of  trees,  and  greatest  number  of  flowers,  consist  of  fiye
leayes,  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  gwUemo-quinary  ;  according  to  which,  groups  consist
of  four  minor  ones  ;  one  of  which  is  excessively  capaciouu  in  compariaoo
of  the  other  three,  and  is  always  divisible  into  two ;  which  gives/re  of  the
same  degree,  but  of  which,  two  have  a  greater  affinity  to  each  other  than
they  have  to  the  other  thx«e. Mr. W. S. Macleay,  in  the  progreas  oi
his  enquiries  to  ascertain  the  station  of  Scarabatu  tacer,  disoovered  that
the  thcUerophoffout  and  aaprophagoui  Petaloceroui  beetles  resolved  them-
selves each  into  a  circle  containing  five  such  groups. A  nd  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  oi
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  Jffora  EtUomolofficos.,
if  the  osculant  or  transition  croups  are  included,  the  total  number  Ik
seven  : — ^these  are  groups  snuul  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  hirger  group  is  resolvable  into  five  interior  and  two  exterior  ones^
thus  making  up  the  number  seven. Though  Mr. 