can't find classes - help

[Jim]

I have a problem that is kind of throwing a wrench into my works:

Without going into a great amount of detail - this is the problem:

I am attempting to create a new instance of a class. To do so I am using
Class.forName("the class");

All of these classes are where they are supposed to be, as far as I can
tell. For example, if my directory structure is :
orion
        >applications
                >myapp
                        >myapp-web
                                >classes
                                        >myclasses

all my classes are in myclasses. However, no matter what class I attempt to
do Class.forName() on, there is a class not found exception thrown.

Can anyone provide some insight?