[78] Cuv. Leçons Hist. Sc. 488.
Such plants are composite or simple. The composite flowers are those which contain many florets in the same calyx.[79] These are subdivided according as they are composed altogether of complete florets, [385] or of half florets, or of a centre of complete florets, surrounded by a circumference or ray of demi-florets. Such are the divisions of the corymbiferæ, or compositæ.
[79] Involucrum, in modern terminology.
In the simple flowers, the seeds are naked, or in a pericarp. Those with naked seeds are arranged according to the number of the seeds, which may be one, two, three, four, or more. If there is only one, no subdivision is requisite: if there are two, Ray makes a subdivision, according as the flower has five petals, or a continuous corolla. Here we come to several natural families. Thus, the flowers with two seeds and five petals are the Umbelliferous plants; the monopetalous flowers with two seeds are the Stellatæ. He founds the division of four-seeded flowers on the circumstance of the leaves being opposite, or alternate; and thus again, we have the natural families of Asperifoliæ, as Echium, &c., which have the leaves alternate, and the Verticillatæ, as Salvia, in which the leaves are opposite. When the flower has more than four seeds, he makes no subdivision.
So much for simple flowers with naked seeds. In those where the seeds are surrounded by a pericarp, or fruit, this fruit is large, soft, and fleshy, and the plants are pomiferous; or it is small and juicy, and the fruit is a berry, as a Gooseberry.
If the fruit is not juicy, but dry, it is multiple or simple. If it be simple, we have the leguminose plants. If it be multiple, the form of the flower is to be attended to. The flower may be monopetalous, or tetrapetalous, or pentapetalous, or with still more divisions. The monopetalous may be regular or irregular; so may the tetrapetalous. The regular tetrapetalous flowers are, for example, the Cruciferæ, as Stock and Cauliflower; the irregular, are the papilionaceous plants, Peas, Beans, and Vetches; and thus we again come to natural families. The remaining plants are divided in the same way, into those with imperfect, and those with perfect, flowers. Those with imperfect flowers are the Grasses, the Rushes (Junci), and the like; among those with perfect flowers, are the Palmaceæ, and the Liliaceæ.
We see that the division of plants is complete as a system; all flowers must belong to one or other of the divisions. Fully to explain the characters and further subdivisions of these families, would be to write a treatise on botany; but it is easily seen that they exhaust the subject as far as they go.
Thus Ray constructed his system partly on the fruit and partly on the flower; or more properly, according to the expression of Linnæus, [386] comparing his earlier with his later system, he began by being a fructicist, and ended by being a corollist.[80] ~Additional material in the [3rd edition].~
[80] Ray was a most industrious herbalizer, and I cannot understand on what ground Mirbel asserts (Physiol. Veg., tom. ii. p. 531,) that he was better acquainted with books than with plants.
As we have said, a number of systems of arrangement of plants were published about this time, some founded on the fruit, some on the corolla, some on the calyx, and these employed in various ways. Rivinus[81] (whose real name was Bachman,) classified by the flower alone; instead of combining it with the fruit, as Ray had done.[82] He had the further merit of being the first who rejected the old division, of woody and herbaceous plants; a division which, though at variance with any system founded upon the structure of the plants was employed even by Tournefort, and only finally expelled by Linnæus.