APPENDIX. 



CLASSIFICATION. 



In the foregoing lessons we have hastily traversed the 

 Vegetable World, pausing here and there, in such tribes and 

 families as offered special attractions, to gain information 

 more definite and minute. We have observed that while 

 there is found in every species some one fact or principle 

 peculiar to itself alone, yet each plant bears a resemblance, 

 greater or less, to every other plant, so that a bond of affinity 

 pervades the entire kingdom, combining all into one grand 

 system, which to interpret aright is the glory of Man. 



Species and Genera. The individual plants consti- 

 tuting the Vegetable World, so vast and incomprehensible 

 in multitude, are, as we have seen, assorted by nature into 

 species. A species may be defined as a group endowed with 

 the power of perpetuating its own kind and no other, and 

 thus is maintained the same from age to age. Again, the 

 species themselves, by their mutual resemblances, are 

 grouped into genera. A genus is defined as a group of 

 closely related species, having more resemblances than 

 differences. 



Orders. The third step in Classification is the formation 

 of orders. As species are grouped into genera, so the genera 

 are collected into orders. An order may be defined, an 

 assemblage of related genera. The orders differ greatly in 

 respect to their extent, some including few genera, or eveii 



