XI. GENEALOGY. 223 



well learned, much other knowledge may be easily 

 attached to it, or sheltered under the eaves of it : 

 and in its own development, I believe everything 

 may be included that the student will find useful, 

 or may wisely desire to investigate, of properly 

 European botany. But I am convinced that the 

 best results of his study will be reached by a 

 resolved adherence to extreme simplicity of primal 

 idea, and primal nomenclature. 



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

 present scientific classification could be more clearly 

 demonstrated than by the fact that laurels and 

 roses are confused, even by Dr. Lindley, in the 

 mind of 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 Lauro- 

 cerasus,' 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 

 arrangements whether of plants, minerals, or ani- 

 mals. 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 



