THEIR CHARACTERS. 36l 



by clear and decisive cliaraclers. The pp- 

 cies of /m form also a numerous genus, and 

 the Willows another ; while the curious Epi- 

 mediuni alpinuui, Engl, Eoi, f. 438, is toa 

 singular and distinct to be associated with 

 anv known plant besides, and constitutes a 

 genus by itself, as well as the Adoxa^ /.453, 

 and Linncea, t. 433. 



The first great and successful attempt to 

 defme the genera of plants was made by 

 Tournefort, and in this his transcendent me- 

 rit will ever be conspicuous, though his sy- 

 stem of arrangement should be entirely for- 



o'Otten, Not that he has excelled in verbal 



id 



definitions, nor built all his 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 sufTicient for all the plants that can be 

 discovered. He also laid it down as a maxim, 

 that all genera are as" mncii founded in na- 

 ture as the species which compose them ; and 



