214 ESSAY ON CLASSIFICATION. 



Trembley, Smeathman, the two Hubers, Bewick, Wilson, 

 Auclubon, Naumann, etc. Others have applied themselves 

 almost exclusively to the study of genera. Latreille is 

 the most prominent zoologist of this stamp ; whilst Lin- 

 nseus and Jussieu stand highest among botanists for their 

 characteristics of genera, or at least for their early suc- 

 cessful attempts at tracing the natural limits of genera. 

 Botanists have thus far been more successful than zoolo- 

 gists in characterizing natural families, though Cuvier and 

 Latreille have done a great deal in that same direction in 

 Zoology, whilst Linnaeus was the first to introduce orders 

 in the classification of animals. As to the higher groups, 

 such as classes and types, and even orders, we find, 

 again, Cuvier leading the procession, in which all the 

 naturalists of this century have followed. 



Now, let us inquire what these men have done in 

 particular to distinguish themselves especially, either as 

 biographers of species or as characterizers of genera, of 

 families, of orders, of classes, and of types. And, should 

 it appear that in each case they have been considering 

 their subject from some particular point of view, it strikes 

 me, that, what has been unconsciously acknowledged as 

 constituting the particular eminence or distinction of 

 these men, might very properly be proclaimed, with 

 grateful consciousness of their services, as the charac- 

 teristic of that kind of groups which each of them has 

 most successfully illustrated ; and I hope every unpre- 

 judiced naturalist will agree with me in this respect. 



As to the highest divisions of the animal kingdom, first 

 introduced by Cuvier under the name of embranchements 

 (and which we may well render by the good old English 

 word branch), he tells us himself that they are founded 

 upon distinct plans of structure, having been cast, as it were, 



