]4G 



THE FLORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 



those ambitious botanists who have not yet made a beginning in 

 systematic study, may advantageously begin now, for the butter- 

 cups have this post of honour in the " natural system " — that tbey 

 constitute the first order ; and the student must master the charac- 

 teristics of the buttercups in respect of structure and relationships, 

 as the very first step towards a systematic knowledge of plants. 



The many systems of botany may be reducible to two for our 

 present purpose. The Linnsean, or Artificial system, is simply not 

 a system of botany at all : it is a system of botanical mnemonics. 

 The classes and orders are founded on the numbers of the stamens 

 and pistils, and on some few other purely mechanical or numerical 

 characteristics of the organs of reproduction. The system itself may 



leaf of common BrTTEECtrp {Ranunculus repens). 



be mastered in an hour by any mind of ordinary capacity ; but to 

 apply it is another matter, as the application consists in the practi- 

 cal study of plants — a study in which the system affords absolutely 

 no help at all. Several of the Linnaean classes and orders have 

 better conditions of cohesion than mere mechanical and numerical 

 signs can afford, but that is, so far as the svstem is concerned, an 

 accident and not a merit. Thus, in the Linnaean system nearly all 

 the grasses come together in Class III., Orders 1 and 2, having three 

 stamens and one or two pistils. But the sweet-scented vernal grass 

 has a place in Class II., Order 2, having two stamens and two pistils. 

 There are many exceptions of like nature, but the system must not 

 be blamed on their account, for it does not profess to do more than 



