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Show l 7 ] Woo' d with long care, CuRcUMA, cold and ihy, 6 5 Meets her fond huiband with averted eye : Four beardlefs youths the obdurate beauty move With foft attentions of Platonic love. with long anthers. 2u. To lengthen and benrl the peduncle or flower-!l:alk, that the flower might hang downwards. 3d. To refleCt the petals. 4th. To ereCt thefe peduncles when the germ was fecundated. We may reafon upon this by obferving, that all this apparatus might have been fpared, if the filaments alone had grown longer; and that thence in thefe flowers that the filaments are the mofi: unchangeable parts; and that thence their comparative length, in refpetl: to the !lyle, would afford a mofl: permanent mark of their generic charatler. Curcuma. 1. 65. Turmeric. One male and one female inhabit this flower; but there are befidcs four imperfeCt males, or filaments without anthers upon them, called by Linneus eunuchs. The flax of our country has ten filaments, and but five of them are terminated with anthers; the Portugal flax has ten perfeCt males or fiamcns; the Verbena of our country has four m:~les; that of Sweden has but two; the genus Albuca, the Bignonia Catalpa, Gratiola, and hemlock-leaved Geranillm, have only half their filaments crowned with anthers. In like manner the florets, which form the rays of the flowers of the order frufiraneous polygamy of the clafs fyngencfia, or confederate males, as the fun-Bower, arc furnifhed with a !lyle only, and no fl:igma: and arc thence barren. There is alfo a flyle without a fligma in the whole order direcia gynandria; the male flowers of which are thence barren. The Opulus is another plant, which contains fume unprolific flowers. In like manner fome tribes of infetls have males, females, and neuters among them; as bees , wafps, ants. There is a curious circumflance belonging to the cbfs of infetls which have two ·wings, or diptera, analogous to the rudiments of fl:amens above defcribed; viz. two little knobs are found placed each on a fl:alk or peduncle, generally under a little arched fcale; which appear to be rudiments of hinder wings, and are called by Linneus halteres, or poifers, a term of his introclutlion. A. T. Bladh. Am::en. Acad. V. 7· Other animals have marks of having in a long procefs of time undergone changes in fome parts of their bodies, which may have been effetled to accommodate them to new ways of procuring their fo:xl. The exiftence of teats on the breafts of male animals, and which arc. gene- |