Page:Transactions of the Linnean Society of London, Volume 10.djvu/38

 who, however, have frequently neglected it in practice: nor do I find any one who has steadily kept it in view, except Aubert Du Petit-Thouars in his excellent work on the plants of Madagascar and the Isles of France and Bourbon.

The bursting of the antheræ has, it is true, been generally observed, and many of its most unusual modes have been introduced into the characters of genera; but the examination of these organs, at a still earlier period, has been universally neglected; and hence the very imperfect knowledge which, even now, is possessed of their real nature in two of the most remarkable families of plants, the Orchideæ and Asclepiadeæ.

Examples of the great advantage of observing the antheræ in this early stage will hereafter be given in my general remarks on the order which is the proper subject of this essay. But I trust I shall be pardoned for here introducing some account of their structure in Asclepiadeæ, as it will enable me not only to bring forward the most striking proof of the importance of this consideration with which I am acquainted, but also, as I apprehend, to decide a question which has long occupied, and continues to divide, the most celebrated botanists.

The point in dispute is whether this order, comprehending Asclepias, Cynanchum, Pergularia, Stapelia, and several genera, at present confounded with these, ought to be referred to Pentandria or Gynandria, and, if to the latter, whether the antheræ are to be considered as five or ten; all of which opinions have had advocates of the greatest name in the science.

According to Linnæus, Jussieu and Richard they belong to Pentandria.

Linnæus has assigned no reason for his opinion, which, however, it appears he retained after he became acquainted with the observations of Jacquin and Rottboell; but it is probable he was