Aittoine-Laurent Jttssieu. 21 



with the alliances drawn from the organs of fructification. 

 We may even say that this striking confirmation, obtained 

 from the structure of the stem, places the first three groups 

 of the vegetable kingdom in quite a distinguished rank, which 

 does not so accurately belong to the common name of dass, 

 given by M. de Jussieu alike to these three groups, and to the 

 others which immediately succeed. These first three may in- 

 deed be compared to the four great forms (ernhranchements), 

 vertebrata, mollusca, &c., which Baron Cuvier established in 

 the animal kingdom, and under which are ranged, at a certain 

 distance, the Classes properly so called ; an arrangement 

 which it will probably be expedient to adopt in both the king- 

 doms, and to designate by a peculiar and determinate appella- 

 tion. 



The question here occurs, How are we to fill up the inter- 

 val which separates these three primary groups of the vege- 

 table kingdom from the simple families^ without admitting 

 between these groups and the families any thing that is arbi- 

 trary or artificial ? And here, again, M. de Jussieu has the 

 merit of having traced the method of association, frequently 

 indicated in his work, between the several families ; a charac- 

 ter which was clearly seen, and distinctly expressed, by Mr 

 Robert Brown. " The real problem," says this excellent bo- 

 tanist, " is to combine the families into more considerable and 

 equally natural groups." And this problem has, in truth, 

 been already solved in a certain number of cases by Mr Brown 

 himself, and, when solved in the whole, it will yield the only 

 valuable general classification. 



When M. de .Jussieu published his work, he was, without 

 dispute, the first naturalist of his day. Nevertheless, we are 

 not to imagine that this work had, from the commencement, 

 all the reputation which it has subsequently acquired. It ap- 

 peared in the year 1789, in the midst of that great revolution, 

 which opened to France the portals of its new destiny, and 

 hence it was scarcely to be expected, that a revolution in the 

 humble science of botany would attract very peculiar atten- 

 tion. This work, moreover, was too much in advance of the 

 currently received ideas, to be comprehended without long and 

 severe study. It was, therefore, only gradually that the prin- 



