THE CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS 209 



has nothing to do with the matter, so the botanist finds no 

 difficulty in recognizing the strawberry plant and the apple 

 tree as members of the same family. 



This family affords excellent illustrations of the meaning 

 of the terms genus, species, and so on. The Rose family con- 

 tains (among many others) the Pear genus, which contains 

 the apple species, which contains the greening variety. 



260. Grouping of Families. — Families are assembled 

 into orders and these again into larger groups. The prin- 

 cipal names of groups used in classification, beginning Avith 

 the highest, are as follows : 



Plant Kingdom. 

 Division. 

 Series. 

 Class. 

 Order. 

 Family. 

 Genus. 

 Species. 

 Variety. 



The entire plant kingdom may be divided into four 

 grand divisions and these into lesser groups, as sliown in 

 the table on page 210. This table is for reference only. It 

 serves in a general way to represent the progress of plant 

 development, beginning with the lowest (and oldest) types 

 and proceeding to the highest. The algse and fungi should, 

 however, be placed parallel to each other and not in series, 

 since the latter are distinguished from the former mainly 

 by their parasitic or saphrophytic mode of life and the 

 modifications due to this. No perfect scheme of classifi- 

 cation has yet been made out and the highest authorities 

 differ in regard to details of classification. 



