280 CONSTRUCTION OF 



Tlie beauty and perfection of these essential generic 

 characters consist in perspicuity, and a clear concise 

 style of contrasting them with each other. All feeble- 

 ness, all superfluity, should be avoided by those who 

 are competent to the purpose, and those who are not 

 should decline the task. Comparative words, as long 

 or short, without any scale of comparison, are among 

 the grossest, though most common, faults in such com- 

 positions. 



The natural character seems to have been, at one 

 time, what Linnaeus most esteemed. It is what he 

 has used throughout his Genera Plantarum, a work 

 now superseded by the essential characters in his 

 Systema Vegetabiliurn, and therefore in some measure 

 laid aside. The disadvantages of the natural character 

 are, that it does not particularly express, nor direct 

 the mind to, the most important marks, and that it 

 can accord only with such species of the genus as are 

 known to the author, being therefore necessarily im- 

 perfect. This kind of character is, however, admi- 

 rable for the illustration of any difficult natural order. 

 Mr. Gawler's elucidations of the Ensatce^ Sword- 

 leaved plants, An7Kik of Botany, v. 1 . 2 19, and Cw;Y. 

 Mag. aflford excellent specimens of it, serving as a 

 store of facts and observations for following systema- 

 tical writers. 



Specific characters should be constructed on similar 

 principles to the generic ones, as far as regards cer- 

 tainty, clearness and conciseness. The genus being 



