673 



JUSSIEU, ANTOINE LAURENT DE. 



JUSTINIANUS, FLAVIUS. 



674 



in the other nations of Europe it was otherwise. In England, when 

 Dr. Robert Brown published his ' Prodromus Florae Novae Hollandise,' 

 in 1810, upon the system of Jussieu, there probably were not more 

 than two or three other botanists in this country who could understand 

 or make use of it ; aid it was not till after the year 1820 that it became 

 much known among us. 



In his ' Genera Plantarum,' Jussieu divided the vegetable kingdom 

 into classes, subclasses, orders, and genera, not according to certain 

 arbitrary distinctions, but by taking into consideration all the circum- 

 stances which he was acquainted with in their manner of growth and 

 degree of development. Those which he regarded as the least 

 perfectly organised species he stationed at the one end of his system, 

 and, proceeding upon the principle of continually grouping together 

 those plants which resemble each other more than they resemble any- 

 thing else, he gradually arrived at the highest forms of vegetable life 

 through a long series of intermediata gradations. In determining the 

 relative dignity of his orders, he assumed that those species are least 

 perfectly organised which have no cotyledon or rudimentary leaf in 

 their embryo ; that next in degree, but higher than these, are such as 

 have one cotyledon ; and that highest of all are those whose seeds have 

 two cotyledons : hence his classes Acotyledons, Monocotyledons, and 

 Dicotyledons. In arriving at this conclusion he was justified by the 

 fact that to the highest class belong the lofty trees of the forest, with 

 all their intricate apparatus of trunks, and arms, and branches ; to 

 the middle the simple-stemmed palms, lilies, and grasses ; and to the 

 lowest such forms of vegetation as Fungi, lichens, and sea-weeds. 



In determining the subordination of the genera assembled under 

 each of these classes Jussieu was influenced by other considerations. 

 He regarded those dicotyledonous genera which have no corolla as 

 lower than such as possess that organ, and among those which have 

 it the adhesion of the parts of the corolla into a tube was looked upon 

 as an indication of a structure inferior to the total separation of the 

 petal* : this gave him for his great dicotyledonous class the subclasses 

 Apetaltt, Monopctala, and Polypctalir. In addition to which he formed 

 another subclass, called Diclinu irregulares, out of such dicotyledonous 

 plants as bave the sexes separated, which lie considered an irregularity 

 of organisation. As a last method of division Jussieu applied to 

 Monocotyledons and all the subclasses of Dicotyledons a principle of 

 analysis dependent upon the situation of the stamens, calling them 

 ' bypogynoua ' if the stamens originate clear of both calyx and ovary ; 

 ' perigynous ' if they grow from the calyx or corolla ; and ' epigynous ' 

 if their apparent origin is in the apex of the ovary. There seems to 

 have been no other reason for this than that such a " triplex staminis 

 situs " was found to exist. The result of all these distinctions was 

 the following scheme, under which were arranged all the natural 

 orders known to the author : 



Index Method! 



Ordincs Naturales complectentifl. 

 Acotyledonei . 



{Stamina hypogyna . . . 

 M perigyna . 



epigyna 



(Stamina epigyna . . . 



perigyna . 

 i. hypogyna 

 'Corolla hypogyna . 

 perigyna 



iAntheris 

 Z^, 



Class 1 

 2 



Polype t*lo) 

 Diclines irregulares 



Stamina epigyna 

 hypogyna 



diitinctis 



10 



11 



12 

 13 



petigyna 14 



15 



In the state of science when this system was promulgated its 

 excellence was most remarkable. Its faults are the artificial nature of 

 all the divisions except those which are primary, the difficulty in many 

 caies of determining to which of them a given plant belongs, and the 

 numerous exceptions to which they are all subject, which may be 

 owing to then- being mere structural and not physiological distinctions. 

 They have accordingly been much criticised, especially of late years, 

 and every original writer attempts to improve them, with various 

 success. But, to use the words of his son, to whose sentiments it is 

 impossible for any botanist to refuse his assent, " What is it that is 

 most admired in this work ? not so much the systematical key, which 

 his been so often attacked and abandoned by modern writers, as the 

 admirable sagacity which regulated all the details. It is the neatness 

 of the characters, the happy employment of such as had been pre- 

 viously neglected, and the correct estimate of their value, the pro- 

 digality with which notes full of deep knowledge and fruitful in new 

 ideas are dispersed throughout the work, the endless questions and 

 doubts, which show how much the author had meditated upon his 

 subject, and that he was among the first to regret the sacrifices he was 

 compelled to make to the necessity of a systematical arrangement; 

 and finally, that instinct, so true to natural affinities, which so often 

 made him suspect the truth when he could not establish it." 



No doubt Jussieu was largely indebted to our countryman Ray, 

 woo. DIV. VOL. in. 



whose name however does not appear among his introductory remarks; 

 no doubt he was also assisted most essentially by Tournefort, Linnaeus, 

 and other systematical writers ; but we are not on that account to 

 withhold from him one particle of that merit which his countrymen 

 eagerly claim for him. Ray could not apply his own principles; 

 Tournefort and Linnaeus were mere system-makers, who did not 

 understand the principles of philosophical classification ; but Jussieu 

 had the philosophy of the one, the systematical abilities of the others, 

 and the peculiar skill of combining them into a consistent whole. His 

 ' Genera Plantarum ' is now obsolete : for what has since been done 

 towards giving a more philosophic character to the study of systematic 

 botany we refer to the article BOTANY, in the NATCBAL HISTOBY 

 DIVISION of the ENGLISH CTCLOP.EDIA. 



