SYSTEMATOLOGY. 151 



2. "We shall not, however, enter into any discussion 

 concerning; the various opinions which have been held 

 upon the subject of the affinities of plants to each other, 

 or upon the relative value of the different systems of 

 arrangement formed upon these views. Such subject is 

 essentially critical, and must be judged by an extended 

 knowledge of particular and individual facts, ere we can 

 hope to determine upon the value of the general and 

 universal rules. The only remarks necessary to be 

 made appear to us to be the following : 



3. The various Systems of Classification for arranging 

 plants in connection with each other may be divided 

 into two kinds, the Artificial and Natural. 



4. Artificial systems are formed by taking note of 

 one or two circumstances only, in which a number of 

 plants happen to agree, and so forming a group of them, 

 although they may differ, in every other re&pect, most 

 distinctly from each other. Natural systems are formed, 

 not upon the observance of any single or few resem- 

 blances that a number of plants may be found to bear 

 to each other ; but upon a general agreement of all 

 their material points of structure, and which plants 

 are not brought together unless they do so agree. 

 Artificial systems, by employing a few simple cha- 

 racters only, afford groups of plants, the knowledge 

 of whose ruling principles offers no evidence of the ge- 

 neral character of the individuals ranking under them, 

 either of structure or of use. Natural systems, by re- 

 quiring the agreements of grouped plants to be many 

 and general, afford in a knowledge of the principles of 

 these groups, a true idea of the structure and uses of the 

 members composing them, and therefore balance the 

 greater trouble necessary to observe these many and 

 general agreements, by affording an intuitive evidence, 

 as it were, of a great number of other circumstances 

 always included within, and found to be subsidiary to 

 them ; whilst artificial systems afford a ready arrange- 

 ment in which the station of a plant can be easily found 



