PART IV. 

 CHAR ACTERISTIC. 



. 242. DEFINITION. 



The Characteristic is the assemblage of certain 

 natural- historical properties, arranged according to 

 a certain system, for the purpose of distinguish- 

 ing the unities contained in this system. 



Any single natural-historical property, or a collection of 

 several of them, if it be subservient to the distinction 

 of several species of a genus, or of several genera of an 

 jorder, or of several orders of a class, &c. is termed a Cha- 

 racter, and the single properties it contains are its Charac- 

 teristic Terms or Marks. If a character contains only one 

 characteristic mark, this mark itself represents the character. 



Without a system, there cannot exist a character ; and 

 therefore likewise no Characteristic, because the distinction 

 of several bodies, by means of characters, takes place only 

 within the unities of the system. Thus it becomes possible 

 that a character may contain, or be limited to a single one, or 

 a small number of characteristic marks. A character calcu- 

 lated for distinguishing one single species from all other 

 species, to whatever genera or orders they might belong ; 

 that is to say, a general character, would require the enu- 

 meration of all the natural-historical properties of the spe- 

 cies, as its characteristic marks. But this enumeration of 

 all the properties of a natural production, is its Description 

 (. 27.), which is beyond the limits of the Characteristic, 

 and enters those of Physiography. 



The term natural character is applied by LIXNJEITS to 

 the description. Among its properties, he mentions that 

 it contains all the characteristic marks, of the genus in Bo- 



