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230 INTRODUCTION TO BOTANY.
convenient ; but he cannot too soon endeavour to becoraie
acquainted with the natural method, and ai-range his col-
lection by it : this being the ultimate goal of the science, to
which the two other arrangements are merely subordinate.
Whatever arrangement is adopted, the leaves charged
with the plants of the same genus, or, in other words, which
bear the same common or family name, as the various
kinds of poppy, pnpaver^ mint, mentlia, &c. ai'e to be collected
together and placed between the fold of a sheet of
paper, inscribed with the common name: when this common,
or generic name as it is called, comprises a great
number of species, as in willow, salix, rose, rosa, the genus
must be divided into sections, and a sheet allotted to each
section.
These genera, or first divisions, are then to be distributed
into larger collections, either by their initial lettersj
orders, or families, and each of these grand divisions placed
in a kind of port-folio, usually made of strong blue or cai^
tridge paper, and inscribed with its proper distinction.
Lastly, these port-folios are to be placed methodically
in a cabinet of a proper size, the shelves of which are
either the size of the port-folios, or which will hold two or
more of them. Linnaeus and Withering have given sections
of such cabinets, with the shelves placed at different distances,
so as to hold the plants of one of their classes in
the order in which they occur in their systems ; but as the
greater divisions of both the natural and artificial arrangements
are very unequal, so that some shelves are ordered
by them to be only two and others fourteen inches apart;
•this is very awkward, and it is far better to have the shelves
at equal distances, and to mark, by appropriate labels, the
contents of each shelf.
When, instead of a general collection, the botanist intends
only a collection of the plants of the country in which
he lives, and there exists any good systematic catalogue of
them, it may be sufficient, if he procure a sufficient number
of folio or quarto volumes of blue or cartridge paper, having
the alternate leaves cut out within an inch of the back, as
arc sufficient for the large plants, and writing the names of
the several species at the head of the pages, allowing one to
each, fills them up as he procures the plants, and dries them:
in many cases, when the plants are not succulent, they may
be put at once in their place. The mosses may have a
similar series of octavo or duodecimo volumes allotted for