OF JUSSIEU, 407 



system a very large assemblage of genera in- 

 capable of being referred to any Order what- 

 ever. Nor could a learner possibly use this 

 system as a dictionary, so as to find out any 

 unknown plant. The characters of the Or- 

 ders are necessarily, in proportion as those 

 Orders are natural, so widely and loosely 

 constructed, that a student has no where to 

 fix ; and in proportion as they are here and 

 there more defined, this, or any other system, 

 becomes artificial, and liable to the more ex- 

 ceptions. The way therefore to use this va- 

 luable work, so as to ascertain an unknown 

 plant, is, after turning to the Order or Genus 

 to which we conceive it most probably allied, 

 to read and study the characters and obser- 

 vations there brought together, as well as all 

 to which they may allude. We shall find we 

 learn more from the doubts and queries of 

 Jussieu than from the assertions of most other 

 writers. We shall readily perceive whether 

 our plant be known to him or not ; and if at 

 the same time we refer it, by its artificial 

 characters, to the Linnaean System, we can 

 hardly fail to ascertain, even under the most 

 difficult circumstances, whether it be de- 



