32 THREE KINGDOMS. 



These you will find in ordinary text-books. For 

 chapter libraries, and for all who can afford it, I know 

 of no better general work than the Standard Natural 

 History, in six octavo volumes. 



The divisions of the Vegetable kingdom are vari- 

 ously given by different authors. For the great ma- 

 jority of students the text-books by Wood and Gray 

 will prove sufficient. Gray's Manual and Wood's 

 Manual will be useful to more advanced students, 

 while professional botanists must, of course, have re- 

 course to various works in French, German, and 

 Latin. Special works will be referred to in the chap- 

 ter on ' Books Recommended.' The divisions and 

 subdivisions of the Vegetable kingdom will become 

 intelligible to the student as he progresses, and need 

 no mention here. 



The Mineral kingdom is divided into Metallic and 

 Non-metallic substances, and these again comprise 

 objects which exhibit different degrees of hardness, 

 fusibility, specific gravity, etc., regard being had also 

 to their chemical composition, and their peculiar forms 

 of crystallization. Dana's Mineralogy is a good 

 guide, and Brush's ' Determinative Mineralogy and 

 Blowpipe Analysis ' is an excellent manual for more 

 advanced students, while beginners cannot do better 

 than get Mrs. Ellen H. Richards' ' First Lessons on 

 Minerals ' and Professor Crosby's ' Tables for the 

 Determination of Common Minerals.' 



One object of this division and subdivision in the 

 several kingdoms is so to classify all natural objects 

 that we may determine the precise name of any speci- 

 men we may find. The more minute the subdivision, 

 the more difficult often becomes the analysis. Thus, 

 it is usually an easy matter to distinguish between an 

 animal and a vegetable. It is not difficult to deter- 

 mine whether we are examining an insect or a worm. 



