CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS. 17 



ascertained. We therefore repeat our recommendation to grown-up pupils 

 to begin their study of plants by looking at them in masses or groups ; after 

 which they may correct and render more definite the knowledge thus 

 acquired, by a study of all the separate parts of plants. In like manner, if 

 we were to recommend what we consider the best mode of getting a know- 

 ledge of grammar, we should begin with sentences ; or of the exterior effect 

 of buildings, we should recommend, first, attention to the outline and the 

 general masses ; and next, an examination of the doors, windows, cornices, 

 and other details ; and finally of the bricks or stones of the walls, and 

 the slates or tiles of the roof. To a young person, on the other hand, 

 we should recommend the contrary mode, in botany, in grammar, and in 

 architecture. 



65. Besides characterising plants according to the natural orders to which 

 they belong ; when cultivators are speaking of plants with a view to their 

 art, they employ a number of terms which, though not rigidly scientific, 

 are all more or less useful, as enabling us to speak of plants in groups or 

 masses. The principal of these are as follow : 



66. Evergreens. Plants which retain their leaves green throughout the 

 winter. The principal British evergreen trees, are the Coniferse, the Ever- 

 green Oak, and the Holly ; but there are many evergreen shrubs. Evergreen 

 herbaceous plants are not very numerous ; but we have the Pink, Carnation, 

 Sweetwilliam, many of the Saxifrages. Silenes, the perennial flax, some 

 Campanulas, and all the perennial grasses. 



67. Subevergreens. Plants which retain their leaves green through the 

 winter, and drop them in spring, so that they are for two or three weeks 

 without leaves. The principal trees are the varieties of the Lucombe and 

 Fulham Oak, Turner's Oak, Quercus pseudo-suber, and one or two others. 

 Of shrubs there are a number ; such as Buddlea globosa, Aristotelia Macqui, 

 Photinia serrulata, Cotoneaster frigida, some kinds of Genista, Piptanthus 

 nepalensis, Ribes glu tine-sum, &c. Subevergreen herbaceous plants are : (Eno- 

 thera biennis and several other species, Pentstemon, Chelone, Asters, &c. 



68. Persistent-leaved plants are such as retain their leaves after they have 

 withered and become brown, till the spring. Examples of trees are, the 

 Beech, Hornbeam, and Turkey Oak when young, Quercus Tauzin, and some- 

 times the common Oak ; and there are one or two shrubs, such as Rhus 

 Cotinus, and some herbaceous plants, such as Pulsatilla. 



69. Deciduous-leaved plants are those that drop their leaves in the autumn, 

 which is the case with the great majority of plants, whether trees, shrubs, 

 or herbs, in all extra tropical countries. 



70. Ligneous plants are such as have woody stems and branches. 



71. Suffruticose plants are such as have stems intermediate between woody 

 and herbaceous ; as, for example, the tree Peony, the Sage, the Carnation, 

 the tree Lavatera, &c. 



72. Trees, when young, are scarcely to be distinguished from shrubs, both 

 coming up with a single stem ; but a tree, if left to itself, ultimately becomes 

 a plant with a single erect stem, and a branchy head. Thus the common 

 mountain Ash, though it seldom grows above thirty feet high, is a perfect 

 tree ; while the common Laurel, which will attain the height of forty or 

 fifty feet much sooner than the mountain Ash will thirty feet, never has an 

 erect stem, and has generally several stems rising together. It is therefore 

 considered a shrub. Trees are commonly divided into large, small, and 



c 



