222 Dr Dtuibeny on (he Wrltinfis and 



venth of half that size, and yet it inchides only 102 natural 

 families ; whereas the whole ninnber comprehended in his son's 

 enumeration of those belonging to the class of flowering plants 

 is 195. 



It is true, that one of those completed is the immense order 

 of Compositae, which alone has been estimated atnearlyaquar- 

 terof the whole of the Dicotyledonous division ; but then, on the 

 other hand, it must be recollected, that, during the interval 

 since the work commenced, such vast additions have been made 

 to the catalogue of plants, that the families hereafter to be de- 

 scribed would be more voluminous in proportion than the 

 earlier ones. 



We may, therefore, perhaps calculate, that the Prodromus, 

 had it been completed, would have formed 15 volumes of 

 700 pages each ; but the plants described in the two volumes 

 of the Systema are compressed into 236 pages of the latter 

 work, so that the Systema, if executed on the same plan, 

 Avould have occupied no less than 44 volumes octavo. 



Foi-, if 23G pages ^ 1 vol. — 10,500 (viz. 15 vols, of 700 pages each) =: 14 vols. 



This great undertaking, commencing with the preparation 

 of the first volume of the Systema, which was published in 

 1818, occupied him till his death, which occurred in 1841 ; 

 but the last portion of it which appeared was the concluding 

 ]>art of the desci'iption of the Compositju, bearing the date of 

 1838. 



We must not, however, suppose, that the whole business of 

 his life during so long a period consisted in the exhausting la- 

 bour of describing and classifying species. From time to time, 

 for instance, during this interval he brought out those admi- 

 rable Monographs, in which he has delineated in so masterly a 

 manner the general characters of particular natural families. 



These Monographs were intended to serve as fuller expla- 

 nations of the grounds of that classification which he had 

 adopted in his Prodromus, as illustrations of those principles 

 which he had laid down in his Theorie Elementaire, and as cri- 

 ticisms on the plans of arrangement which had been proposed 

 by antecedent writers. 



They hold uu intermediate place between the mere particu- 



