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DIVISION IV. 



SYSTEMATOLOGY. 



1 . Very early indeed are the evidences to be seen of 

 an attempt upon the part of man to trace out analogies 

 which might exist between the various individual plants 

 which came within his observation; these analogies, 

 however, at the first onset were observed only in the 

 most common and self-evident relationships which the 

 individuals bore to each other, and no knowledge of any- 

 thing beyond them existed at the time. Since these early 

 trials to the present moment the signs looked upon as con- 

 veying the evidences of relationship have been gradually 

 altered, because the nature of the facts, as entitling us 

 to establish such connection, have been looked upon dif- 

 ferently by those tracing it. Sometimes the most limited 

 views have been taken of what those circumstances 

 should be which entitle us to collect together many 

 beings, and to say, these are sufficient to show their rela- 

 tion to each other, and their relative situation in the 

 scale of bodies ; and on the other hand the most extended 

 notions have existed ; the structure of these beings has 

 been minutely examined ; the agreements and disagree- 

 ments they bear to each other in the nature of their se- 

 veral parts established, and a connection between these 

 parts with the powers giving rise to the uses to which 

 the individual is put, endeavoured to be traced. 



