612 Historical Notice 



monopetalous and polypetalous are so, as his Dumosae and 

 Vepreculae. 



After Linnaeus followed Adanson, and Bernard De Jussieu, 

 who both, at nearly the same time, devoted themselves to the 

 study of the natural method. 



Adanson, struck with the variety of the then established 

 system, and perceiving that, notwithstanding the diver- 

 sity of the principles upon which they were founded, the 

 greater part agreed in preserving untouched certain groups 

 which the perception of natural relations pointed out 

 to all the world as naturally formed, thought that, by ex- 

 pressly multiplying systems, in founding them upon all the 

 organs, and all the observations which these organs could 

 furnish, we should thus render apparent all the relations 

 which exist between different vegetables ; and that, by classing 

 together in one family such of these genera as should be 

 united in the greatest number of these artificial systems, we 

 should arrive at a true natural classification. With this 

 object before him, he established sixty-five different systems, 

 founded, sometimes upon characters of real value, sometimes 

 upon such as were of trivial importance, and almost impos- 

 sible to define. From which it has resulted, that, assigning an 

 almost equal value to these different systems, the general 

 clssification which he has deduced from them, far from 

 being more perfect than that of Linnaeus, embodies a smaller 

 proportion of the natural relations. In fact, if, in order to 

 judge by comparison of the two systems, we apply to them the 

 principles admitted by Adanson himself, in order to judge of 

 the system which had preceded him ; that is to say, if we 

 examine how many there are of these groups, which, not- 

 withstanding the progress of the study of the natural families, 

 have continued to be admitted, or correspond to two or three 

 families, which our methods still leave beside one another, 

 we shall find that, among the sixty-seven families of Linnaeus, 

 thirty-four have undergone scarcely any alteration ; whilst, out 

 of fifty-eight families established by Adanson, only twenty-six 

 can stand the same test. Thus, the result of Adanson's long 

 and difficult labour, at an epoch when science had made 

 fresh progress, has conducted him to a result which comes 

 no nearer to the truth than that of Linnaeus. 



We ought, however, to observe, that Linnaeus, conscious 

 of the imperfect condition of the knowledge possessed in his 

 time with respect to the natural classification of vegetables, 

 had left at the end of his method, under the title of " Vagae 

 et etiamnum incertae Sedis," a tolerably numerous assemblage 

 of genera, but little known, and whose position appeared to 



