CLASSIFICATION. 



When we gather a quantity of wild flowers, there is 

 at once seen to be a very great amount of differences 

 in their shapes, sizes, and colours ; so that it may 

 seem to be a difficult matter to arrange them. When, 

 however, we come to examine them carefully, strong 

 points of likeness will easily be found between many 

 as well as unlikenesses ; so that botanists can make 

 many groups of flowers of which the resemblances 

 exceed the unlikenesses. The next way to under- 

 stand how this is done is to examine for yourself 

 as many flowers as you can, and then write down 

 their points of structure as I shall explain ; and what 

 all beginners must aim at is to be able to recognize the 

 Fa7nilies, or Natural Orders, as botanists call them. 

 If they be large, they are often divided into Sub-orders,^ 

 Tribes, and Sub- tribes. Then it will be seen how the 

 Orders are divided into Genera^ and these into Species. 

 It is as well to begin with the last two terms, as all 

 classification is really built up upon them. 



^ " Sub " is often added to words to mean " somewhat." 

 ^ Genera is the plural of Genus. 



