FAaxi.] PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 3 



\\ hich I have described at a greater length than 

 my space will allow me to bestow upon the whole; 

 and in the second part of my work, I shall give a 

 short account of the whole natural system, in- 

 troducing the orders described in the first part, 

 in their proper places, so that my readers may 

 see how they are connected with the others. 



MISCELLANEOUS ORDERS. 



PRELIMINARY OBSERVATIONS. 



In this first part I shall endeavour to fami- 

 liarise my readers with botanical details, as all 

 the orders I shall describe contain a great num- 

 ber of genera ; and to begin at the beginning, 

 I must first tell them what is here meant by 

 an order, and what by a genus of plants. A 

 genus then may be compared to a family of 

 children, all the plants in it being known by one 

 common or generic name, in addition to their 

 particular or specific one. Thus, if Rosa alba 

 be spoken of, Rosa is the generic name which is 

 common to all roses, but alba is the specific name 

 which is only applied to the white rose. 



An order includes many genera, and bears 

 the same afiinity to a nation as a genus does to 

 b2 



