DIVISION AND CLASSIFICA TION. 1 25 



at the end. Suppose, however, we meet a specimen of a strange 

 flower the name of which we do not know, we have recourse to (c] 

 a third scheme of classification standing at the beginning of the 

 volume and known as the Analytical Key. This latter scheme 

 has been constructed for the precise purpose of enabling us with 

 the least possible trouble to make a &quot;diagnosis&quot; or, in other words, 

 to discover the name and identity of any specimen we have before 

 us. It is a dichotomous or bifurcate scheme, which takes as 

 fundamenta divisionis some great, broad, obvious characteristics, 

 the presence or absence of which is easily detected in any specimen : 

 dividing flowers into compound and non-compound ; flowers with 

 one seed and flowers with more than one; aquatic and land 

 flowers ; creepers and non-creepers, etc. , etc. This analytical key 

 is a more &quot; natural &quot; classification than the alphabetical index, 

 though its object is, by discovering the name, to send us to the 

 latter, and thence to the really natural or botanical classification 

 in the body of the work. 



Although special or artificial classes may be made for their own sake, 

 and without any ulterior object, yet they are usually made as a means to the 

 discovery and knowledge of other &quot; natural &quot; lines of division. This is 

 manifest in the case of analytical keys and alphabetic arrangements : &quot; we 

 seldom or never want to refer to [these] for their own sakes but only as a 

 help to the identification of the ultimate [classes]. We have not the slightest 

 interest, for instance, in the names which begin with S, taken as a whole : 

 we just rest on this as on a sort of landing for an instant, on our way towards 

 reaching Smith or Scott or Sykes. Similarly with the highly artificial classes 

 in the analytical key: trailing plants with evergreen leaves is one element 

 of a disjunctive alternative which happens to make itself useful at one of the 

 steps in the course of deciding between the Periwinkle and other plants, but 

 as a class for any other purpose it is never recognized. But directly we begin 

 to broaden the ultimate aim of our arrangement, the substantive importance 

 and independence of the intermediate classes begins to be established&quot; * 



What are those &quot; ultimate &quot; classes which we do seek &quot; for their own 

 sakes &quot; ? those classes which have a &quot; substantive importance and independ 

 ence &quot; ? and by what scheme of classification do we establish them ? They 

 are what are known as &quot;natural&quot; classes the classes arrived at by a scheme 

 of &quot; classification for general purposes &quot;. 



66. CLASSIFICATION FOR GENERAL PURPOSES. How are 

 we so to classify the objects investigated by the various human 

 sciences as to contribute most and best to our general knowledge 



natural class being placed near one another as books dealing with the same sub 

 ject are placed on the same library shelf. 

 1 VENN, op. cit., p. 331 (italics ours). 



