Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/508

 478 justly associated with them by Schreber, though placed by Linnæus in the Order Triandria, and this alteration is the more fortunate, as one of its species is diandrous. Sterculia is best removed to the 11th Class, next to Kleinhovia.

9. Polyadelphia. If the system should be preserved in its present state, without regard to agreement or difference in the accessory parts of the barren and fertile flowers, I conceive this Order might be established for the reception of the Gourd tribe, as already hinted under the 5th Order. Their filaments are united, in 3 sets, a character much more intelligible and constant than the casual and irregular connection of their anthers, which led Linnæus to reckon them syngenesious; for they only afford an additional proof that union of anthers is, in simple flowers, neither a good natural nor artificial guide. If the monoecious and dioecious Classes be reformed according to the plan to which I have so often adverted, these plants should go to the Class Polyadelphia.