Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/463

 Rh, Adonis, Ranunculus, Trollius, Helleborus and Caltha, all conspicuous in our gardens or meadows, which, with a few less familiar, close this class.

Nothing can be more injudicious than uniting these two last classes, as some inexperienced authors have done. They are immutably distinct in nature and characters, whether we call the part which immediately bears the stamens in the Icosandria a calyx, with most botanists, or a receptacle, with Mr. Salisbury in the 8th vol. of the Linnaean Society's Transactions, where, among many things which I wish had been omitted, are some good remarks concerning the distinction between calyx and corolla. This the writer in question considers as decided in doubtful cases by the latter sometimes bearing the stamens, which the former, in his opinion, never really does.

14. Didynamia. Stamens 2 long and 2 short. Orders 2, each on the whole very natural.

1. Gymnospermia, Seeds naked, in the