4*Z JVATUllAL CLASSIFICATION. 



unite in the same Genus, species with a cap- 

 sule, a berry or one seed ! — else with equal or 

 unequal calix, petals, pistils, stamens Slc.I — 

 else with Ovary inferior and superior ! — They 

 might as well unite a Grass with a Rose, Men 

 with Monkeys, and Bats with Birds. — They de- 

 plore the increase of Synonyms and overwhelm 

 us with useless names ; since all theirs must 

 be changed, and will be. 



The only plea ever given for artificial sys- 

 tems was their utility in the facility of finding 

 plants by analysis; but this use utterly fails 

 when the admitted aberrations are numberless. 

 In the sexual system they abound, and I have 

 often amused myself by defying a botanical 

 Student to find out some plants by it; Cleome 

 dodecandra for instance, my Polanisia gramo- 

 lens. But by the natural method uniting the 

 analytical process as I do, there is no difficulty 

 to find out Genera: while for Species, all being 

 reduced to their proper Genera, there is the 

 same facility. Not so by the distorted Genera 

 of many Botanists, one third of their Species 

 not possessing the generic characters ascribed, 

 can never be found out by beginners, while ex- 

 perienced botanists are directed by mere habit, 

 aspect, affinities, or something which cannot be 

 expressed, and is neither definite nor real nor 

 natural nor true. 



Nature in the spontaneous evolution of vege- 

 tation, baffles all our petty incongruities by ma- 

 king new Species out of varieties, and new Ge- 

 nera out of floral deviations! the process is not 

 always so quick as to be perceived in a few 

 years; but "^is very obvious to botanical obser- 

 vers who happen to study plants during 40 or 50 

 years. This fact Is then a truth, whoever 



