174 SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 



instance, those characters which serve to identify and distinguish large 

 groups of plants are of more consequence than such peculiarities as pertain 

 merely to small groups or to individual plants. With a view to fix the 

 attention on the more important or cardinal characters, those which are 

 of most use in drawing up a diagnosis of a plant or of a group of plants, a 

 form of schedule is given ; and the pupil is recommended to make similar 

 ones for himself, and by their aid to draw up an account of the more im- 

 portant characters of any flowers he meets with, checking them and com- 

 paring them with the descriptions given in books, or with the instructions 

 of his tutor. These schedules should be kept for comparison with others 

 relating to other plants ; and by this method a practical insight into 

 plant-construction, and the relationships of one plant to another, may be 

 more speedily and thoroughly obtained than by any other means. 'The 

 schedules here inserted by way of illustration are filled up from a Common 

 Buttercup (Ranunculus} and from a Dead-Nettie (Lamiuni). The cha- 

 racters therein given are sufficient to enable the student to determine the 

 orders to which the plants belong, which is the first and most important 

 consideration j but they are not sufficient to indicate the genus, still less 

 the particular species. To discriminate these minor groups, recourse must 

 be had to the other peculiarities presented by the plants in question, as 

 before detailed. 



