XI. GENEALOGY. 201 



Nevertheless, I believe that when once the general 

 form of this system in Proserpina has been well learned, 

 much other knowledge may be easily attached to it, or 

 sheltered under the eaves of it : and in its own develop- 

 ment, I believe everything may be included that the 

 student will find useful, or may wisely desire to investi- 

 gate, of properly European botany. But I am convinced 

 that the best results of his study will be reached by a re- 

 solved adherence to extreme simplicity of primal idea, 

 and primal nomenclature. 



34. I do not think the need of revisal of our present 

 scientific classification coiild be more clearly demonstrated 

 than by the fact that laurels and roses are confused, even 

 by Dr. Lindley, in the mind ot his feminine readers ; 

 the English word laurel, in the index to his first volume 

 of Ladies' Botany, referring them to the cherries, under 

 which the common laurel is placed as ' Prunus Lauroce- 

 rasus,' while the true laurel, ' Laurus nobilis,' must be 

 found in the index of the second volume, under the 

 Latin form ' Laurus. ' 



This accident, however, illustrates another, and a 

 most important point to be remembered, in all arrange- 

 ments whether of plants, minerals, or animals. No 

 single classification can possibly be perfect, or anything 

 like perfect. It must be, at its best, a ground, or warp 

 of arrangement only, through which, or over which, the 

 cross threads of another, yes, and of many others, must 

 be woven in our minds. Thus the almond, though in 