In 1779, when the ' Genera Plantarum ' waa published, the political 

 state of France, which put an end to peaceful occupations, and turned 

 the public from all thoughts of botany, disturbed the tranquil tenor 

 of the course of Jussieu, and compelled him to mingle in the busy 

 scenes of public life. In 1790 he was named member of the munici- 

 pality of Paris, and in this character was charged with the direction 

 of the hospitals and charities of that city, which he continued to 

 exercise till 1792. In 1793 the Jardin du Roi was re-organised under 

 the new name of Jardin des Plantes ; all the persons charged with the 

 duty of public instruction were elevated to the rank of professors, and 

 De Jussieu, who had been previously Botanical Demonstrator, became 

 Professor of Rural Botany. He afterwards became director and 

 treasurer of the Museum of Natural History, and recommenced, in 

 1802, his botanical writings, chiefly in the form of memoirs upon his 

 own natural orders of plants. These, amounting in number to fifteen, 

 were continued in the 'Annales du Museum' till 1820, after which 

 time De Jussieu became dead to science. He was then seventy-two, 

 with a sight so feeble that it might almost have been called blindness, 

 and he was no longer able to do more than profit by the observations 

 of others. Nevertheless, he employed himself between his eighty-third 

 and eighty-eighth year in dictating a new edition of his ' Introductio 

 in Historiam Plantarum.' This work was published after his death ; 

 it is written in elegant Latin, and is a remarkable proof of the vigour 

 of his intellect even at this advanced age. He appears to have been 

 much loved by his family and greatly respected by his friends. His 

 amenity of character was such that he was never in any one of his 

 writings betrayed into a single word of harshness towards his con- 

 temporaries. He died, after a short illness, on the 15th of September 

 1836. 



ADMEN DE JussiEtJ, his son, born at Paris on the 23rd of December 

 1797, was educated for the medical profession, but devoted himself to 

 the study which had rendered his father famous, and became his suc- 

 cessor in his chair of botany, and the inheritor of his virtue and 

 talents. Adrien de Jussieu wrote no great work, but his communi- 

 cations to scientific journals, monographs, scientific biographies, &c., 

 were very numerous Among the more important of his writings may 

 be named his 'De Uphorbucearurn generibus,' &c., 1824; 'Surles 

 Plautes du Chili ; ' the ' Flora Basilise Meridionalia,' written iu con- 

 junction with M. Augusto de Saint-Hilaire ; his contribution to the 

 'Cours Elementaire d'Histoire Naturelle' of M. Milne-Edwards, &c. 

 M. Adrien de Jussieu was chosen in 1831 a member of the Acaddmie 

 des Sciences, of which he was president the year of his death. He 

 died on the 29th of June 1853. 



JUSTINIA'NUS, FLA'VIUS, born near Sardica in Mcesia in 482 or 

 483 of obscure parents, was nephew by his mother's side to Justiuus, 

 afterwards emperor. The elevation of his uncle to the imperial throne 

 in 518 decided the fortune of Justinian, who, having been educated at 

 Constantinople, had given proofs of considerable capacity and appli- 

 cation. Justinus was ignorant and old, and the advice and exertions 

 of his nephew were of great service to him during the nine years of his 

 reign. He adopted Justinian as his colleague, and lastly, a few mouths 

 before his death, feeling that his end was approaching, he crowned 

 him in presence of the patriarch and senators, and made over the 

 imperial authority to him, in April 527. Justinian was then in his 

 forty-fifth year, and he reigned above thirty-eight years, till November 

 565, when he died. His long reign forms a remarkable epoch in the 

 history of the world. Although himself unwarlike, yet by means of 

 his able generals, Belisarius and Narses, he completely defeated the 

 Vandals and the Goths, and re-united Italy and Africa to the empire. 

 Justinian was the last emperor of Constantinople who, by his dominion 

 over the whole of Italy, re-united in some measure the two principal 

 portions of the ancient empire of the Cossars. On the side of the east 

 the arms of Justinian repelled the inroads of Khosroes, and conquered 

 Colchis ; and the Negus or King of Abyssinia entered into an alliance 

 with him. On the Danubian frontier the Gepidao, Longobards, Bul- 

 garians, and other hordes, were either kept in check or repulsed. 

 [BELISAMUS.] The wars of Justinian's reign are related by Procopius 

 and Agathias. 



Justinian must be viewed also as an administrator and legislator of 

 his vast empire. In the first capacity ho did some good and much 

 harm. He was both profuse and penurious; personally inclined to 

 justice, he often overlooked through weakness the injustice of sub- 

 alterns ; he established monopolies of certain branches of industry and 

 commerce, and increased the taxes. But he introduced the rearing of 

 silkworms into Europe; and the numerous edifices he raised, the 



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