THE NATURAL SYSTEM. 85 



III. THE NATURAL SYSTEM. 



627. THE true Natural System, whenever it shall be dis- 

 covered, will represent the species, genera, orders, alliances, 

 groups, subclasses, and classes of plants, or whatever other 

 divisions may be admitted into it, so arranged that each plant 

 shall stand next those to which it is more nearly allied in 

 structure than to any others. 



628. But the skill of man has not yet attained this end ; no 

 system answering to this description has been devised, nor 

 does there appear any probability that it will be discovered till 

 our knowledge of plants is much more advanced. 



629. All so-called natural systems are, to the present day, 

 partly artificial and partly natural. The lower and higher 

 divisions in them are natural, the intermediate divisions are 

 artificial. In other words, the stones of the edifice are hewed 

 and squared, and the general plan is drawn out, but no 

 builder has yet been found with skill to put them together, so 

 as to form a consistent whole. 



630. But although in theory no system that can properly be 

 called natural has yet been devised, yet for practical pur- 

 poses many answer to the name, and fulfil the principal con- 

 ditions required of them. 



631. The genera and natural orders can alone be considered 

 as agreed upon by botanists, the other divisions are unsettled ; 

 and this is the reason why the natural orders seldom follow in 

 the same manner in the arrangements of two different bota- 

 nists. 



632. There is no such thing as an arrangement which 

 shall express the natural relations of plants in a consecutive 

 series. 



633. It seems to be generally admitted by those who have 

 turned their attention to the consideration of the manner in 

 which organized beings are related to each other, that each 

 species is allied to many others in different degrees, and that 

 such relationship is best expressed by rays (the affinities) 



