3. Nothing, perhaps, astonishes an individual more, when commencing the search for and study of our uncultivated plants, than to find, even in the most commonplace walk, what an immense variety of different kinds—species, as they are called botanically-he has, day by day, trodden under foot, without an idea of their existence. Interest succeeds astonishment; he finds a new source of pleasure opened to him, and one which gives not only pure and healthy thoughts to the mind, but health to the body, by affording inducements to exercise, and adding to the latter that excitement which gives it a tenfold value.

4. Few pursuits in which the mind can engage are purer, or have more tendency to afford innocent and happy thoughts, than the study of flowers generally; and though it may be some advantage to possess gardens and conservatories. well stocked with the gorgeous natives of other climates, the mere contemplation of these can never bring half the pleasurable excitement which the search after the wild plants of our own country affords to the zealous collector and student. The. former are the privileges of the rich, the latter are open to the poorest in the land

"A blessing given

E'en to the poorest little one
That wanders 'neath the vault of heaven."

| EON-SÉRV'-A-TO-Ry, a green-house for exotic (foreign) plants.

LESSON II.-CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS.

16 The Almighty Maker has, throughout,
Discriminated each from each, by strokes
And touches of his hand, with so much art
Diversified, that two were never found
Twins at all points."

1. CLASSIFICATION in botany is the process by which plants are distributed into divisions, classes, genera or families, species, and varieties. Dictionaries are so arranged that a person can easily find any word in the language; and in a manner somewhat similar he can find a description of any known plant in a botanical dictionary or flora. The number of different kinds or species of plants is about one hundred thousand, and it is a very important matter to arrange them in the most convenient manner for reference.

2. It will occur to the reader that plants should be classified by their resemblances; and it may seem to be an easy task thus to arrange them; but those who have attempted it have

encountered many difficulties. Plants that at first sight appear very much alike will often be found to differ widely; and those which seem unlike will have many things that agree.

3. A humming-bird, flitting from flower to flower, seems to resemble the butterfly of variegated wing; but the naturalist considers the humming-bird more like an elephant than a butterfly. He will call the bird and elephant vertebrate animals, and will show a striking resemblance between the skeleton of the tiny wing of the one and the huge leg of the other.

4. As a scientific arrangement of plants requires an intimate acquaintance with the form, structure, and properties of a hundred thousand species, we.can well understand why a correct classification was impossible in the infancy of the science. Some early writers attempted to arrange plants according to the alphabetical order of their names; others took for their guide the structure of their roots; another class only regarded the form of the leaves; while others considered the time of flowering, the place of growth, or medicinal properties. Two hundred years ago the poet Cowley published an arrangement of plants founded on their size and appearance. Herbs, flowers, and trees were his divisions; which Hugh Miller has said was like Buffon's division of animals into wild and tame.

5. Many methods of classification have been proposed within the last two centuries, but they have gradually given place to the artificial system of Linnæus, and the natural method of Jussieu. The former divided the vegetable world into twenty-four CLASSES, by characteristics depending on the number, position, length, or union of the stamens; and these classes he then subdivided into ORDERS, founded mostly on peculiarities of the pistils. A synopsis of the twenty-one classes in which American botanists have arranged plants on the Linnæan method, is here given.* As the “Natural Method,” however, is the one now most approved by botanists, we have adopted that arrangement in our treatment of the subject.

6. The naming and classifying of plants was the delightful task of Eve in Paradise, according to Milton, who represents her as saying,

From the first opening bud, and gave ye names !
Who now shall rear ye to the sun, or rank
Your tribes, and water from the ambrosial fount ?"

LESSON III.-NATURAL METHOD OF CLASSIFICATION.

It is pleasant to note all plants, from the rush to the spreading cedar, From the giant king of palms to the lichen that staineth its stem.-TUPPER. 1. The primary and most obvious division of the vegetable kingdom is into two great series or classes, FLOWERING* and

Fourth Class; atamens.

