18 M. Flourens' Historical Eloge of 



what is most important in these groups ; he only ?Arm\s fami- 

 lies, the number of which he extends to fifty-eight ; he does 

 not admit classes, — he perceives not, that comprehension of all 

 the groups into one another, from the first to the last, from the 

 species even to the kingdom, and that graduated generaliza- 

 tion which from species ascends to genera, from genera to fa- 

 milies, from families to classes, from classes to a kingdom, and 

 which, under another point of view, that is to say, an abstract 

 one, is the vi^hole of arrangement, — this graduated generaUza- 

 tion, we repeat, completely escaped him. 



The individual from whom M. de Jussieu reaped most ad- 

 vantage in the compilation of his work, was his uncle Bernard ; 

 whilst it is also true that the Catalogue, like Linnaeus' table of 

 orders, was only a series of names. The principles, however, 

 which guided Bernard in his Catalogue, both in the formation 

 of families, and the reduction of families into classes, have 

 been faithfully preserved by his nephew, and they are those 

 of which the exposition has been given above, — the subordi- 

 nation of the characters among themselves, and the adjust- 

 ment of these characters to the groups. 



Bernard, therefore, had thus the honour of laying the foun- 

 dation of the Natural Order, because he caught the princi- 

 ples upon which this order is founded. But, on the one hand, 

 he confined himself to the application of these principles, 

 without at all developing them, and probably without even 

 eliminating the theory ; and, on the other hand, even when 

 he applied it, he restricted himself to a series of names. 

 There is nothing in Bernard, either of that philosophy of ar- 

 rangement which has discovered a new horizon for the natural 

 sciences, or of that matured selection of characters which, 

 difi^erently grouped, supply whole families ; and these are 

 truly the two unchangeable claims upon which rest the me- 

 rits of M. de Jussieu. No one will, we trust, suspect us of 

 wishing to exalt the one of these celebrated men at the ex- 

 pense of the other. Bernard is the discoverer, and he made 

 the first advances on the path : and if his nephew has gone 

 farther than he did, it is because he started from that advanced 

 position to which his uncle had led liim. It is the truth only 

 that we here seek, and this solely in the study of their thoughts, 



