58 The Rev. P. Keith on the Classification of Vegetables, 



the vegetable kingdom. In later times, — that is, after the pe- 

 riod of the decline of learning, and interval of the dark ages, — 

 when science began to revive and the seeds of sound investi- 

 gation to take root, botanists began also to introduce into 

 their lovely study the principles of sound arrangement. Caesal- 

 pinus, Ray, and Tournefort may be named as individuals who 

 contributed much towards the introduction of a natural system, 

 although they were not fortunate enough to stumble upon the 

 true foundation on which alone it can be made to rest. Lin- 

 naeus himself lent his able aid, and in his Fragments of a Na- 

 tural Method exhibited to the botanical world the proofs of 

 his qualification for the task. There is no saying how far he 

 might have proceeded in the prosecution of his plan, if it had 

 not been that he was so much occupied in the perfecting of his 

 artificial method, — a mere stepping-stone to his natural me- 

 thod, — that he could not find time for the perfecting of both. 

 But by thus showing his disciples an easy and royal road to 

 learning, he unfortunately, and without thinking of it, adopted 

 the very means of preventing the student from entering upon, 

 or following up, the intricate and uninviting path that leads by 

 slow degrees to the elevated station from which he may discern 

 the beauties, and appreciate the value, of a natural arrange- 

 ment. 



Yet this laborious and uninviting task was at last under- 

 taken, and prosecuted with a success beyond all that could 

 have been expected. The principal part of the achievement 

 is usually ascribed to M. Bernard de Jussieu, and a subordi- 

 nate part to his nephew, M. A. Laurent de Jussieu, who is 

 represented as being merely the editor of the writings of his 

 uncle. This erroneous notion seems to have been taken up 

 hastily by the contemporary botanists of this country, and 

 handed down from one to another without much inquiry, till 

 at last it attracted the notice of M. Adrien de Jussieu, as oc- 

 curing in the Introduction to the Flora Indica of Messrs. 

 Wight and Arnott, and called forth a statement that settles 

 the respective claims of the uncle and nephew, and corrects 

 the error that had become too prevalent with regard to them. 

 (Annales des Sci. Nat,, Nov. 1834.) 



From this we learn that the uncle suggested indeed some 

 of the grand outlines of the Genera Plantarum, but gave no 

 filling up. He adopted the germination of the seed and the 

 relative disposition of the sexual organs as the only true ground 

 of all systematic arrangement. He formed families, but not 

 classes, and left, in short, nothing in writing but the manu- 

 script catalogues of the garden of Trianon. He died in 1777. 



But the Genera Plantarum secundum Or dines Naturales dis- 



