8TBUCTUBAL BOTANY. 3 



C. METHOD OF STUDY. 



8. The best method of becomhig speedily interested in 

 the study of Botany is to consider plants in their natural 

 relations to each other. This is assisted by classifying 

 vegetable indiyiduals into a combination, which we call 

 a SPECIES ; again a number of such species into a higher 

 combination, called genus ; and, finally, an assemblage of 

 genera into a still more comprehensive assemblage or ca- 

 tegory — namely, an oedee. The orders are finally distri- 

 buted into CLASSES. 



O. Nature offers a great many facilities for such metho- 

 dical study. In the nearest bit of country, wherever we 

 may turn our eyes, we notice vegetable individuals, of 

 which many agree in general aspect, or in having a certain 

 number of properties in common. , 



1©. Any cornfield, any tract of land covered with 

 buckwheat, clover, cauliflower, etc., will answer the ques- 

 tion. What is a vegetable indi/vidual ? 



] 1 . The several individuals of the cornfield — the straws 

 with their parts — may differ in size and color ; still, at a 

 glance, we conclude that they all 'belong to the same stock. 

 The formation of root, culm, leaves, spikes, flowers, and 

 fruits presents everywhere the same characters. All these 

 straws or indmidtials are, therefore, numbers of the same 

 commimity, which we call a species. 



A species is a collection of individuals pbesenting 



THE same PECULIAEITIES. 



12. Viewing another field, bearing what one, who is 

 not a botanist, would briefly call Clovee, we, on closer ex- 

 amination, ascertain that one part of the ground is covered 

 with stone-clover, another with red-clover, and a third 



