980 



should lay aside the Linnsean system, the " last loved echoes " of 

 Monandria and Diandria would soon die away, and the faint glim- 

 mering light of the Swedish botanist be eclipsed by the noon-tide 

 splendour of the "System of Nature." As, however, unfortunately, 

 this pitch of perfection has not been reached, nor in my opinion ever 

 will, nor ever can he, I must take leave to dispute the existence of 

 these "regular gradations of affinity," and count all systems hitherto 

 propounded as alike remote from the System of Nature. Which must 

 necessarily be the case, for I maintain no such system exists, save in 

 the heated imaginations of some over-enthusiastic followers of this 

 visionary school. 



Allow me to ask Dr. Ayres, if one group of plants is defined ac- 

 cording to the character of its stamens, and another according to the 

 character of its seeds, are they not both equally " artificial " ? We 

 shall find that the latter condition is frequently the case in many " na- 

 tural " orders, for when their definitions are disencumbered of super- 

 fluous matter, their essential characters are as limited as those of the 

 Linnsean system.* 



We shall take our former example, Ranunculaceae, and after reject- 

 ing the characters which are either inconsistent, and therefore impro- 

 per to be introduced into Nature's own system, or common to other 

 groups, we shall see what a multitude of points the plants referred to 

 agree in. The definition given by Dr. Ayres from Lindley, is, " Po- 

 lypetalous dicotyledons with hypogynous stamens, anthers bursting 

 by long slits, several distinct simple carpella, exstipulate leaves 

 sheathing at the base, solid albumen and seeds without arillus." Now 

 all the species are not " polypetalous," inasmuch as some are apeta- 

 lous^'' neither have all the species " several distinct simple carpella," 

 for in some species the carpels are coherent, — partially in Nigella and 

 wholly in Actaea. Other orders are, equally with Ranunculaceee, " di- 

 cotyledonous with hypogynous stamens, anthers bursting by long slits, 

 exstipulate leaves sheathing at the base." Thus the characters drawn 

 from the seeds are the only unexceptionable ones, and the group is 

 manifestly as artificial as if it were characterized fi'om the stamens or 

 any other single part. 



* A remarkable instance of this occurs in Detarium, a genus of Leguminosse, which 

 has the icosandrous stamens and drupaceous fruit of Amygdalese, and only differs from 

 that order hy having compound leaves ; so that the latter character is the only distinc- 

 tive one between the two groups Leguminosse and Amygdaleae, however unlike the ty- 

 pical species may be. 



