THE JUSSIEUS AND THE NATURAL METHOD. 267 



among- botanists. In this memoir he lights the torch destined to gnide all the 

 great labors upon method executed during his era. I cite the following passage : 

 " There exist in vegetables, as in animals, primary classes which comprise other 

 secondary clases ; both are founded on general and invariable characters, which 

 can only be derived from the organs most essential to life, and the reproduction 

 of the species ; all beings which differ in the structure, situation and function of 

 these principal organs ought to be separated ; hence the first divisions of the 

 animal kingdom result from the inspection of the heart, the number of its ven- 

 tricles and auricles. The organs, which hold after this the first rank in the ani- 

 mal economy, will give the second divisions, and so on. This principle, from 

 which no departure can be made without lapse into error, is the foundatiou of 

 all researches in organized bodies ; nothing conclusive can be obtained from the 

 examination of the external parts, of those parts which supply, at most, charac- 

 ters of the third or fourth order ; methods founded on these characters always 

 deviate from nature, both in the animal and vegetable kingdoms. 



" These truths," he continues, "did not escape my uncle, and the arrangement 

 of families, in the garden of the Petit Trianon, proves that he was thoroughly 

 penetrated with them ; his order is more natural than the methods published up 

 to this time, because it is simple in its general divisions, and preserves the in- 

 tegrity of families. We find there the three primary classes, characterized by the 

 embryo ; the acotyledons are arranged according to the more or less marked ap- 

 pearance of the parts of fructification ; in the monocotyledons the author is 

 guided by the insertion of the stamens, and successively passes iir review the 

 stamens borne on the pistil, those which adhere to the calyx, and those which 

 are attached to the support. The dicotyledons are divided, likewise, by observing 

 that, when the corolla bears the stamens it is their insertion which becomes the de- 

 cisive character in referring the plants to oneof the three insertions of the stamens." 



For his classification Laurent takes from Linnaeus, as we have already seen, 

 the genera, the species, the nomenclature ; from Bernard, the orders, or natural 

 families ; from Tournefort, a means of multiplying the classes of Bernard, with- 

 out breaking up his orders or his families. The genera of Linnteus were the 

 most precise which had yet been known ; his species the most definite ; his no- 

 menclature was admirable. This nomenclature, which reduced the long phrases 

 of Tournefort and Gaspard Bauhin to two words for each plant, the name of 

 the species and the name of the genus, constituted in itself a great reform in the 

 science. Yet when the question arose of introdu cing it at the Jardin dcs PI antes, a 

 difficulty occurred ; Buffon, who was then intendant, rejected the Linutean names 

 simply because they were those of Linnaeus. A little reflection, however, recalled 

 him to a sense of right, and the Garden received at the same time the nomen- 

 clature of Linnaeus and the natural order of Bernard. A year later, instruction 

 was given only according to the new method. The presence of Bernard, coming 

 every morning to arrange the plants for the lectures, lent a sanction to the de- 

 velopment given by the young chief of the doctrine to the thoughts which had 

 been suggested to him by the old one. 



A science whose progress strikes the imagination is sm'e to attract a throng of 

 proselytes. Never had botany counted so many. The expeditions into the 

 country, to which Bernard had imparted so much interest, and which Linnaeus, 

 by adopting them, had rendered still moi*e famous, had now no other guide than 

 Laurent. Each spring-time saw the train which accompanied him increase in 

 number ; neither age nor celebrity stood aloof, for the same attraction captivated 

 all minds however different their predilections. There might be seen the youth- 

 ful son of a procurator, escaped from the jargon of the paternal office, who 

 merely skimmed the surface of botany preparatory to a bolder flight in another 

 science, through which he would one day endow his country with the glory 

 attached to the name of Lavoisier; or it might be Raynal, coming to seek the 

 scientific details embraced in his history of the two Indies. We have already 



