Emily Dickinson Lexicon

GE'NUS, n. [plur. Genuses or Genera. L. genus, Gr. γενος, Ir. gein, offspring, race or family, Sans. jana; hence, kind, sort. See Gender.]

1. In logic, that which has several species under it; a class of a greater extent than species; a universal which is predicable of several things of different species. Cyc.
2. In natural history, an assemblage of species possessing certain characters in common, by which they are distinguished from all others. It is subordinate to class and order, and in some arrangements, to tribe and family. A single species, possessing certain peculiar characters, which belong to no other species, may also constitute a genus; as the camelopard, and the flamingo.
3. In botany, a genus consists of such a group or assemblage of species as agree both structurally and physiologically, as respects the organs of fructification, reproduction or perpetuation, and at the same time have a general resemblance in habit.