i io CLASSIFICATION [PART- 



the Natural Orders to which most British plants belong. 

 In the following pages you will observe that each plant is 

 designated both by an English and by a scientific name. 

 This is done partly that you may be familiarized with a 

 plan of naming plants based upon definite principles, and 

 partly that the memory may be stored (though we would 

 not have it burdened) with at least the generic scientific 

 names of our common native plants, which names are in 

 use amongst botanists of all countries. 



2. The scientific name of every plant consists of two 

 words, a substantive and an adjective. The substantive 

 is the name of the genus, as Brown or Jones may be the 

 name of a family. The adjective indicates the species, 

 as John, Thomas, or William indicates the individual 

 member of a family. 



But species is a collective term, and the same specific 

 name is applied to al] the individuals which belong to 

 the same species. All individual plants which resemble 

 each other so nearly that it is consistent with experience 

 to suppose that they may all have sprung from one parent 

 stock are regarded as belonging to the same species. In 

 other words, the differences between the individuals of 

 the same species are generally not greater than we are 

 accustomed to observe between the individual plants in 

 a field of Turnips or of Wheat, or in a bed of Pansies, 

 sown with seed which we know to have been gathered 

 originally from a single plant. All plants, therefore, 

 which resemble each other thus nearly are referred to 

 the same species, and the same specific adjective name 

 is employed to designate them. 



Then again, species which resemble each other in all 

 important particulars of structure (though it is impossible 

 to define the exact particulars, for to a great extent they 

 are arbitrary and of convenience,) may be referred to the 

 same genus, and the same generic substantive name is 

 employed to designate them. Thus, we refer all the species 

 of Buttercup to the genus Ranunculus, and of Rose to 

 the genus Rosa, In this way we have genera (plural of 

 genus) including often many species, sometimes several 

 hundreds : we have others, again, which include few or 

 but single species. In the latter case, we have species 

 which are necessarily comparatively isolated in the 



