in Notuj-al History. . . 493 



Plantas ;" defining the last thus, " Planta? dicuntiir reliqiVte, quœ 

 priores intrare nequeunt familias/' P/til. Bot. § 78. Take up 

 Jussieu's " Genera Plantaruni ;" and besides his " Plantaj incertie 

 sedis," see how he is obliged to dispose at the end of many or- 

 ders his " Genera affinia," and " Genera nondum satis determi- 

 nata/' This is true inductive philosophy ; yet the same author 

 may be suspected of departing from this mode of investigation 

 when he attempts to edge in his remainder under artificial or 

 sweeping characters, as he has done in Eleagni and Jiinci, and 

 when, falling in with this modern innovation, he invents a mul- 

 titude of new orders to embrace every known species of plant. 



The mammiferous animals are arranged with more ease ac- 

 cording to a natural system, in consequence of their number 

 being comparatively small, and their forms strongly marked. 

 Nevertheless the system of M. Cuvier, in the " Règne Animal," 

 clearly shows the vain attempt of finding a place for every thing. 

 Nothing can be more satisfactory and beautiful than many of his 

 orders and divisions ; yet see how he is compelled to change his 

 ground when he comes to the Pachyclermata, and to huddle to- 

 gether species very remotely connected. His birds also exem- 

 plify the same fact, where his order Passercs is made to include 

 all that his other orders will not hold. " Son caractère semble 

 d'abord purement négatif, car il embrasse tous les oiseaux qui 

 ne sont ni nageurs, ni échassiers, ni grimpeurs, ni rapaces, ni 

 gallinacés." Thus it contains the Warblers, the Shrikes, the 

 Goatsuckers, the Crows, the Creepers ; birds of the most dis- 

 similar habits, and living upon the most dissimilar food. The 

 Chough is separated widely from the Corvi, and Ant has from 

 Alauda. Now this is what we might expect from the nature of 

 the subject ; only it is desirable that the remainder of unknown 

 things should be distinctly avowed, and not reduced to an exact 

 place in the natural system. Jussieu's was the most philosophic 



mode. 



