants, such as some species of Sundew (Drosera rotundifolia, &c.), to which the Dionea is nearly related by its botanical characters: the Apocynum androsæmifolium;-and I have discovered it in the Ascelpias syriaca, or Syrian Swallow-wort, commonly called Wild-Cotton, or Cotton-plant.-Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, vol. 6. parti. art. 16.—See, also, a paper, entitled "Desultory observations concerning certain vegetable Muscicapa," which I have inserted in Mr. Tilloch's Philosophical Magazine, for February 1812.-In this paper, printed since the publication of the first volume of these Elements, will be found some additional and more correct views of the economy of the Sarraceniae, than those which I formerly published.

In a geographical view the vegetables of the United-States, I know of no other plant so limited in its range as Dionæa muscipula. It is, so far as is yet known, almost exclusively confined to an inconsiderable tract of boggy country in the state of NorthCarolina, about Wilmington, &c.-It is said, however, to have been discovered near George-Town, in South-Carolina.

PLATE VIII.

THIS plate is intended to illustrate the class Monandria. Fig. 1. Canna glauca, a native of North-Carolina, and other Southern parts of the United-States. A. A. a. The perianth. B. C. D. Depending petals, or divisions of the monopetalous corolla. E. F. G. Other parts of the corolla. H. g. Tube of the corolla. I. The anther attached to the edge of the petal F., which serves it in place of a filament. K. The stigma. L. The germ, which is inferior (germen inferum), and scabrous.