the natural Distribution of Insects and Fungi. 63 
ralist fancies that the determinate number into which these aco- 
tyledonous plants are distributed ought to be four; but finds it 
necessary, in order that it may coincide with observed facts, to 
make it virtually five. Nay, at last, in spite of the prejudice of 
theory, he is unable to withstand the force of truth, throws him- 
self into the arms of Nature, and declares that where he actually 
finds his natural group complete in all its parts, there the deter- 
minate number is five. 
Now, on considering that his work was given to the world two 
years after the first part of the Hore Entomologice, it is clear 
that, had M. Fries fixed at once on the number five, there might 
have been room for supposing, that he had not altogether trusted 
to his own observation, but had borrowed the idea of a quinary 
distribution. As matters however at present stand, this suppo- 
sition cannot for a moment be harboured; and I cannot help 
rejoicing that the strength of this beautiful theory should be so 
completely brought home to the conviction of every mind, as it 
must be, by observing the manner in which different persons 
have respectively stumbled upon it in totally distinct depart- 
ments of the creation. We may all possibly be wrong in part, 
or even in much of our respective details; but however this may 
be, it is difficult not to believe that we are grasping at some 
great truth, which a short lapse of time will perhaps develop in 
all its beauty, and at length place in the possession of every 
observer of nature. ; 
It may be well to note, that M. Fries draws in the clearest 
manner a distinction between his Hysterophyta or Fungi, and the 
Protophyta, which is a natural group consisting of the Linnæan 
Alec and Lichenes. He proves that they form two distinct series 
of vegetables having analogous exterior forms at their corre- 
sponding points. Hence, according to what has preceded, the 
Protophyta and Fungi form in the vegetable kingdom two primary 
groups 
