ON THE NATUllAL ARRANGEMENT. 107 



the shape of the fruit, the insertion of the filaments, or any 

 other relations of the organs we please, but such a principle 

 cannot be employed throughout but in a constrained and ar- 

 tificial manner. This objection strikes even at the very cele- 

 brated, very ingenious, and in many respects the immortal 

 work, which Jussieu has published. Hence there remains no 

 other plan but that of arranging the tribes and families accord- 

 ing to the sum of related characters in the greater number of 

 their parts. But as, in this operation, a great deal depends 

 upon a peculiar glance of the observer, the objects of which 

 frequently cannot be distinctly stated in words, fluctuation 

 and uncertainty are here unavoidable ; and the more com- 

 pletely all the marks are collected, the more impossible is it 

 to impress upon the mind of the learner the sum of these 

 characters. 



In the last place, the comprehensive survey of the Natural 

 Method necessarily requires the knowledge of such genera, 

 tribes, and families, as are only accessible to him who has 

 either accomplished himself by travel in foreign countries, or is 

 in possession of a very rich collection of plants, and at the 

 same time has access to one of the best botanic gardens. 

 Without these assistances one could scarcely become acquaint- 

 ed with the AnonejE, the Guttiferae, the Sapoteae, and many 

 other families. 



162. 



If with all this we compare the artificial system, nothing is 

 more easy than, during the very first lesson, to produce exam- 

 ples from all the classes ; nothing more easy than to obtain a 

 view of the subdivisions of this system. It would be difficult 

 to find any other system better adapted to instruction than 

 the Linnaean. But besides the objections which were before 

 stated, the study of this system, if the attention of the stu- 

 dent be limited wholly to it, has the great disadvantage, that 

 it produces a partial and confined way of viewing things, 

 which must necessarily estrange the mind from the higher 

 object of science. Accustomed to view the relations of the 

 sexual parts as the most important of all others, and to consi- 



