108 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
a natural family or group. The most obvious generic character of Ranunculus is 
a little scale at the claw of each petal; that of Veronica , the lowest segment of 
the petal smallest. Genera consist of species named from some obvious appearance, 
often in the leaves, stem, &c.; likewise from their properties and habits, such as 
narrow, broad, hairy-leaved; climbing, field, meadow, wood, rock, &c. &c. 
Suppose in the month of June and July, when the Flora of our country is in 
its utmost brilliance, a profusion of wild Boses are blooming on every hand, some 
climbing, throwing their graceful festoons above our heads; others, like humble 
shrubs, or crawling scarcely above our feet. In spite of these differences (and 
there are twenty or thirty species of Rosa indigenous to Britain), we see a general, 
or family likeness, which immediately determines them to be Eoses, though we 
have not the slightest knowledge of those characters wherein the genus resides, or 
is determined. This is a parallel case with many others of the more obvious 
genera, shewing them to be truly natural groups dependent upon common cha¬ 
racters founded in Nature. 
If a class bring together a number of plants agreeing in one common character, 
and an order, agreeing not only with them, but likewise presenting other 
characters, in which part of that class is deficient, a genus descends still lower, 
and exhibits a group of plants agreeing in all these characters besides others 
peculiar to that genus. Genera existed before all systems ; e. g ., Eoses, Lilies, 
Eanunculuses, &c. Men were, in consequence, led first to consider plants in 
these sorts of groups, before they could mark or examine their essential differences. 
This generic character is stamped so evidently on a considerable portion of the 
vegetable world, that there are few persons unable to distinguish them. A farmer, 
as well as a professor of Botany, can distinguish a Bramble from a Thorn, a Eose 
from a Gooseberry, or a Nettle from a Lily. 
But a genus, to be perfectly good and distinguishable, ought to possess artificial 
characters as well as resemblance. Thus the genus Rosa , besides resemblance, is 
distinguished from Rubus (Bramble) and all the other genera included in Icosan- 
dria Rolygynia , by its fruit being urn-shaped, and formed out of the calyx. 
Every genus as composed of a certain number of species, which have likewise a 
common agreement in characters, besides their essential differences from each 
other. Species are composed of individuals, and here we arrive at the end of our 
system. These individuals too have characters constant and unchanging; they 
severally or [mutually produce their like, and maintain their identity in one 
unvarying type. Sometimes, from cultivation, or accidental mixture, intermediate 
individuals, called varieties, are occasioned; but these do not produce their like 
r rom seed, and| will soon, if let alone, return to the original model. But most of 
these hybrids or mules are sterile, incapable of producing seed, and only per¬ 
petuated by shoots or grafting. Individuals may agree in their essential specific 
