This section is from the book "Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers", by Caroline A. Creevey. Also available from Amazon: Harper's Guide To Wild Flowers.
In classifying flowers, species which resemble one another are grouped into genera; genera having points of resemblance are grouped into families; these into orders, sub-classes, classes, etc. Many of the great families have characteristics so marked that we can at once relegate a flower to its family, thus taking a long step toward its identification. In the order of their rank, the principal marks of several important families are given here.
 
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