616 Historical Notice 



continued to classify the plants of the Botanic Garden accord- 

 ing to this method. His catalogues employed at his lectures, 

 worn out with use, renewed at several different times, covered 

 with notes and additions, and, at length, presenting not only 

 a list of the genera and species cultivated, but the characters of 

 families, and more frequently those of genera, traced with con- 

 cision and clearness, show that these eleven years were devoted 

 to bringing to perfection the natural method. From 1770, Ber- 

 nard De Jussieu, then seventy-one years of age, almost entirely 

 ceased to occupy himself in the gardens, the care of which he 

 had confided to his nephew. His health, and more particularly 

 his sight, grew weaker; and, in 1777, after having suffered 

 many attacks of apoplexy, he terminated the long career which 

 had had so much influence upon the march of botany, though 

 it had, in appearance produced so little effect. 



We have only to compare these dates to ascertain what 

 share is due to Bernard De Jussieu, and what belongs to An- 

 toine Laurent, in the establishment of the natural method, as 

 made known by the Genera Plantarum of 1789. The orders 

 of Trianon, established in 1 759, show us that the classification 

 of families according to the cotyledonous structure, and the 

 insertion of the stamens, is due to Bernard De Jussieu. An- 

 toine Laurent De Jussieu imbibed, probably, these first prin- 

 ciples of the science in the study of that series, and in his first 

 botanical education which he owed to his uncle; but every 

 thino- proves this to have been the utmost extent of the influ- 

 ence exercised by Bernard De Jussieu over the labours of his 

 nephew. 



In fact, the three note-books by Bernard De Jussieu, rela- 

 tive to the order of the Trianon Garden, do not present a 

 single character of class, family, or genus: there are not even 

 any other classes specified than the monocotyledonous and 

 dicotyledonous. In some notes upon the cards, we find some 

 o-eneric characters, accompanied by a section of the seed ; but 

 those of cards, which have been carefully preserved by his 

 family, are very few in number. 



The same method of descriptions upon cards was followed 

 by his nephew : his are often dated ; and we see that they 

 mount up in a considerable number as far back as 1774. 



Finally, the oldest lists used in the lectures of Antoine 

 Laurent de Jussieu contain characters of families which we do 

 not find upon any of those belonging to his uncle. 



Thus, the first principles of classification are due to Bernard 

 De Jussieu; the profound and sagacious application of these 

 principles, and the true institution of natural families, to An- 

 toine Laurent. 



