14:0 PROSERPINA. 



laurel, in the index to his first volume of Ladies' Botany, 

 referring them to the cherries, under which the common 

 laurel is placed as 'Prunus Laurocerasus,' while the true 

 laurel, ' Laurus nobilis,' must be found in the index of the 

 second volume, under the Latin form ' Laurus.' 



This accident, however, illustrates another, and a most in> 

 portant point to be remembered, in all arrangements whether 

 of plants, minerals, or animals. No single classification can 

 possibly be perfect, or anything like perfect. It must be, at 

 its best, a ground, or icarp of arrangement only, through 

 which, or over which, the cross threads of another, yes, and 

 of many others, must bo woven in our minds. Thus the 

 almond, though in the form and colour of its flower, and 

 method of its fruit, rightly associated with the roses, yet by 

 the richness and sweetness of its kernel must be held mentally 

 connected with all plants that bear nuts. These assuredly 

 must have something in their structure common, justifying 

 their being gathered into a conceived or conceivable group 

 of ' Nuciferse,' in which the almond, hazel, walnut, cocoa-nut, 

 and such others would be considered as having relationship, at 

 least in their power of secreting a crisp and sweet substance 

 which is not wood, nor bark, nor pulp, nor seed-pabulum re- 

 ducible to softness by boiling ; but quite separate substance, 

 for which I do not know that there at present exists any bo- 

 tanical name, of which, hitherto, I find no general account, 

 and can only myself give so much, on reflection, as that it is 

 crisp and close in texture, and always contains some kind of 

 oil or milk. 



35. Again, suppose the arrangement of plants could with 

 respect to their flowers and fruits, be made approximately 

 complete, they must instantly be broken and reformed by 

 comparison of their stems and leaves. The three creeping 

 families of the Charities, Rosa, Rubra, and Fragaria, must 

 then be frankly separated from the elastic Persica and knotty 

 Pomum ; of which one wild and lovely species, the hawthorn, 

 is no less notable for the massive accumulation of wood in the 

 stubborn stem of it, than the wild rose for her lovely power 

 of wreathing her garlands at pleasure wherever they are 



