I watched with much joy and anticipation as the first buds appeared on some new rosebushes in my garden. The buds unfolded, revealing the color and form of the flowers, so that it was very easy to identify the different horticultural varieties.
While I marveled at the various kinds of roses, I also observed that every bush maintained certain common leaf and flower characteristics similar to those of wild roses. These are the generic characteristics that are universal and descriptive of every member of the genus Rosa.
Linnaeus, an early naturalist who introduced a workable classification system for plants and animals, attached to mankind the generic name Homo, and further qualified the highest and only living form as sapiens, meaning "the knower." This implies that Homo sapiens, men, are able to comprehend and think in an orderly, rational way. They have intelligence.
