448 



our apology. We cannot but be convinced, and the ex- 

 perience of others is on our side, that discarding those 

 principles of the Linneean system which are derived from 

 the situation of the several organs of impregnation, and 

 making number paramount, has the most pernicious and 

 inconvenient effect in most respects, without being advan- 

 tageous in any. This measure neither renders the system 

 more easy, nor more natural, but for the most part the 

 reverse of both. We have elsewhere observed, (Intro- 

 duction to Botany, ed. 3. 358,) that the amentaceous 

 plants are of all others most uncertain in the number of 

 their stamens, of which Linnaeus could not but be aware. 

 " Even the species of the same genus, as well as indivi- 

 duals of each species, differ among themselves. How un- 

 wise and unscientific then is it, to take as a primary mark 

 of discrimination, what nature has evidently made of less 

 consequence here than in any other case ! " When such 

 plants are, in the first place, set apart and distinguished, 

 by their monoecious or dioecious structure, which is liable 

 to so little objection or difficulty, their uncertainty with 

 respect to the secondary character is of little moment ; 

 their genera being few, and the orders of each class widely 

 constructed as to number of stamens. Linnasus, doubt- 

 less, would have been glad to have preserved, if possible, 

 the uniformity and simplicity of his plan ; but if he found 

 it impracticable, who shall correct him ? Such an attempt 

 is too like the entomological scheme of the otherwise in- 

 genious and able Fabricius. The great preceptor having 

 arranged the larger tribes of animals by the organs with 

 which they take their various food, and which are there- 

 fore accommodated to their several wants, and indicative 

 of even their mental, as well as constitutional, characters, 

 Fabricius his pupil would necessarily extend this system 

 to insects. But nothing can be more misapplied. Feed- 

 ing is not the business of perfect insects. Many of them 

 never eat at all, the business of their existence through 

 the whole of their perfect state, being the propagation of 



