58 MEMOIR OF LAMARCK. 
This arrangement is particularly deserving of 
attention, from its being admitted by the author of 
the circular system to be the first approach to a 
perception of that order of affinities which he sup- 
poses to pervade the whole animal kingdom. “ In 
the first volume of his celebrated work,” says Mr. 
Mac Leay, “ Lamarck acknowledges that the idea 
of a simple series constituting the whole of the ani- 
mal kingdom does not agree with the evident order 
of nature, because, to use his own words, this order 
is far from simple ; it is branched, and is at the 
same time composed of several distinct series. He 
then presumes, that animals offer two separate sub- 
ramose series, one commencing with the infusoria , 
and leading by means of the mollusea to the cuttle- 
fish ( cephalopoda J, and the other commencing 
with the intestinal worms, and leading to insects. 
Now, this notion could only have gained a place in 
the mind of Lamarck from a conviction by experi- 
ence of its being an incontrovertible truth. His 
table of affinities, however confused it may appear, 
or subramose, as it is termed, coincides with the 
tabular Hew which I have laid before the public. 
"We have only to join the radiata to the cirripeda. 
and the anndides to fishes, aud Lamarck’s table of 
affinities, with scarcely any alteration, becomes pre- 
cisely the same as mine*." 
In addition to the various branches of natural 
history already enumerated as cultivated by this 
indefatigable and ingenious inquirer, another still 
* Horse Entomologies:, p. 21?. 
