18 NOMENCLATURE 
cated than an over-appreciation of technicalities, 
valuing the name more highly than the thing; 
but some knowledge of this scientific nomencla- 
ture is necessary to every student of Nature. 
While Linneus pointed out classes, orders, 
genera, and species, other naturalists had de- 
tected other divisions among animals, called fam- 
ilies. Lamarck, who had been a distinguished 
botanist before he began his study of the an- 
imal kingdom, brought to his zodlogical re- 
searches his previous methods of investigation. 
Families in the vegetable kingdom had long 
been distinguished by French botanists ; and 
one cannot examine the groups they call by 
this name, without perceiving, that, though they 
bring them together and describe them accord- 
ing to other characters, they have been un- 
consciously led to unite them from the general 
similarity of their port and bearing. Take, for 
instance, the families of Pines, Oaks, Beeches, 
Maples, etc., and you feel at once, that, besides 
the common characters given in the technical 
descriptions of these different groups of trees, 
there is also a general resemblance among them 
that would naturally lead us to associate them 
together, even if we knew nothing of the special 
features of their structure. By an instinctive 
recognition of this family likeness between 
plants, botanists have been led to seek for 
