ARRANGEMENT OF PLANTS. 375 



To some persons it may appear that this arbitrary distribution of the 

 vegetable kingdom, according to the number of parts of a particula- 

 kind, cannot deserve to be spoken of as a great discovery. And if, 

 indeed, the distribution had been arbitrary, this would have been true ; 

 the real merit of this and of every other system is, that while it is artifi- 

 cial in its form, it is natural in its results. The plants which are asso- 

 ciated by the arrangement of Ctesalpinus, are those which have the 

 closest resemblances in the most essential points. Thus, as Linnaeus 

 says, though the first in attempting to form natural orders, he observed 

 as many as the most successful of later writers. Thus his Legumina 11 

 correspond to the natural order Leguminosce ; his genus Ferulaceum 

 to the Umbellatce ; his BulbacecK 13 to Liliacece ; his Anthemides 1 ' tc 

 the Composite; in like manner, the Boraginece are brought together," 

 and the Labiates. That such assemblages are produced by the appli- 

 cation of his principles, is a sufficient evidence that they have their 

 foundation in the general laws of the vegetable world. If this had 

 not been the case, the mere application of number or figure alone as a 

 standard of arrangement, would have produced only intolerable ano- 

 malies. If, for instance, Csesalpinus had arranged plants by the num- 

 ber of flowers on the same stalk, he would have separated individuals 

 of the same species ; if he had distributed them according to the num- 

 ber of leaflets which compose the leaves, he would have had to place 

 far asunder different species of the same genus. Or, as he himself 

 says, 16 " If we make one genus of those which have a round root, as 

 Rapum, Aristolochia, Cyclaminus, Aton, we shall separate from this 

 genus those which most agree with it, as Napum and Raphanum, 

 which resemble Rapum, and the long Aristolochia, which resem- 

 bles the round ; while we shall join the most remote kinds, for the 

 nature of Cyclaminus and Rapum is altogether diverse in all other 

 respects. Or if we attend to the differences of stalk, so as to make 

 one genus of those which have a naked stalk, as the Junci, Csepe, 

 Aphacai, along with Cicoracea?, Viola?, we shall still connect the most 

 unlike things, and disjoin the closest affinities. And if we note the 

 differences of leaves, or even flowers, we fall into the same difficulty ; 

 for many plants very different in kind have leaves very similar, as 

 Polygonum and Hypericurn, Ernea and Sesamois, Apium and Ranun- 

 culus ; and plants of the same genus have sometimes very different 



11 Lib. vi. Lib. viL 1S Lib. x. " Lib. xii. 



" Lib. xi. 1S Lib. i. cap. xii. p. 25. 



