JUSSIEU. 



565 



stripped, so to speak, the actual state of the 

 science. Many of the improvements subsequently 

 introduced into the natural method, are in reality, 

 foreseen or indicated either in these notes, or in 

 the sectional divisions of the families, or by a word 

 placed at the end of the generic character. This 

 last part of the work, the characters of the genera, 

 considered by some superficial authors as a simple 

 compilation, is not, in our estimation, the least re- 

 markable feature of it. Certainly the work would 

 have presented, after the characters and notes on 

 the families, a list of the genera comprised in each 

 of these families, as every one has since done who 

 has followed in the same track, and this of itself 

 would have rendered an immense service to the 

 science, and sufficed to elucidate the natural me- 

 thod. Yet, without generic characters, a table of 

 the families would have only been a subject for 

 study and reflection, and would not have been 

 adapted to actual use, nor formed a manual, so to 

 speak, for the botanist ; and the natural method 

 would have been disseminated much more slowly 

 among the learned. But in introducing generic 

 characters, it may be asserted that they could not 

 in general be taken by compilation, even from the 

 most esteemed works of the period ; for characters 

 simply distinctive, suitable for an artificial system, 

 would often be quite unadapted to a natural me- 

 thod; or a character which might appear trivial 

 to the author of the former, might acquire great 

 importance in the eyes of him who studies natural 

 relations. Accordingly, the characters of the 

 Genera have been generally traced by the hand of 

 Jussieu, either after nature, or after the published 

 or manuscript descriptions of botanists in whom 

 he could place confidence, and the mention of the 

 sources from which he has derived them, always 

 enables us to judge of their value. If the char- 

 acters of the genera, then, are partly a work of 

 compilation, it is a kind of compilation which is 

 indispensable in a production of this nature, and 

 ol'ten requires more talent and discernment than 

 direct observations. It may therefore be affirmed 

 that the Genera Plantarum, published in 1789, was 

 a work as perfect in its execution as the state of 

 botany admitted of, and this execution is entirely 

 due to Antoine Laurent de Jussieu. 



With regard to the principles of the classifica- 

 tion, the fundamental basis of the method, they 

 were the same as those explained by the author in 

 his memoir on the series of plants in the garden of 

 Paris ; that is to say, the same as those admitted 

 by Bernard de Jussieu, and deduced from the num- 

 ber of the cotyledones, and the relative insertion of 

 the parts of the flower, to which were added such 

 as are derived from the presence and structure of 

 the corolla. The adoption of these characters, as 

 the base of the first classification of the dicotyle- 

 dones, has perhaps contributed to interrupt the re- 

 lations which Jussieu no doubt perceived to exist 

 between the apetales and the polypetales, and in ! 

 some rarer instances between the monopetales and j 

 these two last classes. But it is necessary only to 

 refer to the memoir above-mentioned, to perceive 

 that the desire of multiplying the number of the 

 classes, to render the natural method of more easy 

 use, determined the author, in this instance, to 

 depart from what he considered the rigorous prin- 

 ciples of his method. If any blame attaches to 

 the author of the Genera relatively to the classi- 

 fication he has adopted, it arises from his havinp 

 made this concession for the purpose of rendering 



his work of easier application ; for it is probable 

 that the characters furnished by the corolla will 

 one day be dispensed with, to a greater or less ex- 

 tent ; and this, to appearance, will be the most 

 important modification which the method of the 

 Genera Plantarum shall have undergone, although 

 in reality it will merely consist in reverting to the 

 original principles of the author. 



The public events which almost immediately 

 succeeded the publication of the Genera Plantarum, 

 necessarily diverted the author's attention from 

 his botanical studies. The period which elapsed 

 between 1789 and 1800, was but little adapted to 

 the peaceable study of natural history : Jussieu 

 employed it in rendering himself useful both to his 

 own species and to science, by lending his aid in 

 improving the hospitals, and in organizing the 

 museum of natural history. 



In 1790, he was nominated by his section mem- 

 ber of the municipality of Paris, and was entrust- 

 ed, under that title, with the management of the 

 city hospitals; be fulfilled these duties till the year 



1 7-> 



In 1793, the garden of plants, or king's garden, 

 was remodelled under the name of the museum of 

 natural history. All the persons appointed, under 

 different titles, to teach or take charge of the col- 

 lections were raised to the rank of professors, and 

 entrusted with the management of the establish- 

 ment. M. de Jussieu who, like Vaillant and Ber- 

 nard de Jussieu, had hitherto been merely a 

 demonstrator, was appointed, with the title of pro- 

 fessor of rural botany, to teach that science in the 

 country. He thus shared the task of teaching bo- 

 tany with his colleague Desfontaines ; and his her- 

 borisations, attended by a crowd of young students 

 and distinguished amateurs, contributed to spread 

 a taste for the study, and to diffuse the enlightened 

 principles which he had introduced into the science ; 

 and his followers were predisposed to give a fa- 

 vourable reception to the latter, when they wit- 

 nessed the simplicity and kindness of him who de- 

 monstrated them. 



Having been chosen successively by his col- 

 leagues to be director and treasurer in the admin- 

 istration of the museum, he rendered important 

 services to the establishment in these capacities, 

 particularly at the difficult period of its reorganiza- 

 tion, when, notwithstanding the obstacles which 

 political events often opposed to the prosperity and 

 even the existence of the museum, he found means, 

 by his zeal and activity, to perform services of the 

 highest advantage to it. 



He resumed the publication of his botanical re- 

 searches when the Annales du Museum were com- 

 menced in 1802. Besides a series of notices on 

 the history of the Museum of natural history, we 

 find in the early volumes of this collection many 

 memoirs on new or imperfectly described genera; 

 or on families which recent discoveries or more 

 exact observations have enriched with new genera. 

 Thus the Amaranthae, the Nyctagineae, and the 

 Onagrariae were successively submitted to a new 

 examination. It may he perceived that his object 

 in these investigations was to bring the Genera 

 Plantarum and the natural method nearer perfec- 

 tion ; but this purpose became more evident in the 

 fifth volume of the collection, in 1804, when he 

 began to publish a series of memoirs devoted to 

 the examination of the general characters of the 

 families derived from the fruit, and confirmed or 

 rectified by the observations of Gaertaer. He 



