i>SO OF GENERA AND 



adventitious qualities, from other plants, as to constitute 

 a distinct family or kind, no less permanent, and found- 

 ed in the immutable laws of the creation, than the dif- 

 ferent species of such a genus. Thus in the animal 

 kingdom, a horse, ass and zebra form three species of a 

 very distinct genus, marked, not only by its general 

 habit or aspect, its uses and qualities, but also by essen- 

 tial characters in its teeth, hoofs, and internal constitu- 

 tion. The lion, tiger, leopard, panther, lynx, cat, &c., 

 also compose another sufficiently obvious and natural 

 genus, and the numerous herd of monkeys, apes and 

 baboons a third. The elephant is, as far as we know, 

 a solitary species of a most distinct and striking genus. 



So among vegetables, the various species of rose com- 

 pose a beautiful genus, known to every one who ever 

 looked at a plant, merely by a certain combination of 

 ideas, but essentially distinguished, as we shall hereafter 

 find, by clear and decisive characters. The species of 

 Iris form also a numerous genus, and the Willows an- 

 other ; while the curious Epimedii{m alpinum^ Engl. 

 Bot. t. 438, is too singular and distinct to be associated 

 with any known plant besides, and constitutes a genus 

 by itself, as well as the Adoxa, t. 453, and Z.inn(^a, 

 t. 433. 



The first great and successful attempt to define the 

 genera of plants was made by Tournefort, and in this 

 his transcendent merit will ever be conspicuous, though 

 his system of arrangement should be entirely forgotten. 

 Not that he has excelled in verbal definitions, nor built 

 all his genera on sure foundations ; but his figures, and 

 his enumerations of species under each genus^-shovv die 



