]4G 
THE ELORAL WORLD AND GARDEN GUIDE. 
those ambitious botanists who have not yet made a beginning in 
systematic study, may advantageously begin now, for the butter- 
cups have this post of honour in the “ natural system ” — that they 
constitute the first order ; and the student must master the charac- 
teristics of the buttercups in respect of structure and relationships, 
as the very first step towards a systematic knowledge of plants. 
The many systems of botany may be reducible to two for our 
present purpose. The Linnman, or Artificial system, is simply not 
a system of botany at all : it is a system of botanical mnemonics. 
The classes and orders are founded on the numbers of the stamens 
and pistils, and on some few other purely mechanical or numerical 
characteristics of the organs of reproduction. The system itself may 
leaf OF common buttkhcup ( Ranunculus repens). 
be mastered in an hour by any mind of ordinary capacity ; but to 
apply it is another matter, as the application consists in the practi- 
cal study of plants — a study in which the system affords absolutely 
no help at all. Several of the Linnsean classes and orders have 
better conditions of cohesion than mere mechanical and numerical 
signs can afford, but that is, so far as the system is concerned, an 
accident and not a merit. Thus, in the Linnaean system nearly all 
the grasses come together in Class III., Orders 1 and 2, having three 
stamens and one or two pistils. But the sweet-scented vernal grass 
has a place in Class II., Order 2, having two stamens and two pistils. 
There are many exceptions of like nature, but the system must not 
be blamed on their account, for it does not profess to do more than 
