XXIV INTRODUCTION. 



Naturales ditporita, — a book of wonderful Bagacity and most profound 



n I'aich. 



Since the appearance of that work Botany has assumed a new position in 

 the ranks <>t science, ami the evidence from which conclusions are to be 

 drawn baa multiplied beyond all that could have been anticipated. Twenty 

 thousand Bpecies at the utmost could have been known to Jussieu in 1789; 

 we have Been that the number actually on record at the present day amounts 

 to n,< .re than 02. IM 10. Vegetable Anatomy, the foundation of Vegetable 

 Physiology, was at the former period in the state in which it had beenteft by 

 Grew ami Malpighi; it has since emrauv.l the attention of the most acute and 

 indefatigable observers, now armed with optical instruments of surprising 

 exci Hence. The resources of Chemistry ami Natural Philosophy have been 

 enlisted in its cause ; and the result is the accumulation of a prodigious 

 ma- of facts, the best mode of arranging which is the great problem^that 

 modern Bcience has to solve. 



That no artificial mode of classifying the vast materials of Botany could 



satisfy the human mind was dearly perceived and fully admitted by Linnsus 



himself, when he declared a Natural System to be the primum et ultimum 



m botanicu desideratum (Phil. Bot. § 77). That no insuperable obstacle 



to it, attainment could exist in the nature of things became evident the 



moment that the work of Jussieu was before the world. That Botanist for 



the first time proposed distinctive characters for the groups of genera which 



he called Natural Orders, and those characters were framed with such skill 



that a large proportion of his distinctions is still unaffected bv the proo-ress 



of modern discovery. The manner in which he obtained the distinctions of 



h,s Natural Orders was thus described by himself:—- (Test ainsi que sont 



/;"'"" •*• '< •< /"""'!< * tres naturdhs et gtntralement avouees. On extrait 



de tons lei genres gui romposent chacune d'elles les extractives communs a 



. samexcepter ccux qui n'appartiennent pas a la fructification, et la 



umde a s caracteres communs constitue celui de la famille. Plus les 



ressetnbkmces sont nombreuses, plus les families sont naturelles, et par suite 



A .'"''"'■'; ' V •'"/" ''"' cst P hl l '■ , ""-r- En procrdant ainsi, on parvient plus 



nrement ,n, but principal de la Science, qui est, non de nommer une 



plant,, „„„., ,/,. wnnottre sa nature et son organisation enticve^ 



Ihe Natural Orders thus obtained were bound together into a system bv 

 adoptmg the important distinctions of Acotyledons, Monocotyledons, and 

 Dicoty edons and then by subdividing the two latter into Classes mainly 

 ^aractensed by Ihemsertion of the stamens or the condition of the corolla'; 

 as will be more particularly explained hereafter 



1. was not, however, to be expected that the views of Jussieu should be 

 JUS ,„ all respects, or that hi, scanty materials would enable him to form 

 a Plan o clasanication sound and perfect in all its parts. On the contrary, 

 hs system abounded u, errors ami imperfections, and, in fact, the latter 

 years of balrftr were occupied in striving to improve and consolidate it 

 he same, object has been Bought by great numbers of those who have 

 weeeeded him, and every few years of late have witnessed the production 

 ; some scheme of daBaification which, although founded essentiaU/upon 

 ..■ ^oundwo,., d Jussieu . .litr.-r.Ml nevertheless in numerous details, 'in 

 nnothe,. ,,,,,,, ,„e I; nnc,pal of these schemes will he mentioned. It will be 

 for the present sufficient to say that, Deginning with Brown in 1810 and 

 anding with Adolphe Brongniart in 1843, J mass o?^Ltions ^d 

 ■n.pro,e,uen,s winch has been collected renders comparatively^^ Z task 

 "' applying Jusrieu's principles of classification to the vast multitudes rf 

 ■pecies now forming the Vegetable Kingdom multitudes ot 



