XVI BHTEF STATEMENT OF THE SUBJECT. 



The classification and nomenclatnre of the Vegetable King- 

 dom has taxed the ingenuity and talent of the most learned 

 and skillful l)otanists. The primary ol)ject of classification is 

 to arrange the individual plants or species that resemble each 

 other in the greatest number of characters around a common 

 center called a genus ; those genera which possess the greatest 

 number of constant common characters are clustered round a 

 common center called an order ; the orders in like manner are 

 grouped into cohorts and classes ; the classes in their turn 

 have a center called a series, or a subkingdom, — the common 

 center of the whole being the Vegetable Kingdom. 



