622 Historical Notice 



Jussieu began then to publish a series of memoires, in which 

 he examines particularly the general characters of families, 

 drawn from the seed, and confirmed or rectified by the 

 observations of Gaertner ; but in which he shows, at the same 

 time, the additions which these families had received since 

 the publication of the Genera, and discusses the disputed 

 points of organisation or synonymy; displaying always great 

 talent in the examination of obscure genera, often ill described 

 by their authors, and of which he refers the organisation to 

 their true types with remarkable penetration, which recent 

 observations have almost always confirmed. 



This revision forms the object of fifteen papers, published 

 from 1804? to 1819, and includes all the families of dicoty- 

 ledonous, apetalous, and monopetalous plants, as well as the 

 polypetalous, epigynous, and hypogynous. 



Always anxious to complete the view of the vegetable king- 

 dom which the Genera Plant arum presented, and to place 

 this work on a level with new discoveries and the progress of 

 the science, A. L. De Jussieu published successively other 

 papers, which had for their object the establishment of new 

 families, founded upon genera whose organisation was not well 

 known at the time of its publication, or whose formation had 

 been rendered necessary by the numerous discoveries resulting 

 from recent scientific voyages, which had introduced into our 

 collections so many specimens that were either completely new 

 or associated with genera till then isolated, and which bota- 

 nists had, therefore, not ventured to make types of particular 

 families. It was thus that the author of the Genera, in re- 

 touching the first edifice which he had reared, showed that he 

 himself considered this monument as susceptible of modifi- 

 cation and completion ; for, like all men of elevated genius, 

 he knew that the sciences never remain stationary, and was 

 aware that the natural method must perfect itself in propor- 

 tion as botany became more widely extended. 



He added, thus, to the families admitted into the Genera 

 Plantarum of 1789 those of the Loaseae, the Passifloreae, the 

 Monimiae, the Lobeliaceae, the Polygaleae, and the Parony- 

 chieae ; and, finally, many papers had in view the examination 

 of obscure genera, whose connexion with known genera and 

 natural families was difficult to establish ; among these are the 

 papers upon the Phelypa? v a of Thunberg, and the Hydropityon 

 of Gaertner ; upon many genera of Laurinae, which might be 

 united into one ; and upon different genera of Loureiro. 

 There are, perhaps, few larger papers which prove better 

 than these brief notices the judgment and extensive knowledge 

 of Antoine Laurent De Jussieu ; and we perceive every mo- 



