84. Ranunculus auricomus, or Wood Crowfoot, an example of the natural order Ranunculacea. The five petals of the blossom, 1-the numerous stamens, 2the fruit, 3-consisting of many carpels or achenes, and the divided leaves, are all characteristics of the order. The flower gives an example of the polypetalous corolla, that is of one divided into a number of distinct petals. The veined leaves are distinctive of the great dicotyledonous division of the vegetable kingdom. The radical or root leaves-4-are reniform or kidney-shaped in their general outline, and are a good example of a three-partite leaf; the stem leaves-5-being much divided into linear segments.

and permanent individual characters, but all agreeing in certain other general characters which link them together as one race or genus. No better example can we find than the genus Ranunculus, which comprises twenty species, natives of Britain. Fig. 84, the Ranunculus auricomus, or wood crowfoot, affords an example of one of the prettiest of the collection -from it and from the following figures we may derive some idea of the general characters of the genus, and perhaps something more. The chief characters of the ranunculus genus are, calyx of five sepals, not prolonged at the base-Fig. 86-petals 5 -Fig. 84-with a nectary at the base-Fig. 85— achenes-Figs. 84, 86-without awns.* All these characters we find in the wood crowfoot; but we also find them in the nineteen other British members of the genus ranunculus; consequently, if we are to distinguish the wood crowfoot as a species,

we must find out some characters which it pos esses distinct from all the rest.

Let us see what cha

* Hair-like prolongations from the apex.

or

racters it has of its own. Its leaves are dividedthis at once distinguishes it from the five ranunculus spear-worts; its flowers are yellow, and the colour (a good distinction in this genus) separates seven species of whiteflowered ranunculus. We have now but eight species to distinguish among, but three of these have warted prickled achenes or seeds, and annual roots, neither of which characters our wood crowfoot possesses. Of the five species we are now reduced to, but two have smooth leaves, the wood crowfoot and the celery-leaved crowfoot; but in the latter, besides other characters, the calyx is smooth, whereas in the wood crowfoot it is covered with down.

87. Stamens of

Wood Anemone.

2. The anther,

adnate, with its

two lobes.

Having now hunted down, as it were, our species, some persons may remark, "We could have told that this was different from any other ranunculus, without all this trouble." Possibly so: many persons can detect the general difference of aspect which distinguishes, in the majority of instances, one plant from another; but none perhaps, without botanical training, could sit down and write a description of a plant which would convey to another individual any accurate idea of the plant,-hence the vague and generally useless descriptions given, by non-botanical travellers, of the vegetation of newly-traversed countries. On the other hand, when a botanist gathers a plant perfectly new to him, a glance tells him to which of the three leading divisions of the vegetable kingdom it belongs; a more

careful examination fixes its family or order, perhaps its genus; a little further, and by reference to published descriptions of plants, he perhaps finds that the species has been already described and named by some prior discoverer; but if not, and if the finder has reason to believe that a plant is perfectly new, and hitherto undescribed, his task must be to detect in the species some marked character or characters, which may distinguish it from every other of the eighty or ninety thousand species already known and described. We may well imagine how, but for the classifications and divisions, this would be an impossibility. Now, perhaps, the reader may understand how from class to order, to section or alliance, thence to family and genus, a botanist may carry a plant, till at last, as species, he separates the individual.

We have examined the genus Ranunculus as made up of various species; we must now look at it-the whole genus-as but one member of a larger community, the natural order or family of the Ranunculaceae, which contains, besides the genus Ranunculus, thirteen other genera, natives of Britain. The anemones, the globe-flower, the columbine, the aconites, &c., are all examples of the natural order in question; for, though by no means bearing the same general palpable resemblance that the species of a genus-such as Ranunculus-do to one another, they have certain common points of character, which enable botanists to throw them into a group or family-albeit the eyes of the superficial or nonbotanical observer will now afford him but little

* Dr. Lindley makes certain divisions under the name of alliances.

help; the connecting links lie deeper than mere external resemblances. The Ranunculaceæ are remark

88. Common Watercress (Nasturtium officinale), an example of the natural order Cruciferæ; the blossoms being first developed as corymbs-1-subsequently becoming racemes by the growth of the peduncle. The fruit a pod or siliqua. The leaves placed alternately on the stem, and with branching veins.