BOOK I. 



CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS. 



129 



ficial characters ; others have endeavoured to detect the natural relations of the beings 

 to be arranged, and thus to ascertain a connection by which the whole may be asso- 

 ciated. In the progress of zoology and phytology, the fundamental organs on which 

 to found an artificial arrangement have been finally agreed on. In both, those which 

 are essential, and which discover the greatest variety, form the basis of classification. 

 Animals are found to differ most from each other in the organs of nutrition, and plants, 

 in the organs of reproduction. 



584. Two kinds of methods have been adopted in arranging vegetables ; the natural and 

 the artificial. A natural method is that which, in its distribution, retains all the classes 

 or groups obviously alike ; that is, such into which no plants enter that are not connected 

 by numerous relations, or that can be disjoined without doing a manifest violence to 

 nature. An artificial method is that whose classes are not natural, because they collect 

 together several genera of plants which are not connected by numerous relations, although 

 they agree in the characteristic mark or marks, assigned to that particular class or assem- 

 blage to which they belong. An artificial method is easier than the natural, as in the 

 latter it is nature, in the former the writer, who prescribes the rules and orders to be ob- 

 served in distribution. Hence, likewise, as nature is ever uniform, there can be only 

 one natural method : whereas artificial methods may be multiplied almost ad infinitum, 

 according to the several different relations under which bodies are viewed. 



585. The object of both methods is to promote our knowledge of the vegetable kingdom : 

 the natural method, by generalising facts and ideas ; and the artificial method, by faci- 

 litating the knowledge of plants as individual objects. The merits of the former method 

 consist in the perfection with which plants are grouped together in natural families or 

 orders, and these families grouped among themselves ; the merits of the latter consist in 

 the perfection with which plants are arranged according to certain marks by which their 

 names may be discovered. Plants arranged according to the natural method may be com- 

 pared to words arranged according to their roots or derivations ; arranged according to 

 an artificial method, they may be compared to words in a dictionary. Linnaeus has given 

 the most beautiful artificial system that has ever been bestowed by genius on mankind ; 

 and Jussieu has, with unrivalled ability, exhibited the natural affinities of the vegetable 

 kingdom. The following Tables exhibit an outline of both methods : 



586. According to the LINN JEAN Method all Vegetables are furnished with FLOWERS, which 



are either 



EXAMPLES. 



Ginger, turmeric. 



Jessamine, privet, olive. - 



Valerian, iris, grasses. 



Scabious, teazel, holly. . 

 ("Bell-flower, bind-weed, mullein, thorn. 

 l_ apple. 



Snowdrop, tulip, aloe. 



Horse-chestnut. 



Indian-cress, heath. 



Bay, rhubarb. 



Fraxinella, rue, lychnis. 



Purslane, house-leek. 



Peach, medlar, apple, rose, cinquefoH. 



("Herb-christopher, poppy, larkspur, co- 

 t lumbine. 



("Savory, hyssop, ground-ivy, balm, fox- 

 t glove. 



fScurvy-grass, candy-tuft, water-cress, 

 {_ stock woad. 



Geranium, mallow tribe. 



Fumitory, milk- wort. 



Orange, chocolate-nut. 

 (Compound flowers, as dandelion, thistle, 

 t tansey. 



Orchis, ladies'-slipper, birth-wort. 



Mulberry, nettle, oak, fir. 

 Willow, hop, juniper. 



White hellebore, peUitory, orach, fig. 

 Ferns, mosses, mushrooms, flags. 



