CHAPTER IV. 
HOW PLANTS ARE CLASSIFIED, NAMED, AND STUDIED. 
Section I. — Classification. 
289. Classification in Botany is the arrangement of plants according to their 
kinds and according to their resemblances. 
290. In order that the vegetable creation might be adapted to every soil, situa¬ 
tion, and climate, and to the different wants of the greatest variety of animals, as 
well'as to the many peculiar needs of mankind, God created plants in a vast num¬ 
ber of kinds. And in order that these should be perpetuated and kept distinct, 
He ordained that each should yield fruit and seed “ after its kind,” So each sort of 
plant multiplies and perpetuates itself from generation to generation. Each of 
these sorts is a 
291. Species. The individuals, or separate plants, of each sort represent that 
species, just as men and women represent the human species. The individuals of 
the same species are not always, or not commonly, exactly alike. They may differ 
in size according to their greater or less vigor; they may vary in the color of their 
blossoms, or the shape and flavor of their fruit, and yet plainly be of one species. 
It is very apt to be so in cultivated plants. The different sorts of Apples belong to 
one species; all the sorts of Pears are of one species; and so of Peaches. Such 
sorts, which have arisen in the course of time and under change of circumstances, 
are called Varieties. 
292. Varieties may be kept up with certainty by propagating from buds, that is, 
by cuttings, grafts, offsets, and the like (Chap. II. Sect. I.), but not by seeds, — at 
least when left to themselves. And varieties have nothing definite about them, but 
shade off into one another; while the species are always separate. Apple-trees 
never vary into Pear-trees, nor Pear-trees into Quince-trees. The cultivator pays 
much attention to varieties, and takes particular pains to preserve and multiply 
' them. To the botanist, who is concerned mainly with wild plants, they are of much 
less account. The botanist studies species. 
293. According to their degrees of resemblance species form Genera , Orders or 
Families , and Classes. 
