things in it, and also comprehending the general division of vegetables. And he that considers how most blossoms * * Δένδρον, Θάμνος, Φρύγανον, Πόα, Arbor, frutex, sufrutex, herba, and that fifth which comprehendeth the fungi and tubera, whether to be named "Ασχιον οι γύμνον, comprehending also conferva marina salsa, and sea-cords, of so many yards length. minor groups, into which it is resolvable, bears a resemblance to all the rest; or, more strictly speaking, consists of types which represent those of each of the four other groups, together with a type peculiar to itself." 66 Before proceeding to notice more particularly the numerical part of the Macleayan system, it will be expedient to cite the observation made by its author on the speculations of Browne on the number five, as given in this work. In a paper published in the Transactions of the Linnæan Society, vol. xiv. part 1, Mr. Macleay remarks, after discussing certain points of his system, "it were tedious to proceed much further on this subject; and therefore, without entering into the speculations, often unintelligible and always vague, of Plutarch, Sir Thomas Browne, Drebel, Linnæus, and others, as to the doctrine of quintessence generally, we may at once set forth the last argument which shall now be produced for the existence of a quinary distribution in organized nature. It may be stated thus: in the year 1817 I detected a quinary arrangement (published in 1819) in considering a small portion of coleopterous insects; and in the year 1821" (in the second part of Mr. Macleay's work entitled Hora Entomologica) I attempted to show that it prevailed generally throughout nature. In the same year (1821), and apparently without any view beyond the particular case then before him, M. Decandolle stated the natural distribution of cruciferous plants to be quinary. And again in the same year, a third naturalist (M. Fries), without the knowledge of either Decandolle's Memoire, or the Hora Entomologica, and in a different part of Europe, publishes what he considers to be the natural arrangement of Fungi. Arguing à priori, this third naturalist fancies that the determinate number into which these acotyledonous plants are distributed ought to be four; but finds it necessary, in order that it may coincide with observed facts, to make it virtually five. Nay, at last, in spite of the prejudice of theory, he is unable to withstand the force of truth, throws himself into the arms of nature, and declares that where he actually finds his natural group complete in all its parts, there the determinate number is five." With respect to the philosophy of the numerical part of the Macleayan system, we cannot do better than quote the observations on the subject, which have been made by the Rev. W. Kirby, in the celebrated Introduction to Entomology, of which he is one of the authors. Mr. K. remarks, in the fourth volume of that work, letter xlvii.— "There are five numbers and their multiples which seem more particularly to prevail in nature: namely, two, three, four, five, and seven. But though these numbers are prevalent, no one of them can be deemed universal. of trees, and greatest number of flowers, consist of five leaves, and therein doth rest the settled rule of nature;— "But that which appears to prevail most widely in nature is what may be called the quaterno-quinary; according to which, groups consist of four minor ones; one of which is excessively capacious in comparison of the other three, and is always divisible into two; which gives five of the same degree, but of which, two have a greater affinity to each other than they have to the other three. Mr. W. S. Macleay, in the progress of his enquiries to ascertain the station of Scarabæus sacer, discovered that the thalerophagous and saprophagous Petalocerous beetles resolved themselves each into a circle containing five such groups. And having got this principle, and finding that this number and its multiples prevailed much in nature, he next applied to the animal kingdom in general : and from the result of this investigation, it appeared to him that it was nearly, if not altogether, universal. Nearly at the same time a discovery almost parallel was made and recorded by three eminent botanists, MM. Decandolle, Agardh, and Fries, with regard to some groups of the vegetable kingdom; and more recently Mr. Vigors has discovered the same quinary arrangement in various groups of birds. This is a most remarkable coincidence, and proves that the distribution of objects into fives is very general in nature. I should observe, however, that according to Mr. Macleay's system, as stated in his Hora Entomologica, if the osculant or transition groups are included, the total number is seven-these are groups small in number both of genera and species, that intervene between and connect the larger ones. Each of these osculant groups may be regarded as divided into two parts, the one belonging to the upper circle and the other to the lower; so that each circle or larger group is resolvable into five interior and two exterior ones, thus making up the number seven. Though Mr. Macleay regards this quinary arrangement of natural objects as very general, it does not appear that he looks upon it as absolutely universal,—since he states organized matter to begin in a dichotomy: and he does not resolve its ultimate groups into five species; nor am I certain that he regards the penultimate groups as invariably consisting of five ultimate ones. Copris McL. I seem in my own cabinet to possess ten or twelve distinct types; and in Phanaeus, the fifth type, which Mr. Macleay regards as containing insects resembling all the other types, appears to me rather divided into two; one formed by P. carnifex Vindex, igneus, &c. and the other by P. spendidulus, floriger, Kirbii, &c. With regard In to all numerical systems we may observe, that since variation is certainly one of the most universal laws of nature, we may conclude that different numbers prevail in different departments, and that all the numbers above stated as prevalent are often resolvable or reduceable into each other. So that where physiologists appear to differ, or think they differ, they frequently really agree.' Professor Lindley, in his Nixus Plantarum, published in 1834, which contains his latest and most matured views on the natural system of the vegetable world, has also stated that the most natural groups of plants of all classes, are quinary.