438 Mr. W. S. MacLeay on the Dying Struggle 



method, either Dr. Fleming believes this to be a correct mode 

 of distributing animals, or an incorrect one. If he thinks it 

 correct, he by means of his binary system makes the notable 

 discovery, that insects and worms have all a heart and w^hite 

 blood ! And if he thinks it incorrect, it surely is as little a 

 proof of the beauty of the binary system as of the brightness 

 of his brains, that it should chime so readily in with error. 



A similar dichotomous dilemma may be applied to the 

 Doctor's botany : for in the same way this frisky and " frolick- 

 some" minister " makes a great leap" to plants ; and, to prove 

 his intimate acquaintance with natural orders, chooses, xolt 

 e^ox^rjv, the Linnaean class Diandria and order Monogijriia, a 

 group which most naturally lumps the ash, the speedwell, 

 the sage, and the duckweed, all together. The duckweed how- 

 ever running rather restive, our botanist very conveniently 

 leaves it out, and then divides his " Assemblage of approxima- 

 tions" thus, in what he calls "their proper subordination." 



1. Flores inferi monopetali. 



a. Regulai'es. 

 a a. Irregulares. 



/3. Fructus capsularis. 

 /3 /3, Fructus gymnospermi. 



2. Flores superi. 



Methinks I hear the veriest clodpoU that ever rang the 

 kirk-bell of Flisk here exclaim — 



" Minister, why I'll rime you so, eight years together; 

 dinner and supper and sleeping hours excepted : It is the right 

 butter-woman's rank to market. For a taste. 



'Man. 



1. Scotch. 



'1. Breeched, f 1. Dominies. 



1. Of Flisk. fl. D.D. ri. Fleming, r John. 

 < (.Not John.' 

 (_2. Not Fleming. 



2. Not D.D. 



2. Not of Flisk. 

 i_2. Not Dominies. 



2. Not Breeched. 

 2. Not Scotch. 



Thus there is no clodhopping lout in his parish that may 

 not always obtain, according to Dr. Fleming's wonderful plan, 

 two groups " or inferior divisions, the first distinguished by a 

 positive character, and the second by a negative;" and who 

 may not thus ultimately make out .John Fleming, Doctor of 

 Divinity and Dominie of Flisk, to be a breeched Scotchman, 



or 



