50 OF PLANTS. 



ICO. The usual course with plants is to grow up, bear 

 leaves and flowers and finally fruits, and then, if they are 

 plants of a single year, to die ; if plants of two years, to 

 die down to the ground ; if plants of many years, with 

 woody stems, to shed their fruit and leaves, after having 

 formed buds, out of which shall grow the leaves, flowers 

 and fruit of the next year. Those which die at the end 

 of one season, like wheat and Indian corn, are called 

 annual plants. Those that live only two years, like beets, 

 carrots and most other garden vegetables, are biennial; 

 those that live many years, like shrubs and trees, are per 

 ennial plants. 



161. It sometimes happens with different kinds of cul 

 tivated grains, and some other plants, that the plant dies 

 and falls before the seed is quite ripe. Foreseeing this, 

 the husbandman reaps or mows grains and grasses before 

 the seed is ripe, dries them in the sun and air, and leaves 

 them, in sheaves or stacks, completely to ripen their seeds. 

 He thus saves many grains and seeds which would other 

 wise fall upon the ground and be lost. 



162. As the kinds of plants are almost innumerable, 

 they must be arranged in divisions, classes and families, 

 so that they may be studied and recognized. How are 

 they classed ? All plants with flowers belong to one or 

 the other of the two great classes just now mentioned, 

 Monocotyledonous and Dicotyledonous. 



163. Botanists, since the time of Linneus, until recent 

 ly, have followed him in dividing plants into classes and 

 orders, made with reference to the number and situation 

 of the stamens and pistils. This is called the Artificial 

 system of Linneus. 



164. Plants are now best divided into natural families, 

 according to the resemblance or analogy of all their organs. 



