NuttalVs Introduction to Botany. 101 



the Papilionaceous, the Labiate, the Umbellate, the Com- 

 pound, and the Rosaceous, which include by far the largest 

 proportion of the vegetable creation. This suppression of the 

 technical nomenclature of the less important parts of vegeta- 

 bles, from the student, at a period, when he cannot perceive 

 its utility, is, undoubtedly, highly judicious ; since, to use Mr. 

 Nuttall's own words, " it has but too often deterred, at the 

 very portal of Flora's temple, the inquirer into the nature 

 and character of this beautiful and useful tribe of beings." 



Next succeed two chapters upon the classes and orders of 

 the Linncean system. Concerning which the preface contains 

 the following remarks. 



" I must acknowledge, that however attractive the natural 

 method of arranging plants may be to myself, I do not yet, 

 for the beginner, know of any substitute for the Linnaean sys- 

 tem : and, indeed, its general prevalence to the present time, 

 after so long a trial, is almost a tacit acknowledgment of its 

 convenience, if not of its superiority over other systems of ar- 

 bitrary arrangements ; for however natural, groups or orders of 

 plants may be in their natural affinities, all classes and higher 

 divisions of the vegetable system are now, confessedly artifi- 

 cial, even among the warmest advocates for a natural method." 



Then follows an illustration of each one of the Linnaean 

 classes and orders, by the description of specimens of Ameri- 

 can plants belonging to it. This forms the most considerable 

 part of the work, occupying twenty chapters, and is intro- 

 duced by the following passage. 



" We come now to the determination of individual plants, 

 which from classes and orders, descend to genera or kinds, 

 and individuals or species ; species are likewise subject to va- 

 riations more or less constant, as we see in our fruit trees ; 

 for instance, in the apple, of which all the kinds we cultivate 

 are mere varieties of one original species, called by Botanists, 

 Pyrus Malus, the latter word indicating the name of the spe- 

 cies, the former, or Pyrus, the genus or kind, and which also 

 includes other species, as the Pyrus communis, or Pear, the 

 Pyrus coronaria, or sweet scented crab of America, &c. This 

 common generic character is applied to all such groups of 

 plants, as, agreeing generally among themselves, present a 

 similarity, not only in the class and order, or stamens and 

 styles, but in the more intimate connexion of resemblance in 

 the flower, and its succeeding fruit; so that while classes 

 and orders are often merely artificial assemblages of plants, a 



