ARTIFICIAL CLASSIFICATION. 



91 



Lastly, The founder of this system, when he remarked a 

 fluctuating numerical proportion, was accustomed to set such 

 a value upon the first flower, {Jlos primarkis), that according 

 to it he determined the place in his system. Thus the Garden 

 Rose has always ten filaments in the first flower, and in the 

 others eight ; hence Linnaeus placed it in the tenth class. 

 When the flower-top of Adoxa unfolds itself, the first blos- 

 som is seen to have eight anthers, the following ones ten, and 

 Linnaeus accordingly attached it to the eight class. 



✓ 



136. 



A third well founded objection which may be made to this 

 system, is founded on the value which is laid in it on the dif- 

 ference of sex ; a difference which, considered in itself, is so 

 fluctuating, that we see it strikingly displayed, not only in 

 species of the same genus, but even frequently in different 

 plants which belong to the same species. The whole three- 

 and-twentieth class, and a great part of the genera which 

 stand in the one-and-twentieth and two-and-twentieth, shew a 

 separation of the sexual parts, which is completely destitute 

 of constancy. Thus some of the species of Hordeum are po- 

 lygamous, others hermaphrodite. The same thing happens 

 with respect to the difl*erent species of Acer. In numberless 

 genera, which Linnaeus referred to other classes, we find 

 monoecious, dioecious, and polygamous species, as the com- 

 mon examples of Rumex and Rhamnus shew. 



137. 



Beside these difficulties and deficiencies which the Classes 

 of the Linnaean system present, it cannot be denied, that 

 some well founded objections may be made with respect to 

 the Orders which it admits. In the Jirst place, it fails here 

 completely in unity, since sometimes one and sometimes ano- 

 ther principle of the order is assumed. For the most part, 

 attention is paid to the number of the Pistils, but instead 

 of pistils, sometimes the germen, and not unfrequently also 

 the stigma is taken, so that we often are not in a situation to 

 find the Order. Not to mention, that in the fourteenth class 



2 



