OF PLANTS. 251 



Mrs. B. You have named it very justly. Well, then, 

 to carry on your comparison of a host, do you conceive 

 that any general, in reviewing sixty-thousand soldiers, 

 would be capable of recollecting every individual ? 



Caroline. Certainly not ; but as each regiment has its 

 uniform, and each company its number, he could easily 

 discover to which any soldier belonged. 



Mrs. B. This is exactly the object a botanist has in 

 view in classification. He endeavors to find out to which 

 regiment and to which company each individual plant be- 

 longs ; but this is much more difficult than with an army, 

 where the general has himself chosen the uniforms, and 

 arranged the companies so as to make the distinctions 

 most conspicuous. Nature has also, it is true, her dis- 

 tinguishing characters, but they are often placed in organs 

 which are least exposed to view ; and botanists do not 

 always agree on the characteristic features of plants. 



Caroline. Well ; but tell us at least on what points all 

 botanists do agree ? 



Mrs. B. Willingly. You see yonder in the garden a 

 bed of carrots : every individual plant of which belongs to 

 the same species. 



Caroline. Of course ; for I know that the gardener 

 collected the seed sown in that bed from one individual 

 plant last year, so that the carrots must all be descended 

 from the same parent. 



Mrs. B. Now, then, if you extend your idea to all the 

 carrots in the world, which do not differ from the carrots 

 in this bed, more than these differ from each other, you 

 will understand that they may originally have been de- 

 rived from the same plant. 



Emily. Certainly ; and that is what we have said con- 

 stituted a species. 



Mrs. B. Well, then, if this idea is clear to you, let us 

 proceed a step further, and, considering each species as 

 a unity, compare them with one another. Can you recol- 

 lect any instance of different species bearing a striking 

 resemblance to each other ? 



1368. What comparison is made between this subject and an army of 

 soldiers. 1369. What is said of the distinguishing characters of plants? 

 1370. How does Mrs. B. explain what is meant by a family'! 1371. 

 This being done, what does she next propose doingl 



