994 CLASSIFICATION OF PLANTS. (BY THE EDITOR.) 



epigynous Polypetalffi, and ending -with Goodeniece, Campanulacem, and Vacdniece, whicli 

 lead to the hypogynous Monopetalss. 



Continuing the Monopetalous Series, its successive Cohorts seem to follow a fairly 

 natural sequence, terminating abruptly with Lahiatce, and followed by the Incompletse, with 

 Nyetaginece, whose perianth is petaloid and gamophyllons, at their head. The Incomplete 

 Series again exhibits a succession of less and less specialized floral organs, finally approach- 

 ing in simplicity to those of Gymnosperms, which undoubtedly close the Dicotyledonous 

 Class. 



Commencing again yfith' Oompositce, and proceeding in the other direction, through the 

 epigynous Polypetalse, to the perigynous and hypogynous Orders, the succession of Cohorts 

 terminating with the Ranal is not unnatural. 



On these grounds I am disposed to approve of the sequence adopted by De Candolle, 

 which places Monopetalge in the centre of the series, flanked on either hand by Polypetalss 

 and Incompletse, which two latter, as remarked above, have many cross affinities, but have 

 few affinities of consequence with Monopetalse. The Cohorts may thus be fancifully 

 likened to the parti-coloured beads of a necklace, joined by a clasp, the beads touching at 

 similarly coloured points of their surfaces. The position of each bead in the necklace 

 is determined by the predominance of colours common to itself and those nearest to it ; 

 whilst the number and proportion of the other colours which each bead presents, indicates 

 its claims to be placed elsewhere in the necklace ; in other words, such colours re- 

 present the cross affinities which the Cohorts display with others remote from the position 

 they occupy. 



In conclusion, the student must remember that the above sketches of systems and 

 their foundations are of a very superficial description, and that rapidly accumulating dis- 

 coveries in the development of organs and of species, in dichogamy, in Fossil Botany, and in 

 the distribution of Plants in time and area, will no doubt one day throw a new light on 

 the whole subject, and teach us why it is that such and such modifications of form and of 

 structure are more or less faithful guides to affinity. It is one thing to perceive affinities, 

 the power to do which is intuitive and possessed in very difierent degrees by different 

 I persons, the child often detecting a consanguinity where the sage fails to see it when 

 ' pointed out to him ; it is another thing to seize the clues to such affinities, and, like Jussieu, 

 to generalize them, and develop them into principles of classification ; ^nd it is a third 

 and widely difierent thing to prove that such affinities are genetic and real, not chance- 

 produced or imitative : — this is one of the deepest problems of nature, the solution of 

 which is to be arrived at through the patient labours of the anatomist and experimenter, 

 which alone can reveal the philosophy of classification. 



