Class 21. Monecia. Stamens and pistils in separate flovers, but both growing on the same individual plant. Orders 9 or 10.
Several reformers of the Linnæan system have also abolished this Class and the two following, by way of rendering that system more simple. Ten years' additional experience since the preface to the 7th volume of English Botany was written, have but confirmed my opinion on this subject. If any plants ought to be removed from these Classes, they must be such as have the structure of all the accessory parts of the flower exactly alike, (the essential parts, or stamens and pistils only, differing,) in both barren and fertile flowers; and especially such as have in one flower perfect organs of one kind, accompanied by rudiments of the other kind, for these rudiments are liable occasionally to become perfect. By this means dioecious species of a genus, as in Lychnis, Valeriana, Rumex, &c., would no longer be a reproach or inconvenience to the system. But, on the other hand, some difficulty would occasionally arise to a student, in
