CHAPTER XXII 
THE CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS? 
255. Natural Groups of Plants. — One does not need 
to be a botanist in order to recognize the fact that plants 
naturally fall into groups which resemble each other pretty 
closely, that these groups may be combined into larger 
ones the members of which are somewhat alike, and so on. 
For example, all buttercups belong to the same genus. 
The marsh marigold, the hepatica, the rue anemone, and 
the anemone all have a family resemblance to buttercups, 
and the various anemones by themselves form another 
group like that of the buttercups. 
256. Genus and Species. — Such a group as that of the 
buttercups is called a genus (plural genera), while the 
various kinds of buttereups of which it is composed are 
called species. The scientific name of a plant is that of 
the genus followed by that of the species. The generic 
name begins with a capital, the specific does not unless 
it is derived from the name of a person or of a genus. 
After the name comes the abbreviation for the name of 
the botanist who is authority for it: thus the common 
elder is Sambucus canadensis L., L. standing for Linnieus. 
Examples of genera among familiar plants are the Violet 
1 See Warming and Potter’s Systematic Botany, Strasburger, Noll, Schenck, 
and Karsten’s Text-Book of Botany, Part I, or Engler’s Syllabus der Pflun- 
zenfamilien (fifth enlarged edition). 
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