11 



and Lichenes placed together, and placed here, because, 1. There 

 can be but three series of the Pith-plants, corresponding to the 

 three " tissues " ; and, 2. The two outside series being determined 

 in Ferns and Fungi, Mosses and Algae must be the middle one. 1 

 I say nothing of the bringing together of Mosses and Algse, which 

 was another systematic consequence, nor will I say more of the 

 matter. With these remarks, which might be extended to any 

 length, but which I think enough in themselves, and the thoughts 

 which they suggest, let us leave this temple, and return to free di- 

 vine nature, and to the company of observers and searchers there. 

 In refusing to receive the system of Oken, we do not, we cannot, 

 reject the ideas which were, however imperfectly, expressed in it, 

 nor the truth which it contains. The most profound of all works on 

 Fungi, the " Systema Mycologicum " of Fries, was constructed on 

 principles which its author referred to Oken's philosophy. It will 

 be interesting, therefore, to turn to the views presented in the In- 

 troduction to that work, 2 which appeared, however, it should be said, 

 as long ago as 1821, when only the general principles of Oken's 

 system were before the world. Beginning with an earnest vindica- 

 tion of the higher doctrine of Linnseus, Fries places himself at 

 once among the disciples of the Natural Method, denying, in so many 

 words, the alleged superior certainty and facility of the artificial 

 system. He states formally the quaquaversa] affinity of plants, and 

 hence rejects once more the notion of a single series in nature. 

 He declares species "unica in natura fixe circumscripta idea," and 

 hence all superior sections are more or less indefinite. The method 

 which seeks empirically to dispose all plants in a single series, must 

 be constantly adapting diverse series to a correspondence, and is 

 hence Methodus adaptata. In such, affinity is more or less truly 

 indicated, but a hundred such systems, every one of which should 

 excel in this or that respect, and thus be equally good, might be 

 constructed. A certain universal view such give, but not the uni- 

 versal view. The design of a true system must be to express at 

 once and make manifest all the affinities of plants. Oken has indi- 

 cated such a system. We seek in a system, not how this and that 

 species differ, but rather how the exterior discrepant form expresses 

 the different purposes of these forms. These purposes of life or of 

 organism the external organs express. Every essential organ 

 represents, then, a peculiar class, to which class orders and genera, 

 in which this organ is above all others developed, are to be referred. 

 The class is again in the same way divided into orders ; and the 

 organ indicating the class indicates also the most perfect order un- 

 der it. All this seems wonderfully to conspire with nature ; nor 



1 Auf diese Weise haben wir die beiden Granzpfosten der Mark-pflanzen 

 gefunden. Da nach allgemeiner Anerkennung, die Moose zwischen den Pilzen 

 und Farren stehen, so werden sie hier zu Aderpjlanzen, &c. ; III. 1. p. 17. An 

 die Moose schiiessen sich Flechten und Tange. Ibid. 



2 Systema Mycologicum, sistens Fungorum Ordines Genera et Species, quas 

 ad normam methodi naturalis descripsit Elias Fries. Lundae. 1821-1823. 

 Vol. I., II., and Supplement. 



