110 



TAXONOMY. 



fruit and seed ; and those recent times, the improvements of 

 which have been derived from the labours of Adanson, have, 

 in many instances, only been able to confirm his observations, 



165. 



By Joseph Gartner's single work on Fruits and Seeds, an 

 entirely new light has been cast upon the natural method, by 

 which a multitude of obscurities have been cleared up, and 

 affinities have been discovered, where they were before sought 

 for in vain. In this way, and by treading in the footsteps of 

 Jussieu, De Candolle, Richard, Batsch, Correa de Serra, 

 and Robert Brown, we may hope to afford essential advan- 

 tage to science, whilst we are searching out every where rela- 

 tions and affinities. 



It cannot but happen, that the farther progress we make, 

 the greater number of families will be discovered ; because in 

 particular tribes we shall ever be noticing such distinct as- 

 semblages as separate themselves properly from the families 

 to which they had formerly been ascribed. If Jussieu reck- 

 oned only a hundred families, we must now be acquainted 

 with nearly a hundred and fifty. The Dillenieae, Pittospo- 

 reae, Tremandreae, Combreteae, Cunoniae, Rhizophoreae, Ha- 

 loxageae, Atherospermeae, Hackhouseae, are examples of later 

 families, which Brown has established by well-founded inves- 

 tigations. 



166. 



In a few words we shall notice the analytical method which 

 Lamark proposed, forty years ago, as a middle path for 

 avoiding the inconveniencies of the artificial system, as well 

 as the difficulties of the natural method. He remarked, that 

 the procedure of the human mind, in the investigation of 

 plants, was of such a kind as leads us to divide the whole 

 vegetable kingdom into two principal departments, the cha^ 

 racters of the one of which are always completely exclusive of 

 the marks of the other. Each of these two may again be se- 

 parated into other two divisions, and this mode of dividing 

 may be continued, until we have at last only two species to 