Es.: hollyhock,

1 First Class, MONANDRIA, has one Twelfth Class, POLYANDRIA, has w Ber. stamen.

over ten stamens, on the recep- WIRA Examples: ginger, arrow-root,

tacle. samphire, starwort, etc.

Ex.: poppy, peony, pond-lily,

bloodroot, orange, etc.
Second Class, DIANDRIA, has two Thirteenth Class, DIDYNAMIA,
stamens.

has four stamens, two longer
Ex. : lilac, jessamine, sage, ca- than the others.
talpa, fringe-tree, rosemary, etc. Ex.: lavender, hyssop, balm,
Third Class, TBIANDRIA, has three mint, foxglove, etc.
stamens.

Fourteenth Class, TETRADYNA-
Ex.: gladiolus, iris, crocus, mil MIA, has six stamens, four long-
let, chess, wheat, etc.

er than the others.

Ex.: cabbage, mustard, etc.
Fourth Class, TETRANDRIA, has Fifteenth class, MONADELPHIA,

stamens united in one tube. Ex.: holly, partridge-berry, Ex.: hollyhock, mallows, cot14 Venus'-pride, teasel, madder, etc. ton, geranium, cranebill, etc. Fifth Class, PENTANDRIA, has five Sixteenth Class, DIADELPHIA, stamens.

stamens united in two sets.
Ex.: potato, mullein, flax, vio- Ex. : pea, bean, vetch, locust,
let, four-o'clock, comfrey, etc. indigo, clover, lupine, etc.

Seventeenth Class, SYNGENESIA,
Sixth Class, HEXANDRIA, has six

anthers united, flowers com-
etamens.

pound,
Ex: lily, hyacinth, jonquil, Ex.: daisy, dandelion, aster,
enow-drop, spider-wort, etc. lettuce, tansy, sunflower, etc.
Seventh Class, HEPTANDRIA, has Eighteenth Class, GYNANDRIA,
seven stamens.

stamens on the pistil.
Ex.: chick-wintergreen, horse- Ex.: ladies'-slipper, snakeroot,
chestnut, little buckeye, etc.

orchis, milk-weed, arethusa, etc.
Eighth Class, OCTANDRIA, has Nineteenth Class, MONOIA, sta-
eight stamens.

mens and pistils in different Ex. : cranberry, nasturtion,l flowers on the same plant. buckwheat, fuchsia, maple, etc. I

Ex. : Indian corn, nettles, etc.
Ninth Class, ENNEANDRIA, has Twentieth Class, DIECIA, sta-
nine stamens.

I mens and pistils on different
Ex.: sassafras, rhubarb, spice-l plants.
bush, erigonum, etc.

Ex.: willow, poplar, ash, hop,

hemp, yew, etc. Tenth Class, DECANDRIA, has ten ne

" Twenty-first Class, CRYPTOGA-
stamens.

I MIA, flowerless plants.
Ex.: trailing arbutus, whortle-|

Ex. : ferns, mosses, lichens,
berry, pink, cassia, Venus' fly-

nyomushrooms, puff-balls, sea-weed, trap, etc.

21 Eleventh Class, ICOSANDRIA, has

| The ORDERS of the first 12 classes are deover ten stamens, on the calyx.

termined by the number of styles (or stigEx.: rose, cherry, myrtle, rasp

mas when the styles are wanting): of the berry, plum, peach, etc.

13th class by the covering or nakedness of the seeds : of the 14th by the shape of the pods : of the 15th, 16th, 18th, 19th, and 20th, by the number or union of the stamens : of the 17th by peculiarities in the compound fiorets.

a. Called by botanists Phenog'amous plants.

etc.

1

FLOWERLESS plants. Next is a subdivision of the former into the exogenous, or outside growers, and the endogenous, or inside growers, whose leading characteristics of seed, stem, and leaf have already been noticed in the article on Botany, in the Fourth Reader.

