ON A. LAURENT DE JUSSIEU. 67 



may even say that this striking confirmation, drawn iVoni 

 the structure of the stems, does place the three grand groups 

 of the vegetable kingdom in a rank that M. de Jussieu's 

 name of Classes, bestowed on them in common with other 

 following groups, is far from indicating with sufficient em- 

 phasis. They may be compaj'ed with the four Branches of 

 tht Animal Kingdom established by M. Cuvier, and under 

 which are arranged at a due distance, the classes, pi-oYter]\' 

 so termed; and it might be as well that in both the animal 

 and vegetable kingdom, a suitable and determinate appella- 

 tion were bestowed on these great and leading divisions. 



How then may the interval which separates these three first 

 groups of the vegetable kingdom from the mere families be 

 filled up, without admitting, between these groups and these 

 families, somewhat of the artificial and arbitrary? Here, 

 again, M. de Jussieu has the merit of having indicated that 

 way, by the association (more than once hinted in his work), 

 which several families have one among another ; and this 

 again, has been admirably pointed out by Mr Robert Brown. 

 "The real and present difficulty," he says, *' is to combine 

 families into larger and equally natural groups." And it is 

 in fact, this very difficulty, that Mr Brown has himself admi- 

 rably mastered in a certain number of cases, which, if alike 

 effected throughout, would give us a perfect general classifi- 

 cation. 



When M. de Jussieu first published his work, he was un- 

 deniably the first Naturalist of his day, and yet it must be 

 owned that his labours did not then meet with the just appre- 

 ciation that posterity has bestowed upon them. The period 

 was 1789, and France was then in the midst of that mighty 

 revolution which opened to her all the gates of her new 

 destinies, so that it was little likely that much attention 

 could be spared for the revolution which was going on in 

 Botany. Besides, this work went too far beyond all received 

 opinions, to be comprehended without long study. Slowly, 

 therefore, did M. de Jussieu's ideas find a reception among 

 Naturalists and particularly among foreign Naturalists. 



