Page:An introduction to physiological and systematical botany (1st edition).djvu/479

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POLYADELPHIA.
449

dria. Its fruit is a membranous winged capsule, opening at the top. Monsonia, Curt. Mag. t. 73, Lamarck, t. 638, removed by Schreber and Willdenow to Monadelphia, rather, I think, belongs to this class where Linnæus placed it. The 5 filaments, bearing each 3 long-stalked anthers, are merely inserted into a short membranous cup, or nectary, for so the analogy of the 3 preceding genera induces us to call it; and if we refer Monsonia to Monadelphia, we fall into the error of Cavanilles mentioned p. 439. Lastly, Citrus, the Orange, Lemon, &c., Lamarck, t. 639, most unquestionably belongs to this Order. Its stamens are about 19 or 20, combined variously and unequally in several distinct parcels; but those parcels are inserted into a proper receptacle, by no means into the calyx, as the character of the Class Icosandria indispensably requires. Even the number of the anthers of Citrus accords better with most plants in Dodecandria than in Icosandria, notwithstanding the title of the latter.

2. Icosandria. Stamens numerous, their