Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/430

 400 Linnaeus has a 6th Order in this Class, named Monogamia, consisting of simple flowers with united anthers; but this I have presumed to disuse, because the union of the anthers is not constant throughout the species of each genus referred to it, witness Lobelia and Viola, while on the contrary several detached species in other Classes have united anthers, as in Gentiana, ''Engl. Bot. t.'' 20. These reasons, which show the connection of the anthers of a simple flower to be neither important in nature, nor constant as an artificial character, are confirmed by the plants of this whole Linnæan Order being natural allies of others in the 5th Class, and totally discordant, in every point, from the compound syngenesious flowers.

The Orders of the 20th, 21st and 22d Classes are distinguished by the characters of some of the Classes themselves which precede them, that is, almost entirely by the number of their Stamens; for the union of the anthers in some of them is, for the reasons just given, of no moment.