IJTTRODUCTOliT nEMAUICS. 9 



change of opinions of the respective authors, in a group of tlie 

 lower vegetables, Funai, and which is made public in a work 

 entitled "Systema Mycologicum, sistens Fungorum Ordines, Genera, 

 et Species."* 



Thirdhj. The exposition of the law, that the series of affinities 

 in groups of the animal kingdom is progressive, and that it 

 returns into itself ; and thus the groups form circles. 



Fourthly. That the primary groups of those departments of the 

 animal kingdom which have hitherto been investigated have been 

 ascertained to be limited to five. 



The laws enumerated in the third and fourth points have been 

 discovered to prevail in Mammalia by Dr. J. E. Gray, detailed 

 in the Annals of Philosophy, New Series, No. LIX., for November, 

 1823 ; in Birds, by N. A. Vigors, Esq., and have been detailed with 

 great clearness in an admirable Essay contained in the fourteenth 

 volume of the Transactions of the Linnsean Society, entitled, 

 " Observations on the Natural Affinities that connect the Orders 

 and Families of Birds \" and by Dr. J. J. Kaup, of Darmstadt, in 

 an excellent monograph of Falconidw, the subdivisions of which 

 agree with those of N. A. Vigors, Esq., independent of any mutual 

 communication of the respective authors ; in Crustacea, by Dr. 

 De Haan, of Leyden, who, in the Introduction of his work has the 

 following passage : — " Secuti sumus methodum circulorum qui- 

 nariam ab viro ornato Macleay in Horis Entomologicis expositum, 

 qua quippe via totum naturae schema aptius exponi ct affinitates 

 facilius indicari nobis visas sunt.^t — Prwmissa IX. 



* Referring to Mr. Macleay's paper, contained in the Transactions of tlie 

 Linntean Society, here cited, it may be proper in this place to give the substance 

 of the proposition of Fries in his own words : — " Affinia igitur sunt quce in 

 eadem serie sequuntur, et in se invicem transire videntur. Hjec in ultcrinribus 

 congi-uunt, sed in citerioribus rationibus differunt. Analoga autem dicimus quae 

 in diversis seriebus locis parallelis posita sunt, et sibi invicem correspondent." 



It is remarkable, that a similar law was noticed by Agardh, which in his 

 Aphorismi Botanici is described in the following words : — " Analogia qunedani et 

 similitudo in diversis seriebus vegetabilium interdum cernatur, quasi progressa 

 esset natura ad perfectionem per eosdem gradus sed diversa. via.." 



t fn the second chapla; De ratione, qua quinque sectiones Crustaceorum inter 

 se ligantur, he has the foUow'mrj remarks: — " Pluros Botanici et Zoologi in eo 

 conveniunt et vegetabilia et aniniiilia non tantum plures series distiiici.is 



VOL. I. 



