COLLECTING AND PEESEEVING PLANTS. 273 



few natural orders, and have begun to consider the 

 affinities of plants. E"ow, classification, from begin- 

 ning to end, consists in associating plants by these 

 affinities, and can be rationally performed only when 

 they are perceived. The reason for a plant's scientific 

 name is found in its predominating affinities. Intel- 

 ligently to label your plant, therefore, you should be 

 so familiar with its assemblage of characters and re- 

 lations to other plants, that you can see why it is 

 placed here, and not there, in the established arrange- 

 ment. 



The work you have begun now requires a regular 

 botanical manual to carry it out. There are various 

 books that may be used for this purpose, but Gray's 

 "Manual of the Botany of the Northern United 

 States " may be commended as a most excellent work 

 for the purpose. It gives a full statement of the 

 characters of each order, followed by a description 

 of the genera it contains, and then the peculiarities 

 of the species of each genus are fully given, so that 

 a plant is easily identified. The genus and species 

 determine the scientific name. "When you have had 

 some experience in tracing the ordinal, generic, and 

 specific characters of plants, you will read, with 

 profit and pleasure, the chapter of the u Manual " 

 upon classification, and be prepared fully to under- 

 stand the system by which plants are named. 



