INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY. 
tso 
convenient; but he cannot too soon endeavour to become 
acquainted with the natural method, and arrange his col- 
lection by it: this being the ultimate goal of the science, to 
which the two other arrangements are merely subordinate. 
Whatever arrangement is adopted, the leaves charged 
with the plants of the same genus, or, in other words, which 
bear the same common or family name, as the various 
kinds of poppy, papaver 5 mint, merit ha , &c. are to be col- 
lected together and placed between the fold of a sheet of 
paper, inscribed with the common name: when this com- 
mon, or generic name as it is called, comprises a great 
number of species, as in willow, salix, rose, rosa , the genus 
must be divided into sections, and a sheet allotted to each 
section. 
These genera, or first divisions, are then to be distri- 
buted into larger collections, either by their initial letters, 
orders, or families, and each of these grand divisions placed 
in a kind of port- folio, usually made of strong blue or car- 
tridge paper, and inscribed with its proper distinction. 
Lastly, these port-folios are to be placed methodically 
in a cabinet of a proper size, the shelves of which are 
either the size of the port-folios, or which will hold two or 
more of them. Linnaeus and Withering have given sections 
of such cabinets, with the shelves placed at different dis~ 
tances, so as to hold the plants of one of their classes in 
the order in which they occur in their systems ; but as the 
greater divisions of both the natural and artificial arrange- 
ments are very unequal, so that some shelves are ordered 
by them to be only two and others fourteen inches apart ; 
this is very awkward, and it is far better to have the shelves 
at equal distances, and to mark, by appropriate labels, the 
contents of each shelf. 
When, instead of a general collection, the botanist in- 
tends only a collection of the plants of the country in which 
he lives, and there exists any good systematic catalogue of 
them, it may be sufficient, if he procure a sufficient number 
of folio or quarto volumes of blue or cartridge paper, having 
the alternate leaves cut out within an inch of the back, as 
are sufficient for the large plants, and writing the names of 
the several species at the head of the pages, allowing one to 
each, fills them up as he procures the plants, and dries therm 
in many cases, when the plants are not succulent, they may 
be put at once in their place. The mosses may have a 
similar series of octavo or duodecimo volumes allotted for 
