DE CANDOLLE. 121 



botanists that he consolidated the science, and gave 

 it a definite natural classification. 



De CandoUe early in life grasped the truth that 

 plants grow, reproduce, and arrive at maturity, not 

 by accident, but according to natural law, and he 

 soon saw that some parts of plants were of more 

 importance to their well-being and multiplication 

 than others. He was thus a follower of Ray, and 

 he became impressed with the belief that in arrang- 

 ing plants, the resemblances of the most important 

 parts and organs, should be considered before those 

 of the less important. This manner of proceeding 

 he called the natural method. It was founded upon 

 the knowledge of the anatomy of the plants and 

 upon their physiology, and the method required care 

 and research. The artificial method of Linnaeus 

 enabled botanists to distinguish plants readily, by 

 examining the most readily examined, and often 

 unimportant, parts of the plant's flower. It was not 

 a scientific plan, but a ready method. It did not 

 bring one plant into relation with another, showing 

 the common method of growth and reproduction, 

 but simply enabled one plant to be separated and 

 distinguished from another, and this is the least 

 part of botany. 



The works of Whewell on the inductive sciences, 

 the article on botany in the " Encyclopaedia Britan- 

 nica," Pulteney's "Life of Linnaeus," and that 

 written by Miss Brightwell, of Norwich, and De 

 Candolle's "M^moires et souvenirs ecrits par lui 

 meme" have been freely and largely quoted in 

 these chapters, 



