176 SPECIES AND KINDS. ^LESSON 28. 



the higher grade of Flowering plant?, exhibiting the full plan of 

 vegetation, and the lower grade of Flowerless plants, in which 

 vegetation is so simplified that at length the only likeness between 

 them and our common trees or Flowering plants is that they are 

 both vegetables. From species, then, we rise first to 



505. Genera (plural of Genus). The Rose kind or genus, the Oak 

 genus, the Chestnut genus, &c., are familiar illustrations. Each 

 genus is a group of nearly related species, exhibit ing a particular 

 plan. All the Oaks belong to one genus, the Chestnuts to another, 

 the Beech to a third. The Apple, Pear, and Crab are species of one 

 genus, the Quince represents another, the various species of Haw- 

 thorn a third. In the animal kingdom the common cat, the wild cat, 

 the panther, the tiger, the leopard, and the lion are species of the cat 

 kind or genus ; while the dog, the jackal, the different species of wolf, 

 and the foxes, compose another genus. Some genera are represented 

 by a vast number of species, others by few, very many by only one 

 known species. For the genus may be as perfectly represented in 

 one species as in several, although, if this were the case throughout, 

 genera and species would of course be identical (504). The Beech 

 genus and the Chestnut genus would be just as distinct from the Oak 

 genus even if but one Beech and one Chestnut were known ; as in- 

 deed was the case formerly. 



506. Orders or Families (the two names are used for the same thing 

 in botany) are groups of genera that resemble each other ; that is, 

 they are to genera what genera are to species. As familiar illustra- 

 tions, the Oak, Chestnut, and Beech genera, along with the Hazel 

 genus and the Hornbeams, all belong to one order, viz. the Oak Fam- 

 ily ; the Birches and the Alders make another family ; the Poplars 

 and Willows, another; the Walnuts (with the Butternut) and the 

 Hickories, another. The Apple genus, the Quince and the Haw- 

 thorns, along with the Plums and Cherries and the Peach, the 

 Raspberry, with the Blackberry, the Strawberry, the Rose, and many 

 other genera, belong to a large order, the Rose Family. 



507. Tribes and Suborders, This leads us to remark, that even the 

 genera of the same order may show very unequal degrees of resem- 

 blance. Some may be very closely related to one another, and at the 

 same time differ strikingly from the rest in certain important partic- 

 ulars. In the Rose Family, for example, there is the Rose genus 

 itself, with tlu- Raspberry genus, the Strawberry, the Cinquefoil, 

 &c. near it, but by no means so much like it as they are like each 



