THE NATURAL SYSTEM. 113 



form of mialytical tables, 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 two 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, 80) to be founded upon 

 the number, situation, and connection of the stamens and 

 pistils. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



OF THE NATURAL SYSTEM. 



341. It is the aim of the Natural System to associate in the 

 same divisions and groups, those plants which have the greatest 

 general resemblance to each other, not only in aspect and struc- 

 ture, but also in properties. 



342. While the artificial arrangement employs only a single 

 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 number of points 

 will be associated in the smaller and lower divisions, as species 

 and genera, while those corresponding in fewer points will be 

 assembled in divisions of higher rank. 



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

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

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

 its affinities Avith others, and what are its poisonous or useful 

 properties. 



344. Although the aim of tliis 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- 

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

 the first subdivision of Angiosperms. 



