620 Historical Notice 



traced, by the hand of Antoine Laurent De Jussieu, either 

 from nature, or from the published or manuscript descrip- 

 tions of the botanists who inspired him with most confi- 

 dence; and his references to the sources from which he has 

 drawn, makes us able to appreciate their value. If the 

 characters of the Genera partly consist of compilation, it is 

 yet one of those compilations indispensable in a work of this 

 nature, and which often denotes more talent and penetration 

 than direct observations. 



Thus, the Genera Plantarum, published in 1789, was a 

 work as perfect in its execution, as the state of botany per- 

 mitted ; and this execution is entirely due to Antoine 

 Laurent De Jusieu. 



As to the principles of classification, the first foundation 

 of the method, they were the same as those indicated by the 

 same author in his memoir upon the series of plants in the 

 Paris Garden ; that is to say, those admitted by Bernard De 

 Jussieu, and drawn from the number of cotyledons, and the 

 relative insertion of the parts of the flower, to which he had 

 added those furnished by the presence and structure of the 

 corolla. 



The use of these characters, as the basis of the first 

 classification of dicotyledonous plants, has, perhaps, con- 

 tributed to break the relations perceived by Antoine Laurent 

 De Jussieu himself between the apetalous and polypetalous 

 plants, and, in some rarer cases, between the monopetalous 

 and these two latter classes. But we need only look back to 

 the paper quoted above, to see that the desire of multiplying 

 the number of classes, in order to rentier the natural method 

 of easier application, has, in this case, led the author to 

 wander from what he considered as rigorous principles of 

 that method. Now, if there be in anything occasion to 

 reproach the author of the Genera with regard to the classi- 

 fication he has adopted, it is, I think, for having made this 

 concession, with the intention of rendering his work of easier 

 application ; for it is probable that, in a greater or less 

 degree, the employing of characters furnished by the corolla 

 will one day be renounced : and this will be the most con- 

 siderable modification (in appearance) that the method of 

 the Genera Plantarum will have undergone; a modification, 

 nevertheless, by which we do but return to the principles of 

 its author. 



The public events which followed almost immediately upon 

 the publication of the Genera Plantarum, must of necessity 

 have interfered with the botanical labours of its author. There 

 was little time suited for the peaceable study of natural 



