CLASSIFICATION OF PLA.NTS. 97 



ent on any botanical relation, or peculiarity of the plant. 

 The names of some of the genera are, however, founded on 

 the supposed virtues of the plant, though such virtues are 

 often unknown at the present day. Thus Nasturtium is so 

 called from the effects of its acrimony on the nose, nasus 

 torsus, signifying a convulsed nose, and Peony is named after 

 the physician Peon, who is said to have cured Pluto, with this 

 plant, of a wound inflicted by Hercules. Other of the generic 

 names are borrowed from the fables of the poets, and other 

 genera are named from their situations or places of their 

 growth. Thus Nymphae, comes from nymph, the Naiad of 

 streams, and Anemone, from a Greek word signifying wind, 

 because it is said that this plant prefers hilly situations, which 

 are exposed to the wind. But more recently it has been cus- 

 tomary to name most of the newly discovered genera after 

 some distinguished man, and especially thus to immortalize 

 the names of eminent botanists. Thus Jacksonia, was 

 named after Mr. Jackson, an English botanist, and Bromelia, 

 in honor of Olaus Bromel, a Swede ; Linnaea, after Lin- 

 naeus, &c. 



Species. The genera are sub-divided into species, the 

 names of which are mostly derived from some circumstance 

 by which the plants can be distinguished from each other. 

 Perhaps such distinctions are most frequently founded on 

 some difference in the form of the leaf, but the length of the 

 stalk, the scent of the flower, or plant, or the place whence 

 the species came, as well as a great variety of other circum- 

 stances, have been the foundations of specific names. 



The well known genus, Geranium, of which there is a 

 great number of species, affords an excellent illustration of 

 this subject. As in several other genera, the species is fre- 

 quently named after some plant, the leaf of which the leaves 

 of the Geranium most resemble. This is an excellent mode 

 of distinction, as it is permanent, and often so striking as not 

 to be mistaken. Thus, in respect to the form of the leaf, we 

 have the Oak-leaved, the Crow-foot-leaved, and the Aconite- 

 leived Geranium ; also, the heart-leaved, jagged-leaved, &c. 

 In respect to the length, or other circumstances concerning 

 the stalk, we have the long-stalked, the thick- stalked, and the 

 angular-stalked species. With respect to the odor, there is 



On what are the names of the genera chiefly founded ? What are the 

 divisions of the genera called ? From what circumstances do the genera 

 derive their names ? 



