A new division of grasses into three genera for the sake of memorization.

For a long time now we have distributed grasses into three general kinds, setting aside the incomplete ones that lack flower and seed. 1. The first kind bear either no flower or an incomplete one. I call the incomplete flower "Apetalos" or "Stamineus," which since it is near or touching the seed, does not fall off or diminish before the seed matures, or which is lacking those short-lived colored leaves, which we call petals. 2. The second kind which puts forth a complete flower, producing nude seeds: i.e., seeds with no vessel or covering except the perianth. I consider seeds nude if they do not have a single receptacle for many seeds; or if they do not have many receptacles in common, whether joined together or not; and also those whose little hairs or private coverings (if they have them) do not spontaneously leave but fall off the mother plant after she has been fertilized by them. From this I consider the seeds of the Malvis among the nude ones because they do not fall off spontaneously. 3. In the third kind the flower is complete, either with petals or with branches, and nature provides a little vessel, different from the perianth, for containing the seeds.

Table of the first genus which produce either no flower, or one that is imperfect, and have a seed that is either I. very small and invisible to the naked eye A) produces a stem, as Adianthum aureum, Lunaria, Ophioglossum (I) B) without a stem, with seeds on the upper surface of the leaves, called Capillares (II)

II. larger, with leaves that are A) without pedicels, produced along the stem, grasses 1) stem-bearing, with a tubular stem, bent, covered with leaves at each bend; with a grain that is a) larger; Grains (III) b) smaller; Grasses (IV) 2) not stem-bearing, with a stem that is either full or without nodes, (V) B) broad, with many pedicels, or at least shorter proportionate to the width, so that in the genus of flowers with stamens, these are appropriately called "broad-leaved". (VI)

Table of the second genus which produce a complete flower, with naked seeds, and a

I. Composite flower, either composed from many little flowers densely packed together, either with seeds A) with a pappus born from wings or enclosed by the same, with a flower 1) flatter and wider or disk-like; PAPPOSAE, with disk-like flower 2) growing out of a fat, scaly little head: CAPITATAE B) lacking pappus; so-called CORYMBIFERAE II. Simple, with seeds on each flower A) solitary; MONOSPERMAE B) in pairs, with flowers that are 1) pentapetalous; UMBELLIFERAE 2) monopetalous; opening in four segments acting just like leaves; with the leaves going around the stems at nodes in a star-like fashion; STELLATAE

C) in groups of three, whose genus is observed infrequently; NASTURIUM INDICUM D) in groups of four, with leaves on the stem 1) a pair opposite each other; VERTICILLATAE 2) positioned in an alternating series; ASPERIFOLIAE E) in groups of more than four, with no certain or fixed number, as in Ranunculus, Anemone, etc.

Table of the third genus which produce a complete flower and seed vessel different from the perianth, and have seeds that are I. Enclosed in a pericarp, or a pulp that is moist or soft at maturity, with a fruit A) larger, with a thicker covering, with a flower situated on it; POMIFERAE B) smaller, covered with a thinner membrane; BACCIFERAE II. Enclosed in drier containers A) numerous and separate, emerging from the same flower; MUTLISILIQUI B) individual, or not separate, with a flower that has 1) monopetalous a) uniform b) irregular 2) tetrapetalous a) uniform, with a vessel that is 1) oblong; SILIQUOSAE tetrapetalae 2) short; SILICULOSAE or CAPULATAE b) irregular; PAPILONICAE 3) pentapetalous a) true pentapetal

b) false pentapetal, with petals joined at the tips, so that the flower, in fact a single petal, looks pentapetalous. 4) hexapetalous, or monopetalous, whose edge is divided into six strips; with a seed receptacle divided into three little chambers; with grassy leaves, roots that are bulbous, tuberous or fibrous: BULBOSAE and those related.

A flower should be called monopetalous or single-leaved, properly speaking, if it has a single blade or bract, or a continuous leaf. A leaf is considered "continuous" even if its edge is split into strips. If the fissures are deep, a flower looks multi-leaved or polypetalous, but these can be differentiated from monopetalous and single-leaved, because the latter fall off as a whole unit. Nevertheless, in this book, we have followed the traditional practice of Botanists by calling polypetalous those monopetalous flowers that are cut deeply into strips that resemble petals, and are split nearly up to the tips.