GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 83 



and-sixty different classifications. Among these there are some 

 which are founded simply upon the Stature, others upon the 

 Thickness or Substance, and others again upon the Colour, 

 the Smell, the Taste, and similar properties. 



124. 



In assuming the parts and properties of plants, as prin- 

 ciples of Classification, we must, in every instance, make a dis- 

 tinction between essential parts, and those that are accidental 

 or less essential. The former are such organs as have an in- 

 timate connection with the purpose of vegetation : less essen- 

 tial forms, again, are those which have a more distant con- 

 nection with the purpose of vegetation. If we seek this pur- 

 pose in the propagation of plants, — and it seems undoubtedly 

 to consist in this, — then the seed and fruit, and also the flow- 

 er, which in most plants precedes the fruit, are the parts 

 which furnish the most important ground of Scientific Classi- 

 fication. 



But, with respect to these, we may proceed in two ways. 

 We may regard the determinate relations of these essential 

 parts as the only Principle; and without considering other 

 properties and distant organs, we may employ the former only 

 as the principle of classification. In this case, we sketch an 

 Artificial System ; that is to say, an arrangement of plants ac- 

 cording to one common principle. 



But we may consider the relations of essential parts, in 

 their joint connection with other organs and their properties ; 

 and we may proceed in this way so far, as universally to avail 

 ourselves of resemblances and agreements, without binding 

 ourselves exactly to one and the same leading principle. We 

 then follow a Natural Method^ which cannot be called a Sys- 

 tem, because it is destitute of unity of principle. 



F2 



