The Rev. P. Keith 07i the Classification of Vegetables. 4V 



it is not from any single trait of resemblance that natural or- 

 ders are to be determined, but from the sum of the affinities 

 discoverable in the number, form, structure, and position of the 

 several organs composing the stem, leaf, flower, fruit, or seed, 

 the organs last developed being regarded as the most important. 

 Such is the sure foundation on which the system of Jussieu 

 is built; but still its merits were not at first duly appreciated, 

 whether in France or in other countries. The eclat which the 

 name of Linnaeus jjave to the sexual system was such that no 

 system standing in opposition to it was likely to succeed. Its 

 novelty, its facility, its beauty, were attractions that could not 

 be resisted. Hence Jussieu had man}' prejudices to encounter, 

 and a host of adversaries to discomfit, before he could divest 

 the natural system of the dreaded difficulties which the study 

 of it seemed to involve, and to present it to the botanical stu- 

 dent in a fair and favourable light. Yet, ii^ spite of all ob- 

 stacles, its superiority to every other system forced itself at last 

 upon the notice of botanists, and began to make converts even 

 from among the disciples of Linnaeus. In France, the late JVi. 

 Richard, the Chevalier Aubert du Petit Thouars, M. Mirbel, 

 and the elite of the French school were amons the first to 

 enrol themselves under the standard of Jussieu; m Germany, 

 Kunth, Von Martius ; and in Switzerland, M. DeCandolle. 

 But the botanist whom we regard as having distinguished 

 himself the most conspicuously in the elucidating and perfect- 

 ing the system of Jussieu, is our celebrated countryman and 

 fellow- Li nnaean Dr. Robert Brown, as may be seen by con- 

 sulting liis Prodromus Florce Nova Hollaridics, or his papers 

 published in the Linnaean Transactions, particularly that on 

 the Proteaceae of Jussieu, and on the organs and mode of fe- 

 cundation in theOrchideae and Asclepiadese; together with that 

 on the genus Rafflesia, followed by a paper read at a meeting 

 of the Society, June 17, 1834, in which he completes his ^c- 

 count of Rafflesia Arnoldi, VLnd creates a new order, which he 

 denominates Rafflesiaceae*; all discovering a profundity of re- 

 search, an acuteness of discrimination, and a peculiarity of tact 

 in seizing the essential character that connects or disunites the 

 subjects of his investigation, which, without his assuming any- 

 thing of bold or of arrogant pretension, have elevated him to 

 a rank beyond that of all his competitors, and established his 

 claim to the compliment that was formerly paid to Linnaeus, 

 namely, that of his being emphatically, and in the estimation 

 of botanists themselves, Botanicorum facile princepsf. We 



* [An abstract of Dr. Brown's paper was given in Lond. and Edinb. Phil. 

 Mag , vol. V. p. 70. — Kdit.] 



t Arnott, Encyc. Brit.y art. Bot. 

 Third Series. Vol. 10. No. 58. Jan. 1837. G 



