P>VRK AND CEMETERY 
222 
adopt the method in vogue from the most ancient 
times and plant herbs, shrubs and trees in places by 
themselves. This is not nature’s method in fertile 
places nor any approach to it and there is no harmony 
belonging to it. 
But if we assume as I am doing that not one, but 
several, original seeds were sown on the hot rock- 
ribbed old Earth, and that these were the original 
centers of a number of groups of antediluvian or pre- 
glacial plants — since and often destroyed — generations 
upon generations — for ages after ages, only an in- 
complete series of whose descendants exist, and that 
nature never for a moment arranged her plants in 
anything like the line upon line principle of the 
botanists, perhaps we may arrive at a grouping 
adapted more or less fully to all fertile parts of the 
globe, which if arranged in something like the hap- 
hazard way of the Great Planter may be used to em- 
bellish the landscape. It is well for mere convenience 
to find which one of the “accepted systems" has 
groups best adapted to the purpose, and with a fairly 
comprehensive knowledge of all, I have no hesitation 
in saying that while none are perfect, yet the groups 
of Durand’s Index and the Genera Plantarum come 
nearer to affording a well balanced choice of material 
North, South, East and West on the Earth than any 
others. The secpience of these groups is not in ac- 
cordance with the palaeontological facts so far as ascer- 
tained, but it must be remembered always that these 
so-called facts are exceedingly meagre and liable to 
error. Eor instance anyone ma\' easily demonstrate 
the utter perishability of most endogenous plants, and 
this may be the reason of their scarcity in the older 
deposits, a scarcity by no means proving their non- 
existence in those very ancient times. The seeds of 
Palms, for instance, may sometime be unearthed as 
casts or fossils whenever the tropics are explored with 
the scientific closeness of the temperate regions. 
It is difficult to give an idea of natural distribution, 
accidental crossing, and the evolution of species and 
varieties on paper, but I am disposed to believe the two 
columns of groups which follow, with their north and 
south arrangement, and the space between representing 
the great, often impassable oceans, come as near to 
illustrating the methods of nature as any picturing I 
have seen — for the groups are invariably represented 
north and south, generally too they are found east and 
west, although the genera and even the tribes are 
more likely to be confined to one hemisphere or the 
other. 
Nature’s method of crossing and evolving the living 
forms has been extremely diverse and so slow as to 
be well nigh incomprehensible. 
The winds, the movements of animals, ocean cur- 
rents and their drift have all contributed to their dis- 
semination, and during recent times this has gone on 
more rapidly than ever before, yet who can safely 
assert that nature has produced a single new species 
during the age of steam for instance ? It would be 
much easier to assert with truth that species have been 
destroyed, and it is an open question if in all the ages 
the process of destruction has not been the most 
rapid. 
But there seems to be a compensatory process going 
on among the plants of cultivation, for these vary with 
great rapidity, and often adapt themselves within 
given limits with remarkable facility. 
Artificial fertilization as promoted by mankind has 
played a most important part within historic times, 
and especially during the last half century, and it is 
becoming more and more necessary to have accurate 
ideas as to the limitations of genera and the relation- 
ships of plants in general. As a very humble contribu- 
tion to this end I long ago gave plans and suggested 
the planting of allied groups for the embellishment of 
the landscape, rather than heterogeneous and unrelated 
ones, and pointed out clearly in a long series of 
papers that the majority of such groups possess all 
the variety necessary to the production of the conven- 
tional style of gardening. 
I suppose the whole idea is ill adapted to the hurry- 
scurry of American life, and certainly several of those 
who have blundered into nondescript arrangements 
within the last decade or two, show both by their let- 
ters and their works that they have given no adequate 
thought or heed to the very essentials of good group- 
ing, — comprehensive understanding. 
There is no doubt at all that in spite of the im- 
mense amonnt of work in siccus and library, that con- 
veniently arranged gardens would speedily show many 
species which ought to be in other genera, many 
genera in other tribes, and many tribes removed to 
other allied groups. A plant is generally nearer to 
one than another. 
As for the sequence of the groups themselves I feel 
instinctively that the following is at least as good as 
anv : 
I 
Filicales. 
Graminales. 
2 
Coniferales. 
Cyperales. 
3 
Salicales. 
Aroidales. 
4 
Quernales. 
Palmales. 
S 
Urticales. 
Liliales. 
6 
Euphorbiales. 
Iridales. 
7 
Loranthales. 
Musales. 
8 
Daphnales. 
Orchidales. 
9 
Piperales. 
Fluviales. 
10 
Assarales. 
Ranunculales, 
1 1 
Podostemale.s. 
Papaverales. 
12 
Chenopodiales. 
Polygalales. 
13 
Salviale.s. 
Dianthales. 
14 
Bignoniales. 
Camelliales. 
15 
Polemoniales. 
Malvales. 
i6 
Gentianales. 
Geraniales. 
17 
Diospyrales. 
ilieales. 
i8 
Primulales. 
Celastrales. 
19 
Ericales. 
Sapindales. 
20 
Campanales. 
Legumales. 
