Flora of Japan

whether these belong to MonoeciaPlants with separate male and female flowers on the same individual, DioeciaPlants with male and female flowers on separate individuals, or PolygamiaPlants with male, female, and bisexual flowers on the same or different individuals: the other sex must necessarily be sought out. If it is found on the same plant, we believe it to be Monoecious; if indeed it is on a distinct plant, we predict it is Dioecious. However, before we can be certain, we must inquire throughout the entire world whether hermaphrodite flowers Flowers containing both male and female organs are also produced, which would require the plant to be referred to Polygamia.

This difficulty also occurs regarding the accurate examination of all vegetables. For while I may have found a hermaphrodite plant of any class, I do not dare to confidently reduce it to the first classes of the system according to the number of its filamentsThe stalks of the male stamens, fearing lest the same plant growing elsewhere might be endowed with either monoecious or dioecious flowers. Therefore, the method of examination is rendered far more secure and easy by the abolition of this class Referring to the class Polygamia. For if a hermaphrodite plant is immediately encountered, it can be assigned to that class to which other plants of the same number of stamens are counted, according to the plurality of its stamens. If a male plant is encountered, the class is soon determined from the number of filaments, and so that the orderA taxonomic rank below Class may be tracked down, only the other sex will need to be investigated.

If we survey polygamous plants with a more attentive eye, we will very often find that those flowers, which were said to be of only one or the other sex, are not so entirely destitute of either male or female genitals as is commonly believed. For often there is present a rudiment of the stamensAn underdeveloped or vestigial male organ and almost always a rudiment of the pistilThe female organ of the flower; for example, in the Banana (Musa), which is in truth hexandrousoriginal: "hexandra"; having six stamens