491 



hurtensis. instead of the long established incanus of Lin- 

 naeus ; Melampyrum violaceum, which is not correct, for 

 nemorosum, which is strictly so, and which preserves an 

 analogy with the rest of the species. 



We shall now undertake the consideration of the prin- 

 ciples that have been suggested, and the attempts that 

 have been made, respecting a 



Natural Classification of Plants. 



The sexual system of Linnaeus lays no claim to the 

 merit of being a natural arrangement. Its sole aim is to 

 assist us in determining any described plant by analytical 

 examination. The principles on which it is founded are 

 the number, situation, proportion, or connexion, of the 

 stamens and pistils, or organs of impregnation. These 

 principles are taken absolutely, with the sole exception 

 of their not being permitted to divide the genera, that is, 

 to place some species of a genus in one part of the system, 

 and others in another, though such may differ in the 

 number, situation, proportion, or connexion of their sta- 

 mens or pistils ; those characters being possibly artificial, 

 while the genera are supposed, or intended, according to 

 a fundamental law independent of all systems, to be na- 

 tural assemblages of species. We need not here explain 

 the mode in which Linnaeus has provided against any in- 

 convenience in practice, resulting from such anomalies of 

 Nature herself. 



But though this popular system of Linnaeus does not 

 profess to be a natural method of classification, it is, in 

 many points, incidentally so, several of its classes or or- 

 ders whose characters are founded in situation, proportion, 

 or connexion, being more or less perfectly natural assem- 

 blages ; nor can it be denied that, on the whole, it usually 

 brings together as many groups of natural genera, as oc- 

 cur in most systems that have been promulgated. This 

 fact would be more evident, if the various editors of this 



