THE JUSSIEUS AND THE NATURAL METHOD. 261 



Not a few botanists have attempted, as well since tlie deatb of Linnaeus as 

 during bis life, to discover tbe key of bis names, tbe bidden principle of bis order, 

 but none bas succeeded. Giseke, one of bis pupils, bad maintained at Gottingen, 

 in 17G7, atbesis on tbe Neio systems of botany, {Systemataplantarum.Tecentiora,) 

 and, in reference to tlie natural orders of Linnaeus, bad said : " Linnaeus bas 

 written a series of names, but notbing more ; no character, no description ; a 

 genuine enigma, almost impossible to divine ; one knows not wby sucb a plant 

 is placed bere, another there, nor what reason bas prevailed with tbe author for 

 uniting or separating them." After some hesitation be sent his thesis to Lin- 

 naeus, who answered him with bis usual good-nature : " You ask of me tbe char- 

 acters of my orders, and I confess that I cannot give them." 



Bernard would not have spoken thus lightly of his orders, and would not have 

 changed the arrangement be had given them for another, and this because he 

 possessed tbe key, tbe reason, the ascertained principle of that admirable arrange- 

 ment — a principle which, after having carried the natural method into botany, 

 bas carried it into zoology, and will carry it everywhere ; a principle which is 

 to-day so universally recognized under the name of tbe principle of the subordi- 

 nation of characters " In examining characters," says Laurent de Jussieu in 

 speaking of Bernard, "that botanist bad remarked that some were more general 

 than others, and ought to furnish the first divisions. After having appreciated 

 them successively, be had recognized that tbe germination of tbe seed and tbe 

 respective arrangement of tbe sexual organs were tbe two principal and most 

 invariable. He adopted them, and made them tbe basis of tbe arrangement which 

 he established at Trianon in 1759." 



There is, in effect, a visible succession, a visible subordination of tbe organs, 

 and consequently of tbe characters. In plants, the first rank pertains to the 

 embryo, the end and purpose of vegetation, as destined to preserve the life of 

 tbe species ; the second, to the organs which concur in tbe formation of that 

 embryo — that is to say, to the stamens and pistils — but taken together and con- 

 sidered in their reciprocal relations ; then come tbe organs which protect these 

 or the other parts of tbe flower, of the fruit, of the seed ; then the secondary 

 modifications of the essential organs themselves, considered separately; and then 

 the organs of vegetation, which contribute only to the individual life. Before Ber- 

 nard the characters -w&xq enumerated ; since his time, they are appreciated; we 

 know, since then, that they have unequal values, that a character of the first rank 

 is equivalent to several of the second, one of these to several of the third, &c. 

 Neither Tournefort,nor Adanson, nor Linnaeus bad discerned this controlling prin- 

 ciple ; Bernard perceived it, availed himself of it, and embodied it silently in his 

 catalogue; Laurent de Jussieu drew it thence, developed it, and placed it in full 

 light ; M. Cuvier transferred it, by giving it wider scope, from botany to zoology ; 

 and thus by successive steps we have been endowed with the natural method. 



§ 5. — Old age of Bernard. 

 " Convinced that principles exist ready formed in nature," (it is Laurent who 

 speaks,) " and that tbe botanist ought to confine himself to seeking them there, 

 without attempting to establish them apart from nature," Bernard bad excused 

 himself from tbe labor of composing a book. According to him, the perfect book 

 was open to all; it was only necessary to learn to read it. When he found 

 himself intrusted with tbe creation of a botanic garden, he could not fail to ex- 

 perience tbe liveliest pleasure, for it was the living book, of which he had in- 

 dulged a dream, that be was now commissioned to produce by arranging plants 

 in the natural order, of which he had discovered the clue. Simply to supply an 

 aid to bis memory, he had then composed bis catalogue, and such is tbe charm 

 of truth that this catalogue, which is only a long series of barbarous names, be- 

 came tbe poetry of a life instinctively devoted to one great task. 



