LINNJEAN SYSTEM, 513. 



has the Stamens on one plant, the Pistils on anotherj 

 thouo-h the rest of the genus has them united in the same 

 flower ; and there are several similar instances ; for 

 number in the parts of fructification is no more invaria- 

 ble than other characters, and even more uncertain than 

 such as are founded on insertion, or the connexion of 

 one part with another. Against these inconveniences 

 the author of this System has provided an all-sufficient 

 remedy. At the head of every Class and Order, after 

 the genera which properly belong to them, he enume- 

 rates, in italics, all the anomalous species of genera sta- 

 tioned in other places, that, by their own peculiar num- 

 ber of Stamens or Styles, should belong to the Class or 

 Order in question, but which are thus easily found with 

 their brethren by means of the index. 



It is further to be observed that Linnaeus, ever aware 

 of the importance of keeping the natural affinities of 

 plants in view, has in each of his artificial Orders, and 

 sections of those Orders, arranged the genera according 

 to those affinities ; while at the head of each Class, in 

 his Systema Vegetabilium^ he places the same genera 

 according to their technical characters ; thus combining, 

 as far as art can keep pace with nature, the merits of a 

 natural and an artificial system. His editors have sel- 

 dom been aware of this ; and Murray especially, in his 

 14th edition of the book just mentioned, has inserted 

 new plants without any regard to this original plan of 

 the work. 



From the foregoing remarks it is easy to comprehend 

 what is the real and highly important use of the Genera 

 Plantarum of Jussieu arranged -in Natural Orders, the 



QQ 



