LUTHER BURBANK 
Eighth, the variety, which ranks below a species 
and above the individual. 
Yet with but one certainty in the entire scheme 
of classification—-that certainty being the indi- 
vidual, itself. 
Men may tell us that a plant belongs to one 
genus or to another, that it is of this species, or 
of that—or that it is even of a different family 
than at first we thought—but these, after all, are 
but theories, built up about the plant by man— 
theories which serve merely as guide posts in our 
work. 
The plant itself, the individual plant, if we but 
watch it and give it an opportunity to show, will 
tell us for itself, beyond dispute or denial, just 
what manner of plant it is—just what we may 
hope for it to do. 
Next in importance to classifying plants, from 
a superficial standpoint, is a method of naming 
them. 
When we go to the florist’s we ask for roses, 
or marigolds; when we go to the fruiterer’s we 
talk to him of oranges, and plums, and cherries; 
when we go to the green grocer we ask for lettuce, 
or cabbage, or peas; when we select furniture we 
talk of it as being made of mahogany, or oak, or 
walnut. 
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