402 VARIOUS PLANT f;ROlTPS 



and subdivisions of the vegetable kingdom, together with 

 one hundred of the more important famihes of seedworts, 

 and the orders and higher groups to which they belong. The 

 characters given to distinguish tliem must l)e understood 

 as being merely those which prevail throughout the group 

 to which they refer, and not as being without possil)le excep- 

 tions besides those noted. The numbers in parenthesis refer 

 to pages where further information regarding the families, 

 or illustrated examples of them, may be found. These 

 synopses show the place in a modern classification of every 

 plant we have studied in the foregoing chapters. Familiarity 

 with the distinctions given, obtained by practical use of the 

 synopses, should enable students to tell at sight, for a large 

 majority of the plants they may see gromng wild or in culti- 

 vation, the family to which each belongs. 



The student who has learned to know what is tj'pical of 

 the comparatively few orders and families which we have 

 been examining, will l^e able to tell at sight the family or 

 order in which, or near which, to classifj^ more than half of 

 the flowering plants he is likely to meet; provided, of course, 

 he has observed carefully their structural features. This 

 knowledge, and the acquaintance he has already gained with 

 the most important descriptive terms, will facilitate his use 

 of systematic works in which these and other families are 

 described in more detail. 



However far he pursues this line of study — as fascinating 

 as it is exhaustless — tlie student will continually encounter 

 plants which must l^e viewed as intermediate links connecting 

 different groups, or as exceptions wliich make definite limi- 

 tations practically impossilile. These connecting links and 

 exceptional cases seem to defy classification in any consistent 

 arrangement, and have caused endless troul)l(> to Ixitanists 

 in their attempts to construct a natural system. But at 

 the same time it has happened that as botanists have come 

 to study th(! significance of these exceptions they have found 

 them revealing some very deep truths which have led to 

 more and more satisfactory systems of classification. It 

 behooves us therefore to examine the main beliefs which 

 have been held in regard to the meaning of these connecting 



