LINN*AN ARTIFICIAL SYSTEM. 115 



Thus, if two bundled new plants were to be discovered, and all of 

 them were found to have flowers with one stamen, they -would be 

 arranged in the first class of the Linnsean system ; if they had two, 

 in the second, and so on, provided they were deficient in any other 

 peculiarities which give rise to a distinct class. If on the contrary , 

 these two hundred plants were found to possess characters unknown 

 to botanists before, they would naturally constitute a separate class 

 of vegetables. 



4. Eacb of the twenty -four classes, admit of being 

 subdivided into orders or tribes. These orders are de- 

 rived from a secondary characteristic. 



For example, the first class of plants are those which produce 

 perfect flowers with one stamen only. If the plants which belong 

 to this class are examined, some will be found to have but one 

 pistil, the others two; it is consequently very plausible, since the 

 pistil is a sufficient secondary characteristic, to say the class is 

 composed of two sets of plants. These two sets are therefore the 

 two orders. 



5. The orders into which the classes are divided, are 

 again subdivided into genera or families. The genera, 

 in their turn, are derived from peculiar characters, 

 which many plants of the same order possess in common 

 to themselves. 



In most of the orders, you will find some plants which have one 

 or more peculiarities, that agree with each other; thus the different 

 geraniums have their particular character, the tulips theirs, the 

 poppies theirs, and other plants in the same way, their marks of dis- 

 tinction. It is then, on these points of distinction, that the genera 

 of plants are constructed. 



C. The genera, like the preceding divisions, are also 

 subject to a further arrangement into species, and these 

 species into varieties. 



