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 division ov 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. Geuus and Species. — Such a group as that of the 

 buttercups is called a genus (plural genera), while the vari- 

 ous kinds of buttercups 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 the name 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 Samhucus 

 canadensis L., L. standing for Linnaeus. Familiar examples 

 of genera are the Violet genus, the Rose genus, the Oak 



1 See Warming-Mobius's Handbuch der systematischen Botanik, Born- 

 trseger, Berlin; Strasburger, Noll, Sobenk, and Karsten's Text-Book of Botany, 

 Part II, MacmiUan, New York; or Engler's Syllabus der PflanzenfamiUen, 

 Engelmann, Leipzig. 



207 



