IN NATURAL CLASSIFICATION. 577 
fore, state my views, which will be found to differ in little, 
save arrangement, from those put forward by MM. Antoine 
de Jussieu and De Candolle. To these eminent men we 
principally owe this. noble application of logic ; and sheltered 
by their reputations, fearful of my own judgment, I present 
to the reader the following theory of classification. 
It being granted, that all vegetables perform the same func- 
tions (nutrition and reproduction) ; that vegetables are com- 
posed of organs; that those functions are performed by 
these organs; that there are most commonly many organs 
engaged in the performance of the same function, and that 
this combination may be called an apparatus; that the 
organs in an apparatus differ from each other; and that in 
different vegetables, the organs engaged in the performance 
of the same function are sometimes similar, sometimes dis- 
similar: it is still necessary for the purposes of classifica- 
tion, to admit these two other postulates, namely, that the 
different organs in an apparatus are some more, some less 
essential to the performance of its special function; and 
again, that the same organ possesses different attributes, or 
more correctly, abstract modes, such as position, form, size, 
colour, etc. ; and that these modes are some more, some less 
essential to the performance of the function, to which the 
said organ is subservient. 
Thus, the function of reproduction requires for its perfection, a resem- 
blance between the parent and offspring; and this resemblance more im- 
mediately depends on the position of the embryo, than on its form (which 
is the result, more or less, of the former), more on its form than on its 
colour. 
I must pray the indulgence of my readers, for defining. 
Occasionally, some terms, as my object in doing so is e 
avoid the possibility of misconstruction. For this reason, I 
may be permitted to define a character in vegetable taxo- 
nomy, as a term applied to an. organ considered in an abstract 
mode. Thus, an erect embryo; a funnel-shaped corolla; an 
ovate leaf; these are characters. 
