in. Natural History. 493 
Plantas ;” defining the last thus, ** Plante dicuntur reliquæ, que 
priores intrare nequeunt familias." Phil. Bot. 8 78. Take up 
Jussieu's * Genera Plantarum ;" and besides his ** Plantae incertæ 
sedis," see how he is obliged to dispose at the end of many or- 
ders his ** Genera affinia;" and ** Genera nondum satis determi- 
nata." This is true inductive philosophy ; yet the same author 
may be suspected of departing from this mode of investigation 
when lie attempts to edge in his remainder under artificial or 
sweeping characters, as he has done in Eleagni and Junci, and 
when, falling in with this modern innovation, he invents a mul- 
titude of new orders to embrace every known species of plant. 
The mammiferous animals are arranged with more ease ac- 
cording to a natural system, in consequence of their number 
being comparatively small, and their forms strongly marked. 
Nevertheless the system of M. Cuvier, in the ** Règne Animal," 
clearly shows the vain attempt of finding a place for every thing. 
Nothing can be more satisfactory and beautiful than many of his 
orders and divisions ; yet see how he is compelled to change his 
ground when he comes to the Pachydermata, and to huddle to- 
gether species very remotely connected. His birds also exem- 
plify the same fact, where his order Passeres is made to include 
all that. his other orders will not hold. “ Son caractère semble 
d'abord purement négatif, car il embrasse tous les oiseaux qui 
ne sont ni nageurs, ni échassiers, ni grimpeurs, ni rapaces, ni 
gallinacés.” Thus it contains the Warblers, the Shrikes, the 
Goatsuckers, the Crows, the Creepers ; birds of the most dis- 
similar habits, and living upon the most dissimilar food. The 
Chough is separated widely from the Corvi, and Anthus from 
Alauda: Now this is what we might expect from the nature of 
the subject ; only it is desirable that the remainder of unknown 
things should be distinctly avowed, and not reduced to an exact 
place in the natural system. Jussieu's was the most philosophic 
| mode, 
