THE NATURAL SYSTEM. 113 



form of analytical talks, to be used simply as a guide in the analysis of plants, 

 to point the learner to the place in the Natural System which his specimen 

 occupies. 



340, The artificial arrangement consists of classes, orders, 

 genera, and species. The tw^o latter are the same as in the nat- 

 ural system (50, 51), and the two higher divisions, classes and 

 orders, have already been seen (74, SO) to be founded upon 

 the number, situation, and connection of the stamens and' 

 pistils. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



OF THE NATUKAIi SYSTEM. 



341. It is the aim of the Natural Systemfto associate in the 

 same divisions and groups, those plants which have the greatest 

 general resemblance to each other, not only in aspect and str^ir- 

 ture, but also in properties. 



342. While the artificial arrangement employs only a singlt 

 character in classification, the natural seizes upon every charac- 

 ter in which plants agree or disagree with each other. Thus, 

 those plants which correspond in the greatest niimber of points 

 will be associated in the smaller and lower di\'isions, as species 

 and genera, while those corresponding in fewer j^oints will be 

 assembled in divisions of liigher rank.' 



343. By an acquaintance, therefore, with the characters of 

 each of the families of the Natural System, we may at once 

 determine to wliich of them any new plant belongs, what are 

 its affinities with others, and what a-re its poisonous or useful 

 properties. 



344. Although the aim of this System is as above stated, yet 

 the full consummation of it is still reserved for a future age. At 

 present, though greatly advanced, we are still obliged to call in 

 the aid of artificial characters, where Nature is as yet too pro- 

 found for ordinary skill. Such aid is, for example, employed in 

 the first subdivision of Angiosperms, 



