A CHAPTER ON CLASSIFIOATION. 



Step by step tave we traversed the tighways and 

 byways of Flora's kingdom, and as we have kept 

 tolerably close to the beaten track, we have 

 encountered for the inost part that which we came 

 to look for, the "Wayside Weeds" in all theif 

 common and most familiar aspects, and yet these 

 have served, in accordance with otir plan laid down 

 at the outset, to teach us a few, at least. Of the 

 principles according to which the floral realms are 

 regulated. We have learned why certain formS 

 of plants are grouped together, and why they are se- 

 parated, by Knes of natural demarcation, from others, 

 and thus we have, it is hoped, got some idea of 



CLASSraiOATION. 



Moreover, the classification we have learned is 

 "naturaV it associates for us groups of plants 

 which, even to an unpractised eye, have points of 

 " natural affinity." The most superficial examina- 

 tion cannot fail to shew that the leguminous or pea 

 tribes^ the umbellifers or hemlock-like plants^ the 

 rosaceous families, the composite or daisy and 



