22 
The Queensland Naturalist. 
VoL. I, 
strate that any natural system of classification must admit 
the principle that the question of descent has much to do 
with the relationship that obtains between genera and genus, 
and one species and another. 
Linnaeus has been referred to as stating in his Philo- 
sophia Botanica, that the first object and the last hopes of 
the botanist is to arrive at a natural classification of plants. 
And although his name is usually connected with the 
artificial arrangement, spoken of as the Linnean system, 
it must be admitted that he regarded this as a transitory 
arrangement only, to meet certain requirements. Already 
in 1738, he published his Fragmenta MetJiodi Naturalis, 
indicating the bent of his great mind. W. Thistleton Dyer, 
too, in writing on the subject of G. Bentham, quotes the 
following passage from Linnaeus, as indicating that his 
real intellectual greatness consisted in the constant pursuit 
of a natural method of plant arrangement : — ‘‘ Diu et ego 
circa methodus naturaiis inveniendum laboravi, bene multa 
quae adderem obtinui, perfice non potuo, continuaturus 
dum vixero.” (Classes plantarum, 1738, p. 484). A former 
Leyden Professor of Zoology, Van der Hoeven, referring 
to this method, has written, “ if this natural system were 
quite perfect, it would not merely be a register of names 
of animals (or plants), or a large lexicon (using the simile 
of Cuvier above referred to), but a true image of the animal 
or plant kingdom, and a short survey of the entire science. 
The more nearly science approaches this end, the greater 
will be its perfection.” Such are the fruits of phdosophy. 
Botanical Gardens as Aid to Study. 
Whatever success has been attained in approaching 
this goal, has been mainly through examining living plants. 
This was true of the English Botanist of the seventeenth 
century, Bay. It was true also of Linnaeus himself, and 
although he M'as greatly beholden to travel, much of his 
work was accomplished through the aid of Botanical Gardens; 
four of his special works relating to his observations therein. 
The natural system of the classification of plants 
propounded by Antoine Laurent de Jussieu, which succeeded 
to that of Linnaeus, and that is followed with but little 
modification, (introduced by Endicher and De Candolle) 
in modern works, was based, as had been Adansons previous 
inconclusive labours in this direction— principally on the 
researches rendered possible by a botanical garden, and so 
to the title of the Genera Plantarum, in v hich this is pro- 
claimed, he adds, “ juxta methodum in liorto regio Parisiensi 
exaratumP 
The measure in which the progress of botanical science 
is thus promoted by the existence of collections of living 
plants suggests this reflection : Queensland is singularly 
