THEIR CHARACTERS. 361 



bj>- clear and decisive characters. The spe- 

 cies of Iris form also a numerous genus, and 

 the Willows another ; while the curious Epi- 

 medmm alpinum^ Engl. Bot. t. 438, is too 

 singular and distinct to be associated with 

 any plant besides, and constitutes a genus by 

 itself, as well as the Adoxa, /. 453, and Lin- 

 naa, t. 433. 



* The first great and successful attempt to 

 dehne the genera of plants was made by 

 Ton me fort, and in this his transcendent me- 

 rit will ever be conspicuous, though his sy- 

 stem or arrangement should ht entirety for- 

 gotten. Not that he has excelled m verbal 

 definitions, nor built all Iris genera on sure 

 foundations ; but his figures, and his enumera- 

 tions of species under each genus, show the 

 clearness of his conceptions, and rank him as 

 the father of this branch of botany. 



Linnaeus first insisted on generic charac- 

 ters being exclusively taken from the 7 parts 

 of fructification, and he demonstrated these 

 to be sufficient for all the plants that can be 

 discovered. He also laid it down as a maxim, 

 that all genera are as much founded in na- 

 ture as the species which compose them; and 



