i 
: 
_ 
yD oe 
n= 
a 
CULTIVATION AND ANALYSIS OF PLANTS. 
musk in the adjective form, or musky, denotes the characteristic distinction of the Species. 
Hence it is not strictly correct to say that such a name corresponds to that of an indi- 
vidual, as Publius Cornelius Scipio; but it would be allowable to compare it with Cor- 
nelius Scipio — Cornelius, the gens, or clan, and Scipio, the family name within the clan — 
if, like the Romans, we lived in a state of society where these constituted a recognized 
division of the community. The Variety is further distinguished by one or more addi- 
tional epithets, adjectives or names of persons, subjoined to the name of the Species to 
which it belongs, as the Fragaria Virginiana Illinoensis—the Illinois Variety of the Spe- 
cies of Strawberry known as the Virginian. 
What these various terms imply will now be explained more in detail, taking for this 
purpose the foregoing divisions, as used by most modern writers on floriculture, and in an 
inverse order, beginning with the most restricted: 
Variety.—By this term is meant such a group within the same Species as is marked in 
all its individuals by some striking peculiarities, and often so as to create a doubt whether 
it does not constitute a distinct Species. 
Subspecies, or Race.—Where the marks of the Variety are regularly propagated. 
Species is an aggregate of such individual plants, or varieties of plants, as agree 
in common attributes and characteristics, and which are designated by the same distin- 
guishing epithet, as the Rosa moschata, already explained. 
The Species ,of plants have been estimated, and probably within bounds, as high as 
one hundred and twenty thousand, of which nearly four thousand belong to our own 
country, east of the Mississippi. The more conservative estimates of earlier botanists, 
putting the number at about sixty thousand, will therefore have to be abandoned; the 
more, as new discoveries are being perpetually made. 
Subgenus, or Section, is used by some botanists to denote such collections of certain 
Species as are more nearly allied to each other than the other plants of the same Genus. 
~ Genus.—This embraces all the various Species that bear a strong resemblance to 
each other, but differ in the shape or general proportion of their parts; thus the various 
Species of the Roses belong to one Genus. 
Tribe and Subtribe are subdivisions of the Suborder in some elaborate systems of 
classification. : 
Suborder.—For convenience of treatment, and because of important differences, an 
Order is often subdivided into three or four Suborders, each embracing several Genera, as, 
for instance, the Order Rosacee into the Almond or Plum, the Pear, and the Rose proper. 
Order comprehends many Genera broadly resembling one another, as in having 
their flowers and seeds constructed on the same plan, but with very striking differences in 
important features. Thus the Order Rosacea, or Rose family, embraces not only Roses 
proper, but Strawberries, Blackberries, Apples, Pears, etc. 
Subclass, or Alliance, is a subdivision of the Class, and embraces several Orders. 
Class.—This is a still broader grouping or aggregation of plants, comprising various 
Orders that resemble each other in some few important features. 
Series, or Subkingdom, is the first grand division of the vegetable kingdom, and 
embraces all such classes as are not radically so very different as to refuse to be grouped 
together because of their most essential properties, such as flowering or not flowering. 
i < ty 
