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BENJAMIN CLAEKE, F.L.S. 85
(lateral or dorsal) of the ovulo. Mr. Clarke was sldlfnl in dissec-
and
tion, well-grounded iu morpholog)', and an able draughtsman ;
many of the plates which illustrate his papers are excellent. Mr.
Bentham, in his anniversary address to the Linnean Society in
18G2, referred to Mr. Clarke as " one of our most careful observers."
He was led on to pay special attention to the two characters
(orientation of the carpels and of the raphe), and thence by
an easy transitioia, to attribute a supreme classificatory importance
to them. As early as 1851 he put forward his ' Outlines of a new
arrangement of the Orders of Exogens,' which was ultimately
expanded into ' The Natural System of Botany.' This, under the
title, 'A New Arrangement of Phanerogamous Plants,' was first
published in 1866, and a third edition was issued in 1888. Probably
no botanist of the present day supposes that any one true
Natural System of Botany exists ; any useful system must be
founded on a due recognition of all characters, and not on a few only
whereof two are given huge prepotence.
Other systematists have not been able to employ for their
larger divisions the two particular characters which Mr. Clarke
fastened upon. Except when the carpels are two, it is often
difficult to prove inferentially (Mr. Clarke attempted it), whether
they are "anterior-posterior" or "lateral" with respect to the
axis. In a very large number of exogens the carpels are two,
but their orientation appears variable in one order and even in
one genus ; see the diagrams illustrating Olcacc