CLASSIFICATION. 307 



consideration accounts for 4< that indefiniteness and 

 indecision which we frequently find in the descriptions 

 of such groups, and which must appear so strange and 

 inconsistent to any one who does not suppose these 

 descriptions to assume any deeper ground of connexion 

 than an arbitrary choice of the hotanist. Thus in the 

 family of the rose-tree,, we are told that the ovules are 

 very rarely erect, the stigmata usually simple. Of 

 what use, it might be asked, can such loose accounts 

 be ? To which the answer is, that they are not 

 inserted in order to distinguish the species, but in 

 order to describe the family, and the total relations of 

 the ovules and the stigmata of the family are better 

 known by this general statement. A similar observa- 

 tion may be made with regard to the Anomalies of 

 each group, which occur so commonly, that Mr. 

 Lindley, in his Introduction to the Natural System of 

 Botany, makes the * Anomalies' an article in each 

 family. Thus, part of the character of the Rosacese is, 

 that they have alternate stipulate leaves, and that the 

 albumen is obliterated; but yet in Lowea, one of the 

 genera of this family, the stipulse are absent ; and the 

 albumen is present in another, Neillia. This implies, 

 as we have already seen, that the artificial character 

 (or diagnosis as Mr. Lindley calls it,) is imperfect. It 

 is, though very nearly, yet not exactly, commensurate 

 with the natural group: and hence in certain cases 

 this character is made to yield to the general weight of 

 natural affinities. 



" These views, of classes determined by characters 

 which cannot be expressed in words, of propositions 

 which state, not what happens in all cases, but only 

 usually, of particulars which are included in a class, 

 though they transgress the definition of it, may pro- 

 bably surprise the reader. They are so contrary to 



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