98 Mr. Roscoe oti Artificial and Natural 



principally offer themselves to our acceptance ; in which I shall 

 attempt to show, 



I. That the method of Jussieu is not in fact a natural, but 

 an artificial one. 



II. That, as an artificial method, the system of Jussieu is 

 inferior to that of Linnaeus. 



III. That the artificial and natural methods of arrange- 

 ment are, and must always remain, essentially different 

 from each other, as well in the means employed as in the 

 objects to be attained. 



I. Could we suppose it possible for a person to be born with 

 some superior instinct, which enabled him to decide at first 

 sight on the character of a plant, and the genus and order to 

 which it belonged, we might perhaps be induced to assent to 

 his decisions, and allow him arbitrarily to establish his system. 

 But, even with this conviction on our minds, circumstances 

 might arise to shake our belief in his infallibility; and if, like 

 Bernard de Jussieu, he should, in one short order of only 

 eight genera, unite together the Bromelia and the Hydrocharis, 

 the Musa and the Galanthus, we should perhaps feel inclined 

 to ask upon what similarity in the flower, root, or seed, he 

 had founded his opinion. — Nor would it be sufficient for the 

 ends of science, if the decisions of this superior being were 

 always free from error. For this purpose, we must not only 

 know, but must be enabled to communicate our knowledge to 

 others ; and how this could be done, without our giving some 

 specific reasons for our convictions, and for the assent to them 

 which we claim, it is not easy to conceive. 



These difficulties were perceived by the younger Jussieu ; 

 who, instead of giving us a mere list of genera, aibitrarily 

 arranged in orders, characterized from some one of the prin- 

 cipal genera in each order, has condescended to explain the 

 grounds of his opinions by an arrangement or system, founded 

 on the visible and tangible parts of the plants themselves. 

 From this moment it was evident that no supernatural intel- 

 ligence had dictated the arrangement; which, notwithstanding 

 its more imposing title, was to be judged of, like all other 

 arrangements, only by its superior ingenuity, accuracy, and 

 utility. It might indeed be more skilfully executed than the 

 system of Linnaeus ; but still it appealed to the same organs 

 of sense, and submitted to be judged by the same rules. 



In one view of the subject, all modern systems may indeed 

 be denominated natural, as they are all deduced from some 

 part, property, or peculiarity, of the plants themselves: those 

 of Morison, Ray, Herman, and Goertner, from the fruit ; of 

 Tournefort, Knaut, and Rivinus, from the corolla ; of Mag- 



noli 



