110 I I Vvr.A.N ARTIFICIAL SYSTEM. 



For instance, you often see in green bouses, a great many different 

 sorts of geranium; the geraniums form a. genus or family of plants, 

 and each different sort is a species of that genus ; so that when you 

 hear a person say, round-leaved geranium, a Pensylvanian geranium, 

 or a dark-flowered geranium, you know that they all belong to the 

 genus geranium : and that the round-leaved, Pensylvanian, and dark- 

 flowered geraniums are different species. 



7. The varieties are nothing more than plants of the 

 same species, with some trivial distinction in which they 

 differ from others of the same species. 



With some plants, owing to soil, situation, or other causes, both 

 the leaves and flowers are subject to variation. When this is the 

 case, they are denominated varieties. 



8. Such are the primary and ultimate divisions ac- 

 cording to the artificial system of Linnaeus. We shall 

 next speak of the division, origin and derivation of the 

 classes, and afterwards of the origin and derivation of 

 the orders. 



In performing these tasks, we shall endeavour to impress upon the 

 memory, the usual circumstances on which the respective divisions 

 are established. 



DIVISION, FOUNDATION, AND DERIVATION OF THE 



CLASSES. 



9. The character of the classes are established from 

 six circumstances connected with the stamen. 



10. First Division : These are established on the 

 number of the stamens alone, as is the case with the first 

 ten classes. Their names are derived from two Greek 



