

SUBDIVISION OF PLANTS. 91 



to the germ, which must be without divisions. This adherence in- 

 duces the inference of several other characteristics, and it is then 

 co-existent. 



Vegetation and reproduction are two distinguishing orders of char- 

 acters in vegetable organs. Those plants resembling one another in 

 their character of reproduction differ little in those of vegetation ; 

 yet those resembling one another in their characters of vegetation 

 often differ much in those of reproduction. The seed combines the 

 characters both of vegetation and reproduction. 



The subdivisions of plants. The 2 great divisions of plants (pheno- 

 gamous and cryptogamous) are separated into classes, orders, genera, 

 species, and families. Classes have been compared to states, orders to 

 counties, genera to towns, and species to families, and families are 

 composed of individuals. Each individual is an organized being, dis- 

 tinct, separate, and complete in all its parts, as an oak, a rose, or a 

 moss. A species comprehends individuals agreeing in certain particu- 

 lars of their stems, leaves, or flowers. These have passed into innu- 

 merable varieties by different modes of cultivation, by soil, climate, 

 and also by strewing the pollen of one species upon the stigma of an- 

 other. But these, not producing perfect seeds, are incapable of repro- 

 ducing themselves. The specific difference is not effected by color, 

 taste, or size. 



Species should present the essential characteristics of the family, 

 and of the genus to which it belongs ; yet the mark distinguishing it 

 from another species of its genus may be such as does not belong to 

 the whole genus or family. The generic characters are more important 

 than the specific, these being founded on the characters of the organs 

 and isolated ; while the former are founded on important apparent 

 co-existent characters ; as a pink is more easily distinguished from a 

 rose than one species of rose from another. Families are grouped by 

 marks in the genera to which they belong, and are the most important 

 of all characters. The characters of the classes and orders are arti- 

 ficial or factitious ; while in genera, species and families the essential 

 characters are natural characters. 



A genus includes one or more species which are grouped together 

 because of some resemblance in the proportion, situation, or connec- 

 tion of the organs of the flower. Each of these species is therefore 

 a type of the other, and is easily referred to its proper genus by a 

 knowledge of any one of them. Some genera are more distinctly 

 marked than others ; the rose genus for example. Peculiarities of 

 form or color of the flower, or some remarkable properties of plants 

 also give the generic names. Iris, or flag, is named from its colors 

 resembling the rainbow; digitalis, or foxglove, from the resemblance 

 of its corolla to the finger of a glove. The generic names are nouns, 

 while specific names are adjectives ; yet many of these are derived 



