86 



TAXONOMY. 



changes often take place in the fruit and seed, when they 

 are passing from an unripe into a mature state* 



129. 



The permanent relations of the parts which constitute the 

 foundation of the system, must be strongly and distinctly ex- 

 pressed in the nomenclature. Those designations of properties 

 and relations, which are also called Characters, must, as much as 

 possible, be positive, and must not consist merely in negation, 

 or in the assignation of absent properties, (for we may wish 

 to denote, by definite oppositions, what the characters ex- 

 clude). But even in this case, the absent properties may 

 easily be expressed positively. When, for instance, the chaf- 

 fy leaves of the receptacle are taken into the one character, 

 the 7iaked receptacle properly takes its place in the other, as 

 the opposite of the former. If in one Genus it be important 

 to notice that the antheras grow together, then the other Ge- 

 nus is distinguished by having its organs ^idcadimg free. 



130. 



An artificial system, in order to be useful, must have as 

 many subdivisions as are demanded by the essential diffe- 

 rences of the principal organs. Too few divisions oblige us 

 to place together too great a number of different plants, and 

 thus the investigation of particular plants is made very diffi- 

 cult. But the arrangement must be made according to cer- 

 tain general properties or relations of the parts, in order that, 

 by seeking out the general division, we may pass with greater 

 ease to the particulars which it contains. 



131. 



If we examine by these principles the artificial systepis 

 which have been hitherto devised, we shall find the most cele- 

 brated of them, that which Linnaeus proposed, to possess a 

 decided superiority, not only because it is consistently derived 

 from one simple principle, but also because the author of it, 

 by means of a new nomenclature, has given to his terms the 

 greatest distinctness of meaning. 



