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NATURAL FAMILIES. 
In the natural families, the classification is such as person.* 
who have never studied botany, might make ; thus, dill, fennel, 
caraway, &c. belong to the Umbellate family, on account of the 
foim in which the little stalks, bearing the flower, and afterwards 
the seed, branch out from one common centre, like the sticks of 
an umbrella ; this general resemblance is observed by all, and it 
seems very natural to class them together. 
But in the artificial orders, genera which may be very unlike 
in other respects, are brought together, from the single circum- 
stance of their having the same number of stamens and pistils. 
Thus, in the first order of the 8th class we have the tulip and 
the bulrush, the lily of the valley and the sweet flag. 
In the second order of the 5th class we have the beet and the 
elm. You will at once perceive the striking disparity between 
these plants, and that an arrangement, which thus brings them 
together, is properly called an artificial method. 
Many families of plants possess a marked resemblance in form 
and qualities, and appear evidently as distinct tribes. If the 
whole of the vegetable kingdom could thus be distributed into 
natural classes, the stufay of botany would be much simplified ; 
but it has already been remarked that there are many plants 
which cannot be thus arranged, and no principle has yet been 
discovered for systematic arrangement which bears any compar- 
ison to the Artificial S3'stem. This system is compared to a 
dictionary ; though by its use we do not at first find the word 
for which we seek, and then learn its definition, as we do in or- 
dinary dictionaries ; but we first learn some of the characters of 
a plant and then find the name. We are not however to rest 
after finding the botanical name ; but having ascertained this, 
we can easily find to what natural family a plant belongs, and 
thus ascertain its habits, medicinal use, and other important par- 
ticulars. The natural method may then be compared to the gram- 
mar of botany ; between this and the artificial system the same 
relation exists as between the grammar and dictionary of a lan- 
guage ; both are necessary to botanical science. 
As the subject of classification is so important to a knowledge 
of Botanical science, we will now consider the general principles 
on which it depends. 
Genera brought together by having the same number of stamens and pis- 
tils — Artificial system of arrangement compared to a dictionary — First 
learn the characters, then the name — The natural method considered as 
the grammar of botany — Characters used in classification. 
