SOUTH AMERICAN PLANTS. . 125 
artificial means, the most fitting position in the system for Sc/ero- 
phylax, which on account of its apparently anomalous structure, 
does not at first sight fall into any distinct place, and can hardly 
be attached as a suborder to any of the families here enumerated. 
This table, founded upon such artificial characters, appears to 
indicate by a gradual transition, a chain, nearly as perfect as any 
linear distribution, based upon more methodical principles, can be 
expected to exhibit, and certainly it does not materially differ 
from the most approved arrangement after the method of Jussieu. 
