166 THE ARTIFICIAL SYSTEM. 



8tl. Intermediate OKOtrps, formed oa the same principles, are recognized aa 

 Subgenera, Suborders or Tribes, and Subclasses or Coiiorts, which wUl be further 

 aotioed and described in another place. 



8'72. Methods of classification. Two independent and widely different 

 methods of classifying the genera have been generally approved, the Artificial Sys- 

 tem of Linnaeus, and the Natural System of Jusaieu. The former is founded solely 

 on characters relating to the organs of fructification, leaving all other natural affini- 

 ties out of view. The latter, on the contrary, takes for its basis all those natural 

 affinities and resemblances of plants whereby Nature herself has distinguished them 

 into groups and families. 



CHAPTER II. 



THE ARTIFICIAL SYSTEM. 



813. A SYSTEM OP CLASSIFICATION IS SAID TO BE ARTIFICIAL WHEN, disregard- 

 ing the real nature of the subjects classified,' it rests merely on some obvious exter- 

 nal circumstance. As when the books of a library are arranged on shelves accord- 

 ing to their size, octavo, duodecimo, etc., or as when the words in a language are 

 .arranged in dictionaries, alphabetically, forming thus class A, class B, etc. In either 

 ease the books or the words constituting any group may be quite diverse in charac- 

 ter, having nothing in common except their octavo size or initial letter. The only 

 use of such an arrangement is convenience of reference. 



874. Carl von Linn^ (Linnaeus) of Sweden, born in 1707, everywhere honored 

 as the father of systematic and descriptive botany, was the author of that renowned 

 artificial system which bears his name. For well nigh a century it continued in al- 

 most universal use, and was regarded by his followers with far more respect than by 

 Linnaius himself who designed it simply as an index or clue to the vegetable king- 

 dom. For ho says (Philosophia Botanica) " Methodi Naturalis fragnaenta studies^ 

 inquireuda sunt. Primum et ultimum hoc in Botauicis desideratum est." 



875. Considered as a system, the Linnaean arrangement totally fails to exhibit 

 those true relations and afiinities of plants which render the knowledge of each kind 

 a guide to that of the others, and combine all into one consistent whole. It can not, 

 therefore, properly be regarded as a system. 



876. Considered as an indez or key to the vegetable kingdom, it is by no 

 means reliable, for the stamens and styles often vary numerically in the same 

 plant ; and secondly, the species of the same genus often vary in these respects, thus 

 obliging us to violate even specific afBnities ; and again, when the stamens or pistils 

 are accidentally marred, or lost, or immature, the index must also fail of its pui^pose. 

 For these reasons this arrangement has fallen into disuse, having been superseded 

 by the Natural System, and by other arrangements better adapted to the present 

 advanced state of the science. Tet being intimately connected with the history of 

 botany, and having largely contributed to its early progress, its outlines at least de- 

 mand a record in our pages. 



811. The Linnaean System proposes to arrange all the known 

 genera of plants under twenty-four classes, eacli based on some special 

 character derived from the essential floral organs, as follows : 



