V. DIRECTIONS TO THE STUDENT. 
Havrne acquired a general knowledge of the principles of botany, and of the 
meaning of the peculiar terms employed in the science, the student proceeds to 
study or analyze plants, with a view to determine their names, and the place they 
occupy in the system. 
His chief difficulty, at the outset, will be to ascertain to which one of the 164 
natural orders or families contained in this work the plant he may have in hand 
belongs. Were he to attempt to compare it with he noticea f each order 
. successively, the task would be tedious and discoura ! 
y 
proper place in : as is ipie by the following An- 
alysis of the Natural Orders, will be necessary. One or two examples will best 
explain its use. 
Suppose we have in hand a flowering branch of the Linden-Tree or Bass- 
wood. Turning to the Analysis on page xxix., we compare it, first, with the > 
SERIES of Pumnocamous PLANTS, with which we find it to agree in having 
flowers. i 
Then, dividing the branch across, we see if it is made up of pith, wood, and 
bark ; if the leaves are netted-veined ; and if the floral envelopes are in fours 
or fives. Exhibiting these peculiarities, it doubtless belongs to the Crass OF 
DrcorxrEDoNovs Praxrs ; although, in consequence of the minuteness of the 
seed, we have not been able to ascertain the number of the cotyledons. . j 
We next see if the ovules are contained in an ovary. This being clearly the 
case, it comes under the SUBCLASS of AwcrosPERMOUS Prants. The double 
floral envelopes, and the separate petals of the corolla, carry it to the POLYPET- 
ALOUS DIVISION. 
Our attention is next directed to the insertion of the stamens and petals,— 
whether on the calyx, or hypogynous. In our plant they are hypogynous. 
Then, if the stámens are more than twice as many as the petals. They are so _ 
in ours. Then, if the leaves are opposite or alternate. In ours they are alter- 
mate. Then, if the ovaries are more than one, or solitary and 1-c sol 
-tary and res pr mt ours. Linge solitary and: -celled 
