CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS. W* 



Considering the vast number of different plants which the 

 fields, the woods, the meadows, and even the water present 

 to us, it is obvious that we should never be able to remember 

 ther names, or qualities, or to communicate to others what we 

 know concerning them, without some regular method of dis- 

 tinction. For instance, suppose the grain which we call 

 Wheat, was lately discovered, and generally unknown ; by 

 what method could a person who knew nothing of Botany 

 designate this plant so that it might be known from all others ? 

 Having written sheets on this grain, and described its root. 

 stalk, spike and flowers, with all the minuteness of which com- 

 mon language is capable, there would still be wanting those 

 distinctive marks by which Wheat could certainly be known 

 from all other vegetables, and therefore, readers would be 

 constantly liable to confound it with Rye, the grain which in 

 general appearance it most resembles. But by a systematic 

 arrangement of plants, together with the assistance of definite 

 terms, which are applied to the peculiarities of each species, 

 botanists are enabled to designate one plant from another in a 

 few lines, and with the greatest certainty. 



It is on such distinctive marks, or invariable peculiarities, 

 that all the natural sciences are founded, and it may well 

 excite our wonder that throughout all the kingdoms and 

 orders of nature, men have been enabled to discover such 

 peculiarities, as the foundation of scientific arrangements. 



Natural and Artificial Methods. In Botany, there are two 

 methods of arrangement, called the natural, and artificial 

 methods. The most superficial observer, says Dr. Smith, 

 must perceive something like the classification of nature. 

 The Grasses, Umbelliferous plants, Mosses, Sea-weeds, 

 Ferns, Liliaceous plants, Orchises, and Compound flowers, 

 oach constitute a family strikingly similar in form and quali- 

 ties among themselves, and no less evidently distinct from all 

 others. If the whole vegetable kingdom could with equal 

 facility be distinguished into tribes, or classes, the study of 

 Botany on such a plan would be no less easy than satisfactory. 

 But as we proceed in this path, we soon find ourselves in a 

 labyrinth. The natural orders and families of plants, so far. 

 from being connected in a regular series, approach one another 

 by so many points, as to bewilder, instead of directing us. 



What are the two methods of botanical arrangement called? What 

 tribes of plants are mentioned as constituting natural classifications ? 



