130 INTRODUCTION. 



with, and learn their peculiarities, properties, and 

 place in the system." 



In the following pages, I have given the 67 genera 

 and 240 species (and upwards) which comprise the 

 Order Grraminse. Although omitting as unnecessary 

 (in this work), the tribes and sub-tribes, or grand 

 divisions of the order, yet each genus, numbered and 

 ranked (as stated above), next to those they are most 

 related to, occupy their respective places throughout 

 the order. 



To the reader not acquainted with botany, this ex- 

 planation is necessary, as showing the object or pur- 

 pose in view. 



As stated in the preceding chapter, the parts of 

 fructification, the flower and the seed, are the least 

 liable to vary from any change of soil or cultivation, 

 and botanists have chosen them, on that account, to 

 fix their generic distinction ; or when the flowers and 

 seeds of any number of grasses agree, in one or two 

 particular points, and differ therein from all the rest, 

 such are termed a genus or family. 



The generic name, or that of the genus, is one 

 word, and a substantive, and is like he family name 

 or surname of a person, as Smith or Brown ; that of 

 the species answering to the Christian or baptismal 

 name, as James or Joseph. In giving the scientific 

 names, the first word that occurs in parenthesis is 

 the name of the genus,* the second that of the species ; 

 as, for instance, in the White Clover (Trifolium Re; 

 pens). Trifolium is the generic name, meaning three- 

 leaved, and Repens the specific, meaning creeping 

 commonly called white clover. A genus often con- 

 tains many species. 



