392 



FOUNDATIONS OF BIOLOGY 



believed that species, genera, and even higher groups repre- 

 sented distinct acts of creation, nevertheless his greatest 

 works, the Species Plantarum and Systema Naturae, are of 

 outstanding importance in biological history and by common 

 consent the base line of priority in botanical and zoological 

 nomenclature. 



2. Comparative Anatomy 



Owing to the less marked structural differentiation of 

 plants in comparison with animals, plant anatomy lends 



FIG. 202. Georges Cuvier. 



itself less readily to descriptive analysis, so that an epoch in 

 the study of comparative anatomy is not so well defined in 

 botany as in the sister science, zoology. Therefore, we shall 

 confine our attention to the comparative anatomy of animals. 

 Comparative anatomy as a really important aspect of 

 zoological work, in fact as a science in itself, was the result 

 of the life-work of CUVIER (1769-1832) of Paris. It is true 



