96 HOW PLANTS ARE CLASSIFIED, 



Section III. — The Natural System. 



304. There are two kinds of classification in Botanj^, viz. Natural and ArtijiciaJ. 

 They differ in the way the genera are arranged in orders, classes, &c. 



305. An Artificial Classification is one in which plants are arranged for conven- 

 ience of reference, or for finding out their names, without any particular care for 

 bringing like things together. Tournefort made an artificial classification of plants 

 by their flowers, mainly by their corolla, which was in common use in the last cen- 

 tury until Linnaeus contrived a better one, in which the classes and orders were 

 founded upon the number, position, &c. of the stamens and pistils. This was in 

 general use for many years. But now we use artificial classifications only in the 

 form of Tables or Analyses, as a key for finding out the family a plant we are 

 studying belongs to, and so readily referring it to its place in 



306. The Natural System. In this system plants are classified according to their 

 relationships, that is, according to their resemblances in all respects. Tlie most 

 important resemblances are used for the classes, &c. ; the most important after these 

 for the orders; more particular ones mark the genera; and matters of shape, pro- 

 portion, color, &c. mark the species. So the whole together forms a system, in 

 which all known plants are to be ranked in their natural order, each standing next 

 those which it is most like in all respects ; the whole forming, as it were, a great 

 map, in which the classes and other great divisions jnight answer to countries, 

 .the orders to counties, and the genera to towns or parishes. 



307. Such a system is not a mere convenience for ascertaining the name of a 

 •plant, but is an illustration, as far as may be, of the plan of the Creator in the 



vegetable kingdom. And the Botanist sees as much to admire, and as plain evi- 

 'dences of design, in the various relations of the species of plants to each other 



• (i. e. in their resemblances and their differences), as he does in the adaptation of 



• one part of a plant to another, and in the various forms under which any one organ 

 •may appear. The different kinds of plants are parts of a great Avhole, like the 

 members of a body, or the pieces of an harmonious but complex edifice or struc- 

 iture ; and this whole is the Vegetable Kingdom. 



308. What the main divisions in the system are, may be gathered from what is 

 stated in several places in Part I. In the first place, the wdiole vegetable kingdom 

 divides into two great Series or Grades^ — a higher and a lower. The higher 

 series contains all 



