XXXV 111 
INTRODUCTION. 
239. Of these the Class, Order, Genus, and Species are of fundamental 
importance ; the others are intercalations, or higher generalizations. 
240. In respect to genera and species all classifications in botany agree; 
but in arranging the genera, orders, &c., two unlike modes, with partly 
different aims, have been pursued; giving rise one to an artificial , the other 
to a natural arrangement. 
241. The object of the latter is to arrange plants as far as practicable 
according to their relationship, bringing those genera into the same group 
which nearest resemble each other in the most numerous and most impor¬ 
tant points; so that the full classification shall actually embody and ex¬ 
press, in a properly subordinated form, the whole knowledge of the struc¬ 
ture of plants, including the characteristics of every part. For the history 
of the received Natural Method, the student must consult fuller trea¬ 
tises. It essentially consists in the association of kindred genera into 
Natural Orders or Families , under a small number of Classes, based upon 
«till more general agreement in structure. 
242. In the particular form adopted in this work, the student will per¬ 
ceive that the Vegetable Kingdom, taken as a whole, is primarily divided 
into two great Series, in view of the presence or absence of proper flowers 
and seeds, as defined in paragr. 2, 209, &c., viz. the higher Series ®i 
PH^ENOGAMOUS or FLOWERING PLANTS (p. 1); and the lower, 
of CRYPTOGAMOUS or FLOWERLESS PLANTS (p. 618). 
243. The former is likewise divided into two Classes , characterized as 
well by the different structure of the essential part of the seed, viz. the 
embryo (218, 219), or initial plantlet, as by that of the stem and foliage ot 
the developed plant (48, 52, 71); viz. Class I. DICOTYLEDONOUS or 
EXOGENOUS PLANTS, the distinguishing characters of which are as¬ 
sembled on p. 1: and Class II. MONOCOTYLEDONOUS or ENDOG¬ 
ENOUS PLANTS, equally characterized on p. 445. 
244. The first of these classes is most naturally divided into two sub¬ 
classes, in view of the structure of the pistil. In a small, but remarkable 
portion of the class, with flowers of the simplest sort, the pistil consists ot 
an open scale, bearing naked ovules, which are fertilized by the pollen 
directly (150, as in the Pine Family, p. 438): the greater part, like all the 
rest of Phaenogamous Plants, bear the ovules in closed pistils, which are 
fertilized through the stigma. The latter constitute the Subclass I. Ang 1 * 
ospermje (which means, bearing seeds in a pod), p. 2; the former, the 
Subclass II. Gymnospermje (or naked-seeded plants), p. 438. The sec¬ 
ond class does not present this, nor any equivalent diversity. 
245. The three Divisions of the first and principal subclass, viz. the 
Polypet a lous, Monopetalous, and Apetalous, form no proper part 
of the Natural Method, but are used as easy and convenient artificial di¬ 
visions for breaking up the long series of orders into three parts. The 
distinctions, too, are not entirely absolute and constant. 
246. The lower great Series, comprising Class III. ACROGENS, Class 
IV. ANOPHYTES, and Class V. THALLOPHYTES, is based upon the 
peculiarities just explained (226-231); the former of these is defined on 
p. 618, the ensuing, on p. 461. 
247. Next are the Natural Orders or Families, with the Ordinal 
Characters, or enumeration of the principal points in which the plants em¬ 
braced accord with each other and differ from the neighbouring families* 
The technical names of the orders are generally (but not always) adjective 
prolongations in ace.® of the name of a characteristic genus, as RanuN- 
culaceas (p. 2) from the genus Ranunculus, for the Crowfoot Family} 
Papaveracea: (p. 25) from Papaver, the Poppy, for the Poppy Family} 
Malvaceae, for the Mallow Family, &c.;—meaning Plantes Malvacem, 
or Mallow-plants, Plantoe. Papareracece, or Poppy-plants or Poppy-hke 
plants, and so on. 
