488 Mr. Bicugxo on Systems and Methods 
distinct genus, marked not only by its general habit or aspect, 
its uses and qualities, but also by essential characters in its teeth, 
hoofs, and internal constitution.; It was the circumscribing 
these insulated assemblages of species that Linnzeus regarded as 
the business of the accomplished naturalist: 
Those therefore who use the word genus in the Linnæan sense, 
do not employ it with the same meaning as those who regard 
genera as merely conventional, and subject to be broken down 
to suit convenience. ‘The latter would do well to employ some 
other term, else one great object will be lost at which we are 
aiming ;—the keeping together under some one common head 
those small assemblages of species which in some instances are 
so obvious, and so important in enabling us to comprehend and 
discourse of the scheme of nature. 
Whether such insulated groupings really exist, it is for the 
naturalist to determine, and this can be only inferred from a very 
extensive knowledge; but as long as we are witnesses to such 
striking modifications of form as we discover in the genus Erica, 
Rosa, Eriocaulon, &c., among plants, and in Vespertilio, Strix, 
Scarabeus, &c., among animals, it would be the height of folly 
to give up a term so expressive and at the same time so useful, 
or to transfer its received meaning to some other word which has 
not been used in the same sense. - | | ! 
As the success of the systematist depends so materially upon 
the proper use of these abstractions, I shall now proceed to show 
some distinctions which it is necessary to keep in view while we 
employ them. We aim, as I said before, at two distinct objects 
by the use of systems: we use the artificial for becoming ac- 
quainted with individuals, and the natural as the means of com- 
bining them, and enabling the student to comprehend and speak 
of the general truths relating to nature by a knowledge of a few 
particulars. —..— | 
Division 
