256 THE JUSSIEUS AND THE NATURAL JIETHOD. 



have been written at that time by any otber than the destined founder of the 

 natural method : " My object," he saye, " is not to demonstrate in lliis place the 

 preference of one method over another ; I only propose in the present memoir 

 to compose the history of a pingular plant of the environs of Paris, and, if I have 

 joined with this history, by way of digression, some observations which might 

 seem foreign to it, it is because I have thought them necessary for the perfect- 

 ing of the method. " " The character of a plant," he continues, " is what distin- 

 guishes it from all those which bear some relation to it; and this character, by 

 the established laws of botany, should be formed from an examination of the 

 parts which compose the flower. We call that an vnromplete tharacter, or with 

 M. Linnanis an artificial character, in which are described only some parts of 

 the plant, while silence is observed respecting other parts which, according to 

 the method one follows, are assumed to be unessential ; whereas we understand 

 by the natural character, that in which all the parts of the flower are designated, 

 and their number, \}in:\\ figure, and \)i\€\\ 'proportion are considered." 



This being premised, Bernard proceeds to inquire to what place in the botani- 

 cal field the plant which he is studying should be assigned, following first the 

 method of Tournefort, and then that of Linnicus, and he very correctly decides 

 that the generic characters proposed by Linnceus are better than those of Tourne- 

 fort. "This character," he says, (that, namely, derived from the method of 

 Tournefort,) " is incomplete, for it does not express all that is necessary to be 

 remarked in the flower of the Pilularia, and it is not possible, from such a 

 character, to give to this plant a place which will suit it in the classes of several 

 botanical methods. The mode in which iM. Linnaius establishes the natural 

 character of plants, in his book entitled Genera Plantarum, does afford this 

 advantage ; it is more exact, and appears to me to Jeserre some preference^* 

 From those last words we feel that Bernard already has a glimpse of something 

 preferable to the process of Linna3us ;t and, in effect, when he shall have suf- 

 ficiently matured his ideas, he will not stop, as he does here, with considering 

 together and on the same footing all the circumstances — number, situatum, 

 ■figure, proportion ; he will see that they have not all the same signification, the 

 same constancy, the same weight, and he will found the natural method on the 

 decisive principle of the relative importance of the characters. 



Quitting the memoir, I return to the letters and find there, at nearly every 

 step, proofs of the profound attention with which Bernard applied his mind, 

 from this time, to the search for the natural method. Linnajus makes an 



almost gpontaneous movement, or movement of attraction, and ajter the rent or expulsion of the 

 liquid, they remain flacxid and at rest." 



" In 1740, M. de Jussieu presented amemoironthe Lemma, a plant known to the ancients, 

 but in wliicli flowers had never been observed. He showed that the small bodies situated at 

 the base, and similar, in some respects, to those of the Pilularia, contain stamens and pistils. 

 He describes both with the same exactness, observes the same phenomena in the pollen of 

 the stamens, and draws the same consequences, assigning the Lemma to the family of 

 ferns, in proximity to the Pilularia." 



" The memoir presented in 1742 on a species of plantain which has but one flower at the 

 extremity of each stalk, is also very interesting. The author shows, in this plant, two 

 characters before unknown : the one, drawn from the absence of the pistil in this apparent 

 flower, which is male; the other, from the existence of several female flowers, hidden in the 

 axillie of the leaves, at the base of each stalk of male flowers." 



" In order to omit nothing of the little written by Bernard, we cite, in the last place, his 

 memoir of 1747, on the effects of the Ean de Luce (a mixture of volatile alkali and oil of yellow 

 amber) against the bite of vipers. " Having made repeated proofs of it," says Laurent, and 

 being well convinced of the eflicacy ot this substance, ho always carried a flask of it with 

 him in his herborizations." — {Notes manuscrites sur Bernard.) 



* Memoires de P Academie des Sciences, 1739. 



t We feel it also from these other words: " There can be no embarrassment in giving to 

 the Pilularia in the arrangement of plants, a place which will suit it, from its manner of 

 vegetating. As, in the natural method, the monocotyledons should form the first general 

 division of plants, we will place it there, and, if there is any class into which it can enter, it 

 appears to me to be that of the ferns." {Mem. de V Acad, des Sc, 17o9. ) 



