x FLORA ORCADENSIS. 
which enable the student to find without much 
trouble the characteristics of the individuals of the 
same order, and to place them in the families 
assigned to them by the great masters of the subject 
as Linnzeus, Hooker, Boswell, &c. Some people may 
consider that the classification of plants is simply 
the process of cataloguing them, or collecting and 
preserving them in the herbarium of the collector. 
It is true that many take no more interest in the 
subject than to collect; but we must not forget that 
one of the most interesting studies in systematic 
botany is that of the relationship and possible origin 
of the numerous species which come under obser- 
vation. Such a study gives one an insight into the 
whole scheme of plant evolution. 
Most of our earliest botanists devoted much time 
to systematic botany. No real progress could be 
made so long as the innumerable genera and species 
remained unclassified. Systematic botany is the 
frame-work on which Botany as a science has been 
built up. Animals, birds, fossils, and rocks have each 
received this systematic study. Linnzus was the 
first to bring order out of chaos and to name plants 
according to a uniform system. He instituted the 
present binominal nomenclature, in which every plant 
has a generic name like a surname, and a specific 
name in the form of an adjective, either in Latin or 
some modern Latinised form. 
The present “Flora” is written with the view of 
meeting a much felt want. To the schoolmaster it 
should form a handy book of reference when pupils 
bring to him—as I am told they do—all the 
