Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/298

 268 glandular kind. In the natural order of Cruciform plants, composing the Linnæan class Tetradynamia, these are generally four green glands at the base of the Stamens. See Dentaria, ''Engl. Bot. t. 309, Sisymbrium, t. 525, and Brassica, t.'' 637. In Salix, t. 1488, and Geranium, t. 322, 75, &c., similar glands are observable; whilst in Pelargonium, the African Geranium, the Nectary is a tube running down one side of the flower-stalk.

The elegant Parnassia, t. 82, of which we are now acquainted with two new American species, has a most elaborate apparatus called by Linnæus Nectaries, but which the cautious Jussieu names Scales only. Linnæus usually called every supernumerary part of a flower Nectary, from analogy only, though he might not in every case be able to prove that such parts produced honey. This is convenient enough for botanical distinctions, though perhaps not always right in physiology; yet there is nothing for which he has been more severely and contemptuously censured. He was too wise to answer illiberal criticism, or he might have required his