32 INTRODUCTION. 



CLASSIFICATION AND DESCRIPTION 



PLANTS. 



PLANTS are so numerous and diversified that it is impossible to 

 acquire any extensive knowledge of them, or even to retain their 

 names, without the aid of arrangement or classification. Plants 

 may be arranged in two ways. Every one on looking around 

 him in the vegetable world, must perceive that certain plants 

 have so great a resemblance to each other, that they naturally 

 form themselves in the mind into groups. Thus the grasses form 

 a natural family, the leguminous plants another, and so forth. 

 Were the natural affinities of all plants as readily perceived, it 

 would be easy to distribute them into classes ; but this is not the 

 case. For this reason, the Natural arrangement has been substi- 

 tuted by another, called the Artificial, which, although it does 

 not proceed upon the principle of natural affinities, yet frequently 

 places together plants which resemble each other in their structure 

 and appearance. The artificial arrangement usually adopted by 

 botanists is that of Linnaeus. 



All the individuals which bear a particular and intimate re- 

 semblance to each other, constitute a species, whether among 

 plants or among animals. Thus, as the latter are generally 

 better known, all the Foxes in the world, of that kind which 

 Englishmen are notorious for chasing with hounds, constitute the 

 species Fox, or Common Fox. All the species which bear a cer- 

 tain more general resemblance to each other constitute a genus. 

 Thus the Fox species, the Jackal species, the Wolf species, and 

 the Domestic Dog species, with several others, constitute the 

 genus Dog. All the genera which bear a certain more general 

 resemblance to each other, constitute an order. Thus, the Dog 