—Br. so that in those which exceed, there is often found, or easily made, a variety; may readily discover how nature rests in this number, which is indeed the first rest and pause of numeration in the fingers, the natural organs thereof. Nor in the division of the feet of perfect animals doth nature exceed this account. And even in the joints of feet, which in birds are most multiplied, surpasseth not this number; so progressionally making them out in many,* that from five in the fore-claw she descendeth unto two in the hindmost; and so in four feet makes up the number of joints, in the five fingers or toes of man. Not to omit the quintuple section of a cone,t of handsome practice in ornamental garden-plots, and in same way discoverable in so many works of nature, in the leaves, fruits, and seeds of vegetables, and scales of some fishes; so much considerable in glasses, and the optick doctrine; wherein the learned may consider the crystalline humour of the eye in the cuttle-fish and loligo. He that forgets not how antiquity named this the conjugal or wedding number, and made it the emblem of the most remarkable conjunction, will conceive it duly appliable unto this handsome economy, and vegetable combination : and may hence apprehend the allegorical sense of that obscure expression of Hesiod, and afford no improbable reason why Plato admitted his nuptial guests by fives, in the kindred of the married couple.§ And though a sharper mystery might be implied in the number of the five wise and foolish virgins, which were to meet the bridegroom, yet was the same agreeable unto the conjugal number, which ancient numerists made out by two and three, the first parity and imparity, the active and passive digits, the material and formal principles in generative societies. And not discordant even from the customs of the Romans, who admitted but five torches in their nuptial solemnities.|| Whether there were any mystery or not, implied, the most generative animals were created on this day, and had accordingly the largest benediction. And * As herons, bitterns, and long-clawed fowls. + Elleipsis, parabola, hyperbole, circulus, triangulum. TEμTTαs, id est, nuptias multas. Rhodig. § Plato de Leg. 6. Plutarch. Problem. Rom. i. under a quintuple consideration, wanton antiquity considered the circumstances of generation, while by this number of five they naturally divided the nectar of the fifth planet.* The same number in the Hebrew mysteries and cabalistical accounts was the character of generation,† declared by the letter E, the fifth in their alphabet, according to that cabalistical dogma; if Abram had not had this letter added unto his name, he had remained fruitless, and without the power of generation: not only because hereby the number of his name attained two hundred forty eight, the number of the affirmative precepts, but because, as in created natures there is a male and female, so in divine and intelligent productions, the mother of life and fountain of souls in cabalistical technology is called Binah, whose seal and character was E. So that being sterile before, he received the power of generation from that measure and mansion in the archetype: and was made conformable unto Binah. And upon such involved considerations, the ten of Sarai was exchanged into five. If any shall look upon this as a stable number, and fitly appropriable unto trees, as bodies of rest and station, he hath herein a great foundation in nature, who observing much variety in legs and motive organs of animals, as two, four, six, eight, twelve, fourteen, and more, hath passed over five and ten, and assigned them unto none, or very few, as the Phalangium monstrosum Brasilianum (Clusii et Jac. de Laet. Cur. Poster. America Descript.), if perfectly described. And for the stability of this number, he shall not want the sphericity of its nature,3 which multiplied in itself, will return oscula quæ Venus Quinta parte sui nectaris imbuit.-Hor. lib. i. od. 13. Archang. Dog. Cabal. 2 the Phalangium, &c.] The reference here given seems to relate to two works -Clusii Cura Posteriores, 4to. Antv. 1611, and De Laet. America Descriptio. To the latter I have not been able to refer. The former exhibits, at p. 88, a rude figure of Phalangium Americanum with its eight feet, and two Palpi which our author has mistaken for feet,-it is probably a mygale, perhaps avicularia. 3 he shall not want the sphericity of its nature.] See note at p. 526, note 9. into its own denomination, and bring up the rear of the account. Which is also one of the numbers that makes up the mystical name of God, which consisting of letters denoting all the spherical numbers, ten, five, and six, emphatically sets forth the notion of Trismegistus, and that intelligible sphere, which is the nature of God. Many expressions by this number occur in Holy Scripture, perhaps unjustly laden with mystical expositions, and little concerning our order. That the Israelites were forbidden to eat the fruit of their new-planted trees, before the fifth year, was very agreeable unto the natural rules of husbandry; fruits being unwholesome and lash, before the fourth or fifth year. In the second day or feminine part of five, there was added no approbation. For in the third or masculine day, the same is twice repeated; and a double benediction inclosed both creations, whereof the one, in some part, was but an accomplishment of the other. That the trespasser* was to pay a fifth part above the head or principal, makes no secret in this number, and implied no more than one part above the principal; which being considered in four parts, the additional forfeit must bear the name of a fifth. The five golden mice had plainly their determination from the number of the princes. That five should put to flight an hundred might have nothing mystically implied; considering a rank of soldiers could scarce consist of a lesser number. Saint Paul had rather speak five words in a known, than ten thousand in an unknown tongue; that is, as little as could well be spoken; a simple proposition consisting of three words, and a complexed one not ordinarily short of five. More considerables there are in this mystical account, which we must not insist on. And therefore, why the radical letters in the pentateuch should equal the number of the soldiery of the tribes? Why our Saviour in the wilderness fed five thousand persons with five barley loaves; and again, but four thousand with no less than seven of wheat? Why Joseph designed five changes of raiment unto Benjamin; and David took just five pebblest out of the brook against + Tέoσapa èvre four and one, or five.-Scalig. * Lev. vi. 4 lash.] Soft and watery, but without flavour Forby's Vocabulary of East Anglia. |