156 
METHOD OF JUSSIEU. 
ed as a study in itself, is much too abstract ; the number of co- 
tyledons, generally speaking, is an excellent character, but you 
cannot in the beginning appreciate its value ; and as to insertion, 
botanists themselves are sometimes embarrassed to decide re- 
specting it. This method, although much admired has been lit- 
tle used ; on the contrary, the methed of Linnaeus has been for 
half a century the foundation of all teaching. The new species 
discovered have been arranged according to its principles of clas- 
sification, and most catalogues of plants and floras* have taken 
this method for their guide. 
The characters used in this system are very apparent; 
and as it refers to the number of parts, rather than to their 
forms or insertion , it offers to the mind something positive, 
which is not found either in the method of Tournefort, or that 
of Jussieu. Between a corolla, bell form or funnel form, there 
are many intermediate forms which may be as much like one as 
the other. The insertions over the germ or under the germ are 
distinct, but between them, is the insertion around the germ, 
which sometimes blends with one, sometimes with the other. 
But between one or two stamens , or one or two pistils, there is 
no intermediate step , or gradual blending of distinctions, which 
leaves you in doubt whether the case before you belongs to the 
one or the other. 
The natural orders of Linnaeus are 58 ; they are not founded 
upon any one principle, but upon general marks of resemblance. 
This great man did not view his Natural Orders as approach- 
ing to a perfect classification; he modestly termed them “Frag- 
ments of a natural method.” As every thing left by him on the 
subject of botany seems deserving of consideration, his Natural 
Orders are preserved as a relic, which it would be almost sacri- 
lege to destroy : there is in them more of simplicity than in 
those of Jussieu, and they may be better understood by the young 
student. 
Linnaeus, in his “ Philosophy of Botany,” has established these 
kinds of characters to be used in descriptions of plants. 
1st. Factitious. That which is, by agreement, taken as a mark 
of distinction : thus the number of stamens and pistils is 
fixed upon for distinguishing some of the classes and orders. 
Although nature has formed these organs, the arrangement 
of plants by their names, is an invention of man or artifi- 
cial. 
* The term flora is often used for the title of a book describing pjants. 
The ancient heathens imagined a goddess called Flora, w ho they thought 
presided over flowers. 
System of Linnaeus offers something positive — Natural orders of Linnaeus 
— Three kinds of characters to be used in descriptions of plants — Factiti ous 
character. 
