68 AUSTRALIAN BOTANY. 



subdivisions. The works of Sir Joseph Hooker, Professors 

 Oliver and Balfour, Dr. Lindley, Mr. Bentham, and other* 

 eminent botanists are open to the advanced student ; and 

 in their pages can be found at length the great mass of 

 information respecting the various orders of plants, their 

 subdivisions and characteristics. 



The great advantage of the Natural System, as compared 

 with that of Linnaeus, is that while by the latter system it is 

 necessary to examine the flower of a specimen before a 

 decision can be made respecting its classification; by the 

 Natural System similarities in plants, though they may not 

 happen to be in flower, are taken into account, and go far 

 in determining the orders to which they belong. Expert 

 botanists can often readily classify a plant under the Natural 

 System by an examination of a single leaf, stem, or fruit. 

 The primary object, in fact, is to place together those plants 

 allied in structure, by comparing their different organs of 

 growth, and arranging them according to their several 

 affinities. Various families have points of resemblance 

 which make them form, as it were, the links in a chain ; 

 and the history of botany goes to prove the theory correct, 

 by the periodical discovery of plants supplying the missing 

 links in that chain. It is, however, to be regretted that 

 this otherwise excellent arrangement has been disfigured 

 and rendered difficult by the introduction of a crowd of 

 synonyms. In none of the sciences can greater difference 

 of opinion be found amongst accepted authorities than in 

 botany. Hence arises confusion of names, and invention 

 of fresh terms, very distracting to a beginner. 



From the previous Lessons a general idea will have been 

 gathered of the Natural System. The three great classes 



