158 SYSTEM OF DECANDOLLE. 



in proportion to, the increase of our knowledge, as evi- 

 dences or results of it ; but such necessities of science 

 are totally different from the imaginations of its votaries. 



21. It is particularly unfortunate for the student that 

 when he dips into the systematic works of the day, in- 

 stead of finding them to be a clue of thread to guide 

 him out of the forest, they turn out to be the forest it- 

 self, and a very dark one as well ; should he wish to 

 know what is understood by the world concerning the 

 subject of which the author is speaking, he finds lines 

 of synonymes, to which his author is charitably adding 

 another, leaving him quite in doubt and perplexity con- 

 cerning a unanimity of opinion regarding the object of 

 his search. 



22. The system of Decandolle is the one to which 

 the most general acceptation of the world has been 

 given, and which we shall now enter into in some de- 

 tail. The general view of its most important division 

 is best seen by the following table, A, B, C, being 

 the three grand divisions of the arrangement, to which 

 all the others are subsidiary. 



