8 INI. Flourens' Historical FJo<j<: uf 



some alteration was very generally felt. At the same time, 

 the number of the species of plants, which had been acquired 

 during this long interval, had vastly increased, and the former 

 space was very far from being sufficient. It was luider these 

 circumstances that BufFon proposed a plan for enlargement 

 worthy of the epoch on which his own name confers a date. 

 He explained his project to Louis XV. who was fond of botany, 

 and who adopted it. The garden was doubled in its dimensions ; 

 and from that time it became necessary that the whole portion 

 which was devoted to the School properly so called, should be 

 replanted. All that remained to be determined, was the method 

 which was to be pursued in this new plantation. The method 

 of Turnefort could no longer be maintained, at all events, as 

 a whole, and more especially since the prodigious progress 

 Linnaeus had made, first in the determination of genera, and, 

 then, in the simplification of the nomenclature. Nor could the 

 system of Linnaeus, in many respects so ingenious, with more 

 satisfaction be adopted, because, in fact, it was more re- 

 moved from the natural order, even than that of Tournefort. 

 Two plans, therefore, could only be thought of, either to cor- 

 rect the one of these systems by the other, or to establish a new 

 one ; and this dilemma formed a barrier to any immediate 

 progress. 



The new system proposed by ]\L de Jussieu was a sage 

 combination of the celebrated labours of Linnaeus, of Bernard 

 de Jussieu, and of Tournefort. From Linnaeus he borrowed 

 the genera, the species, and the nomenclature ; from Bernard 

 the orders, or the natural families ; and finally, from Tourne- 

 fort the means of multiplying the classes of Bernard without 

 disturbing his orders or his families. 



The genera of Linnaeus were the most precise which had 

 hitherto been established ; his species were the best deter- 

 mined, and his nomenclature was admirable. This nomencla- 

 ture which, as it regarded every plant, reduced the long 

 phrases of Tournefort and of Gaspard Bauhin to two words, 

 the name of the species and the name of the genus, constituted 

 alone, a very great reformation of the science. Nevertheless, 

 when its introduction was proposed into the Jardin dea 

 Flanies, a difficulty presented itself. The prejudice of Buffon 



