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Remarhs cm the Arravgement of the Natural Botanical Fa-* 

 milies. By Sir Edwaed Ffrench Bkomhead, Barl. F. R. S. 

 Lond. and Edin. Communicated by the Author. 



It is instructive to review at intervals the progress of any 

 science. This will usually be found to depend upon a succes 

 sion of hypotheses, gradually approaching to the truth, each 

 conducting, like the approximate root of an equation, to a closer 

 approximation. The hypothesis is a nucleus round which facts 

 accumulate, and, even under the most erroneous hypothesis, 

 many facts are often truly arranged with respect to each other, 

 and afford materials ready fashioned for a new structure. This, 

 however, is generally forgotten, when the machinery has broken 

 down with its accumulated weight ; many facts, many valuable 

 principles, and much partial truth in the old hypothesis, are 

 overlooked in the rage for novelty, until some supposed dis- 

 covery is found to have formed part of a previous long-forgotten 

 system. 



The science of botany is now in an interregnum ; the method 

 of Jussieu, as far as extends to the classification of the natu- 

 ral families, has broken down. It was greatly shaken by Brown, 

 and subsequently by Decandolle and others, and has been final- 

 ly demolished by Lindley in his work on the Natural Orders. 

 At this period great caution is necessary, and a careful review 

 of the successes and failures of the past. 



Tournefort had found botany a mass of species ; by establish- 

 ing genera, and by acting on the principle, that *' we must first 

 form the generic group from nature, and afterwards endeavour 

 to detect the generic difference ;*" — he left botany a new science. 

 Linnaeus found Tournefort''s artificial classification of the genera 

 broken down, and the species become unmanageable. Rivinus had 

 thrown out the idea of a descriptive specific name in a single word ; 

 Linna?us saw the impossibility of this proposal, but established the 

 present minute accuracy of the science by inventing the trivial spe* 

 cific name. He also followed the true principle in establishing 

 his natural orders, adopting the idea of Magnol, that *' all the 

 parts of plants must be taken into account in judging of the af- 

 finities."" Nor did this great man, in founding the natural sys- 

 tem, neglect what had been done before ; he searched preceding 



VOL. XX. NO. XL— APRIL 1836. ^^^ ' «'" ^^W^^u jpt* ^umH 



