‘im REAT interest is naturally felt by all amateur culturists in the 
W- divisions of the vegetable kingdom. Ages before the knowledge 
of plants developed into the complete science called botany, 
certain relationships and affinities were known to exist between 
many of them; but the formal distribution into the subjoined 
divisions and subdivisions is a comparatively recent addition, 
and has been adopted by scholars for the purpose of placing 
before the mind in a clear and methodical manner the various 
degrees of relationship that exist between plants. An exhaustive 
enumeration in the present state of botanical science embraces 
the following twelve heads: Series or Subkingdom, Class, 
Subclass, Order or Family, Suborder, Tribe, Subtribe, Genus, 
Subgenus or Section, Species, Race, and Variety. 
“Mix «so. aid the student of floriculture in forming a clearer con- 
aii a8 , . ception of the arrangement, relationship and subordination of 
the different members of this distribution, the whole vegetable kingdom might be likened 
to the available war forces of the United States. The Series would correspond to the 
military as distinct from the naval, and vice versa; Class, to the regular army as distinct 
from volunteers, or the reverse; Subclass, to the “Army of the Potomac,” or the like; 
Order, to army corps; Suborder to division; Tribe, to a brigade with its full complement 
of cavalry, artillery and infantry; Subtribe, to the more usual incomplete brigade of two 
or three regiments; Genus, to a regiment; Subgenus, to a battalion; Species, to a com- 
pany; Race, to a company of infantry as distinct from one of cavalry; and Variety, to 
the same company with the shades of difference arising from the variation in numbers, 
discipline, or any other minor feature — for instance, Company A, as differing from Com- 
pany B in any one or several of these respects. 
In this methodical arrangement it will be noticed that the Variety, a subdivision of the 
Species, is the lowest term, as the individual plant does not obtain an individual name. 
The Species is designated by the name of the Genus to which it belongs, with a distin- 
guishing epithet, usually an adjective, added to denote the peculiar characteristic (or what 
it has been agreed to consider such) of each particular Species. Thus in Rosa moschata, 
or Musk Rose, Rosa represents the Genus Rose; and moschata, a Latinized version of i; 
7 
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