PART III. 



CLASSIFICATION. 



Note. As the pupil, in the first part of this volume, is introduced to a know- 

 ledge of the leading principles of the Linnsean system, some repetition must 

 necessarily occur in the following part, in which the principles of classifica- 

 tion are to be more fully considered. 



LECTURE XX. 



Method of Tournefort. System of Linnceus. Method of Jussieu: 

 Natur'al Method of Linnceus. 



LET us now imagine the whole vegetable kingdom, comprising 

 innumerable millions of individual plants, to be spread out before 

 a botanist. Could he, in the course of the longest life, number 

 each blade of grass, each little moss, each shrub, or even each 

 tree 1 If he could not even count them, much less could he give 

 each one a separate name and description. But he does not 

 need to name them separately, for he sees that nature has 

 arranged them into sorts or kinds. 



Were you sent into the fields to gather flowers of a similar 

 kind, you would need no book to direct you to put into one 

 parcel, all the red clover blossoms, and into another, the white 

 clover ; while the dandelions would form another group. 

 These all constitute different species. Nature would also 

 teach you that the red and white clover, although differing from 

 each other in some particulars, yet bear a strong resemblance. 

 By placing them together you form a genus, and to this genus 

 you refer all the different kinds or species of clover. When 

 you see the red, damask, and cinnamon roses, you perceive 

 they all have such strong marks of resemblance as to entitle 

 them to be placed together in one genus. But yet you know 

 that the seed of a damask rose would never produce a red rose. 

 One species of plants can never produce another species, how- 

 ever near may be their resemblance. 



The whole number of species of plants which have been 

 named and described, including many which have been recently 

 discovered in New Holland and about the Cape of Good Hope, 

 is said to be 56,000.* 



* According as recently reported by the Baron Humboldt, to the French Na- 

 tional Institute. 



Nature arranges plants into kinds or sorts Examples Number of species 

 of plants. 



