HE vegetable world like the animal, consists 
of a vast multitude of species, composed of 
organic vesicules offering a prodigious diversity of 
form. Such living combinations for plants pre- 
studied and arranged eT! a mighty host, =o 
swelled by new discoveri 
We may assume it asa gee that the vecetable : 
kingdom was the first to engage the attention of 
_ man, for our first parents dwelt ina garden, and 
lived on its productions; plants yielded to man 
his earliest food, his first built habitation. 
This produced the art of distinguishing one 
kind of plant oui SnOtner and 80 Sahin! from 
the beginning the con mes for plants. 
By collecting together individuals, identical in 
form, and the uses they could be applied to, spe- 
cies wére distinguished, and groups, analogous to 
what are called genera; classes were recognized 
under the well known names of grass and herbs 
yielding seed, and fruit trees yielding fruit. 
Among the ancient Greeks, Theophrastus had 
his water-plants and parasites, potherbs, and 
forest trees, and grain plants. Dioscorides had 
