CHAPTER IV 



HOW PLANTS ARE CLASSIFIED, NAMED, AND STUDIED. 

 Section I. — Classification. 



289. Classification in Botany is the arrangement of plants according to their 

 kinds and according to their resemblances. 



290. In order that the vegetable creation might be adapted to every soil, situa- 

 tion, and climate, and to the different wants of the greatest variety of animals, as 

 well as to the many peculiar needs of mankind, God created plants in a vast num- 

 ber of kinds. And in order that these should be perpetuated and kept distinct, 

 He ordained that each should yield fruit and seed " after its kind." So each sort of 

 plant multiplies and perpetuates itself from generation to generation. Each of 

 these sorts is a 



291. SpecicSi The individuals, or separate plants, of each sort represent that 

 species, just as men and women represent the human species. The individuals of 

 the same species are not always, or not commonly, exactly alike. They may differ 

 in size according to their greater or less vigor ; they may vary in the color of their 

 blossoms, or the shape and flavor of their fruit, and yet plainly be of one species. 

 It is very apt to be so in cultivated plants. The different sorts of Apples belong to 

 one species ; all the sorts of Pears are of one species ; and so of Peaches. Such 

 sorts, which have arisen in the course of time and under change of circumstances, 

 are called Varieties. 



292. Varieties may be kept up with certainty by propagating from buds, that is, 

 by cutting.;, grafts, offsets, and the like (Chap. II. Sect. I.), but not by seeds, — at 

 least when left to themselves. And varieties have nothing definite about them, but 

 shade off into one another ; while the species are always separate. Apple-trees 

 never vary into Pear-trees, nor Pear-trees into Quince-trees. The cultivator pays 

 much attention to varieties, and takes particular pains to preserve and multiply 

 them. To the botanist, who is concerned mainly with wild plants, they are of much 

 less account. The botanist studies species. 



293. According to their degrees of resemblance species form Genera, Orders or 

 Families, and Classes. 



