SPECIMEN, &c. Ixxvii 



The following is the description given by M. Dccandollc, 

 and adopted by Professor Lindley, of the classes of plants, dis- 

 tinguished according to the station in which they occur : — 



1. Aqiuitic plants^ living plunged in fresh water; either 

 entirely immerged, as confervse ; or floating on its surface as 

 stratiotes ,• or fixed in the soil by their roots, with the foliage 

 in the water, as several kinds of potamogeton ; or rooted to 

 the soil, as nymphaea ; or rising above it, as alisma Plantago. 

 This latter division approaches very near to the following class. 



2. Plants of fresh timter marshes, and of very xvel places, 

 among which it is chiefly necessary to distinguish, those of 

 bogs, of marshy meadows, of the banks of running streams, 

 and finally, of places inundated in winter, but more or less 

 dried up during the summer. 



3. Plants of meadows and pastures, in the study of which it 

 is chiefly necessary to distinguish, those, that being collected 

 together either by art or nature constitute the turf of the 

 meadow, and those others, which grow with greater or less 

 abundance and facility intermixed with the foregoing. 



4. Plants of cultivated soil, many of which have been acci- 

 dentally transplanted from one country to another with the 

 seeds of other plants intentionally introduced. 



5. The plants of rocks, which pass by insensible gradations 

 into those of walls, of stony places, and even of gravel, and these 

 again into those of sands or of very barren soil. For my pre- 

 sent purpose I have thought it sufficient to place the whole 

 of these in the same class. 



6. Plants occurring near dwelling places, in consequence of 

 requiring for their nutriment a supply, either of nitrous 

 salts, or of azotised matter. These consequently frequent the 

 haunts of man, and abound in and about rubbish containing 

 animal matter in a state of decomposition. 



7. Forest plants, among which are to be distinguished ; 

 Istly, the trees that form the forest ; and 2ndly, the herbs which 

 grow beneath its shade. The latter are separated into two 

 kinds : those which can support a considerable degree of shade 

 during all the year, which are found in evergreen woods ; or 

 such as require light in the winter, like those which are found 

 among deciduous trees. 



