in Natural Histori/. 481 



use of the Linnœan arranoement. The two oreat masters of bota- 

 nical science propose dift'erent ends, and ought not to be regarded 

 as rivals. The President of this Society has also constantly pressed 

 upon the attention of the student the same important fact. 



In some respects it is not to be regretted that the abso- 

 lute sway which the name of Linnœus has had among English 

 naturalists is somewhat abated : for although authority is an 

 extremely useful bond of union, and has in this instance esta- 

 blished among us a nomenclature which nothing short of homage 

 to the founder could probably have made current, yet it has 

 brought with it the ordinary evils attendant upon great names. 

 The range of the pupil has been limited by that of the master; 

 and it has been considered a species of heterodoxy to dissent 

 from the established opinions. The danger to be now appre- 

 hended is, that those who adopt other arrangements will forget 

 the advantages to be derived from what is old, in their love of 

 that which is new. 



In addition to the remarks made by Mr. Roscoe and the Pre- 

 sident, I would beg leave to suggest to those who adopt new 

 systems, — and in adopting them think it advisable to break up 

 the old orders and genera into many new ones, — that the artificial 

 and natural systems aim at two very distinct objects, which are 

 in some measure incompatible with each other. The one is to 

 make us acquainted with individuals : and the other, founded 

 upon an acquaintance with individuals, to combine them ac- 

 cording to their characters, so as to abridge the labour of reason- 

 ing, and to enable us to ascend from particular to general truths. 



In order to assist us in these investigations, we employ certain 

 words in a peculiar sense. Thus the word Species, when used 

 by naturalists, has a more confined signification than the same 

 word when employed in scholastic language. We have agreed 

 that a species shall be that distinct form originally so created, 



3 Q 2 and 



