356 CLASSIFICATION. 



artificial scheme which bears his name. As this system is identi- 

 fied with the history of the science, which in its time it so greatly 

 promoted, and as most systematic works have until recently been 

 arranged upon its plan, it is still necessary for the student to un- 

 derstand it. Fortunately, its principles are so simple that a brief 

 space will amply suffice for its explanation. 



CHAPTER II. 



OF THE ARTIFICIAL SYSTEM OF LINN-EUS. 



681. IT must be kept in mind, that an artificial scheme does not 

 attempt to fulfil all the conditions of natural history classification. 

 Its principal object is to furnish an easy mode of ascertaining the 

 names of plants ; their relationships being only so far expressed as 

 the plan of the scheme admits. All higher considerations are of 

 course sacrificed to facility. In the Linnaean scheme, the species 

 of a genus are always kept together, whether or not they all ac- 

 cord with the class or order under which they are placed. Its 

 lower divisions, therefore, namely, the genera and species, are the 

 same as in a natural system. But the genera are arranged in arti- 

 ficial classes and orders, founded on some single technical charac- 

 ter, and have no necessary agreement in any other respect ; just 

 as words are alphabetically arranged in a dictionary, for the sake 

 of convenience, although those which stand next each other have, 

 it may be, nothing in common beyond the initial letter. 



682. The classes and orders Linnaeus founded entirely upon the 

 number, situation, and connection of the stamens and pistils ; the 

 office and importance of which he had just set in a clear light. 



683. The classes, twenty-four in number, were founded upon 

 modifications of the stamens, and have names of Greek derivation 

 expressive of their character. The first eleven comprise all plants 

 with perfect flowers, and a definite number of equal and uncon- 

 nected stamens ; they are distinguished by the absolute number of 

 these organs, and are designated by names compounded of Greek 

 numerals and the word andria (from a^p), which is used meta- 

 phorically for stamen ; as follows : 



