NATURAL SYSTEM OF CLASSIFICATION. 265 



CONVERSATION XXIII. 



ON THE NATURAL SYSTEM OF CLASSIFICATION. 



Mrs. B. Well, my dear, have you been able to dis- 

 cover any mode of classing plants, according to the anal- 

 ogy they bear to one another ? 



Caroline. I have endeavored to class the plants in our 

 garden according to this method. I began by comparing 

 them altogether, and then divided them into groups, ac- 

 cording as they more or less resembled each other. 



Mrs. B. I should have no fault to find with your mode 

 of proceeding, if the whole vegetable kingdom contained, 

 like your garden, only a small number of plants. This 

 mode was, in fact, the first emyloyed, and was called the 

 Methode de Tatonnement. Even now it is occasionally 

 employed by botanists, as a guide in their researches. 

 But you will easily understand, that, independently of the 

 impossibility of being put in practice, since the number 

 of plants known has so much increased, it has also the 

 great defect of depending merely upon opinion, and af- 

 fording no certainty of the reality of the resemblance as- 

 signed to different plants. It is much the same as with 

 likenesses of different persons : how often people vary in 

 opinion in regard to such resemblances ! 



Caroline. So much so, that, while many people declare 

 that I am the very picture of my father, others see no re- 

 semblance whatever between us. 



Mrs. B. The same diversity of opinion would take 

 place in natural history, had not botanists laid down cer- 

 tain precise rules for judging of the external characters 

 of plants ; and, Emily, have you no new mode of classifi- 

 cation to suggest. 



Emily. If I tell you the one that has occurred to me, 

 I fear you ..will think me very presumptuous. 



Mrs. B. By no means, my dear : on the contrary, 

 nothing is more gratifying to me, than to see that you are 

 capable of reflection, whatever may be the object. 



1429. What does she direct Emily to do 1 ? 1430. How does Car- 

 oline attempt to class plants according to analogy 1 ? 1431. What is 

 this mode called'? 1432. Why is this hypothesis objectionable'? 



1433. How is this objection illustrated from a reference to a picture! 



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