30 



MB. BENTHAM ON THE PBIKCIPLES 



Memorandum on the Principles of Generic Nomenclatiire in 

 Botany, as refe^ed to in the preceding Paper. Drawn up 



by G. BenthaM, Esq., F.L.S. 



[Read March 3rd, 1857.] 



Two of the chief objects of the systematist in botany are, first, 

 to collect plants into natural groups of successively higher value 

 and greater scope according to their mutual affinities ; and, se- 



;o fix upon certain stages of these successive groups to 

 mes should be attached for the purpose of reference. It 

 latter of these obiects that we would now chiefly direct 



our 



The grand object accomplished by Linnaeus in his npmenclature 

 was to create a language by which plants could be spoken of, and 

 by nieans of which groups of species (called genera) could be re- 

 ferred to, classed and treated of as easily as the species them- 

 selves. 



He accordingly, treating his genera as entities (to use a word 



natural 



'7 



artificial Classes and 



practical piu^oses into his well-known 

 Orders. 



The evident facilities for scientific study afforded by this group- 

 ing of species into natural genera, prompted Jussieu to carry the 

 principle much higher ; and, whilst he retained Linnean genera as 

 the basis of botanical language, he established, for the purposes of 

 science, his natural orders or groups of genera, which are in fact 

 nothing more than genera of a higher grade, and he distributed 

 these orders or large genera into classes and subclasses. 



This 



grouped 



natural orders, and 



arranged in classes more or less natural 



with a languagi 



ire names 

 adjuncts 



Substantively taken adjectives for the orders, 

 has been ever since universaUy followed in theory, but has been 

 most inconveniently departed from in practice. 



With the great increase in the number of species knoi?vTi, and 

 the increased facilities for the study of affinities afforded by the 



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