425 



termined ; and the relationship of many of them to each 

 other either very disputable or not at all perceptible; there 

 being, moreover, a great number of genera which cannot 

 be referred to any of them ; the chain of connexion by 

 which they have, however ingeniously, been linked to- 

 gether, constitutes, in my opinion, but an artificial system, 

 infinitelyless easy and commodious than the professedly ar- 

 tificial system of Linnseus, and making combinations, in 

 several instances not more natural. This has been well 

 illustrated by my able friend Mr. Roscoe, in the eleventh 

 volume of the Linnaean Society's Transactions. No 

 one can deny that the present system of Jussieu offers 

 the whole vegetable kingdom to our consideration under 

 a most instructive view, as bringing together every ac- 

 knowledged point of affinity, and indicating even the 

 most remote. I only contend that it is but an artificial 

 and imperfect assemblage of natural orders, and that its 

 scheme of arrangement is totally unfit for the use of 

 beginners, the most learned, who have no occasion to at- 

 tend to it, being scarcely competent to unravel its nume- 

 rous contradictions and exceptions. What seems to me 

 most paradoxical is, that botanists, of the French school, 

 who are strenuous for the use of natural orders to the ex- 

 clusion of an artificial method, object altogether to the 

 principle of Linnaeus, that all genera are, or ought to be, 

 natural ; they assert, that all genera are mere artificial 

 combinations, existing in the mind of man only ; and yet 

 they will have their own orders, which are assemblages 

 of such genera, to be indisputably founded in nature. 

 In the one point or the other they surely must err. Both 

 appear natural to me, though I am very far from suppo- 

 sing that we have brought the knowledge of either to 

 perfection. We can only advance towards that point by 

 long experience and close observation. 



The best practical botanist, is he who knows the great- 

 est number of species, and combines them into the most 

 natural genera. The best theoretical one, is he who con- 



