172 1. KANUNCULACE.E. 



presents in the form and structure of the calyx and corolla of such genera as Columbine, 

 Aconite, Larkspur, Hellebore, Ranunculus, Anemone, Clematis, Actmt, Thalictrum, &c., which, 

 nevertheless, all agree in the separation of their sepals and petals, the insertion of their 

 numerous stamens, the direction of their anthers, the form of their ovaries, and especially in 

 the structure of their seed ; all of which, no doubt, led to Antoine Laurent's discovery of the 

 grand principle of the relative value of characters. From these he was at once able to reason 

 out and to formulate the pregnant axiom which his uncle had foreshadowed : that it is not by 

 the number of characters, but by their value and importance, that the problem of the Natural 

 Method can be solved. In his paper on Itanunculacete he enumerated and developed those 

 views of the relative and subordinate importance of the organs of plants which other botanists, 

 Linnceus included, had failed to perceive ; together with those principles of a natural classifi- 

 cation which decided the Academy of Sciences' to elect him a member. ' Antoine Laurent,' 

 says his son, in the ' Dictionnaire Universelle d'Histoire Naturelle ' (art. TAXOXOMIE), ' supple- 

 mented this discovery in the following year (1774) by a second paper, in which he extended 

 his examination of a single family to all others. It hence became necessary to reconstruct the 

 "Ecole Botanique " of the King's Garden, which was rapidly increasing under the powerful 

 influence of BufTon ; and where the method of Tournefort, hitherto adopted, no longer kept 

 pace with the progress and wants of science. Nor could the system of Linnaeus, though it 

 prevailed almost throughout the rest of Europe, be accepted in the Paris garden, which was 

 controlled by Buffon under the directorship of Bernard de Jussieu. The latter was now old 

 and nearly blind, and as he did not insist on his nephew's following his own arrangement of 

 the Trianon garden, it would appear that he was not himself fully satisfied with it.' Antoine 

 Laurent hereupon adopted the new classification which he had proposed in 1774 to the Academy, 

 and thus became, as his son expressed it, both the lawgiver and administrator of the law 

 leyis simul lator et minister. 1 



From this memorable epoch dates the commencement of Jussieu's preparations for his 

 great work on the Families and Genera of the Vegetable Kingdom, upon which he worked 

 unceasingly and single-handed for fifteen years, analysing all the genera, investigating the 

 germination of their seeds, and finally embodying his materials in the ' Genera Plantarum,' 

 which was published in 1789. In the Introduction, A. L. de Jussieu enunciates the lucid 

 principles which guided him, and illustrates their application ; whilst in his co-ordination of 

 the families and genera, he supplements by profoundly judicious notes the artificial character 

 inherent in eveiy linear series. He further indicates the manifold relationships that exist 

 between the various groups of the Vegetable Kingdom ; and the very doubts which he ex- 

 presses betray that fine instinct for affinities with which he was gifted. 



Science has advanced since 1789; new types have been added to the family of Runu-iiculacece, 

 without disturbing any of the characters assigned to it by Jussieu. The most recent work on 

 the subject is the ' Genera Plantarum' of the eminent botanists Bentham and Hooker fil. ; 

 from which we shall borrow the description of all the known genera of Ranunculacece. 



Tribe I. CLEMATIDE^E, D.C. Sepals valvate, petaloid. Petals 0, or narrow, flat, 

 shorter than the sepals and staininoid. Carpels 1-ovuled ; ovule pendulous, raphe 



1 The precious manuscript, which is wholly in the up in Paris in which both the binary nomenclature of 



author's handwriting, and which describes the ar- Linnaeus and the natural families established by Jussieu 



rangement of this garden, still exists. It is headed are adopted. Thouin adds that the laying out of the 



by an observation of its previous possessor, Andre Botanic Garden was begun in the autumn of 1773, and 



Thouin, Professor of Horticulture in the Royal Garden, was completed in the following spring, that is, during the 



to the effect that this catalogue was the first drawn vacation, so as not to interfere with the Botanical course. 



