BUFFO N FULLER QUOTATIONS. 109 



if the differences begin to be perceptible, but if at the 

 same time there is more resemblance than difference, 

 the individuals presenting these features should be 

 classed as of a different species, but as of the same 

 genus; if the differences are still more marked, but 

 nevertheless do not exceed the resemblances, then they 

 must be taken as not only specific but generic, though 

 as not sufficient to warrant the individuals in which 

 they appear, being placed in different classes. If they 

 are still greater, then the individuals are not even of 

 the same class ; but it should be always understood 

 that the resemblances and differences are to be con- 

 sidered in reference to the entirety of the plant or 

 animal, and not in reference to any particular part 

 only.* The two rocks which are equally to be avoided 

 are, on the one hand, absence of method, and, on the 

 other, a tendency to over-systematize.t 



Like Dr. Erasmus Darwin, and more recently Mr. 

 Francis Darwin, Buffon is more struck with the re- 

 semblances than with the differences between animals 

 and plants, but he supposes the vegetable kingdom to 

 be a continuation of the animal, extending lower down 

 the scale, instead of holding as Dr. Darwin did, that 

 animals and vegetables have been contemporaneous in 

 their degeneration from a common stock. 



" We see," he writes, " that there is no absolute and 

 essential difference between animals and vegetables, 

 but that Nature descends by subtle gradations from 

 what we deem the most perfect animal to one which is 

 less so, and again from this to the vegetable. The 



* Tom. i. p. 21. t Ibid p. 23. 



