FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS 45 



This would not be a good mode, because in other 

 respects the men in one class would often be so utterly 

 unlike. A far more sensible plan would be to sort 

 them by their descent ; by Race and Relationship. 

 Many points of real resemblance — of inherited likeness — 

 would then be found in large numbers of men, belonging 

 to one family or to one race. 



Several different methods were tried for plants, 

 without much success. Then a learned Swede, named 

 Linnaeus, took the matter up. 



His scheme ^ was a very simple one. He placed all 

 the Flowering kinds in Classes by means of their stamens 

 and their pistils. First came ten classes : of plants 

 with one stamen only in each flower, plants with two 

 stamens, plants with three stamens, and so on up to 

 ten stamens. Then a class with many stamens; and 

 then some classes with stamens growing in particular 

 ways. All these were again divided into lesser classes 

 by means of their various kinds of pistils. 



People were delighted with the plan; it was so easy 

 to grasp ; and it was taken up far and wide. 



But in time botanists grew dissatisfied. The scheme 

 was not good enough. It was too much like classifying 

 men by their height and size, or by the colour of their 

 hair. Such utterly diverse kinds came into one class, 

 only because they happened to have the same number 

 of stamens, when perhaps hardly another point of 

 resemblance could be found in them. 



Gradually that simple system fell out of general use, 

 and another took its place. 



This other is known as the Natural System; and in 

 ^ Known as " The Linnaean System," 



