OBSERVATIONS ON THE COMPOSITE. 55 



In fuller terms; that a genus is first recognized, and after- 

 wards defined; and that its acceptability, as a genus, depends 

 more upon the intuitions of the experienced botanist, than 

 upon the characters of flower and fruit which by examina- 

 tion and comparison he may be led to assign it; in a word, 

 that a genus bears some general features — presents some 

 scarcely definable physiognomy — which, as a whole, signifies 

 more to the systematist than does any technical peculiarity. 



That this is a leading principle in plant classification no 

 one that I know of has denied; yet there is always a tend- 

 ency to swerve from this fundamental axiom, in practice, and 

 to act as i£ the reverse were true; to proceed as if on the 

 principle that there is first a technical character to a genus, 

 and that the presence or absence of this decides everything, 

 without reference to habit, fades or any other consideration. 

 It is, indeed, to be suspected that our botanists who so freely 

 reduce the genera of Compositse ,are working by an inversion 

 of the rule. 



No man has more clearly apprehended or more for- 

 cibly enunciated this fundamental principle of generic rec- 

 ognition and determination than did Nees ab Esenbeck; 

 and it was the critical study of the allies of Aster which led 

 him to realize to the fullest extent, the imperative necessity of 

 adhering to this principle. There was, for instance, no 

 character to be assigned even the genus Solidago as distinct 

 from Asierj but he could not bring himself to think them 

 one genus, and, leaving Solidago in generic rank, he was 

 happy in submitting to the guidance of reason, consistency, 

 and to his own delicate phytologic instincts, and thus 

 separating from Aster other equally natural generic groups 

 which had been confused with it in the writings of others. 



Professor Baillon does not openly ignore the importance 

 of habit as a key to affinities; but it may almost be said that 

 in practice he does so, for he restores to Aster more than 

 thirty genera which others had taken out of it; while Dr. 

 Kuntze — the still more radical and extreme representative of 

 those who invert the natural order of procedure, and ignore 



