the natural Distribution of Insects and Fungi. 49 
induce us to grant to Bonnet the truth of his proposition, that 
affinities are continuous, and yet to agree with his opponents 
that the series of natural beings is not simple. This rule is, that 
Relations of Analogy must be carefully distinguished from Rela- 
tions of Affinity; for, as our author M. Fries most truly says, 
** Quo magis in superficie acquieverunt nature scrutatores, eo ma- 
gis analoga cum affinibus commutárunt ." 
The ideas of affinity and analogy are so distinct from each 
other in the mind of every person acquainted with the first 
principles of logic, that even while this distinction was'not laid 
down as an axiom in natural history, experienced naturalists 
perceived that every correspondence of character did not neces- _ 
sarily constitute an affinity. Thus the celebrated Pallas, in his 
Elenchus Zoophytorum, has well observed that Bonnet, in order 
to complete his linear scale of nature, was obliged to abandon 
the true vinculum of affinity, and to resort to such superficial or 
analogous characters as those which connect Vespertilio and Exo- 
cetus with birds. But the nature of the difference which exists in 
natural history between affinity and analogy, was I believe first 
discovered in studying Lamellicorn Insects ; and in the year 1819, 
when I published that discovery, the fifth part of an acute philo- 
sophical work, entitled Botanical Aphorisms*, appeared in Swe- 
den, wherein the distinguished cryptogamist M. Agardh proves 
by the following words, that he likewise had a slight glimpse of 
the same truth: “Analogia quzdam et similitudo in diversis serie- 
bus vegetabilium interdum cernatur, quasi progressa esset na- 
tura ad perfectionem per eosdem gradus sed diversà viâ.t” n 
; e 
- Aphorismi Botanici, quos venià Ampliss. Ord. Philos. Lund. Preside Carolo Ad. 
Agardh, &c. pro Gradu Philosophico, p. p. N. Kuhlgren, &c. p.v. Lundæ, 1819. 
* In the same little tract M. Agardh makes two other observations, which coincide 
with what I have noticed in the Animal kingdom. The first is as follows: “ Inter in- 
feriores formas superiores sæpe efflorescunt, sed rudes et veluti experimenta : sic anti- 
VOL. XIV. H cipationes 
MISSOURI 
BOTANICAL 
GARDEN. 
