PROGRESS TOWARDS A NATURAL SYSTEM. 411 



(1843) ; Adrien de Jussieu's Couers Elmcntaire cTHistoire Naturelle . 

 Botanique (1844). 



Mr. Lindley, in this as in all his works, urges strongly the superior 

 value of natural as compared with artificial systems ; his principles 

 being, I think, nearly such as I have attempted to establish in the 

 Philosophy of the Sciences, Book viii., Chapter ii. He states that the 

 leading idea which has been kept in view in the compilation of his 

 work is this maxim of Fries : " Singula sphasra (sectio) ideam quandam 

 exponit, indeque ejus character notione simplici optime exprimitur;" 

 and he is hence led to think that the true characters of all natural 

 assemblages are extremely simple. 



One of the leading features in Mr. Lindley's system is that he has 

 thrown the Natural Orders into groups subordinate to the higher divi- 

 sions of Classes and Sub-classes. He had already attempted this, in 

 imitation of Agardh and Bartling, in his Nixus Plantarum (1833). 

 The groups of Natural Orders were there called Nixus (tendencies) ; 

 and they were denoted by names ending in ales ; but these groups 

 were further subordinated to Cohorts. Thus the first member of the 

 arrangement was Class 1. EXOGEN.E. Sub-class 1. POLYPETAL^E. 

 Cohort 1. ALBUMINOS^E. Nixus 1. Ranales. Natural Orders in- 

 cluded in this Nixus, Ranunculacea?, Saracenicese, Papaveracese, &c. 

 In the Vegetable Kingdom, the groups of Natural Orders are termed 

 Alliances. In this work, the Sub-classes of the EXOGENS are four : T. 

 DICLINOUS ; n. HYPOGYNOUS ; in. PERIGYNOUS ; iv. EPIGYNOUS ; and 

 the Alliances are subordinated to these without the intervention of 

 Cohorts. 



Mr. Lindley has also, in this as in other works, given English names 

 for the Natural Orders. Thus for Nymphaceae, Ranunculacece, Tama- 

 ricacece, Zygophyllacea, Eleatrinacece, he substitutes Water-Lilies, 

 Crowfoots, Tamarisks, Bean-Capers, and Water-Peppers ; for Malva- 

 ce<z, Aurantiaceee, Gentianacece, Primulacece, Urtiacece, Euphorbiacea, 

 he employs Mallow-worts, Citron-worts, Gentian-worts, Prim-worts, 

 Nettle-worts, Spurge-worts ; and the terms Orchids, Hippurids, Amaryl- 

 lids, Iricls, Typhads, Arads, Cucurbits, are taken as English equivalents 

 for Orchidacecz, Halorayacece, Amaryllidaccce, Iridacece, Typhacece, 

 Aracece, Cucurbitaceae. All persons who wish success to the study of 

 botany in England must rejoice to see it tend to assume this idiomatic 

 shape.] 



