EARLY NOTIONS OF SYSTEM 



adaptive, likeness. Such likeness was called affinity^ 

 though no attempt was made to explain in what sense 

 the term was to be understood. As late as the year 

 1835 one of the first botanists in Europe (Elias Fries) 

 could say no more about affinity between species than 

 that it was quoddam supernaturale, a supernatural 

 property. 



A tolerable outline of a classification of animals was 

 attained much earlier than a tolerable classification of 

 plants. The characters available for the classification of 

 plants are, to begin with, less obvious than those which 

 the zoologist can employ. Moreover, the botanists 

 were restricted to a narrower view of their subject. 

 Zoologists, though they were expected to bestow 

 the best part of their time upon vertebrates, were 

 encouraged to study all animals more or less. Bota- 

 nists, on the other hand, were practically obliged to 

 concentrate their attention upon the classification of the 

 flowering plants. The physician, herb-collector, and 

 gardener cared nothing about any plants except such 

 as bear flowers and fruit ; but of these they expected 

 full descriptions, and were clamorous for a system 

 which would enable even a tyro to make out every 

 species with certainty and ease. The task set before 

 the botanist was comparable in respect of difficulty 

 with the construction of a detailed and completely 

 satisfactory classification of birds, which zoology has 

 never yet been able to produce, while for the sake of 

 this long-unattainable object almost everything else in 

 botany was neglected. 



The First English Naturalists. 

 During the greater part of three centuries (1300 to 



1 Aristotle, Cesalpini, Gesner, and Ray are among the writers 

 who use this word or some synonym. 



