"
In the third the upper lip is erect.
And in the fourth there is no upper lip at all.
The reader will, I hope, forgive me for at once rejecting a classification
of lipped plants into three classes that have lips, and one that has none,
and in which the lips of those that have got any, are like helmets and
spoons.
Linnaeus, in 1758, grouped the family into two divisions, by the form of
the calyx, (five-fold or two-fold), and then went into the wildest
confusion in distinction of species,--sometimes by the form of corolla,
sometimes by that of calyx, sometimes by that of the filaments, sometimes
by that of the stigma, and sometimes by that of the seed. As, for instance,
thyme is to be identified by the calyx having hairs in its throat, dead
nettle by having bristles in its mouth, lion's tail by having bones in its
anthers (antherae punctis osseis adspersae), and teucrium by having its upper
lip cut in two!
14. St. Hilaire, in 1805, divides again into four sections, but as three of
these depend on form of corolla, and the fourth on abortion of stamens, the
reader may conclude practically, that logical division of the family is
impossible, and that all he can do, or that there is the smallest occasion
for his doing, is first to understand the typical structure thoroughly, and
then to know a certain number of forms accurately, grouping the others
round them at convenient distances; and, finally, to attach to their known
forms such simple names as may be utterable by children, and memorable by
old people, with more ease and benefit than the 'Galeopsis Eu-te-trahit,'
'Lamium Galeobdalon,' or 'Scutellaria Galericulata,'and the like, of modern
botany.
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