Antoine-Laurent Jussieu. 7 



come popularly known by the ingenious system of Linnaeus, 

 were confirmed by the accurate experiments of Linnaeus him- 

 self, by those of Gleditsch, and of Koelreuter, and thus the 

 physiological problem was settled. 



It is to M. de Jussieu that we owe the solution of the 

 problem which relates to arrangement. He noticed that the 

 corolla and the calgx were wanting in a great number of 

 plants. The pistils and the stamens again were more essen- 

 tial, were the producing parts of the embryo — of the new 

 being — and were always present ; but, taken separately, these 

 organs supplied only incomplete alliances — natm'al alliances, 

 and complete ones, are furnished only by the two organs 

 taken together, and considered as regards their respective 

 insertion. The insertion, then., of the stamens in the flower., 

 forms the first character. The primary character of the seed 

 is drawn from the lobes of the embryo — the new existence. 

 These lobes are the first leaves of the new plant, the oi'gan 

 which supplies to it its first aliment, or at least prepares it 

 for it. It will readily be understood, then, to use a happy 

 expression of M. de Jussieu himself, that the remarkable 

 and simple diff^erences which are observed in these first organs 

 must exert a peculiar influence upon the general development 

 of the plant, and upon its whole organization. All the other 

 parts of the seed, those which are strange to the new being 

 and the parts of the seed properly so called, such as the 

 seminal envelopes., the perisperm, &c., are only secondary 

 portions. This memoir of M. de Jussieu, in which he laid 

 the foundation of the science of characters, bore the date, as 

 we have stated, of the year 1773 ; and this memoir opened 

 to him the doors of the Academy. 



Next year, 1774, he presented to the same learned body 

 another paper, which was more extended and complete, and 

 in which his leading ideas were again reviewed, somewhat 

 differently arranged, and detailed with more clearness and 

 precision. The occasion of this second memoir was the fol- 

 lowing : — The arrangement of Tournefort, which this gi'eat 

 botanist himself established in the Jardin des Plantes, still 

 prevailed there in the year 1774, in spite of all the changes 

 which had taken place in the science ; and the necessity of 



