BERNARD AND A. L. DE JUSSIEU 353 



and ending with the diclinous and apetalous genera) ; 

 conifers. If we find Bernard de Jussieu's grouping 

 unnatural in many places, we must not fail to remember 

 how difficult was his task. Down to the present time 

 no really satisfactory grouping and succession of the 

 families of flowering plants has been discovered. While 

 botanists agree in recognising many affinities between 

 particular families, they differ much as to the larger 

 groups, and only the following points can be considered 

 as universally accepted : — (l) that the flowering plants 

 divide naturally into Gymnosperms and Angiosperms ; 

 (2) that the Gymnosperms should come next to the 

 Vascular Cryptogams; (3) that the Angiosperms divide 

 naturally into Monocotyledons and Dicotyledons. 



Bernard de Jussieu's method of arrangement may be 

 called experimental. Starting with no formed plan, 

 except to keep the monocotyledons and dicotyledons 

 distinct, he tried and tried again to group his genera 

 so as to avoid unnatural associations and successions, 

 until at last he hit upon an arrangement which he 

 thought tolerable. 



A. L. de Jussieu on the Ranunculus Family.^ The 

 explanations which Bernard de Jussieu's modesty would 

 not allow him to give were supplied to some extent by 

 his nephew, who began by taking a single family as his 

 text, the large and varied family of the Ranunculaceae. 

 He points out briefly the difl'erence between an artificial 

 and a natural method. The framer of an artificial 

 method chooses for himself a single organ, from which 

 all his class-characters are taken. This apparently 

 precise method is liable to the objection that accidental 

 (we should now say, adaptive) modification in the organ 

 selected may cause the plant to be referred to a wrong 



> Examen de la Famille de* RentmaUu, 

 Z 



