54 TALKS AFIELD. 



either of the three divisions. Under each 

 family are arranged the genera, and under 

 each genus the species. To illustrate more 

 particularly the methods of classification 

 within the order, synopses of the Rose and 

 Composite families are given farther on. 

 The number of orders or families of flower- 

 ing plants admitted by latest authorities is 

 200, including 7,585 genera, ' and nearly 

 100,000 species ! 



The Rose Family. 

 The limits of the natural orders of plants 

 were made by the Creator ; they are natural 

 boundaries. The botanist associates those 

 plants which resemble each other in the es- 

 sential structure of flower and fruit, and 

 names the group thus formed after some one 

 of its prominent members, or after some 

 striking peculiarity of the group. Thus 

 botanists find about a thousand species of 

 plants which resemble the rose, and they are 

 collectively designated the Rosaceae or Rose 

 family. When these thousand plants are 

 studied and compared a family definition is 

 made. It is often a difficult task to make 

 a definition which will include so many 

 plants and exclude those of other families. 



