SYNOPSIS 



THE FAMILY NAIADES 



Most of the distinguished authors who have written on the 

 subject of the division of the Family Naiades of Lamarck, 

 have acknowledged the extreme difficulty they have encoun- 

 tered in separating it into subdivisions. This difficulty is not 

 peculiar to the Naiades. In most of the families where a 

 great number of species have been observed, we find the spe- 

 cies so merging, and in some of their characters so fading 

 away into each other, that we scarcely know how, indeed in 

 some instances it is impossible, to make the separation with pre- 

 cision. " Natura non facit saltum." In the vegetable kingdom 

 the same obstructions to a system are encountered. The ob- 

 servations of Lindley* are so just and philosophic, that I can- 

 not refrain from quoting them here : — 



" Species are created by Nature herself, and remain always 

 the same, in whatever manner they may be combined : they 

 form the basis of all classification, and are the only part of it 



» See Intro, to Botany, p. 307. 

 B 



