REFORM OF LINNAEUS. 355 



That extreme difficulty must attend the forma- 

 tion of a Natural Method, may be seen from the 

 very indefinite nature of the Aphorisms upon this 

 subject which Linnaeus has delivered, and which the 

 best botanists of succeeding times have assented 

 to. Such are these ; the Natural Orders must be 

 formed by attention, not to one or two, but to all 

 the parts of plants ; the same organs are of great 

 importance in regulating the divisions of one part 

 of the system, and of small importance in another 

 part 15 ; the Character does not constitute the Genus, 

 but the Genus the Character; the Character is 

 necessary, not to make the Genus, but to recognize 

 it. The vagueness of these maxims is easily seen ; 

 the rule of attending to all the parts, implies, that 

 we are to estimate their relative importance, either 

 by physiological considerations, (and these again 

 lead to arbitrary rules, as, for instance, the supe- 

 riority of the function of nutrition to that of 

 reproduction,) or by a sort of latent naturalist 

 instinct, which Linnaeus in some passages seems to 

 recognize. "The Habit of a plant," he says' 6 , " must 

 be secretly consulted. A practised botanist will 

 distinguish, at the first glance, the plants of dif- 

 ferent quarters of the globe, and yet will be at a 

 loss to tell by what mark he detects them. There 

 is, I know not what look, sinister, dry, obscure in 

 African plants ; superb and elevated, in the Asiatic ; 

 15 Phil Bot.p. 172. 16 Ib. P . 171. 



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