. 243. CHARACTERISTIC. 869 



tany, to which every thing LINNJEUS says of characters, 

 more particularly refers; Naturalis character notas omnes 

 gcncricas possibiks allegat ; adeoque Essentialcm et Factitium 

 inchtdit. LINN. Phil. Bot. 189. He likewise says, that it 

 is invariable and not dependent upon the system ; and that 

 it may serve for every system ; inservit omni systematl ; 

 Basin stcrnit novis systematibus, immutatus persistit, licet in* 

 finita genera nova detegcrentur. LINN. Phil. Bot. ibid. These 

 properties do not belong to a Character properly so called ; 

 but they are essential to the General Description. The 

 preceding observations contain the reasons why I have 

 thought necessary to abandon the denominations used by 



LlNNJEUS. 



. 243. NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL CHARACTERS. 



If the system to which the character refers is 

 the natural or synthetical system, also the cha- 

 racter is said to be a natural one ; if the system is 

 an artificial or analytical one, it likewise contains 

 artificial characters. 



This is the correct idea of a natural and of an artificial 

 character, which gives no occasion to ambiguities. Essen- 

 tialis character nnica idea distinguit Genus a congeneribus suis 

 sub eodem ordine naturali. LINN. Phil. Bot. 187- Factitius 

 character Genus db aliis, ejusdem tantum ordinis artificialis, dis- 

 tinguit. LINN. Phil. Bot. 188. This natural character, 

 therefore, must not be considered as something produced 

 by nature, for nature does not institute comparisons be- 

 tween its productions, from which the natural character 

 might be derived. It seems not to be exactly in harmony 

 with the idea of this character, to call it an essential one, 

 since it depends upon the properties of the objects (orders, 

 genera, species) compared, and is a result of their compa- 

 rison ; so that by the discovery of new genera in an order, 

 or of new species in a genus, it may be subject to altera- 

 VOL. i. 2 A 



