02 CONCLUDING HEMAUKS, 



drawn from the organs of manducation may be natural* 

 yet from their minuteness they are not easily seized, and 

 require too much time for study. 2dly, That the principles 

 of arrangement here laid down are too difficult for general 

 adoption. — To the first of these I shall only reply, that 

 in botany microscopical dissections of a much more mi- 

 nute and difficult nature are often practised, and have led 

 to the most curious and satisfactory results. And to the 

 second objection I cannot answer better than in the terms 

 of an illustrious botanist*, who has lately discovered some- 

 thing in the disposition of the natural family of the Compo- 

 sit cs analogous to what I -have observed in the Pet alocer a- 

 " M Qnand on se propose de faire une classification natu- 

 relle, ilfaut avant tout se resigner a voir la Nature abso- 

 lument telle quelle est, et nonpas telle que nous la dispose- 

 rions pour la commodity de notre etude. Cette reflexion 

 suffit pour refuter toutes les objections qui ont ete faites 

 centre notre travail. 



" .La multiplicity de nos tribus, la minutie et I' equivoque 

 de leurs caracteres toujours difficiles a observer, et souvent 

 reduits a des nuances indecises, enfin VimpossibiUte d' appro- 

 prier cette methode de classification a V usage habituel dans 

 la pratique ordinaire de la botanique ; tons ces defauts ou. 

 plutot tous ces inconveniens ne sauroient nous etre im- 

 putes s'ils rcsultent necessairement de la native meme des 



a Diet, des Sciences Naturelles, Art. Composees. — Soon after I had ex- 

 plained the curious developement of the Lamellicorn insects in circles to 

 my friends Dr. Leach and Mr. Ritchie in Paris, a number of the new 

 Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles appeared, in which the latter gentle- 

 man pointed out to me M. Cassini's tableau. This however, though I am 

 not botanist enough to understand it fully, seems to have been drawn up 

 on the first slight and very imperfect glimpse obtained of the remarkabte 

 disposition of Nature. - ... 



