cir. xxv. LINN&AN SYSTEM. 209 



feathered at the edge. These last characters are peculiar to 

 this kind of geranium, which he calls Geranium gibbosum, 

 and here we have the specific name. Any geranium which 

 has the woody stem, the joined sepals, the fleshy joints, 

 and the feathery-edged leaves, will be the species called by 

 Linnaeus gibbosum. 



You will see that by this system it is always possible to 

 find out easily to what part of the vegetable kingdom your 

 plant belongs, and what its name is ; and if, after you have 

 traced its genus, there is no species which exactly agrees 

 with yours, you then know that you have discovered a new 

 species which has not been described before. Linnaeus 

 classified animals after this same plan, quadrupeds chiefly by 

 their teeth, and birds by their beaks and feet, and after his 

 system was complete, any one could discover the scientific 

 name of a plant or animal by exercising a little care and 

 patience. This system is called the Linnaean or artificial 

 system, because it only selects a few particular parts of a 

 plant, so as to help you to look it out in a kind of diction- 

 ary. It tells you very little of the real or natural life of 

 the plant, and often brings some very near together which 

 are really very different It is as if you classified people 

 by some particular feature, such as those who had long 

 hair, or short hair, dark or light, curly or straight. This 

 might be very useful for recognising them, but it would be 

 quite artificial, and would tell you very little about their 

 real relationship. Therefore this classification has now 

 been partly set aside for another or natural classifica- 

 tion, which Linnaeus also suggested, only he thought 

 it too difficult for ordinary people; and which was 

 worked out by a French botanist named Jussieu, as we 

 shall see by and by. But the Linnaean system is still 

 extremely useful for finding the name of a plant or animal, 