2. A very large proportion of the exogenous plants have their seeds covered in various ways, some being inclosed in little boxes or chests, called pericarps and capsules, some in pods, and others in the centre of the fruit, as in apples, peaches, and pears. A few of the exogenous plants, however, of which the pines, the firs, and the yews are the representatives, differ from all the rest in having their seeds naked. Thus Nature has formed two great divisions of the exogenous plants; and we may designate them as those which have covered seeds, and those which have naked seeds.

3. The endogenous plants, which are only about one fifth as numerous as the exogenous, are also divided into two classes, those which are without glumes or husks surrounding the flower, and those which have them. Lilies, tulips, jonquils, and hyacinths are examples of the former, and the grasses and various kinds of grain of the latter. In this latter division are comprised about one twelfth part of the described species of flowering plants, and yet these species embrace at least nine tenths of the number of individuals composing the vegetable world; nor is their number surprising when we consider that the grasses are the chief source of that verdure which covers the earth of northern countries with a gay carpet of green during the months of summer.

4. The flowerless plants, which are remarkable for the extreme simplicity of their structure, having no wood, properly so called, but consisting of mere masses of cells, are divided into the acrogens, or summit-growers, and the thallogens, 2 which grow into a mere fiat or round expansion. In the former are included all such plants as ferns, scouring rushes, liverworts, and mosses; and in the latter the lichens, 3 fungus plants, sea-weeds, and mushrooms.

5. Thus, in the three great divisions of the vegetable world —the exogenous, the endogenous, and the cryptogamous4 or flowerless plants—there are six natural classes. These are divided into about 170 orders, which are composed of genera or families, as in the artificial system. The orders are found.

ed on the most manifest characteristics of the plant, below: the distinctions of classes. Thus compound flowers make an order called the composite ;i the numerous pod-bearing plants are arranged in the leguminousi order; and flowers in the form of a cross indicate the order cross-shaped, or cruciferous."

6. It requires much more knowledge of botany to examine a plant and find a description of it by the natural than by the artificial method; but as it is applicable in many instances when the latter is inadequate, the reader who designs to pursue the delightful study of plants further than the design of this series of Readers permits, should make himself familiar with both systems, as explained in the excellent text-books of Gray, Wood, Darby, and Mrs. Lincoln.

7. We have spoken of a natural classification ; but that which has thus far been developed by the labors of botanists has still much of the artificial. Finite knowledge can not grasp the infinite. " There is a systematic arrangement in nature which science did not invent, but gradually discovered. The terms in which this arrangement is expresed are the translation, into human language, of the thoughts of the Creator.”

This is the.comprehensive view of scientific classification held by the most scientific men of the day. The Author of nature is the author of the natural system of classification.

8. Most exalted, then, is the study of the laws and arrangement of the vegetable world. Why seek trifling sources of enjoyment,

When at hand,
Along these blushing borders bright with dew,
And in yon mingled wilderness of flowers,
Fair-handed Spring unbosoms every grace?
She sends the snow-drop, and the crocus first;
Then daisy, primrose, violet darkly blue,
And polyanthus of unnumber'd dyes ;
Then yellow wall-flower, stain'd with iron brown;
And lavish stock, that scents the garden round;
From the soft wing of vernal5 breezes sheds
Anemonies ;6 auriculas, 7 enrich'd
With shining meal o'er all their velvet leaves
And full ranunculus, 8 of glowing red.
Then comes the tulip-race, where beauty plays
Her idle freaks : from family diffused
To family, as flies the father-dust,
The varied colors run; and while they break
On the charm'd eye, th' exulting florist marks,
With secret pride, the wonders of his hand.
No gradual bloom is wanting; from the bud,
First-born of spring, to summer's musky tribes;
Nor hyacinths of purest virgin white,
Low-bent, and blushing inward ; nor jonquils

Of potent fragrance; nor Narcissus 10 fair,
: The Compos'itæ, or sunflower tribe.
į Legumino'sæ, having papilionaceous, or butterfly-shaped flowers.
* Cruci feræ, or cross-bearing; also called crucifirs.

G