ZoQlogical Club of ike Linneun Socielj/. 299 



endeavours to communicate his ideas respecting the groups of 

 nature. lie thence proceeded to conibat the most apparently 

 serious objection which had been brought against the mode of 

 arrangement adopted in the " Hone Eutomologicae," viz. that it 

 restricted nature, by proving that all such artificial and symbolick 

 representations must be equally liable fo the same objection, and 

 that in point of fact, there is no other mode by which we can com- 

 municate our ideas in Natural Science. He hence insisted, that 

 the question respecting the comparative merits of the different 

 arransements proposed by naturalists was not to be determined by 

 the consideration of their being more or less artificial or natural, 

 or more or less restrictive, but by the fact of their being more oi: 

 less suited to the purpose at which they aimed, — namely that of 

 communicating our knowledge of the groups of nature. Applying 

 this rule to the arrangement adopted in the " Ilorae Entomolo- 

 gical," he pointed out the superior advantages of a circular dis- 

 position and a quinary division tn illustrating the affinities and 

 analogies of groups. He showed that whereas the linear series, 

 or that which has hitherto been chiefly in use, serves to point out 

 the affinities of a group to two other groups only, — i. e. to those 

 which respectively precede and succeed it, — the circular dis- 

 position points out at once the immediate affinity of the same 

 group to several others, and at the same time its greater or less 

 approximation to every other group in existence. With respect 

 to the quinary division he equally evinced the necessity of it for 

 the purpose of pointing out the analogies of nature. If parallel 

 analogies are to be clearly exhibited, which he contended ought 

 to be one of the chief objects of the naturalist, the number of 

 divisions in every group must be definite. While he argued that 

 such a division ought to be adopted even were it to be considered 

 but an arbitrary mode of illustrating analogies, he asserted that as 

 far as his own experience extended, he found that in every group 

 where sufficient prominency of character prevailed for subdivision, 

 and where no chasm intervened in the chain of affinities, the num- 

 ber of subordinate groups of equal value universally amounted 

 to five. 



Mr. BrayleVjJun. in corroboration of the justice of the aforesaid 



